THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY JUNE 6, 2024

I trust today, June 6, 2024, will be a good day for you. On this day, 80 years ago, thousands of courageous soldiers jumped from the sky and hit the beaches in Normandy, France, driving the Nazis back, ultimately to Berlin, Germany. May 8, 1945, marks VE day, Victory in Europe, when Nazi tyranny ended.

There are other types of tyranny we all face that no peace treaty can bring to a halt: the tyranny of sin, the moral law (covenant of works), and our slavery under them. But thanks be to God for His indescribable gift through Jesus Christ. By faith in Jesus, we are no longer under these two dictatorial rulers, sin and the law. In Jesus' death to sin and the law, we also died. In His resurrection, we awoke to a new Master, kingdom, and freedom. Maturity in Jesus reveals this death's significance for those of us with PTSD.

In this THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY devotional, I want to present a page of Andy Wilson's book, The Marrow of the Marrow of Modern Divinity, pg. 84. Wilson's book is a "Simplified Version of Edward Fisher's Seventeenth-Century Classic The Marrow of Modern Divinity. Wilson's and, ultimately, Fisher's writings speak for themselves.

Let me define two crucial terms necessary for grasping the intent of this devotional.

Covenant of Works: "The covenant of works refers to the covenant that God made with Adam and Eve in their pristine purity before the fall, in which God promised them blessedness contingent upon their obedience to His command." In other words, "Do this and live" (Lev. 18:5). Outside of Christ, we remain under this law, deluded into believing we can keep this standard sufficiently to earn salvation.

Covenant of Grace: "After the fall, the fact that God continued to promise redemption to creatures who had violated the covenant of works, that ongoing promise of redemption is defined as the covenant of grace." (R.C. Sproul, "The Covenant of Works," Ligonier, April 11, 2024.)

"The other sense of a believer's death to the law has to do with the rights that the law may claim over him. The relationship between the believer and the law in this sense is dissolved, just as the relationship between a husband and wife is dissolved by death. As the apostle Paul writes, 'Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another,' (Rom. 7:4). This sense of the believer's death to the law is not in degrees and is perfect in all believers, who are altogether free from the law as it is a covenant of works.

As I said before, you are now under a new covenant, the covenant of grace. You cannot be under two covenants at one, neither the whole nor in part. For this reason, no preacher of God's Word has any warrant to say to you, from this point on, 'Do these duties contained in the law, and avoid these sins forbidden in the law, and then God will justify and save your soul. For if you do not do this, God will condemn you.' You must understand that you are now set free from both the commanding and condemning power of the covenant of works. The fact that you are under its condemning power is made clear in Galatians 3:13, 'Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us,'' and in Romans 8:1, 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' As for this covenant's commanding power, this is inseparably bound together with its condemning power. For if believers were under it commanding power, they would also be under its condemning power as breaker of its commands. Therefore, God cannot, by virtue of he covenant of works, require of you any obedience or punish you for any disobedience. Indeed, he cannot, by virtue of that covenant, threaten you or give you an angry word. For he sees no sin in you that would stand as a transgression of that covenant. Thus, even though your spiritual frailty causes you to transgress all of the Ten Commandments, this is not a transgression of the covenant of works, because there is now no such covenant between God and you. While God does require obedience of believers, he also promises to give them strength to obey. And while God threatens believers and brings judgments upon them for their disobedience, this is the penalty of fatherly displeasure only."