"Three Spiritual Laws"

“Three Spiritual Laws”

February 17, 2008

We are all governed by laws. Right now there is a political battle going on over who is going to be the law makers. The liberal side wants more laws and more regulations to protect and take care of people, they say. The conservative side wants fewer laws, saying less is better. Whichever side gets in will have the power to write laws and try to get them passed. The President, liberal or conservative, will sign those laws into effect that he (or she) and his side agree with. It is important to have the right law makers in Washington.

There are other laws that affect us, too. There is the law of gravity and the law of momentum. An example of those laws is the story of the guy who jumped out of a plane and his parachute wouldn’t open. He was struggling with it as he was falling, trying to open it up. As he struggled with it – he saw a guy flying up toward him from the ground. As they passed he yelled, “Hey do you know anything about parachutes?” The guy yells back, “No! Do you know anything about propane stoves!”

Those kinds of laws affect us every day. Break the law of gravity or the law of momentum or any of the other physical laws that governs our planet – and you will suffer for it.

There is also the “Levitical Law” in the Bible. Those are the laws that God gave Moses to pass on to His people. The “Ten Commandments” are a part of the Levitical law. When you think of these laws – you can substitute God’s ‘will’ instead of ‘law’ and it may make it easier to understand. Instead of the “Ten Commandments” think of it as “10 things that are God’s will”. And the Levitical law can all be summed up with one thing. Paul writes.

“The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." [ Lev. 19:18] (Galatians 5:14)

“Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” Romans 13:10

So, basically the Levitical law has to do with God’s will. If you willfully go against God’s will, you are in rebellion and will suffer the consequence of separation from God and His blessing. But, if you love God and express that love to God through obedience to His known will in your life, that love covers a multitude of imperfections. Jesus paid for our sins with His blood - so keeping the law doesn’t justify us. But having a desire to do God’s will and walking in obedience because of our love for Him, fulfills the law.

Today I want to talk about three other laws that affect us every day. They are not legislative laws or scientific physical laws or even the Levitical law. They are spiritual laws and they affect us every day as much as any of these other laws do. Our lives are changed because of these laws. If we keep them – we are blessed. If we violate them; if we break them – we suffer the consequences.

The first law I want to talk about this morning is the “Law of Life and death”. I call this the law of life and death because keeping this law brings life – and breaking this law brings death. The Bible says,

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

Usually when we talk about this verse we are talking about the final consequence – which is eternal death or eternal life. The wages of sin – or the result of sinning is eternal death. We call that hell and it is eternal separation from God and all that is good. It has been described by Jesus as a lake of fire and a place where the worms never die and a place of absolute darkness and a place of total isolation –being all alone- for all eternity. That is the ultimate result of sinning.

But there is a more immediate consequence to rebelling against God’s will. It is immediate death – or immediate separation from God and His blessing. It is not total, because as long as we are alive we are under God’s prevenient grace. In other words, even the most wicked can enjoy some of God’s goodness. They experience pleasure and happiness and satisfaction – sometimes even in a perverted way. They may get pleasure out of doing evil. But when we sin, there is an immediate separation from God and His blessing. God can not bless the wicked. You may experience some of God prevenient grace – but you are separated from His best blessings when you rebel and knowingly go against His will. The bible says.