Our legal vs practical relationship with God

The Bible speaks of two kinds of righteousness:

1. Legal - declared righteousness by grace through faith 
2. ¹Practical - day to day righteousness through faithful obedience. 

These two are distinct and appear to be in opposition when they are in fact connected.

Due to our rebellious distrust and a desire to be our own god, we are naturally inclined to confuse these and mix them together i.e. we see obedience as a means of earning God's acceptance, not as an expression of our already fully having it in Christ.

The following list compares and contrasts these two.

1.     The legal (our legal status and standing before God) can only be and is completely taken care of ^1aby God, not us.

2.     The relational can only be and is addressed ¹by us

1.  The legal has been taken care of ^2aby Christ's work. 

2.  The relational is addressed ^2aby our "work" of believing in that work.

1.     The legal is grounded in ^3aa past historical event 

2.     The relational is an ^3aon going present pursuit.

1.     The legal addresses God as our ^4arighteous judge 

2.     The relational addresses God as our ^4akind and loving Father

1.     The legal is about ^4aGods judgment and condemnation of us 

2.     The relational is about ^4aour love for him and fidelity to him

1.     The legal addresses ^4aGods posture-attitude-disposition towards us 

2.     The relational addresses ^4aour posture-disposition towards God

1.     The legal is ^5asettled, finished, completed, never to be re-litigated.

2.     The relational ^5ais ongoing, unfolding and never done.

The legal (1) is the foundation on which the practical/relational (2) is built.

Those who haven't received and experienced legal righteousness (1) attempt to use relational-practical day-to-day obedience-righteousness (2) to replace it i.e. they attempt to live righteously to gain God's acceptance, not because they already have it in Christ. 

The legal requirement of perfect righteousness can never be achieved (satisfied) by us i.e. our keeping God's commands perfectly because we are not able to. 

The legal is the foundation on which the relational is built. The relational/practical (2) flows from and is the fruit of assigned or declared righteous (1).

We cannot ²properly engage in the relational/practical (2) without clearly grasping the legal (1). 

Many of Paul's letters illustrate this. For example, Paul's spends the majority of his time laying the foundation of justification by faith in chapters 1-11 in Romans and chapters 1-4 in both Galatians and Ephesians, before discussing how to live out that faith in chapters 12 to the end of Romans and chapter 5 to the end of Galatians and Ephesians. You also see this laid out in just chapter 3 of Colossians alone.

The following passages also show these two realities juxtaposed to each other, while also showing how they are completely connected.

Rom 6:4  

(1)We were buried (past tense and legal status) therefore with him by baptism into death,

(2) in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk (present tense and daily conduct) in newness of life.

Rom 7:4  

(1)Likewise, my brothers, you also have died (past tense, legal status) to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead,

 (2) in order that we may bear fruit (present tense, daily conduct) for God.

Rom 8:3-4 

(1) For God has done (past tense, legal status) what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

(2) in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk (present tense, daily conduct) not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Note this contrast and connection is addressed in verse 4 of each of chapters 6, 7 and 8 of Romans (this makes it easy to remember the reference). This also shows the significance of this truth by repeating it three times in sequence using different examples in slightly different ways. The further significance of this is many consider Romans the fullest explanation of the gospel in all its facets and the pinnacle of Paul's letters as well as the New Testament itself, with chapters 6-8 being the pinnacle of Romans, particularly chapter 8.  

Do you wish to live righteously? You can not until you first grasp the full extent of your legal righteousness in Christ. The greater your grasp of this righteousness earned by another and given to you the greater will be it's fruit i.e. day to day righteousness. 

For additional posts discussing our legal vs practical status click here. 

__________________________________________________________________

^1aThis addresses who

^2aThis addresses who and how

^3aThis addresses when

^4aThis addresses who and what

^5aThis addresses what and when

¹I am using "practical" and "relational" interchangeably because our obedience-practical righteousness is based on trust in God - i.e. it is relational. Trust is vital to our relationship with God and how we enter into that love already fully secured for us legally in Christ. 

²Neither can we completely appreciate or benefit from the legal (1) without fully engaging in the relational-practical (2). Our failure to obey perfectly requires us to go back to the work of Christ and remember God's acceptance is not based on our perfect obedience but on the obedience of Christ, an obedience that is already fully completed and can not be added to. This increases our appreciation for His work i.e. due to our failed obedience -- and know with certainty, you will fail and often -- increasingly helps us see the full extent of his work in freeing us from condemnation. 

The following passage best summarizes and captures these truths:

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." - Rom 8:1-4

Led by the Spirit

We often read into the expression "led by the Spirit" something that is not there. e.g. Some interpret not being "led by the Spirit" means we are out of 1God's will. And in one sense this is true. It is not God's will for us to operate in the flesh but in the Spirit. But being lead or 2directed by God's Spirit is not what we might think.

What does it mean to operate "in the Spirit?" Is it something we must do or will to happen? Yes and no. 

To "walk in the Spirit" simply means to operate knowing (believing) we are under the perfect care and love of the Father. We could simply substitute Spirit with love and we have the idea. 

And we are under God's infinite care because this has been earned/secured for us by the efforts of Christ, not ours i.e. this is only possible by grace.

To be lead by the Spirit is not something we do, per se. It is only possible because of something that has been done for us i.e. it is possible only due to the status gained by another (Christ) on our behalf and given to us solely as a gift.

Because of Christ we can operate knowing - if we believe - we are fully loved no matter 3what we are feeling, experiencing or doing. This is the fixed status of anyone who is in Christ.

So what is our role? What is it we are to do? 

We do play a part but our "work" or "walking" is simply choosing to believe we are under his perfect love as we go about living our lives for God's honor i.e. acting by faith in this status of being perfectly and infinitely loved, secured for us by another (Christ). As scripture says, "the just shall live by faith..." 

The call or admonition to ⁵"walk in the spirit" is a calling to believe -- and never stop (remain/abide in) believing we are constantly under the care of God and fully loved by him  3 no matter what we encounter or how badly we fail. The only thing we are to 4"do" - i.e. our "work" - is believe this is true regardless of what we are experiencing or feeling. 

Faith, however, is not passive. When we truly believe it moves us to act - to action. We are compelled by the love of God to faithfully pursue Him. If we are not compelled we do not yet comprehend - believe - in the love God has for us. It is in our believing we experience the power and influence of the Spirit. The greater our faith in Him and His perfect love for us the greater our freedom in Christ and the greater the fruit it produces in and through us. 

For a discussion on all things working for good click here.

For a further discussion on operating in the spirit click here

_______________________________

 1 many interpret being "out of God's will" as being off track and therefore never reaching the destiny God has set out for us. Because we "missed it" it is now lost to us forever. 

However, God's will is not "vocational" but developmental. It is not to take us to a specific place but to make us like a specific person i.e. his Son. To do so he uses all things i.e. all the good and bad choices, experiences and circumstances we encounter in life.

For a further discussion on "being in the will of God" click here

2 Being led or directed by his Spirit simply means operating in and under the influence of his love. God is love and is Spirit. Though God's love and Spirit are not exactly synonymous this is not an incidental comparison. Our call to operate this way is simply a call to believe his love set upon is fixed,  relentless, nonstop i.e. endless and without interruption, as indicated by his coming to take up his abode within us.   

For a further discussion on the definition of terms click here

 3 Even when we are sinning we are still under his love and care for God uses all things to make us more like his Son i.e. He's constantly increasing our humility which increases our capacity to experience more of his love; he's always working in and through all things for our good.

  4 For a discussion on why faith is hard "work" click here.

⁵Why doesn't it say "walk in good deeds?" Because good deeds are the fruit of the Spirit (love) not of our will power.

Loving ourselves...part III

When God calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves, he's not telling us to love ourselves, he's calling us to care for our neighbors in the way we are already naturally inclined care for ourselves. 

What this passage is doing is giving us a standard. Self-care is the standard by which we measure and base our care of others. He is telling us to simply do for others what we desire they do for us in the way we automatically and naturally do it for ourselves.

However, we have a problem. This is totally impossible to do by ourselves. Our commitment to self-care is too great--so is our need for infinite love. We can not love others sacrificially until we know we are loved in the same way. 

Which is exactly why he appeals to this as our standard. He wants our care of others to be equally as great as our care for ourselves. 

The solution?

It is only when we know - are fully convinced - we are ¹perfectly cared for and loved by God, that we are freed and enabled to love others, but not until then. In ourselves alone, we do not have the love necessary to love in this way - i.e. sacrificially - or the assurance it will be worth the sacrifice.

But how can we know whether God loves us that much? Through Christ and his work on our behalf we have absolute proof of God's love. In and through Christ, God completely took care of both our alienation and our need for infinite love. He did all of this for us because of his care and love for us.

Do we believe this is true? Do we believe that God loves us ²this much? Unless and until we do we can never love others as God designed us to.

God says he loves us and did everything necessary to prove it. Is he lying? The actions God took prove he is not. It is for us to believe or reject His promised love demonstrated by His sacrificial actions. This is his call and also our greatest struggle, to believe. Do you?

For more comments on loving ourselves click here and here. 

_________________________________________Footnotes:

¹When we know that no sacrifice we make in loving others will go unrewarded, we are able to love sacrificially. And how do we know this? Because God proved it by sending His Son to restore us to himself and then raised him back to life after he sacrificed himself for us. Resurrection life after His sacrifice is ours because it was Christ's first. Christ's resurrection is the firstfruits of all other resurrections for those who love Him.  

²do we believe in his love enough that it transforms and frees us to love others in the same way he loves us i.e. sacrificially? Not unless or until we do can we ever love sacrificially.

Power… Within or without?

How are we empowered-strengthened to live for God?

We are told in Eph 3:16, that "... according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being..."

This all sounds good, but what does it mean exactly and how does this work? Let's take a closer look.

This passage tells us we are empowered-strengthened to live for God "...according to the riches of his glory"

What are "the riches of his glory?" It is the immense worth-beauty-glory of God shared within and among the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. This is the essence of the dynamic ¹life and love of God itself. The wealth or riches of this life - God's very own life - is fully extended to us in and through Christ freely as a gift i.e. by grace. Because of Christ, we have complete access to God. We have been invited to participate in the Divine dance of the very same life and love of God in, by, and through the passion-Spirit-breath of God!

It is this holy Passion-Love-Spirit of God for his own infinite worth-glory we enter into, partake of, and are empowered by - i.e we receive the life and the love of God via his Spirit as we ²behold and adore Him in his glorious beauty, through which we are strengthened and empowered to live for him.

14 I bow my knees before the Father... 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  

Vs 16 

...he may grant you to be strengthened with power

...through his Spirit

...in your inner being

What drives and empowers us to live for God is a response by us from within (our inner being) to the love that comes to us from without (from God) through his Spirit (which now dwells within us) because of the work of Christ done without or outside of us.

The power needed to live for God is both from within and without. It is the coupling of God's Spirit-Love-Passion within the triune God, with our being in order to experience, enjoy, and glory in this Divine dance of love (i.e. because we are ³like God, we are able to respond in kind - the same way He does - to His infinite beauty and glory). 

The love of God that comes to us from without, stirs our heart through the Spirit within, empowering us to live for him. As we behold His infinite beauty-glory revealed to us by His Spirit, we are aroused and quickened to love, pursue, and obey God. To say it simply, we love (and pursue/obey) Him because He first loves us. 

As we ⁴receive God's love from without, we are empowered within to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and others as ourselves. We are quickened and empowered by the love and glory of God, to love Him in return and desire to live for (i.e. obey) him... it is God who works in us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil 2:12).


Power and humility

To claim I am empowered by God might sound boastful. But to be empowered by God is not a point of pride but of humility. His empowering us is not possible without the grace of God extended to us in and through Christ, giving us access to God and the overflowing abundance of His infinite love to, in, and through is, by His Spirit. It is the work of Christ that makes us clean vessels suitable to be indwelt by his Spirit and filled with His love. 

This is our present state as a child of God in Christ. It is a status earned and obtained for us and given to us, not earned by us. It is not something we have to do or necessarily feel, but that we must believe and respond to by faith if we are to experience Him fully. The more we believe, receive, and respond to His love (by and through faith filled obedience), the more we experience God's presence and are empowered by Him.

Why is this humbling? It reveals...

*Our capacity (being in His image) to respond is from God, not us, 

*It is God's infinite love we are responding to (He is the initiator), and 

*Christ - not us - qualifies us to receive that love...

These are all gifts given to us by God. We do not cause these; we are simply the most lavishly endowed heirs-recipients of them. All these things are ours only because of Christ, not us. 

Our "work" is to ⁴believe these are true.

28Then they inquired, “What must we do to perform the works of God?" 29 Jesus replied, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.” John 6

For a discussion on where we get the strength for self-denial click here. 

For a further discussion on the nature of being empowered by God click here.

For a discussion on how we participate in the promises of God click here.

For further discussion on the Trinity, click here.
________________________________________FOOTNOTES:

¹Joh 17:3  And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 

The word used for "know" here is an intimate knowing; the kind of knowing we experience in and through relationships, not simply an intellectual knowing/gathering of information.

This is initiated by the Father, secured for us by Christ, and revealed to us by the Spirit.

² II Cor 3:17  "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18  And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."

Do you wish to change from the inside out? Then behold and meditate on the glory of Christ. 

³as His image-bearers. The reason we can respond to God's love in a way no other creature can is that we bear His likeness i.e. we are like God in our ability to receive and give love in the same way God gives and receives love among the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. 

⁴we recieve everything by faith

Immigration...right or wrong?



Israel was clearly instructed to care for-love the sojourner-foreigner-alien. 

Lev 19:34  You shall treat the stranger^***H1616  who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Deu 1:16  And I charged your judges at that time, 'Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien^H1616 who is with him.

Deu 26:11  And you shall rejoice in all the good that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner^H1616 who is among you.

2Ch 2:17  Then Solomon counted all the resident aliens^H1616 who were in the land of Israel, after the census of them that David his father had taken, and there were found 153,600. 2Ch 2:18  Seventy thousand of them he assigned to bear burdens, 80,000 to quarry in the hill country, and 3,600 as overseers to make the people work.

Were there ever conditions for assimilation-immigration?

It was assumed and expected that the foreign person was willing to and did fully assimilate into Israel's moral, legal and spiritual culture. If and when they did, they were not to be forbidden. 

Deu 31:12 Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner ^H1616 within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law,

Exo 12:48  If a stranger^H1616 shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised i.e. adapt to your law and culture. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.

Exo 12:49 There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger^H1616 who sojourns among you."

Num 9:14  And if a stranger^H1616 sojourns among you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its rule, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the sojourner^H1616 and for the native."

Israel was not to simply accept people of other nations randomly and without conditions but only if they assimilated into the spiritual, legal and cultural values given to Israel by God.

God even forbid Israel, *as a nation, of mixing with other nations through marriage. 

Why? Was God a racist? Of course not. His own Son wasn't purely of Jewish descent. 

There were *non-Jews-Gentiles in several places in the genealogy of Christ. The purity of bloodline, genetics or ethnicity is not and has **never been the issue. 

The reason *national intermingling was forbidden is so Israel would not be drawn away from God spiritually as a nation. God did not wish them to be lured away from the one true God. God didn't prohibit genetic mixing but warned of spiritual/moral mixing. This is also why he instructed aliens to be obedient to the same moral laws as Israel.  Ethnic mixing was never God's concern, spiritual dilution was.

Though no nation today is God's nation in the same way as Israel was at that time, do these principles have any application for us today? 

Why conditions? 

God is a jealous God; not because he's needy, but because he's loving i.e. he desires and seeks - is jealous for - our highest good as well as his greatest glory. To love and live for Him is that highest good. To be drawn away from Him is to our harm and His dishonor. 

If God is a certain way and designed us to operate a certain way i.e. to not love Him with all that we are and have and our neighbor as ourselves is to be drawn away from Him and contrary to our original design - as well as dishonoring to God. This would be to our harm as well as to those who draw us away or that we might draw away through unfaithfulness. For these reasons, God commanded Israel -- as well as His Church-people today -- complete spiritual and moral loyalty and faithfulness to Him and to not "partner" with anyone that would draw them away. Caring for the sojourner-foreigner-stranger and partnering - or yoking - with them are not necessarily one and the same thing. We are to love all men but not necessarily partner with all men unless it is a partnering to advance the glory of God regardless of other differences.

Who's right on immigration?

You could say both sides of this debate are right and wrong. 

Promoters of unconditional immigration are off the mark because there were conditions that are important and given for principled reasons. 

Promoters of no immigration are off the mark because God says to love all men and partner with any and all people who wish to honor Him. 

In truth, most (if not all) people who take issue with unconditional immigration are not opposed to all immigration but simply immigration without conditions. 

At the time the last administration's position on immigration incorporated both principles; welcoming immigrants based on conditions/merit. It even mentioned streamlining immigration to make it easier for people who wish to incorporate into society to become a citizen. In short it was not an anti-immigration position as the media often portrayed. 

Most things debated by the "left" and "right" are handled as if there are only two ways to look at things. As fallen humanity, we tend to oversimplify things. In virtually every case, however, there is a third way, God's way - which is yes to immigration but with clear conditions. Without conditions those things in our culture that are God honoring are at risk of being diluted or abandoned further.

Our ways are not His and His are not ours. 

For a discussion on values, culture and racism click here. 

For a discussion on distinguishing between morality and culture click here. 

For a discussion on God's promise of salvation to all people groups click here. 

For a discussion on socialism and capitalism click here. 

For a discussion on the importance of forgiveness in racial matters click here. 

For a discussion on controlled media click here.

_________________________________________________________________

*There are several incidents where Israelites married people from other nations. Moses, David, Solomon, and Boaz would be some examples. The issue was always a matter of them being drawn away from God, not the mixing of races.  

**Anyone who receives Christ has access to God and is loved by him exactly the same, regardless of ethnicity for two reasons. 1. God's acceptance is based on Christ's merit, not ours. 2. All men and women are created in the image of God regardless of their ethnicity. 

***H1616 (Strongs Concordance)

Original: גּיר גּר
Transliteration: gêr gêyr
Phonetic: gare
BDB Definition:

sojourner

a temporary inhabitant, a newcomer lacking inherited rights of foreigners in Israel, though conceded rights

Origin: from H1481
TWOT entry: 330a
Part(s) of speech: Noun Masculine
Strong's Definition: From H1481; properly a guest; by implication a foreigner: - alien, sojourner, stranger.
Total KJV Occurrences: 89
shall be a stranger (1)
Gen 15:13

i am a stranger (2)
Gen 23:4; Psa 119:19 (refs2)

i have been a stranger (1)
Exo 2:22

whether he be a stranger (1)
Exo 12:19

and when a stranger (1)
Exo 12:48

and unto the stranger (3)
Exo 12:49; Num 19:10; Deu 26:13 (refs3)

i have been an alien (1)
Exo 18:3

nor thy stranger (2)
Exo 20:10; Deu 5:14 (refs2)

a stranger (2)
Exo 22:21; Exo 23:9 (refs2)

him for ye were strangers (1)
Exo 22:21

of a stranger (1)
Exo 23:9

ye were strangers (1)
Exo 23:9

and the stranger (6)
Exo 23:12; Num 15:26; Deu 1:16; Deu 16:11; Deu 26:11; Psa 94:6 (refs6)

or a stranger (2)
Lev 16:29; Lev 17:15 (refs2)

or of the strangers (5)
Lev 17:8; Lev 17:10; Lev 17:13; Lev 20:2; Lev 22:18 (refs5)

neither shall any stranger (1)
Lev 17:12

nor any stranger (1)
Lev 18:26

and stranger (1)
Lev 19:10

and if a stranger (3)
Lev 19:33; Num 9:14; Num 15:14 (refs3)

but the stranger (1)
Lev 19:34

him as thyself for ye were strangers (1)
Lev 19:34

and to the stranger (1)
Lev 23:22

him as well the stranger (1)
Lev 24:16

as well for the stranger (1)
Lev 24:22

is mine for ye are strangers (1)
Lev 25:23

him yea though he be a stranger (1)
Lev 25:35

and if a sojourner (1)
Lev 25:47

himself unto the stranger (1)
Lev 25:47

of the stranger's (1)
Lev 25:47

both for the stranger (1)
Num 9:14

and also for the stranger (1)
Num 15:15

as ye are so shall the stranger (1)
Num 15:15

shall be for you and for the stranger (1)
Num 15:16

and for the stranger (3)
Num 15:29; Num 35:15; Jos 20:9 (refs3)

the stranger (9)
Deu 10:18; Deu 16:14; Deu 26:12; Deu 28:43; Job 31:32; Eze 22:29; Eze 47:23; Zec 7:10; Mal 3:5 (refs9)

ye therefore the stranger