The Daily Word
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Paul, who was a strict Jew before he was converted, knew the Judaic Law well and followed it to the best of his ability. But the letters he wrote to the churches he had founded, and helped to found all , that when we come to Jesus, we are not under Law but under Grace, the unmerited favour of God. The letter to Romans in particular stresses the difference this makes and Ephesians summarises it so well, “By grace we are saved through faith, …. not of works lest any of us should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). We have been freed from the restrictions and regulations that the Law contained. But free to do what?
Well we have seen what is beneficial to our freedom under grace, but it is quite clear that this freedom does not extend to friendship and following the conventions of the world. We have been freed from following what the world does, just as much as we have been freed from the penalty of sin. So Paul makes the critical point that going back to our old pre-salvation habits will NOT help us to grow the mind of Christ within us, it will have the opposite effect.
But what about other activities that Paul does not specifically tell us not to be involved in? Again in Corinthians, Paul says this, “All things are lawful to me, BUT all things do not edify” (1 Corinthians 10:23). We don’t use the word ‘edify’ much in current conversation, but the word has the meaning of ‘building up’, which is just the thought we considered yesterday. Any activity that does not build up stops growth and can actually reverse growth and reverse the process of learning the mind of Christ Jesus.
Let us look further at the following verses in Philippians 2, which describe what having the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ led Him to and see the extent to which He was prepared to go to bring benefit to us and set that as our example to follow.
Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church
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