Moving to Higher Ground in Jesus

The Higher Ground of Bearing his Fruit

     Mark 22:27-28

     Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.  So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”   

     We often make a great deal about the law when the one who is greater has arrived.  I am not looking to take away from the importance, beauty, and role of the Law.  Although I do hope to share how the standard is neither set at the law or below it.  The standard is above it into the heart of God as revealed in Jesus.  The law was not created to govern the fruits of the Spirit.  That would hinder the greater good that comes from a heart connected to our Lord's.  To remain in the law when we have been united to Jesus is like continuing to live in the minor story with the minor character and not move forward to our leading man and his major love story.  It is a story that transcends the mundane of rules and regulations into one that is moved by relationship with our Lord and His most ardent love for us.  Life becomes a song and dance with Him and his creation.

     The law is a wonderful structure put in place by God to help us with the dilemma of evil in a lost and fallen society.  It also shows us ourselves apart from Christ.  As Galatians states, its assignment was a temporary one that would lose its role as our guide once we came into faith in Christ.  Furthermore, it was to lead us to our Lord and it would do that by showing us the evil intents lurking in us, the power therein, and our inability to change at heart without Jesus.

     Its role is similar to that of a law enforcement officer.  A law enforcement officer is there to serve and protect society from lawbreakers and the evil intentions lurking in men's hearts.  An officer cannot change a person at heart, although the law does have the power to place a man in prison for the protection of society and himself.  While in prison, a man may come to realize that he needs help at a deeper level and seek it out. 

     It would be a shame if we did not move forward and enter into the major love story of our lives.  A story where self-motivated and self-preserving fear is replaced by a heart that moves beyond itself in perfect love.  Let us not stop short and remain in the minor story of the law.  Its "supporting role" is meant to be temporal and lead us to our "leading man" who will by contrast lead us within.  As wonderful as the law is, it isn't the standard.  We should also not be fooled into thinking that Jesus came to lower the standard below the law.  No, He showed us that the standard didn't even sit at the level of the law but above it into the heart of God (Matthew 5) where goodness flows from his heart of love and we bear his fruits unto life.  We can keep the law and still be lawbreakers at heart.  The standard has always surpassed exterior behavior and gets to the heart of the matter, the matter of the heart.       

     When we examine the law in relation to Jesus it may help to understand these matters in regards to jurisdiction.  We who enter in by Jesus, our gate, are no longer under the jurisdiction of the law.  The law had no power to change us within due to the power of our carnal nature.  It also was just a shadow of Jesus-our measuring scale, who surpasses the law.

     A shadow is not the real deal but a darkened reflection of it.  A siloute of sorts that is dispensed by his light. 

     Hebrews 10:1

     The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves.  

      By showing us the heart of the matter was the matter of the heart, Jesus established that none of us could reach the beautiful, glorious standard of God on our own.  Who of us has not lusted, coveted, and hated in our hearts?  Where it counts, we have all fallen short of the glory of God.  The only way to enter the most Holy of Holies, the heart of God, is through Jesus Christ our door.  He circumcises us from our old carnal nature and imparts his life in us.  We are saved by grace, through faith in Jesus.  Jesus is the way (Romans 3:23-28).