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A few weeks ago, the pastor at my church, Aaron Jayne, gave a sermon that really speaks to the journey of moving from victim to victor. Pastor Aaron spoke on supply and demand. No, he didn't give a talk on economics. Pastor Aaron spoke about the supply side of the gospel and the demand realities of following The Law.
You see, the Bible is broken down into two sections. The Old Testament is all about The Law. This was the do's and don'ts that God gave His people as they looked for a means by which they could earn their spot at God's table. The do's and don'ts of The Law were what it took in order for the people's sin to be overlooked by the perfect God they served. God demands perfection. Without that perfection, we don't have any standing with Him at all. Since we are a flawed and imperfect people, God explained in The Old Testament what it would take to make it so that He could overlook the flaws that we have introduced into our lives.
Problem with The Law is that if we use it to make justice be what we expect, we are doomed. You see, no one has ever been able to keep all of The Law with the notable exception of Jesus. Once you break one of The Laws, perfection is never something that can be a part of our lives. The Law "demands" perfection and that is something that just isn't what mankind is capable of given the fallen nature of this world.
If that were the end of the story, what a sad ending it would be. Fact is that under The Law, we are all doomed to being judged guilty when it comes to imperfection. The verdict for our being guilty of imperfection a death that is epitomized by eternal separation from the God that made us. Thank God His plan for salvation didn't stop there. Thank God for The New Testament of The Bible.
Where the Old Testament is all about the demand side of God's justice, The New Testament is about the supply side of God's Love. God knew that man would never be able to keep The Law. The demand for perfection is simply too much for us to be able to attain to. Why then, did God give man The Law in the first place. I believe it is because He wanted us to realize that do's and don'ts are never enough when it comes to relationship with Him. He wanted the demand side of justice to be something that overwhelms us to a point of surrender. What was it that He wants us to surrender to? It is the supply side of His Love He wants us to give our lives over to.
The demands of The Old Testament were replace with the supply of The New Testament through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The New Testament is all about how The Law was fulfilled by the actions of God Himself on our behalf. The good news of The New Testament is that do's and don'ts have no place in a life that is surrendered to God's plan for relationship that came through Jesus actions on our behalf. It is in this part of God's plan that supply becomes so complete for us. Let me explain that a bit more.
The Law leads to death. All the do's and don'ts that make up The Law make it so that failing to be successful at making those do's and don'ts part of your entire life sets the person up for separation from God. That's the death God is talking about when it comes to the demands of The Law. The Law works to suck the life out of the person trying to keep The Law. It does so because it takes so much work to make the do's and don'ts happen. The pressure that comes with the reality that even one slip up is punishable by death, makes the demands of The Law a killer in the life of a victor.
The New Testament introduces God's supply side of love. What Jesus did for us is referred to as "The Gospel." Gospel comes from an ancient word that basically means "good news." The supply side of God's love really is good news. It is when we allow God to pave the way for our relationship with Him that the pressure of trying to make that happen through our own efforts goes away. As Pastor Aaron said in his sermon, "Where The Law demands, The Gospel supplies."
The supply side of God's love comes as we trust who God sees us to be. It is as we live in a place where we believe what He says about us that the demands put on us by the do's and don'ts of this world start to diminish in our lives. The Gospel promises a supply of all we need to be exactly what God wants for us in this world. This leads to life because the draining aspects of demand is replaced with the life giving flow of supply as we let God take on all the effort to make relationship happen in our lives. The Law demands that we do in order to be what we feel we are to be deep down in our souls. The Gospel supplies all God says about us to make us see who we are in His eyes. Identity comes alive under The Gospel. It dies a slow and painful death under The Law.
Pastor Aaron said that, "The Law turns the attributes of what a relationship with God looks like from nouns into verbs." In other words, things like righteousness, faith, justification and a whole host of other characteristics of a victor, become words based on action when the victor tries to live under any part of The Law. That's what a verb is - it is an action word.
The Gospel presents those exact same characteristics as nouns. A noun is defined as something that identifies a person or a place. In other words, a noun defines something that exists. A noun isn't something you do. A noun is something you are. Viewed from this perspective, righteousness, faith and justice become something you are, not something you work to attain to.
That's why Pastor Aaron explained that The Gospel is about life. It is when we live in a place where we don't have to work to be who God says we are that love becomes a supply that brings life to the victor. It is the actions we take to try and earn what God freely gives that works to kill us all. Victors have found a way to live more fully in the supply side of God's love rather than the demand side of His justice.
Where The Law says, do good and you will be seen as good, The Gospel says you are good because of what Jesus did for you on the Cross. Trying to do to receive what is given freely is such a draining proposition in anyone's life.
Let me close with a verse that sums up the difference between life and death found in The Law vs The Gospel.
Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. Galatians 2:16 (ESV)
What will you choose today? Will it be life that comes with the supply of God's love through Jesus? Or, will it be death that comes with the demand side of God's justice as seen in The Law? The victor lives in that place where love overrides everything. Let the Love God has for you be all the justification you need to let the world see your victor status shining in your life today.
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