Law Series

LAW

by

Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid

(June 8, 2020)

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6: 23, King James Version [KJV]); “O, death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding, in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 15: 55-58, KJV [Necessity of our resurrection]).

Greetings in the Holy Name of Jesus Yahshuah,

My brothers and sisters, for most of us, on the Earth, our first brush with the law happened at home under the guidance of our parents under the guidance of God Yahweh. Perhaps, we were commanded, Do not put your hands in the cookie jar, for you will suffer great pains in your body for eating too many cookies. In Matthew, the tax collector [4: 1-4, King James Version, KJV], Jesus in the wilderness told the devil, the tempter that bread alone did not sustain him, “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” [Matthew 15: 10-11, KJV, “And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:

Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”; Proverbs 18: 21, KJV, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”].

We find this to be true, in the Garden of Eden, with Adam, under God, when in Genesis [2: 16-18, KJV], “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.”

Accordingly, in The General Epistle Of James [1: 15, KJV], in a practical letter on Christian ethics, James is writing to the 12 tribes of Israel scattered abroad, “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringers forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringers forth death.” Henceforth, James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, who introduced himself, “James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” [Holy Bible, n.d.]. James reflected on God’s first commandment to Adam in the Garden of Eden, “... But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Adam knew from the Words of God that disobedience of the commandment was a sin that led to death.

In modern times, in the twenty-first century, United States of America (USA), we find The Rev. Kevin Vogts, Trinity Lutheran Church, in Paola, The Kansas City Star, Voices of Faith. What does the Bible mean when it says the sting of sin.”]: “The Apostle Paul explains in Romans 6: 23, KJV, why instead we now die: “Death is the wages of sin.” That's what Paul means when he says in 1 Corinthians 15: 56, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” Death stings us so, because we know, whatever the immediate cause, the root cause is our sin.” [“It’s because deep down we know the truth: Humans were never meant to die, and death isn’t really natural at all. God intended for us all to live with him forever. But Paul immediately continues with the Good News: “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came to do for us what we are unable to do. He perfectly fulfilled God’s law on our behalf by his own life of perfect obedience and won forgiveness for all our sins by the sacrifice of his suffering, death and resurrection.

Through faith in him, death is no longer a stinging punishment but the victorious entry into eternal life.”; also, The Rev. Robert Lee Hill, Community Christian Church reflections on Genesis: “There are at least two ways of looking at the Apostle Paul’s theological flourish toward the end of his first epistle to the church at Corinth (1 Cor. 15: 56). Some folks focus on a traditional interpretation — based on their reading of the first four chapters of Genesis — that one of the ultimate consequences of sin is death. Taken too literally, this can connote profound guilt for any and all experiences of death, tragic or natural, including the imputing of recrimination even upon innocent victims. And countless souls know the mercy that death can be and has been for their loved ones at the end of grueling, debilitating battles with disease. In contrast, taking the phrase metaphorically, one can easily affirm that in death there can be and often is a “sting” — regret, embarrassment, sorrowfulness, remorsefulness, humiliation — because of past unresolved misdeeds, errors, or offenses against others. Paul’s overarching proclamation in the 15th chapter of 1.Corinthians is a layered testimony not an irrefutable template for understanding what happens when we die. He mixes his earnest anticipation of Christ’s second coming with his whirling understandings of what happens to our bodies after death and his trust in God’s provision of immortality.”,