“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it,” Luke 16:16.
We were made to die to the Law, Romans 7:4; we were released from the Law, Romans 7:6; and set free from the Law in all aspects through the body of Christ, the last Adam. We were then raised up together with Him to the Father, where we became a new creation. So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit,” 1 Corinthians 15:45.
“When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us [the Law], which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross,” Colossians 2:13-14.
And now many today want to go back to the law of the old creation, the flesh, which has legal requirements, and lay a legal claim to their right to use the name of Jesus. They’re in the flesh, for no one in the kingdom is under the Law. Even if a judge were to give them the right to use the name of Jesus, they couldn’t use it, for as the kingdom of God is no longer under the Law, neither is Jesus.
The new creation, or born again Christians, is no longer bound by that Law, but has been released from it, having died to it in Christ, and raised up a new creature in the risen Christ, who sent forth His Spirit to all who believe in Him. This is the kingdom of God wherein God’s Spirit dwells within His children; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, 2 Corinthians 3:17.
Because of this liberty, Peter did not need authority to heal the lame man at the gate of the temple, but instead simply believed in the name of Jesus in whom he abode, and did it on the basis of faith in His name, just as he said, “It is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all,” Acts 3:16.
Authority is no longer needed to combat the devil. We need only have faith in the name of Jesus in whom we abide, and follow the instructions in the word of God, which tell us to submit ourselves to God and resist the devil, and he will flee from us.
Again, “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it,” Luke 16:16.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners,” Isaiah 61:1.
“But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage,” Galatians 2:4.
“But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does,” James 1:25.
This new creation, no longer governed by the Law of commandments, is now governed by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. (The word law in all instances means principle.) So we were released from the principle that evil is present in us that led to death, Romans 7:21, and born into the principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, that leads to life eternal.
“So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty,” James 2:12.
Those of us who have been set free from the law of Moses no longer walk by legal requirements, or legal sanctions, but by faith in the name of our most precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we do this by looking intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abiding by it, not having become forgetful hearers but effectual doers.
“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it,” Luke 16:16.
Jon David Banks, God’s most unworthy servant
Addendum:
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant,
does not act unbecomingly;
it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
When one is delivered from his sinful self and given the Spirit of the living God to dwell within him, one does not need to be told what to do and what not to do. One simply does what is right for all of society for the simple reason that God is love.
“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him,” 1 John 4:16.
This is the perfect law, the law of liberty, “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does,” James 1:25.
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