For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
If we all found Jesus and let the Spirit into our hearts our world would harmonize. I always say you can't legislate values, this verse kinda of says that too--our human laws are flawed and/or collectively our sinful nature will prevent the essence of even a good law we write from changing our behavior.
So as Christians we should maybe focus less on changing laws or creating fights about laws and more on loving others and sharing about Jesus and letting God do the work of changing hearts. Its not to say some of our fights we tend to have with society aren't noble--like protecting babies but maybe a more effective strategy is to reach more people with God's word and promises.
knut
This is a good one. I've been feeling it a lot lately. My philosophy is that we are to love those around us. Those that are like us and those that are different. We are to create relationships that will help us nudge others toward God through trust and situational understanding. We can't legislate values, to your point. I have an older neighbor who is a really devout Christian. But, he has bumper stickers on his truck that say things like "Marriage = 1 man and 1 woman." We happen to live in a neighborhood where there are several gay couples. I just think its the wrong approach. I agree with his viewpoint, but he alienates everyone around him, and he is viewed as the "judging christian" that everybody tries to avoid at the Christmas party.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you! If we focused more on enabling and loving each other, most of our issues would go away.
my little rant
tp