You In Christ and Christ In You

Where did you get to on 19? Were you down to 11 and 12? Is that where, I think I tapped into our website and listened to the last few minutes of Mike's, and I think that's where we got down to. We're in question 11. What is our judgment about our own behavior and that of others to be based on?

Did you guys, yeah, actually getting into this, Grace, and I get into a little, Are you getting a little uncomfortable? Does it feel kind of strange, especially when we start talking about some of this stuff? I'll get into it a little bit more. It's so different than, I think, what we're used to and what the world is and everything. It's totally contrary to what the world, I think, teaches and directs.

All right, what is our judgment about our own behavior and that of others to be based on? Principles in the Word, and the key word there being principles. There are two different things. There are a lot of commands in the New Testament, in the epistles, Paul's epistles. As Vern calls them, I like the way they're doing, logical imperatives.

I like that versus commands, because when I think you get into commands, you easily shift over and through, that's a law. And that's when, can law and grace be together? Even just a little bit? Mix a little in there? No, you can't. So, when we say the commandments in the New Testament, like I said, I like the logical imperatives. And logical imperatives mean, it's not a cause and effect. It is, if this is true, then this is true. It's, if you are in Christ, you will do this. Because you're a new creature in Christ. It's not, if you do this, this will be the result. It's just, who you are in Christ, you'll do this. You know, as Mike usually says, you know, he didn't have to teach us how to bark. They bark. It's a dog. You know, if we're a new creature in Christ, these logical imperatives will be easy, because that's who we are. Okay? Everybody understand that?

So, we look, and then, so there are commandments, and then the other was principles. And I think there's several principles outlined in the scriptures. And that's the guidelines that we have now, our principles. We have the commandments that tell us, OK, if you're in Christ, you should act this way. But then there are also principles, guidelines for us. And that's how we, under grace, in liberty, function. Everybody understand? Yeah.

Is that distinguished by the tense? Greek tense, the difference between commands and principles? You can get it by the tense, because there's the mood tense, the one that's fact, reality. You can get it by the Greek tense, also by, I think, the context of it. But I don't think they're always of the Greek.

Yeah, imperative that you're, you know, it's always a fact of reality and that kind of stuff. But a lot of it's, it can be in the context too. You are, be filled with the spirit. You know, is that, I don't know, I'd have to look that up if that is the imperative. There are a bunch of other ones that are out there. I'm trying to think, I've got them listed in here somewhere. love one another. There are ones that are out there that, and I'd have to look if they're all imperative or not.

So I guess my answer is kind of waffling. I don't think they're all exactly determined by the Greek tense, or is it, what, mood tense? Mood tense and voice. Voice, yeah. So I don't know if they're all established by that. Do you know, Roger? I don't think they're all by the, yeah. I can look into that and see, but I don't think they're all that way. So I guess my answer is I don't think you can look at the Greek tense and say, aha, this is a command for us as believers. Unless anybody else has got a thought on that. OK. So it is based on the principles. I guess if we're to be based on principles, one, where do you go? the word. But then, too, you have to know that. You can't just by osmosis. You have to study. And who do we study?

Christ. Christ, number one, because we are to be conformed to his image. And I think in Goliath, we're to be imitators of him, which is kind of a different thing. We're not just supposed to imitate, but be conformed. That word is not quite like we just act exactly like.

So it's based on the principles we determine from the scriptures. And the more you know the scripture, the more you know the principles. So, you know, it's kind of like if, I think we've used, you know, if your wife or your spouse or your friend or whatever, the more you're with them, you know everything about them, how they act, how they work, what their, you know, responses are, everything, Similar to us, when we study the Word, and we know Christ, and we study the Word and His principles, that we can apply those in our lives, or understand them. So, it's critical that we understand the principles, because, again, in grace, we're not under a set of laws. And so, our guidelines for our actions are based on principles.

It is imperative that we understand the principles because we don't have a set of laws. I'll get into it in the next lesson. That's why I'm kind of fumbling here a little bit. We'll get more into that. Number 12, how much liberty or freedom does a believer have? Again, this is question 12, lesson 19. How much liberty or freedom does a believer have? A little bit? A lot? Medium? Little, a lot.

Could you use what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6.12, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient? Why, you've looked at my notes. Could you categorize that as a principle then? Yes. Yes, and that is exactly the one.

1 Corinthians 6.12, all things, and basically all things, the areas where Paul doesn't have specific commands, okay, are lawful for me. Outside of the specific commands are principles. So did it say, most things are lawful for me? All things. Boy, does that, see, doesn't that begin to get you a little itchy? Doesn't that just kind of, what? What did he just say?

All things, all things are lawful? do not steal. That is not something that is lawful for him. It's outside of the specific commands that are in the scriptures, those logical commands, logical imperatives. Because we're a nation of laws. The world is law. The old man, again, while we go through the identification, is the old man versus the new. The old man just loves to have those laws.

Loves to have these metrics that say, how high am I? How good am I? As a new creature in Christ, how high are you? Do you have to get a little higher, a little better, a little more? No. You are a direct offspring, legitimate, equal, without the deity of Christ. You're a new creature in Christ, new in kind, new in quality. Ephesians. I've been blessed with what? Most of the blessings? All spiritual blessings in the heavenly. You get this all, all thing, all, all? How much more do you want? There's a couple of interesting things that function there, too. If you're just simply under the law, someone could just say, do it. You don't have to have any thought process. You don't have to weigh any principle. You don't have to use any reasoning. But with the freedom weigh that as I go along, based upon my knowledge and submission to Christ's principles.

Same thing with this second part of it. It won't be brought under the power. That's pretty key there. Well, and see, this is the thing that, you know, this factor of our liberty, you know, if you have a law, it's very rigid. Either it's black or white. And we feel comfortable with that. The old man feels very comfortable with that. Because, you know, I've got to do something. Because if I do it, I know exactly where I'm at. But under grace and the liberty that we have, yeah, we have much more freedom.

You know, the unbeliever thinks they have all this freedom. Are they free? Is an unbeliever free? No, he can only do one thing. And what is that? Sin. And so we have this freedom. And there are things with that, as far as trying to understand the edifying. We'll get into that in this next lesson a little bit, about what edifying, what does that mean and how do you do it. It's to edify. Well, what does that mean? Build up.

How do you know what is right or wrong? The principles that are outlined in the scriptures. So it doesn't come upon us to understand those, which means, again, grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we grow in the knowledge of Him and in the grace, we understand these principles a lot more. So again, it's a growing thing, which is, you know, there is some level of maturity that goes on to understand all those things. All right, let's go on to Lesson 20. And we'll go through the verses real quick. I'll go through them so we can get through this.

It is 1 Corinthians 10.23. All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.

1 Corinthians 10.31. Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Peter 2.13. Submit yourselves, for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether to a king, as the one in authority. In Hebrews 13, 17, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy, and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. OK. First question, lesson 20. What is my personal and God's goal in the Christian life? And then I say, you can look at that 1 Corinthians 10, 23. All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. What does edify mean? Edify.

To build up. What? To build up. To build up. Anything else? If I edify you, what am I? Yes, there's some of that. The Greek word is okadomio. To be a house builder. To construct or confirm. So it's a building term. So it is to build up. It's like a house builder. You're building. You build. So, under grace, what is the object of our life? Or what are we to be built up in or to? Christ is our object. Okay? So we're supposed to be built up in Christ. Okay? To become Christ-like.

And out of the verse for that, Romans 8, 28 and 29. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew, He predestined to what? To become conformed to the image of His Son. so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. So we're to be conformed, that is the object. That's what we're supposed to be built up in.

So when it says in the Corinthians verse to edify, all things are not profitable but to be edified, to edify. So we're to be built up. So if you are, I don't know, stealing. But if you're doing things that are not being built up or being conformed to the image of Christ, are those the things you should be doing or focusing on? No. We're to be conformed to His image. That's where the edifying, Steve, about what that edifying and what we choose, it's those things that build us up in Christ.

Again, what I like and Mike many, many years ago told me, you know, you go to the scripture not to know facts, but to know Him. And as you know Him, those things are the things that will edify you or build you up in Him as you understand who Christ is. Because that's who you are. When you really get down to it, it's who you are.

Therefore, even though all things are lawful, the question we need to ask is, whatever I do, does it make me grow into the likeness of Christ? So that's the principle. Again, principle, the guiding guidelines for us. Not a law, not a set A, B, C, D, but does it conform us to the image of Christ?

Okay? All right. Question two. Do obeying laws accomplish this goal? This is getting easy. You guys at least know. I see the shaking heads. No! No, it does not. Even though, as Steve said, I have my laws. Boom, boom, boom. I do it and I know what the cause and effect is. Under the principle in grace, the freedom we have in grace, it's a lot different. We have liberty. We don't have these laws. But we can't be built up in Christ under the law.

If we look at Romans 5.20, remember what the purpose of the law was? Convict. What? Convict. Convict. To actually make sin increase.

In Romans 5.20, the law came in so that the transgression would increase. So, can you, by law, be built up, edified in Christ? No! The law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through the righteousness, through the eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Again, therefore, One does not see this principle of likeness to Christ anywhere in the law. At best, law would try and convince one that they might be able to imitate the behavior of Christ while on earth, but Christ's likeness for the believer is conformity to his glory as it is manifested now. This is accomplished only by the Spirit of God. Again, it is not a set of laws that say, do this and that will be conformed to Christ. A, B, C, D, E. There is no law under that. It's principles, okay? Be conformed to and all these, you know, be filled with. Yeah.

Okay, so which side of this does the, what would Jesus do? That to me is, you know, if I were, if I wore a bracelet, you know, that to me is a law, you know, what would Jesus do? Okay. Now, in principle, if you look at his principles and follow the principles in scripture, yes, that is following Christ. What would he do? Looking at his life, looking at who he is. But the bracelet that says, what would Jesus do? That to me is a law. Well, X and Y. Would Jesus watch TV? So, you know, what would Jesus do? What does my bracelet say? That's what, I mean, a law, you know, okay, what would Jesus do? I want X, Y, and Z, you know, tell me. Well, you know, would he drive 56 miles an hour on the highway, you know, or, you know, Tell me the laws. And what would Jesus do to me is always, somebody just wants a set of laws. And they want this A, B, C, D, E. And under grace we have liberty. You know? We have these things. And again, what we're going to find out is a lot of it's individual liberties. What's right for you may not be right for me. You know, we're all different. There are some that are alcoholics, some that are not. You know, you get a drink near an alcoholic, not a good thing. Somebody else can have a glass of wine and no problem.

So it's individual. Individuals. And I like that because that also demonstrates to me the individual intimacy that Christ has with each and every one of us. We're not all just cookie cutter Christians. Everyone is an individual. I think the body concept, you know, I may be a thumb, you're a knee, you're a toe, we're all different, but we're all part of one body, but all individuals. Hence, our grace and our liberties are all individual too.

And this is where I put on my notes, doesn't this feel a little bit like heresy? Doesn't it just kind of to think about the fact that, you know, in grace, in Christ's life, that's not a lawless life in the sense of what God has said. If I find myself in Christ doing things that are clearly against Scripture, lying, I know that that's not Christ's life. Right, and that's why I say, when I started this out, there are two different things. There are commandments in the epistles. Clear cut. You know, if you are in Christ, you won't steal. If you're in Christ, you won't lie. If you're in Christ, you won't. Those are specific. We have guidelines for those.

Okay? But there is, what about TV? Yeah, and I think some of, I think Mike tested a little bit last week. What about smoking? Yeah, I don't think there's maybe a smoker in here. But, but what if somebody smoked? Some people have cigars in here, I know.

I think in certain instances too that's what gets into people trying to legislate various things based on some Christian principle or organization or whatever it is. That's why I say this kind of uncomfortable heresy act because there are a lot of people who want to dictate behavior based on no what they feel, but in a principle that may be directed to you in one direction, but it's not for everyone.

It's like I said, for drinking. If you're an alcoholic and have trouble with alcohol, you shouldn't get anywhere near a bottle. But that doesn't mean that somebody else who doesn't have a problem, no, you shouldn't get drunk. Don't be drunk. So there are guidelines on that. But there's not a strict prohibition to say you can't drink smoking. You know, you can get in, and we'll get into the next question, you know, about your body. There are some things on that. But there isn't a thing that says no smoking. Go ahead. Okay. Okay.

You know, in the, we did the Romans class, you get in the part about the weaker and stronger brother, which I find you can be either side of that. Sometimes you're strong, sometimes you're the weak brother. In Christ, you want your brother to succeed. You want him to grow and grace the knowledge of him.

So if drinking is a problem for him, you may say, hey, I'm just not going to drink around this person. No, it's a problem for him. modulating factor in that as you're concerned for your mother in Christ, or sister in Christ. A couple issues with that.

Well, did you want to go ahead? I guess the thing is, in the principles, what are you supposed to do it in? In love. Okay? Love is one of those principles. Okay? One of the commandments, you know, love one another. I have the freedom to have a drink. But am I going to do that? And this gets into the verse, which we'll touch on, about stumbling. You know, where Paul says about stumbling. That's a very specific thing versus offending. And so, you get into these things, you know, out of love, you don't drink in front of somebody.

Or, you know, there are perfectly good things about smoking, you know. I can tell you not to smoke in my house. That's my principle, my guideline in my house. But I can't tell you not to smoke wine near an air house. So there are a lot of things that we'll get into that we'll flesh this out a little bit. But again, all the principles come into effect. Loving someone. If you do something that just irritates somebody, it's perfectly legal. But you know it irritates somebody. And you're doing it just because it irritates that person. You're free to do it.

But are you under the command of love? We'll get into some of the different things of that. Did you read the Hungry Heart yesterday? I think I did. It threw some ideas at me that I hadn't thought about before. It was talking about how people want to It has relationship to circumstances. People want their circumstances to be to the point where they can rest. Circumstances are a problem. So do we grasp onto law thinking that if we do XYZ our circumstances will be better and we will be at rest? The point of that commentary was that that is a dangerous place for a believer to be because you aren't growing.

Absolutely. You know, there was a song, and I can't remember the exact words, it was something like, sometimes in a storm, sometimes the Lord calms the storm, sometimes he calms me in the storm. I thought that was a great verse. And what is most of the time? Lord, stop the storm. Get me out of here. And he's not going to stop the storm. He's going to give you rest and peace within the storm. And that's a key.

That's why when we pray, a lot of times it's your mom. Our prayer is we'd love to have her healed better and dancing. But the Lord has his purposes for their family, for her, and I can't shake my fist and say, God, make her better. You have to. I don't know his purposes. That's why I say, we've talked about this, there shouldn't be any tragedies in a Christian's life.

God is in control, using it for his purposes. I usually pray, if it's your will, do this. I'm perfectly at rest if I've got in my business, you know. Lord if you want to take the business away. That's a sign, he does. You don't have to throw it. The crowd is getting fired up. I thought that was a sign. Okay Lord, take my business away. I mean there are things.

But throughout all this, you can have rest, through anything, if you start understanding these principles, that he's in control. If he's in control, how can he be mad about something? How can he be distressed about something? I go back to one that, for some, Lord, early on, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Okay, James, James 1. I've held that, and talk about contrary to the world. Consider it all joy, my brethren. Yahtzee, what is this? It's not just in the world, it's in Christendom too. What? It's not just in the world, it's in Christendom too. Oh, absolutely.

Some of the hardest ones are in the Christian realm. you know, there's the prosperity doctors, you know, give and you'll be blessed, or healing ones, you know. Paul had a thorn in the side, you know, couldn't remove it, whatever that thorn in the side was, you know, prayed but never was removed. The Lord, you know, sometimes, you know, the Lord uses these things, all of it's for His purposes.

You know, when a young man who was 17 years old, who was a grandson of one of my good friends, was shot and killed by accident. You know? A 17 year old kid. Do I get angry at God for that? His dad, a very strong Christian, he told one of his nephews that shot his son. You know, I said, you know, I don't understand this, but maybe that God knew that he would have more troubles later in his life and God used this for his purposes now. This was the dad. You know, he knew Christ is in control.

Because if he didn't, he'd be just destroyed. But if you understand that, I mean, you understand, but you don't understand it, if that makes sense. You understand that God's in control, but you have no clue what He's doing. But you rest in the fact that that peace that surpasses all understanding is knowing that He's in control. And then, consider it all joy. And what is the purpose that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing?

So again, sometimes He calms the storm, sometimes He calms me. Anyway, getting off a little bit there. What is the instrument the Holy Spirit uses to edify? A bass saxophone. Sorry, I thought I heard an answer out there like that. What is the instrument? He does, but how does he edify? I guess, through us. Basically, what I was looking for, maybe that's confusing. He's talking about an instrument. Yeah, but the instrument he uses is us. Oh, OK. OK, to edify, OK?

So, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So, take care of it. So, this gets into some of the things. Look at 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not of your own? For you have been bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body." So the body is the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to build up the body of Christ. And we're built up through the Word. But He uses us to glorify Him. So the instrument there, not the bass saxophone, or the word, is the body. We're the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Again, so take care of it. This gets into some of those things, but it's an individual liberty. You're smoking. So if you can't be used because you're, that's something you individually have to deal with, how you can be used by the Holy Spirit. That's the temple. So take care of it.

But there's no law that says, I have to have hair that's only one inch long, or that I have to be built up. I can bench press 255. There's nothing like that. We're all individuals. But remember that this is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Take care of it. And how do you feed it? Through the Word. Any questions there? Question four.

What should be the motivation for everything we do? That we get wonderfully rich. That we all live to be 99. That we glorify Christ. Glorify. Glorify God. Exactly. That should be the motivation. We're getting along as to how we fit into this grace system. we should, whatever, should be glorifying God. So these, when the guidelines and principles that we live under under grace, these are some of the principles to glorify God.

We saw it in the last verse in that Corinthians 6.19, therefore glorify God in your body.

We can also look at one of the verses we had for today, 1 Corinthians 10.31, whether then you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to what? The glory of God. Again, these are the principles. These are the principles we're talking about.

You know, if you're doing something that is not glorifying God, you should be doing it. And it can be individual, too. You know, we get into this really squishy... You watch TV every Saturday night when you should be studying. Is that right? Do I have any right to say that? No, no, no, no. But is he glorifying God? I really wonder about that, should I? No. We'll get into this. This is that freedom that we get into, and like I said, that kind of uncomfortable bit. So it's to glorify God. Why do we glorify God? Why do we do it? Because it's a law, right? What? Because he's worthy? He's worthy. Yeah, it's God's purpose to conform us to Christ's image. Okay? So what was Christ's purpose? What did Christ do?

To do the Father's will. Yeah, to do the Father's will and to glorify Him. So hence, if we are conforming to His image, what will we do? Glorify Him. Glorify God. Okay? So my motives are to be Christ-centered and not out of self-centeredness. We are to be glorifying Him. That is our motivation, is to glorify Him. Again, all things that you do, do they glorify Him? Does it glorify Him?

That's our motivation for doing things. Again, freedom that we have, principles, guidelines, these are the things that help us go down the road. We say we are conforming ourselves, but doesn't God do the conforming? The Holy Spirit conforms. Yes, exactly. We are to be conformed. That's what we grow in the answer. Yes, but He doesn't.

The Holy Spirit, actually, one of the things I was talking to Mike about, one of the next ones I want to teach, we did it one time before, and I think I want to get back to it, is the Holy Spirit. What is the role of the Holy Spirit? I think that's, we're kind of touching on that. It's possibly what we'll teach next time, because that's important. When we taught it the first time, I was amazed at what the Holy Spirit does and how much we think we need to do, and it's the Holy Spirit doing it. back to my, pull the string on my back, identification truths.

See, old man wants to do all this stuff. It's the Holy Spirit's job to do this. And I get in the way. Because I want to help him. I'm just so much better. I want to help. So, that may be our next one is the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that does it. Yes. Okay. Question five.

Why are my actions under grace an individual decision when my behavior is not covered by a specific command? Why is it individual instead of when there's no specific command? We've been talking about it. Why? Well, didn't you say under grace we have individual principles? Principles that deal with us individually. Right.

Because under grace, which is unmerited and unlimited blessings from God, is controlled by principles rather than statutes or law. In the area of liberty under grace, it is an individual decision. Each believer has specific weaknesses and strengths. Therefore, some things may stumble one believer but be perfectly tolerable by another. Under grace, we have individual liberty to live under principles and not a set list of laws.

This is where I put my note in here. Doesn't this feel like heresy? Doesn't it feel uncomfortable? When I look at this, I think, man, I've got this uncharted land out here, and I can go wherever I want. I like a little boundary here. I want some boundaries to keep me going. I'm in a big open sea, and I don't know what I'm doing.

But don't you think, though, too, that's where we're talking about If you're under the law, the unbeliever under the law has no liberty. Exactly. But we do. We have immense liberty. And that's a fallacy. That's a fallacy as the unbeliever going, oh, you Christians, you have all these do's and don'ts and la la la la la. No, it's just the opposite. We have the liberty. They do not.

Don't you think sometimes, too, that this can get perverted into the What's true for you isn't true for me. Yeah. Attitude that you see sometimes too. A lot of that, and again, the knowledge of the word is key. Okay. But what a lot of times, and I don't know if I have this in my notes here. Yeah, the You know, I think the tendency, and what we'll get into is the principles, and we'll get into it in the next lesson about authority. He's carved out some authorities, government, within families, those type of things. But the principles, you know, the tendency is, you know, this is what I've... you should too.

I have no right to do that. And there's no specific command that says that. But I think it's this, and I don't know what it is, I'm trying to get back into these laws. It's just the old nature always wants to pull us back into law. And it is the dumbest thing we ever do. We have ultimate liberty And like I said, it's kind of scratchy.

What do you mean? Christianity is a bunch of do's and don'ts, laws. No, it's not. It is under grace, utmost liberty. And that is just the peace that surpasses all understanding, the rest that you get, that the world can't provide. These are all the things when you realize you have this liberty.

And then it's not a set of Laws, you know, I think, well, a couple of verses we're getting close to, Galatians 3.24, these are the law based people, and I've had some friends, when they did this, when we talk about law, and I talk about the grace that we have, and we're not under law, and they always go back to the Ten Commandments, and we have laws, and la la la la, and one of the ones they always do is, Therefore the law has become our tutor." This is Galatians 3, 24 and 25. Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith.

Stop. So what does that mean? The law is good. It leads us to Christ. And they stop right there. What does the next verse say? But now that faith has come, we're no longer under a tutor. What did that just say? We don't need the law anymore. Like I said, people always quote that verse. I said, just read the next verse. Read the next verse. Now faith has come, we don't have the law. What was that verse again?

It's Galatians 3, 24 and 25. And then Romans 6, 14. For sin shall not master over you. For you are not, what? Under law, but under grace. How clear can that be? Why do you want to mix law back into grace? We're not under law. I think if we were still under law, we needed specific laws for everything that we encounter in life. TV. Drinking. Smoking. Working on Sunday. Going to church on Sunday.

What if we needed laws for all this? Do you realize what that would mean? God would probably have to issue an addendum every day You wake up, you know, like Nana. You'd have the sheet that would show up on your doorstep. And this is today's laws. Today's refrigerator list. I mean, literally, if you needed, under what we have, Grace, if you wanted laws, we'd need a new list every day. I mean, every day is different, isn't it? Every day you come up with a new thing. That worker just really got in my face today. What am I supposed to do? Oh, here. It's 3B. I'm supposed to love it. Okay. See how insane that would be if we had to have laws for everything? So understand why we are under principles. Principles give us the freedom to understand how to react in all these different situations. We don't need a laundry list every day. Yeah.

So the problem with Christendom that goes and embraces the laws, is in these verses they interpret it as Old Testament law or something? Most of the time it's Old Testament. They'll go back to the Ten Commandments. We're under that or any of the laws, any of the Jewish laws.

So it's not the principle of law meaning if you do this, then this will happen. That's the definition of what law means. Well, in the Romans 6, it's under any law. any law. The 614, for sin shall not be mastered for you not under law, but under grace. That wipes all of them out. But when it's THE law, it's the Ten Commandments. They don't understand the principle, if then. What law? Well, to me, how much clearer can Romans 614 be?

Read through Galatians. Go through Galatians. And read it with an open mind. Law and grace were on trial. And law gets obliterated. We're not under law, we're under grace. Very specific. But, I'll tell you, there are lots of Christians who want to be under law. The old nature keeps creeping out. We want law because it feels good to the old man. What Steve started out with. Here's the line. Okay, I won't cross that line. And I know where my boundary is and I feel warm and fuzzy. That's the old man. He has a metric. He has something that he can measure against. And the law creeps back only through the old man.

The new creature in Christ is not under that law. And that's what I say, when you get to the identification. Truths, when you start understanding, when you want to creep back and put that little law in there, realize that that is the old nature doing that. It is not the new creature in Christ wanting to be put under a law.

How stupid is going under law versus the freedom and liberty that we have in Christ? I just, you know, it doesn't make sense. Like I said, this is a A real kind of interesting thing, like I said, when you start really doing this, it feels uncomfortable at the beginning. What do you mean I don't have laws? I don't have these perfect walls that channel me down the hallway.

They're principles. And they work individually. Last thing before, I thought about this, the individuality of it. One of my favorite things is Abba Father. We have the intimacy to come before you, before God, Daddy. Individually. Doesn't it make sense that he individually gives us principles? That he allows us as individuals to function under a set of principles rather than, you know, how would you like to be a child and said, You have this parameter.

You can go exactly here. You can do this. You can only walk three steps forward, two steps to the right. And that's all you can do. I've told you exactly what you can do. And I haven't done that. This is a dangerous example with children and my children in here. Even though they think I've done that, I have not done that. I have not done that. But you see what I'm saying? How would you like a daddy who just says, you know, you can only do three steps, you know, this and do this and you have to eat only at one o'clock, five o'clock and whatever. And so many rigid things have to... That's insane. We have the intimacy to go to our father We have that intimacy. We have that one-on-one.

He gives us the freedom to operate within principles. Just like in a family, a dad gives principles to his children. Not strict laws. Alright, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. Father, we thank you for what liberty we do have in grace. What freedom we have. We have that freedom within the specific commands. in principles that you've outlined in your word. And we just thank you that we do have that intimacy, that individual relationship with you. And we realize that under grace we have unlimited blessings through the Lord Jesus' finished work on the cross. So, Father, we just rest in that, we grow in that, and we celebrate just the blessings that we receive through grace. We just thank you for this time to get your word and just pray that we will rest and be comfortable in the operating system of grace which you provided.