Mac

I wanted to share this with all of you. It's key to my faith and my daily living.

I Cor. 6:12-19 KJV

All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

The Apostle Paul is an interesting dude. We've no record of anybody rebuking an apostle openly, other than Paul to Peter (Gal. 2:11-16). Things like that were not done lightly (I Tim. 5:1, 19, 20).

This guy, this apostle (the only one sent to the Gentiles [Rom. 11:13; Eph. 3:8] all the others were sent to the Jews) took life by the horns. This man was no stranger to the Mosaic law. He practiced "religiousity" on a scale that would make a Baptist blush (Phillip. 3:4-7) or a Charismatic cringe (II Cor. 11:22-28).

This is the man who flatly states, "All things are lawful for me..." (I Cor. 6:12).

It was not until a few years ago that the reality of this concept lodged home with me. And the glorious liberty it ushered in is so soothing. You see, I can't be convicted of breaking the law, if all things are lawful. (I'm not referring to human laws, but to God's assessment of my actions.)

It's like diplomatic immunity.

A foreign attaché is not bound by the laws of the host nation. He doesn't get speeding tickets when he speeds. Though he may in fact break a law, he is not convicted of it, and is not determined to be guilty of so doing. This is not saying it never occurred. It is saying the adjudication of it has changed (Gal. 3:22-25). The law (our schoolmaster) purposes to bring us to the point of faith in Christ, after which we are then under grace (Rom. 6:12-14). This course does not reverse itself.

The law cannot give life, only death. Yes, it is good when rightly applied (I Tim. 1:8-10), and was not made to apply to the righteous. (Faithfully observing it--or attempting to do so--will not make one righteous [Rom. 3:21, 22].)

How could Paul make such a statement? How could he say all things are lawful for him? Well now, did Jesus provide the propitiation (full payment, not a down payment) for ALL my sin, or didn't He?

Until that question is answered, we'll have Christians and churches bound to the law and confused over grace, trying to live as the Jews did. And without much effort, it is easy to see that this is the situation today. In churches. And in the lives of believers. All too often, we live as if Jesus took care of sin only up to the point of my salvation and no further. One sin more, and I had better First John One Nine it or--God forbid--I run the risk of having unconfessed sin in my life. Egads!

I was taught such a view for many years, yet it happily ignores the final reality of Jesus' atonement and my reconciliation to God. My salvation is secure. My status is settled. My position in Christ is unshakable. Forever. Longer even than that.

Were it possible for me to do something the likes of which God regarded as sin, then that is the point at which grace fails, my salvation splits and the Holy Spirit leaves me. (Remember, He is my earnest--a contractual term [Eph. 1:14]).

Jesus died one time. For all time. For all the sin that ever was and ever will be. He'll never die again, never mount the cross to suffer vicariously again, and never again have our sins placed upon Him. The Father will never again turn His face from His Son in total rejection (Matt. 27:46).

How can all things be lawful for me?

It's not the same as saying I don't have the ability to commit acts forbidden by the law. Of course I have that ability. We all do. Every Christian does. What I have now as a believer is true liberty (Rom. 6:15-18) for the first time in my life. Liberty to make a godly choice. Or not so. Under grace, God has removed the application of the law (it's not made for the righteous). That's the liberty, the diplomatic immunity. My righteousness depends not on what I do, what I say, where I go, or what I contemplate. Put another way, the righteousness God requires of you and I is not even remotely obtainable by observing the ten commandments (or any of the other hundreds of laws).

You see, if what I do right now today as a Christian can please God (can make me righteous), then Christ died in vain (Gal. 2:20, 21).

We've come a long way from realizing God Himself provided a manner by which we could be pleasing to Him, and it had (and has) nothing to do with our abilities, our intentions, our efforts, our time or our money (Rom. 3:20). Thus my liberty rests in the irreversible declaration of righteousness I entered into, the moment I trusted the gospel of grace (I Cor. 15:1-10).

Why is this so cool? Try living your Christianity out of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (all the Do's and Do not's) and you'll see why!

Grace is mind-blowing FREEDOM!