Freed from the Law

Paul, in Galatians 5 says that we are freed from the the yoke of bondage which is the law. We are to stand firmly in this freedom which is Christ Himself. We are not free to indulge in the license of the flesh but we are free in Christ to live a joyous life full of Him.

When we remember how full of joy we were when we first found Christ or rather when we were found by Him, we should realize that the Lord intends that we would live in that joy throughout our entire Christian life.

Be careful that you are not persuaded to keep the law. No one will say to you, "Keep the law." But they may encourage you to do something to improve your self. Don't fall for it. No one can possibly improve themselves to come up to the standard of the righteousness of God. It is impossible. Just read about Paul's experience in Romans 7. Paul said that the answer to his dilemma was to see that it is Christ Jesus who has accomplished everything on the cross and now is our life.

Our only requirement is to stay in that life. His life is now in the depths of our being, our spirit. Remain there. You might ask, "How do I get there, and how do I remain there?"

In the first place, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are already there. Read 1 Corinthians 1:30. It says of God are you in Christ Jesus. To remain there is also so simple. Just receive the supply of the divine life through prayer. Pray with the Word of God. Paul said in Ephesians 6:17-18, "Take the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the Word of God by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit." Simply take the Word of God as your prayer, turning you heart to Him who is in the depths of your being, in your spirit.

For example take the twenty third Psalm and pray, "O Lord you are my shepherd. I shall not want. Amen. O Lord, I thank you that you are my sheherd. Amen. Praise You. My shepherd. O Lord I love you. Hallelujah! You are my shepherd." And so forth. You will touch the Lord. He will fill you with the Spirit.

Day by day as we take Him in this way in the morning He becomes our life. We don't need to strive to become better or to overcome any failure. We simply need to live in Him. He became a man, lived a perfect human life, died on the cross to terminate everything of the natural humanity and then rose from the dead bringing in a new humanity. He then ascended to the throne of God and poured out the Spirit so that we might enjoy Him and all He went through. It is so wonderful that we fallen people can live in His life and all that He is becomes ours.

A footnote in the Recover Version of the New Testament reads referring to Rev. 2:7:

"Religion always teaches, but the Lord feeds (John 6:35). The apostle Paul did the same thing; that is, he fed the believers (1 Cor. 3:2). For the proper church life and the recovery of the church life, that is, for the proper growth in the Christian life, what we need is not merely the mental apprehension of teachings but the eating of the Lord as our bread of life in our spirit (John 6:57). Even the words of the Scripture should not be considered merely as doctrines to teach our mind but as food to nourish our spirit (Matt. 4:4; Heb. 5:12-14). Here in this epistle the Lord promised to give the overcomer to eat of the tree of life. This points back to Gen. 2:8-9, 16, which concerns the matter of eating ordained by God. In the epistle to the church in Pergamos, the Lord promised the overcomer that he would eat of the hidden manna (v. 17), which refers to the eating of manna by the children of Israel in the wilderness (Exo. 16:14-16, 31). And in the epistle to the church in Laodicea, the Lord promised to dine with the one who opens the door to Him. To dine is to eat not merely one kind of food but the riches of a feast. This may refer to the eating of the rich produce of the good land of Canaan by the children of Israel (Josh. 5:10-12). This indicates that the Lord desires to recover the eating of the proper food by God's people, the food ordained by God and typified by the tree of life, the manna, and the produce of the good land, all of which are types of the various aspects of Christ as food to us. The degradation of the church distracts God's people from the eating of Christ as their food and turns them to the teaching of doctrines for knowledge. In the church's degradation there are the teaching of Balaam (v. 14), the teaching of the Nicolaitans (v. 15), the teaching by Jezebel (v. 20), and the teaching of the deep things of Satan (v. 24). Now in these epistles the Lord came to recover the proper eating of Himself as our food supply. We must eat Him not only as the tree of life and the hidden manna but also as a feast full of His riches."