El Código civil y la regulación de la facultad de edificar

redemption in our lives.

This is what I understand Paul’s words to mean:

We have been totally transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of God’s marvelous light!

The Scripture does not say that we are going to be transferred, it says that we have been transferred—

spirit, soul and body. We are no longer in the devil’s territory; we are not under the devil’s laws. We are in the Kingdom of the Son of God, and we are under His laws.

Romans 8:2 further defines these two laws: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

In this verse we see the devil’s law—the law of sin and death—and we see the law of God’s Kingdom—

the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Here are two kingdoms with their opposing laws in operation.

Paul, speaking from his own experience, explains: “I am no longer in the devil’s territory, I am not under the devil’s law. His kingdom does not apply to me

because I have been transferred to another kingdom.

I have been translated—carried over, spirit, soul and body.”

Therefore, our fifth testimony is:

Through the blood of Jesus I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God.

Here then are the five testimonies that each of us may make about the blood of Jesus:

1. Through the blood of Jesus, I am redeemed out of the hand of the devil.

2. Through the blood of Jesus, all my sins are forgiven.

3. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is cleansing me, now and continually, from all sin.

4. Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, made righteous, just-as-if-I'd never sinned.

5. Through the blood of Jesus I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God.

When we testify to the blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit bears witness to His work of redemption in our lives. It is our testifying that releases the operation of the blood in our lives. If we do not testify, nothing goes into operation. It is our personal testimony that triggers Satan’s defeat. This helps us to understand why we so often experience opposition when we begin to testify. It is at this point that we are really beginning to do the devil some harm. We can believe anything we like and the devil is not too disturbed until we start to testify about it. But when we start to testify, then he is going to do everything he can to discourage us, frighten us and keep us from speaking out, because it is our testifying that makes God’s power effective against him.

12

12

W HAT K IND OF

P ^EOPLE ?

n the previous chapter, I listed five scriptural proclamations concerning the blood of Jesus. I said that making and maintaining these scriptural proclamations is the key to a life of victory over sin and Satan. I could easily imagine that some would respond: Is it really that simple? Is that all we have to do?

I I

My reply is this: The key to success does not depend solely on what we say but on what we are.

You will recall that in Revelation 12:11, the people who achieved this victory over sin and Satan are described as follows: “They did not love their lives to the death.”

How are we to understand that? I have looked in various translations of the Bible but I

have not found anything that to my mind describes satisfactorily the kind of people referred to. What does it mean, “They did not love their lives to the death”?

Here is my own interpretation of this phrase. I suggest that for these people it was more important to do the will of God than to stay alive. Confronted by a situation in which to do the will of God would cost them their lives, that is the price they would pay. They would not look for any alternative, any way out.

The word I would use to describe such people is committed. Such people are committed to obeying the Word of God and to doing the will of God regardless of the consequences for their own lives.

Luke 9:21-24 pictures an enthusiastic crowd following Jesus, excited by the miracles they have witnessed. But apparently Jesus is more interested in personal commitment than in that kind of enthusiasm:

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”

Luke 9:23-24 The message of Jesus does not promise an easy way through life. On the contrary, in the Sermon on the Mount, He exhorts:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Matthew 7:13-14, emphasis added