The law of the Holy Spirit is alive within believers who are created new in Christ Jesus, setting us free from the law of sin and death!

Romans 3 through 7 establishes the Life change for the created new born-again believer in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8 is a hallmark section of scripture. It has been described as the most brilliant facet on the redemption diamond. Martin Luther is said to have read this chapter everyday for the last year of his life.

But as a stand-alone spiritual statement, Romans 8 does stand on what is previously written in earlier chapters. After all, it does begin with a “Therefore” and we must then have to understand what the “therefore” is there for!

This past January we breached Jesus’ words in Mark 9 that “everyone will be salted with fire.” This mystery of Godliness reveals within us the continuing purging of our sinful clay bodies with God’s righteous decree; we are justified by faith and disciplined by His grace; this is our Lord’s way of directing us deeper into His agape love and grace!

Have you sat in front of a fireplace drinking in the wonder of dancing flames? Have you noticed the gradient colors of orange and white throbbing to be unleashed? How they send emissary sparks into new places while consuming twigs and logs! Fire changes matter from one form into another leaving evidence of what it was and never again will be.

“The Law of the Spirit of Life” is the Romans 8:2 phrase we looked at briefly in our last GraceNotes. This is Paul’s context for declaring that the righteousness of God is now revealed WITHIN US through faith into faith since the just by faith shall live.

Today’s culture is fast moving away from absolute principals of right and wrong! Everybody is doing what is right in their own eyes. Remind you of anything? As in the days of Noah? Everything is relative; truth and righteousness doesn’t exist except in God!

Sandy, a married lady in our small group, was selected at random to stand in the center of about 20 people seated in a circle. She was in the “hot seat” and had to answer personal questions. “When did you know Jim?” the first person asked. Spontaneously, she responded: “Do you mean biblically?” After the laughter died down, she said, “I do remember!” Knowing can mean different things to different people at different times.

The letter to Pergamum was written by the one who has “the sharp two-edged sword.” This sword is wheeled by The “I AM;” He is a jealous God!

God redeemed us by demeaning Jesus into our own created flesh. Why? Agape Love!

His love is the deep agape love penetrating into our pride with injury to self and acute discipline to our soul. The issue is our flesh, this “jar of clay.”

Laodicea is the church of this age, “the church of today!” Our last GraceNotes took this theme projecting Laodicea through the rapture into the Day of the Lord, into the tribulation period. As we continue following this thread thru the tribulation, we find it leading us also into the 1000 year millennium reign of King Jesus.

Laodicea is the church of today! It is in apostacy and continues to move away from the “glory and excellence” of God. The history of created mankind follows this very same pathway. We see it graphically expressed in God’s own word portraying the behavior of Israel, His chosen people. Repeatedly Israel chose doing it “their way” rather than the ways of their fathers and faithful Shepherd who came among us providing a salvation of redemption.

If you have been around a few years, you may recall this sarcastic accusation: “You are so heavenly minded, you are no earthly good!”

If we drill down deep enough, we find this to be of no earthly good at all; we have to be very heavenly minded to be of any true earthly value! Context, of course, changes yesteryear’s chiding, but this is exactly what Paul is instructing the Corinth church, an eternal weight of glory is being prepared for each one in Christ Jesus! The only way to be of earthly good, is to be heavenly minded! We are called to produce the glory of Jesus within our earthly fleshly clay container.

The heavenly Throne Room seen in Revelation 4 and 5 gives us a sampler of eternal reality soon colliding with our mundane carnal concerns. The small Passover Lamb slain, mocked by “righteous” rulers of Israel, will reign as King. Not a probability, a certitude arriving on divine schedule.

We have been talking about what we look like as a person after being re-birthed by Jesus into a Spiritual person. This above passage is an excellent summation of the why and how “to be” whom God has created us to be in Christ Jesus. The hinge point, in this above summation, is our knowledge of Him. Through this portal are granted all things that pertain to life and godliness. This is the one portal that should be at the top of our to do list!

We introduced this subject last GraceNotes stressing that “not to be” is non-existent for the person born new in Christ Jesus.

This is a person created with their spirit joined to God’s divine Spirit. The primary issue for this born-again person, becomes the resurrected Jesus living within them. We are now learning how to absorb and consume their new Divine Life while walking here on earth’s crusty soil. Already gifted, walking in God’s grace, a born-again person has God’s “treasure” of Life within their own fleshly jar of clay, our physical and fleshly body.

Our problem is not a death issue, ours is a Living-Issue. You and I already are an eternal people walking around in defeated flesh. Hamlet is musing about his circumstances because his world is falling apart. In our world, the fingers of God have already reached into our soul, rescuing us from the consequence of living in the flesh of a Hamlet. Our challenge is walking in the resurrection Life of Jesus!

We gaze into an eternal fog when we first believe. We know with certainty we are a new person but without understanding the mystery of being in Christ or Jesus being in us. The fog thins as we begin to experience God’s love and glory!

The woman of Samaria came to the well to fill her empty jug with fresh water. It was in the heat of the day around noon. No one would be there!

The women normally came from town early in the mornings or in the early evenings in small groups. This woman was alone, not the normal thing, and during the heat of the day!

Here we are, close to the rapture and Jesus is still walking among the lampstands, giving us yet another chance to grow in grace and be whom He has already created us to be! This is agape love, love on His level! I suspect learning about agape love will be an eternal quest for those of us in His Kingdom, those of us who will be living in that heavenly abode, within the majesty of God’s everlasting glory and Light! Can you even imagine it, we will be sharing His glory!!!

The church in Philadelphia probably didn’t have a copy of Paul’s epistle to the Romans. But then, they didn’t need it. This verse, practiced in Philadelphia for us all to see, glorifies our living Lord!

Philadelphia became a town under Attalus II who was King of Pergamum. It was named Philadelphia (brotherly love) as a tribute to his brother Eumemes II whom he succeeded as King of Pergamum (159-138BC). The next king, Attalus III, died in 133BC and bequeathed Anatolia to Rome. Rome annexed it in 129BC. This is a very young town, as is Laodicea, compared to the other five churches steeped in idolatry to Greek and Roman gods. In Philadelphia, it was primarily Dionysus, or in Rome, Bacchus. This is the god of wine and fruitfulness.

In Ephesus it is “The words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.” In Smyrna it is: “The words of the first and the last, who died and came back to life.” In Pergamum it is: “The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.”