Abraham and the Law of the Spirit of Life

One thing about cold, rainy, windy weather is that it makes me take a break from all the outdoor work required in preparation for the coming winter. So with that I can move on to the next group of patriarchs and the lessons we can learn from them about the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. So far, in Abel, Enoch and Noah there has been a common thread in the message of their lives. They all looked to something beyond themselves and this world. Faith in Him ( His Blood, His Word and His resurrecting power that delivers and saves us), and renouncing the world system in which we live is a working out of that common thread. In other words, Abel speaks of the Blood, Enoch speaks of walking in the power of agreement with God (trust in His Word), and Noah speaks of resurrection power. However, as we have seen in the Scripture accounts, these three are not recorded as having had a significant impact on the world around them. They still have the mark of infancy. They themselves are saved (in Noah's case his family is also), but there is no record of fruitfulness beyond that. Now we must go on to maturing in our Life in God.

Then we come to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham is called the Father of our Faith. His story begins with a common element found in Noah's story. He is called to come out of his natural life. Abraham was born in and living in the midst of a pagan society. We also are called to come out from a life of idolatry and unbelief and stand on resurrection ground in a new Life. We go on to learn that not only is this new life from God, but it is also for God. The Law of the Spirit of Life working in Abraham resulted in Abraham learning to lay down his natural expectations. So many times we mix the two. Especially today. We come into this new life full of faith; but must be careful not to use our faith with our goal being that of having our natural life enhanced and our own dreams fulfilled. We see Abraham leaving his father's land and coming into the land which God showed him, only to experience famine. We see that God promised Abraham an heir, yet he was 100 years old before Isaac was born. As one author (Gerald Schroeder) puts it, divine delay seems to be a normal part of the way God deals with us. Jesus knew to wait for God's timing. Remember when Lazarus died? Jesus waited four days before going to meet Mary and Martha. It did not seem to be good timing to Mary and Martha - we see Mary saying to him, "If you had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:32). In John 7:6 he tells his brothers, "My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready." There is the parable that Jesus told in Luke 12:42-46 in which He tells us that God's timing is not our timing: "But if that servant says in his heart, My lord delays his coming, and begins to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and be drunk; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looks not for him and at an hour when he is not aware." Aabraham and Sarah did not understand this divine delay and took matters into their own hands, producing an offspring of the flesh. But later they had to acknowledge that Ishmael was not the heir that God had promised and had to send Ishmael away. In his book, "God According to God" author Gerald Schroeder speaking about Abraham accepting God's word that his posterity would suffer 400 years in Egypt writes, "Abraham could accept the package of a harsh exile followed generations later by reward only because. . . Abraham's encounter at the covenant (Gen. 15:17-18) took him behind the veil of our temporal world." Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was finally born. Abraham confessed that he was a sojourner in the land. He looked beyond this world to a world yet to come. He learned to trust God's Word regardless of his personal circumstances. He "believed God" even when he didn't immediately receive the manifestation of God's promise. Our Life in Christ Jesus is not measured by our circumstances. The Law of the Spirit of Life requires us to understand that this Life is a life hidden in God, and we live for Him, not for ourselves. We learn to trust HIM regardless of circumstances and regardless of what seems to be delay on His part, knowing that He has a greater purpose than we may be able to discern at the time. We begin to understand that it is through faith and patience that we inherit the promises, and begin to desire that His Will be done rather than ours. Our Life in Him is a hidden inward Life lived for Him; and the source of this life is hidden behind the veil of this outward life we see. It is hidden from the world. It is a life lived with the Cross of Christ as our foundation. Speaking of Abraham, Jesus said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56). We understand what Paul meant when he wrote in Colossians 3:2,3 "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

Because of Abraham's deep faith and trust in God, God promises him that he will be a father of many nations (Gen. 17:4). Kings would come from Abraham (and Sarah too!) Genesis 17:6,16). God also told Abraham that in him "shall all the families of the earth be blessed." (Gen. 12:3) So we can understand that living according to the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus (a hidden life of deep abiding faith in God alone) brings richness to not only our own lives but also to many others.

All of these things from Abel through Abraham are outworkings of the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. That Law is one law. That law flows out of the Cross of Christ. The blood shed in Abel's offering, the Word Enoch had faith in that allowed him to "walk with God" because "faith pleases God", the Ark of Noah taking him through the flood onto resurrection ground, and the "day" of Jesus that Abraham saw and was glad when God allowed him to see beyond the veil of this life all point to the Cross of Christ and Him crucified. Even the offering up of Isaac by Abraham speaks of God offering His Son upon the Cross. It is the Cross - Jesus's shed blood - not the offering of our own hands as Cain but a blood offering as Abel gave, reconciling us so we can "walk with God" as Enoch did. The Cross is our Ark taking us over to resurrection ground. Life in Christ Jesus comes by way of the Cross alone.

The First Three of the Seven Laws of the Spirit of Life

As stated in my previous post, there are Laws which govern our Spiritual Life in Jesus. Just as there are laws that govern nature and physical life, it makes sense that there are also laws that govern spiritual life. In his book "Things of the Spirit", author Austin Sparks expounds on seven "laws" of the Spirit that are evidenced in the lives of persons who are recorded in the book of Genesis. Since Adam is the first recorded human to be made in the image of God, his life example might have been one that showed what it means to live according to the law of the Spirit. However, Adam failed. He is instead an example of going from spiritual life to spiritual death. So when Jesus came to reverse that ("I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly" John 10:10), he is called the second Adam. Through Jesus (Yeshua), we can see the principles of Life expressed, and we can obtain Life by exercising faith in Him and what He did at the Cross. What a marvelous invitation He has given to us when He said "Come and follow Me". His graciousness is expressed in the many invitations He gave to the "whosoevers". He is our "bread of Life" (John 6:35, 48, 51). As we take His essence into our lives and partake of His nature, His Life is brought into our own being. His Spirit will live in us and we will have the evidence within our spirit of His indwelling.

In the generations that followed Adam we can see individuals whose lives are expressions of one or more of the laws of the Spirit of Life. By examining them we gain various insights into the Laws that govern the Spiritual Life; and all of these Laws are clearly expressed in the life of Yeshua our Messiah.

In Abel, Enoch and Noah we can see an expression of Spiritual Life in the stages of infancy. Their lives are an expression of faith in God, with a lesson for us in the necessity of being "right" with God but there is no record of them being a further witness and bringing that Life out into a greater manifestation in the world around them. Justification by faith is absolutely the foundation of Life in the Spirit and we see that in these three men. Abel's short life is so often quickly read over and yet is very rich in it's witness. Abel understood that right standing with God comes through blood. As Scripture records in Leviticus 17:11 "The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul." The way to life is through death. While Cain brought an offering of his carnal labor, the fruit of his hands and the ground, Abel understood that the fruit of our own efforts cannot please God and cannot bring about the righteousness required to walk with a holy God. Carnal men hate that message. And so Cain became jealous and despised Abel so much that he killed him, just as we see that the religious rulers in Yeshua's time hated him. Cain was a religious person - he acknowledged God. He brought God an offering to worship God. People like to think that we can do good things that make us acceptable to God and can get angry when presented with the truth that Life with God comes through death and the recognition that we have nothing good enough of ourselves to offer God. Yeshua paid the penalty for our sin by the shedding of His Holy blood.

In Enoch we see a principle of the Law of Life in that Enoch "walked" with God. All around him was death as a result of sin. The verses in Genesis give us record after record of those who lived a certain number of years and died. But it does not record that Ecnoch died. It says that "God took him". Just as Jesus said, "He that hears my Word and believes on Him that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." and "If a man keeps my saying, he shall never see death." (John 5:24 and 8:51) The prophet Amos asks, "Can two walk together unless they agree?" (Amos 3:2) And Michah writes, "He (God) has shown you what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy and to humble yourself to walk with your God." (Micah 6:8) From this we can see that Enoch did not put his trust in his own ability (humbled himself), but put his faith in God. To agree with God is to agree that we cannot save ourselves, and to agree with God that He is our salvation and deliverer. The first Adam chose to decide for himself to eat of the tree to gain knowledge of good and evil rather than being totally dependant upon God and agreeing with God. Yeshua, the second Adam humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death on the cross. Enoch shows us that faith in God requires agreement with Him - which is required to walk with Him.

In Noah we see the expression of the Law of Life in another way. The lesson we learn from Noah is that while Life in not found in this world system it comes by way of resurrection. The world in Noah's day was filled with death and violence. But of Noah we read that he, "found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Genesis 6:8) and he "walked with God" (Genesis 6:9) and he "did according to all that God commanded him" (Genesis 6:22). In finding grace (as Abel did) and walking with God as Enoch did (which as we just said, required humbling himself and agreeing with God), Noah repudiates the world system. His message is that as he patiently built the ark, day after day, he was looking to the resurrection side which the ark would bring him to after the death of all living things. In Noah we see that God will make all things new. Resurrection is in focus. The Law of the Spirit of Life requires us to live from resurrection ground. We repudiate the world system. We live in the newness of Life found in the Messiah as Romans 6:4 tells us "Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

So those are the first three principles as found in Abel, Enoch and Noah. Life on the basis of the Blood of Christ (His righteousness not our own), Life on the basis of agreement with God (His will, not ours) and Life on the basis of walking in newness of Life repudiating the world system - our life is now based on His Word, not the world system.