Rooted In Love, Rooted In Christ

By Tammy Lacock

In this week’s podcast, Warren Litzman sets out to make a very fine distinction between being rooted in the law and being rooted in Christ. He accomplishes this by diving into Chapter 3 of Galatians where the Apostle Paul tells us that by Christ’s death and resurrection, the law was nullified. By God’s grace, we now live not by our own faith, but by His faithfulness. He says even God’s promise to Abraham was based on God’s faithfulness to him and not by anything he did. God promised Abraham the inheritance of eternal life through his seed, the seed of Christ. By His faithfulness, we recognize that there is nothing we can do, or not do, to be saved. Christ did the work on the cross. He is our salvation!

Warren emphasizes the importance of understanding what Paul means by the “law.” It was set into place when Adam made the choice to believe what Satan told him in the garden. Satan said if you eat of this tree, you will be as gods. Satan set into motion the idea that we need to do something in order to be gods, or to be closer to God. With this, He nullified faith. And yet Paul tells us, we now live by faith, not our faith, but the faithfulness of the Son of God. The law robs us of faith; therefore, to be under the law, what we do or don’t do, is sin.

God’s promise to us now as believers is a new life in Christ, a life free of sin, and yet we are still deeply rooted in our idea of redemption by obedience to the law. By His death and resurrection, we are freed from the law, the curse of Adam by Satan. Christ fulfilled the law by overcoming sin and death. We are no longer made righteous by anything we do or don’t do. We are made righteous by Christ, He who now lives in us by God’s grace. He is our life. Religion has robbed us from this by keeping Christ outside of us when actually the only Christ that now lives is the Christ in you and me.

Warren explains God built into creation the ability for human beings to choose. Further, God’s plan hinges on choice because without it, He could never experience true reciprocated love from us. Adam chose the law, the knowledge of good and evil, over faith, the knowledge of Christ, who is life. As a result, he fell from abundant life in the garden and died. He chose sin and death over life.

The great news is, by God’s grace, we can choose life, the life that now lives in us, Christ. It’s a personal choice because it doesn’t get more personal than Him living in us. We can choose to live by Him and allow Him to come through us. We can choose to know Him and love Him more and more each day, each moment.

Paul says our ability to choose is a mind-thing. The mind is the true battlefield, where we can choose to live by the law or by Christ, who now lives in us. With the help of the Holy Spirit, whose sole purpose is to teach us of Christ in us, our minds can radically change. At some point, we begin to move from what we do to please ourselves and God to what He did on the cross. We move from what we do or don’t do to who He is and who He is now in us.

By being rooted in Christ, we begin to reciprocate God’s love, His ultimate desire and plan, by the faithfulness of Him who now lives in us and is our new Life.

Christ is Love, Christ is Life!