Of Law and Love...

  

When I bought this wisteria last year the green-house owner

cautioned me I will need to be patient 

but hopefully in a few years it will cover the arbor!

This is the first year of what I hope is just the beginning of

more and more growth!

The law of nature and the love of nurturer

sometimes working together and sometimes at odds!

How fruitful/flower-full are the branches attached to the vine!

But I am aghast that I was so transfixed by the bloom-beauty...

that I missed the caterpillar-evil all around...

The law without love is a rod of merciless demand

But love is the fulfillment of Jesus’ greatest command

First God, then fellowman, on these two commandments depend

All of the law and prophets from beginning to the end

The law, without love is adherence to appearance-art

Favor based on performance with an unaffected heart

Where, only by the Spirit, after we are born again

Is the righteous requirement of the law not in vain

The law alone is powerless, redemption to achieve

Forgiveness, the first-fruit of love as we cry ‘I believe’

Where God, so rich in mercy, loved us with a perfect love

And gave his perfect Son to save us, His great love to prove

For all the blood of goats and bulls could never justify

And law alone cannot atone for sins of you and I

It judges and condemns; love offers an alternative

The Son of Man was lifted up so all may look and live

Even the law failed to find fault in Him; love’s Sacrifice

The law had come through Moses, grace and truth through Jesus Christ

Oh, praise the Name of He who came to set the sinner free

And accomplish the perfect law of love in you and me

Alone we can do nothing, but when rooted in the Vine

Life flows through us, love flourishes with fruit of God’s design

Where, while the law points out the flaw and exposes the sin

Only the love and grace of God transforms us from within

© Janet Martin

Gal.5:18

But if you are led by the Spirit,

you are not under the law.

Rom.6:14

For sin shall no longer be your master,

because you are not under the law,

but under grace.

John 1:17

For the law was given through Moses;

grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:1-4

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life

has set you a free from the law of sin and death.

3For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,

b God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.

c And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

4in order that the righteous requirement of the law

might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh

but according to the Spirit.

John 13:34-35

"A new command I give you: Love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

By this everyone will know that you are My disciples,

if you love one another.”…

What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not!

Read clarification here; Romans 7:7-25