Re: [TruthTalk] Judy and John on the Law and the Spirit

[Terry Clifton]

ShieldsFamily wrote: Exactly right.  The only way to be “under” the law is by trying to keep the law w/o Christ—or by walking “in the flesh” (Self) instead of in Christ.  The moral laws in the OT are the same moral laws of the NT.  They never changed.  But when we are in Christ we realize that the written OT laws are only the surface, like the difference between reading a “Dick and Jane” primer in first grade and reading and understanding the Bible as an adult.  The fullness of the moral law is when it springs forth from a heart transformed by the Presence of Christ within—then our actions go so much farther than just the minimal requirements of the OT written law.    For instance, instead of complying with the OT written law against adultery, which can be obeyed superficially by doing everything up to but not including sexual activity, when we obey the NT unwritten law of Christ we are grieved even by the thought of defrauding another person’s mate, or our own.  When we married my husband pledged even our eyes to each other; we never look upon another person lustfully.  We never entertain lustful thoughts.  We never place ourselves in compromising situations, alone with a member of the opposite sex that would have even the appearance of wrongdoing.  And we avoid ever putting another person in a situation that might make them appear to do wrong.  For instance, whenever my husband has a meeting with a woman at work he keeps his office door wide open.    The OT and NT ‘laws’ are simply God’s standards written in such a way as we might understand them.  That is why they are good and wonderful and righteous: They express the heart of God.  Once we have a new heart in Christ, we have those same desires.  Then obeying them is not a work of the flesh, but a natural _expression_ of who we are in Him, and who He is in us.  Any time we are not acting out of such natural motivation we are certainly not dwelling in His Spirit, or allowing His Spirit to dwell in us.  That is why whenever there is mean name-calling, belittling, animosity, superiority, condescension, sarcasm, spitefulness, etc., on TruthTalk , Christ is being abandoned for Self/Flesh.  This is sin.  In the OT or the New.  Izzy   You know, I think you might have figured it out.