Jesus taught the final coffin nail for those who thought they could be righteous under the Law. Now, in the new creation, we surpass the sermon on the mount as it surpassed the law it illuminated. We don't go two miles. We just go.
The new law of love is to love as I (Jesus) have loved you.
The law was to love others as you love yourself, and Jesus showed how deep that went, both for man, and for God. If you want to be righteous under Law, you forgive in your heart, or you will NOT be forgiven. All the commandments are broken in a sort of entitlement, if you will, to choose our own gods, or ways to worship them, or getting what we want, that we feel entitled to, to hold grudges, lording over others.
The law commands living contrary to that entitlement, and requires conformance to its precepts, rules, and rituals.
In the new creation we are transformed into beings that have no sense of entitlement, and instead, are filled with overflowing goodness, wanting good for others, and knowing all good things received are from our Father of Lights. We don't have to wait for Him, He is here. But we may need to endure until the time is right so we will be able to see the fulness of His gift.
In the meantime, as we wait, there can sometimes be a tendency to forget about this new reality, and instead drift back into the mindset of the flesh which we still occupy. That flesh, which we will occupy as long as we are in this world, is not reformed. There's no help for it, it's fundamentally corrupted by sin, and cannot be fixed. That is the condemnation of humanity, and our need for being born again of a new creation, more a generation of God.
If we relax our mind of Christ, the mind of the flesh can begin to be heard, we can listen, subtle at first, the rent is due, it's never hurt there, that was a jerky thing to say!, whatever it is that starts the mind to shift, and the mind of the flesh begins to exert it's influence, worry and fear, angers, lusts for whatever, all the things the flesh always does. Let it go too far at some point we say to ourselves "wait a minute!" and we stop with that nonsense, and for the average Christian, I think, go through this other process of self recriminations and guilt, feelings of separation from God, feelings of low worth and unloveability.
Feeling the need to be better, I've got to stop doing this! I've got to do that!! Man oh man how could I have done that again??
Then we come back to our faith, and remember Jesus' death for us, and our life in Him, and return to standing in His grace.
Or best still, those triggers appear in front of us, and we know that God is here with me now, He sees this too, He loves me. He made everything, and He made all of us, so we can be in love with Him.
So I have bills, and I have pains, and I have issues, and my Father loves me. If I ever lose sight of that, for a moment, for an hour, whatever it may be, that time is lost, there may be other repercussions, and God has effective means of discipling us, not always fun, but always effective, and afterward the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
But keeping in mind, in my faith, this is my reality . . . my Father is here, He created me, and He loves me, sin is far far away. His glory is all in all, He is all in all. But the mind does need to be renewed into this, and it can be a bumpy path. But He is faithful Who will do it.
Much love!
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