Daddy Issues 12: The Law & the Life

Who has ever gotten a speeding ticket?
I got my license revoked.
Once, I almost got arrested.
The law is good, it is perfect, you need to know it because so you can know where God stands. The law exposes you but can't deliver you from its consequences. – Speed limit
The law is a mirror that shows what's wrong, but you can't fix your face with it

Exodus 20:2-3 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

The law tells you the problem but has no power to help you fix it

My daddy and my daddy’s daddy struggled with this sin. I went to church as a child and knew the sin was wrong, but had no power to be free of it.

Romans 7:21-25 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

The law condemns me and tells me that I’m wrong and shows me the punishment but has no power to deliver me from Egypt or from bondage. It can’t keep me from going back to my sin. So what now?

Romans 8:1-3 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

How do we break the cycle of systemic generational rebellion and hatred for God?

Malachi 4:4-6 Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Remember – obey – they can’t

John 1:17 The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

The accuser shoves the law in our face to remind us where we’ve missed it. We have sinned and fallen short and have put ourselves under the curse of death because we broke God’s Law.

Shane and Shane Embracing Accusation:

“The father of lies coming to steal, kill and destroy
All my hopes of being good enough
I hear him saying, "Cursed are the ones who can't abide"
He's right, Hallelujah, he's right

Oh, the devil's singing over me an age old song
That I am cursed and gone astray
Singing the first verse so conveniently over me
He's forgotten the refrain, Jesus saves”

My sin causes death, but faith in Jesus brings life, hope, and freedom!
The Law brings death, but Jesus gives life.

John 14:1-6 You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

1 Corinthians 21-22 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

The Law brings death, but Jesus gives life

(Tutor) Galatians 3:23-26 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore. the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

We now have access to the Father through faith in Jesus. We are then justified before the Father because of the sacrifice of the Son and the forgiveness of sin. It’s not just a positional holiness or righteousness either.

John 14:15-18 If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Jesus comes to us by sending us His Holy Spirit. This is how we know that we are truly sons and daughters of God. The Holy Spirit reveals the Father to us, gives us His love, tells us the truth, and gives us confidence that we are truly His.

He also empowers us to live lives that please God. To become more and more holy and righteous before Him.

Galatians 5:16-18 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The Spirit’s job is to give grace or power to do what the law requires

Jesus said He didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfil the law. He then gives us His Holy Spirit, which the word calls the Spirit of Jesus Christ in Philippians 1:19, Then the Holy Spirit reveals the law to me –

the letter of the Law and the Spirit of the Law –

the mind heart and intent of God – He then fulfils the requirements of the law in me, then gives me the power to do the same!

Curse comes from sin – Adam sinned with a tree
The law informs us of the curse and its consequence
Jesus broke the curse of the law on a tree
He now gives us the Spirit to help us do what the law requires
Laws are for the lawless – when you break the law, you are under the condemnation of the law. There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus because He has broken the curse, came with the truth that makes us free, and sends us His Spirit to empower us to live lives that are pleasing to God.

How do we break free of generational curses and the sins of our fathers?
Repent of the sin, turn to God the Father through Jesus Christ and walk in the Spirit.

The grace of God will transform you and change your want to in time, but even if you still want to, He gives you the power to override that desire and to choose what is good.

If we walk in the Spirit, we are not under the law, we are empowered to live holy lives to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

How do we walk in the Spirit? One foot in front of the other, with the Holy Spirit.
Prayer, word, tongues, accountability, practicing a continual awareness of His presence.

Pray.