Christians are usually aware that we must live by
faith. However, to have faith in a logical God means that we should reflect His
sound judgment in our lives. The fact that we might not see His logic at times
does not mean that He is not logical. It is God’s reality that all our values
must be based on and not some earthly knowledge we have acquired. When we
become a Christian, our logic will change into a reasoning of faith that is
reliable to the principles of God. Validity must be produced when we live
by the logic of God. In other words, the consequences of our Christian actions
will always be verified by the Spirit of God. Because our universe was created
by the Almighty, His laws are “always” logical. For some strange reason people
like to take actions that are not logical. Usually, as time passes their
actions will bring grief into their life. Ignoring the laws of God is
ultimately a fatal mistake. There is only one way to bring the understanding of
God’s logic into our mind. We must yield to the revelation of the Spirit of
God.
God’s laws naturally reflect His thinking and like
everything else He creates we can see great beauty in His logic. Most
Christians don’t like to talk about the law because we want to feel we are the owner
of our freedom. Somehow people think that obeying God will be a negative
influence in their life. Maybe we should look closer at the Laws of God because
they contain the greatest logic in the universe. Actually, everything seen or
unseen is about the Laws of God. Nothing could exist if there were no Law or
God’s logic. Because our very existence depends on Laws, they “must” be logical.
Laws are the principles which are applicable to our lives, which are
established by God or his various authorities. In order to have a decent life
they must be correct or right. Righteous laws are the will of God for every
Christian. This is the reason that a decent society is totally dependent
upon the children of God. A moral and useful society is directly related to the
observance of God’s laws. Hopefully we can see that even the Grace of God does
not violate any part of the Law.
There are many different types of laws but we will
consider only a few. First we look at “a rule or principle of proper conduct
sanctioned by conscience or the will of deity” which is called a moral law.
We know that God included morals in the Jewish Law of Moses and they have been
extended to Christians in the Law of righteousness. Another type of law is “any
written rule or collection of rules prescribed under the authority of the state
or nation.” This is called the statute law. A believer should know that
these laws are also authorized by God. Paul tells us; Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes
from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by
God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God
has instituted, and they will be punished. Romans 13:1-2 (NLT) All laws,
whether good or bad, have been established by the authority of God. The Lord
has arranged or set in order everything in the universe. This order is called the
natural law of our world. But it is the Spiritual laws of God that must be
revealed to us if we want to have hope.
Our faith must be in response to the Grace of God.
His Grace was even being applied when God implemented His own righteous Law for
the rule of human beings. Because of the evil world around us we sometimes
forget that people were not created sinful. The Scripture says; Even
Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when
they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written
in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them
or tell them they are doing right. Romans 2:14-15 (NLT) It is evident that God’s laws were
given to humans at their creation. Our problem is not having or knowing the
Law, it is obeying the Law. Somewhere in our nature lurks the spirit of
rebellion (sin). Rebelling against any righteousness is to rebel against God
himself. Because we are born in sin it is necessary to be freed from its
chains. Yes, we have a dual nature, the one from creation and the one from
birth. In order to understand the logic of a dual nature we must surrender our whole
life to the Spirit of revelation.
The law of
sin which lives in our sinful nature promotes a struggle every true believer
must face. Paul was a Christian but he knew that rebellion was a part of his
nature. I love God’s law with all
my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my
mind. This power makes me a slave to the
sin that is still within me. Romans 7:22-23 (NLT) He is not saying that
he lives as a sinner, God forbid, he is saying that he wants to live a
righteous life but the temptation of sinning is something he must continually take
into account. When the Spirit of Jesus comes to live in us, He does not remove
the law of sin and death but He gives us the power to put it in its place. Laws
can be superseded by the power of a stronger law. We may have seen a test car
that is following the laws of motion but when it hits the concrete wall the laws
of motion are canceled by the law of
heavy objects. In the same way, the law of sin and death is at work in all of
us but when the Law of the Spirit works in our life it can override the power
contained in the weaker law of sin. The world cannot understand our hope
but every real believer knows that the Law of the Spirit will cancel their trip
to Hell at death.
One way to
view the laws is to put them into two groups. First there are the laws that we are
born into. These laws all relate to our life on earth. Some laws pertain to our
fallen nature and are a problem for us. For example, laws of sin and death
along with the Law of Moses (laws of righteousness). The problem with the good
laws is that many people think if they keep the Law of Moses they are
ready to live with God but that will never work. The Scripture says; no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law
simply shows us how sinful we are. Romans 3:20 (NLT) The Bible does point
out that the Law of righteousness is of this earth; the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why
not? Because they were trying to get
right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. Romans
9:31-32 (NLT) This brings us to the second group of Laws which are
spiritual. It is important to remember that all spiritual laws work through
our faith. Spiritual Laws are about divine operations and these are the
laws that God uses to save a human from eternal death.
Faith is
the main spiritual law but in addition to faith we have been given another
spiritual law that can make our faith successful. It is the law of the Spirit
and this is how Jesus is able to live in humans. We cannot fail at the
Christian life when the law of the Spirit lives in us and we are; letting the Spirit control your mind leads
to life and peace. Romans 8:6 There is no more peaceful feeling in life
than to have spiritual laws at work in us. The Scripture says that we must
completely rely on God; Can we boast,
then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our
acquittal is not based on obeying the law.
It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and
not by obeying the law. Romans 3:27-28 (NLT) If the Law of righteousness
will not get us to Heaven but the Law of faith can allow us to live with God,
then faith is stronger than our good works. Because a stronger law will
overpower a weaker one it should be clear that we need spiritual laws at work
in our life. If a Christian will develop the ability to hear and obey the
voice of the Spirit they will have the strength of God showing them success
in their Spiritual life. We know that the Spirit usually talks to us through
the Scriptures.
The Law of
faith and the Law of the Spirit must rule the mind of a Christian. It is not
possible to live the life described in Scriptures without them; using the Spirit’s words to explain
spiritual truths. But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these
truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t
understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit
means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they
themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to
teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. 1 Cor 2:13-16 (NLT) This passage
does not say “our” behavior cannot be evaluated. It says that the spiritual
truth from the Spirit of Christ that is acted out in the life of a true
believer cannot be evaluated. The logic found in the laws of God cannot be
understood by unbelievers but it is real for eternity. Although everyone will
understand God’s logic on Judgment day it will be too late to make a change.
May God grant us a revelation of His logic today!