Legal or Healing?

[o2bwise]

Hi,

OK, I'll begin by being just a tad philosophical.

What is the source of the wages of sin? I suggest there are only three possibilities.

1. An evil character.

2. The response of a system of justice because of an evil character.

3. Both 1 and 2.


I'll phrase the above differently and also include solutions.

1. Sick. Unwell. A healing solution.

2. Justice demands a penalty. A legal solution.

3. Both


All my life I was drilled with #2. Then one day, perhaps 25 years ago, I came upon #1. Boy, that came out of left field! I knew I had to study it out. So I read Psalms, Proverbs, and the NT where I focused on what is the nature of the problem and why did Jesus come? I also memorized Hebrews as well as Romans 1-8.

I came away no longer believing in #2 and fully embracing #1.

Just a couple examples why I did so (though there are many, many more).

I understood that if the issue is legal, the lost are subject to such a wage in the future and person's of faith are exempt from having to meet such a penalty.

Romans 6:23,7:9,13
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

Here, Paul is saying that he died the death that is the wages (penalty) for sin, but with a legal view, he cannot! Note: to some degree, he perceived holiness, in proportion was exposed to his own character, and in proportion experienced painful feelings like shame and guilt. But, of course, he did not experience this full measure.


Judas - what was his undoing? A keener glimpse of his own evil and the consequences of such a perception. Physical death was a welcome relief to such inner torment.


Isaiah 1:28-29
The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together, And those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. 29 For they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees Which you have desired; And you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens Which you have chosen.

Shame and embarrassment can be so lethal as to consume.


Jesus, why did you come?

Mark 2:17
When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Ahhh, Jesus is a doctor who came to heal our hearts!


Jesus, why did you go to the cross?

2 Corinthians 5:14-16
14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

He came to the cross to heal our hearts.


Jesus, why did you go to the cross?

Galatians 3:1-3
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth,before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

He went to the cross to change our hearts.


1 John 3:20
20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.


Blessings,

o2

 

[bling]

Some go for healing and others refuse to be healed: "do you want to walk"?

 

[Greg J.]

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. (Romans 5:12-14, 1984 NIV)

God designed the universe in his own image. The "natural" consequences of sin is death, even when God does not pass judgment on someone (and comes upon someone when God does judge them, of course). However, the wages of sin that are a consequence of how the universe works are under the Lord's control. In all cases the responsibility for the wages coming upon someone lies with the sinner(s).

Somewhat tangential:

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56, 1984 NIV)

In Christ, we fulfill the Law, so sin has no power over us. Think of it in terms of being slaves to sin. When we could not choose God or to obey God, we had no choice but to obey sin, but the revelation of God gives us a new alternative. Now we can choose to follow God, which makes us his children in spirit, and our redemption that Christ purchased for us becomes fact. We then have a new master and are not judged according to the Law, like we were when slaves to sin, but according to the "law" of love (which is referred to with other names in Scripture; e.g., law of the Spirit of Life).

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:13-15, 1984 NIV)

However, we only experience sin lacking power according to our faith, which is granted us by God through his grace as we grow up spiritually (a consequence of trusting God from our hearts [which will result in obedience]).

Btw, God's command for us to (agape) love one another is a command for us to act according to who we really are now that we are reborn—as children who have inherited their spiritual nature from God (holy and pure) instead of Adam (tainted with sin).