The Dance.

Absolute beauty. I got to take this picture on the trail where I’ve been running in the mornings. Summer is beautiful, especially the green grass against the sky! I want to share another beautiful something with you too…

Today’s Wednesday. That means group devotional started the day. It’s my lunch time and my heart’s bursting with excitement and joy to tell you guys some awesome things.

Michael taught this morning about God being a god of rules. God is legal. Because He is legal and just (even though He is all loving), He will not erase His standards. We started by looking at the Ten Commandments, the Law of God (Exodus 20, Deut. 5).

Here is where the amazing news comes in. It’s incredible, guys. :)

God gives us His law, knowing that we will never be able to keep it. We miss the point when we make Christianity into a code of rules and duties to follow. He knows we cannot keep them, no matter how much we try.

“For all have sinned and fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Romans 3:23

“No one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what His law commands. For the more we know God’s law, the clearer it becomes that we aren’t obeying it.” Romans 3:20

There was only one person who could keep the Law that God set for us. It was Jesus. Our failures at being able to keep the rules and standards point to Him. The points of the law show us the character of God. Michael talked about the law not being a list of social boundaries, but rather a means of showing us who God is and what He is like.

When Christ died on the cross, He gave us the free gift of grace to live in His Spirit. This means that when we believe in Him, His Spirit/His character (the same character that fulfilled the Law) comes to live inside of us. Through Christ, we are able to live out His character. He becomes our strength. He becomes our peace, joy, freedom, and life. Our eyes become opened to see life in a new way.

The commands of the Law move from being duties to delights. God will not demand His way on us. He longs for us to know Him, find life in Him, and be delighted in getting to know Him more. God wants us to delight in following His character. He knows that it will bring us the most life and freedom. There is a huge difference between rules and relationship. God wants relationship. Jesus is the answer. He fulfilled the Law and made us free.

That is incredible news! Because of Jesus, I am changed internally (supernaturally), so that Christ’s nature/character can be lived out through me. The King of Love wants to manifest Himself through me, through you, through anyone who will come to know Him.

Where the Spirit is, there is freedom! I pray that our generation will wake up to see the Bible and Jesus in a fresh new way. The Bible is not a coded list of rules. It is such freedom and life. All the rules show God’s nature, displayed in the flesh by Jesus. They point to the fact that we couldn’t uphold them. That Jesus could. And that He came to die so that our legal and just God would punish Him for our sin instead. Not only did He take what we deserved, BUT THEN He gave us His character and life to live inside of us. Through Him living in us, God is brought glory. Through Jesus fulfilling God’s law, God is brought glory.

It’s an amazing dance of love. Jesus longs to bring the Father glory, and God the Father longs for our best. He knows that our best comes when we are glorifying Him. We are able to glorify Him through Jesus living in us.

The perfect picture is the Trinity. None of the three (Father, Son, Spirit) ever look at themselves. They are sold out for the good of the others. It is a dance. The attitude/character of Christ is laying down His all, for the good of others.

Jesus got no self-gratification by dying for us. He didn’t need us in the first place. God has never needed us to glorify Him. He wants us to, for our benefit. Jesus died for our benefit!

God invites us to lay down ourselves, follow Him, and join the dance. Only through Jesus was the law fulfilled. Only through Jesus can we come into knowing God. Jesus is the answer. He is the purpose. The point of the Law was to point to Him. Praise to the Almighty King of Love that God sent His son to not only save me, but to also invite me into the incredible dance of being made new in His character. It is the most beautiful thing I can ever explain.

"We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and success comes from God. He is the one who has enabled us to represent His new covenant. This is a covenant, not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old way ends in death. In the new way, the Holy Spirit gives life." 2nd Corinthians 3:4-6

"Since this new covenant gives us such confidence, we can be very bold...But the people whose minds are hardened, even to this day, whenever the old covenant (the Law of God- the rules) is being read, a veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, then the veil is taken away. The Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, He gives freedom. And all believers have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like Him and reflect His glory even more." 2nd Corinthians 3:12,14,16-18