This is the Law of Life: that we live in and develop all aspects of life, by the SPIRIT, in CHRIST JESUS …..
Romans 8:2 (NASB) declares all that YHWH has predestined by the SPIRIT, in CHRIST JESUS:
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For example: Where does obedience come from?
Obedience comes from the Testimony of YESHUA …. through the communication of: His Spirit and His Life; His Faith and His Life; His Nature and His Character …. into our state of being, in conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious terms.
Obedience comes through the power packed dynamic of YESHUA’s faithful and true Witness ….. into us, into the fabric of our being …. by the HOLY SPIRIT …. in fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.
Man’s obedience was accomplished by YESHUA’s sacrifice. Hebrews 10:14 reads: < For by one offering He (YESHUA) has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. >
Our flesh is what is expressed in a man-centered reality of life.
And, trying to practice the Law in our own strength is a futile exercise.
In Matthew 11:11 YESHUA declares: <“Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.>
In Matthew 18:2-4 YESHUA declares:
2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,
3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
YESHUA is making a contrast between man’s righteousness (as epitomized at the highest level by John the Baptist) and the Righteousness of YHWH unveiled through the only Begotten SON in the Bosom of the FATHER (John 1:18, KJV).
Conversion – manifested by the Righteousness of YHWH – only comes through a new birth. See John 3:3-5.
And, we must develop by the HOLY SPIRIT all that has been opened in this new birth.
And, please understand that absolutely everything that the HOLY SPIRIT does will be based on the Word of GOD, understood in and through the finished work of the Cross.
We need to pray by the HOLY SPIRIT, for YESHUA’s Testament of obedience to the FATHER, to be brought into being in us and developed in us, by the HOLY SPIRIT, as we work out our salvation – by actually putting on CHRIST by faith – with fear and trembling.
Philippians 2:12-13 (NASB) reads: < So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. >
Ephesians 2:10 (NASB) reads: < For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. >
Philippians 4:13 and 19 (NKJV) reads:
< 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. … 19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. >
We need to get out of all forms of legalism and get into the salvation by which we are progressively saved as we actualize the fullness of JESUS CHRIST – in substance and witness – by the HOLY SPIRIT.
2 Corinthians 3:4-8 (NASB) reads:
4 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.
5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,
6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7 But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was,
8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?
2 Corinthians 4:6-7 (NKJV) reads:
6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.
There must be a portion of our prayer life that is focused on actualizing the fullness of JESUS CHRIST, by the HOLY SPIRIT (see John 16:14, 13-15). Because without CHRIST being progressively formed in us, by the HOLY SPIRIT, we are going no where.
As Colossians 1:17-20 (NASB) reads:
17 He (JESUS CHRIST) is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him [not in the Law],
20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
Pray perseveringly – by the HOLY SPIRIT – to actualize the power of YHWH unveiled in the fullness of the SON. Amen!
GBU.