Break the Chains! - Exodus 22
As you can tell from my last post, I don't do well with laws. Praise God for the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross that frees us from the law:10But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, "Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all these commands that are written in God's Book of the Law." 11 Consequently, it is clear that no one can ever be right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life." 12 How different from this way of faith is the way of law, which says, "If you wish to find life by obeying the law, you must obey all of its commands." 13 But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing.
The encouragement today for me is to stop trying to live by the law, but to fall deeper in love with God. Christ has rescued us from having to obey each and every law, but took our sin upon Himself. My motivation to live right should be to please my God, rather than fulfill the law.
12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 Food is for the stomachand the stomac is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH." 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
Since we're on the subject, I wanted to throw in a free story from Pastor Dan Dunn. During my recent weekend at Tres Dias, he told of how the Asyrians used to execute prisoners in the worst, most horriffic way possible. They would teather a dead corpse to the prisoner. The prisoner would eventually absorb that dead body into their own. The living would eventually die an agonizing slow death. In this way, we should think about being joined with Jesus, so close to Him that we absorb Him and become one spirit with Him.
Not much to do with Exodus 22, but this is what the Lord led me to today in my study.
peace,
e
