May 1

Galatians 2:19 (NIV)
19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

I died to the law! In order to be IN Christ, we all died to the law. Christ died and fulfilled the law so to be joined with Christ is to die to the law. Is this making sense? He also died to the flesh (the carnal desires of mankind), so we die to our flesh so we can live with Christ. Is it clearer? Unless a grain of wheat dies and falls into the ground, another stalk will never be produced. We have to die to the law in order to live for Christ. If we live for the law – striving to keep it and doing what it says, we can’t live for Christ. You might say, “is the law evil?”, no it is not! However we don’t attain ANYTHING by the law! We attain EVERYTHING through faith, even living morally good!

We are all convinced, because we are Gentiles in the New Covenant, that we don’t have to keep the law of Moses, yet we have come up with some stifling New Testament laws to follow. Is it wrong to have standards? NO! However, you will never change anybody, even yourself, by laying “laws” or standards on them. They will be the same people. You can clean up a pig all you want, but it will go back to the mud pen because that is it’s nature. Christ came to change us from the inside out, which will change our actions! If we lay all kinds of “standards” on people we hinder the work of Christ in their life. That doesn’t mean we don’t have standards for leadership or living under the Miller roof, but we allow people to make the choice thereby allowing Christ to strengthen them to rise to the bar.

If you aren’t a dog, you don’t naturally bark, but if you are a dog, nobody has to teach you to bark, you do it naturally. If you will excuse the analogy, the New Testament is saying, “hey, you are not a pig anymore, you don’t need to go back to the muddy pig pen, you are a dog – go ahead and bark, it’s natural!”