Friday, June 19, 2015

Romans 4:15

Copyright Ó 2015 J. Neely
Romans 4:15

15 Because [gar] the law [nomos] worketh [katergazomai] wrath [orge]: for [gar] where [hou] no [ou] law [nomos] is [esti], there is no [oude] transgression [parabasis].   KJV-Interlinear

      
15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.   ESV

Law brings wrath, meaning causes or leads to punishment.  And where there is no law, then there is no punishment because there is no transgression.  The law is merely a written rule.  If you violate that rule then there are consequences.  If there is no written rule, then there is no violation.

Suppose you are walking down the street.  If there is no rule saying that you cannot walk down the street, then you are not violating any law or rule. You can walk as you please with no worry as to legal consequences.

But if someone writes up a law that makes it a crime to walk down the street, then you are placing yourself in legal jeopardy if you walk down the street.

In the Garden, there was no written rule except one, which was that Adam and Eve could not eat of the forbidden fruit.  Other than that, they could do anything they wanted.

But of course they ate and were caught and were sentenced to spiritual death as well as physical death, ‘dying thou shalt die.’

That led to eternal condemnation and separation away from God, unless there was some solution to correct that separation.  And God provided the answer.  A member of the Trinity would take our place as a man, and pay the price of sin and death.  We have only to believe in Him in order to be saved and thus freed from our eternal condemnation.



Now the clock races forward, and man makes lots of laws and rules and regulations.  God places in front of us the rules of righteousness, which is presented in the Mosaic Law.  All of the thou-shalt-nots and so forth.

Mans laws demonstrate that man will always violate the law in one way or another.  And that man can come up with some pretty worthless and unfair laws.  Even laws designed to regulate humanity itself.  Even those laws violate themselves.

Gods rules demonstrate that all of humanity will not only violate the rules of righteousness, but that no one is capable of living by them.

If you have written rules and know of them then you are all the more bound by them.

Even the uneducated world, that lacks written rules, has the laws of nature and/or common sense, which they recognize and lived by.  And this has been true for many centuries especially in ancient times.

Then there are the jungle laws where you are either big or strong or quick or dead. Predator or prey, makes no difference, because those laws get you sooner or later.

But the whole point to all of this is, that if you choose to live by a law, then you are susceptible to its punishments.  And the law of works, has a punishment that causes you to lose everything.

On the other hand, if you choose the law of Christ, which is grace through faith, then there is no violation, no condemnation, no eternal loss, because those penalties have already been paid for in full and no longer apply.  You are exempt from the law of works, by adhering to faith.  And as Paul states, no law means no violation.

Therefore, believing in Christ cancels the law in your life, which also cancels eternal condemnation, which means eternal security.

Now, you can believe in Christ and be saved and then in your stupidity turn back to works for your spiritual growth, but guess what?  The law of works in spirituality means no benefit, because works are rejected in Gods plan for the spiritual life.

Grace applies across the spectrum of the spiritual life. You have to be consistent, and cannot flip-flop back and forth, from faith to works, and expect anything from that pattern of life.