Lessons for Living from the Bible in Everyday English by Dennis Magee

God’s law, and all of His standards and decrees are set forth in the first five books of the Bible and are summarized in the Ten Commandments. Sin is when we break any part of the law by thinking, speaking or doing whatever is contrary to the nature of God. His nature is embodied in the law with all its parts. For man, the law is a curse because it is impossible for us to keep it, beginning at birth. This is sin and the penalty for sin is eternal separation from God. Moreover, the law stimulates sin, causing us to want what we shouldn’t have. And so, we are born dead, in that we are destined for eternal separation from God, because it is impossible for us to satisfy God’s requirements for righteousness.

Sin, which we commit as beings in the flesh, needed to be paid for in the flesh. And so, God sent his son, Jesus, who took on flesh, to take the penalty for our failure under the law. As the Scriptures tell us, He became a curse for us. But since He was also God, He kept all parts of the law perfectly. When Jesus died, He paid our sin debt while in the flesh by being tortured, dying on the Cross, and enduring separation from God, the latter a punishment we are destined to suffer. But Jesus’ separation didn’t need to be eternal, because He had no sin. Jesus’ resurrection indicated that God’s requirement for justice had been satisfied. So, by faith that Jesus is God’s son, also himself God, that He died for our sins and God raised to new life, we are forgiven our sins and considered righteous in God’s sight. All who so believe not only are forgiven but are given the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus to eternal life.

We receive this spirit by the faith that comes from hearing and reading God’s word, the Bible. We grow ever more able to manifest the fruits of the Holy Spirit, love, peace, joy, the more we read, hear and meditate on God’s word. We thus grow in sanctification, i.e. becoming more righteous. Those who haven’t received Jesus as Savior and the Holy Spirit live lives that bear the fruit of the sinful nature, sexual immorality, lack of compassion for others, lack of self-control. But the Bible tells us in Romans 7 that the law of the spirit of life (the Holy Spirit) sets us free from the spirit of the sinful nature, and that if we walk in the spirit, we won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

Though we are no longer under the law when we receive Jesus and the Holy Spirit, it still plays a role in our lives. God gave us the law to function as our guardian. It reminds us of our sinfulness and that none of us can afford to feel self-righteous. The law also reminds us that confession of our sins and faith in what Jesus did for us is counted as righteousness. Repentance involves both confessing sin and turning away from it, and confessing and asking pardon every time we fail. There is nothing we can do to merit God’s favor. Jesus’s sacrifice alone is totally sufficient for us. And so, we live lives of obedience to God not to gain salvation but as a manifestation of sincere faith. Without faith in Jesus as our Savior we die under the law and its curse, which bears the penalty of death, eternal separation from God.