THE LAW AND THE LORD OF LAW
and greetings in the name of Jesus:
The church today has a lot to do with laws, thinking of course that in some way God is going to be found within the law. As men and women most of the time we don't think about law in terms of their being types and kinds of law. God has a moral law, and then there are ceremonial laws which were given to help people draw closer to God in their hearts and minds. Even within these simple differences from God man has a history of misquoting, and miss applying God's law.
By the time that Jesus came to us the religious leaders had already turned these laws from God into a confusing mass of rules that no one really understood. What God did through Jesus is to actually try to bring back the people to the original purpose of the law. Jesus never spoke against the law in itself but he did speak against the abuses and the excesses that had been used by church leadership who were manipulating the law for their own benefit. Jesus said himself that he did not come to abolish the law which means that all of the Old Testament laws still apply today. When Jesus actually did through the power of the Holy Spirit wants to bring even a closer scrutiny to how the law was obeyed. He brought to light the truth of the spirit of the law, which made every man and woman guilty of sin to some degree because it dealt not with what we did on a physical basis to obey a law, but what we did within the intent of our heart about the law.
There are three different types of law that we can look at today that may change our views of what we are doing with God's law. CEREMONIAL LAW is a type of law that relates directly to Israel's worship. Each one of these laws had a purpose to point toward the coming of the Messiah, therefore when Jesus Christ did, these ceremonial laws were no longer in effect because Jesus had fulfilled all of these laws. He fulfilled the principles behind them; which were to worship and love a holy God. Today however these ceremonial creeds and doctrines that many churches follow really have nothing to do with the Messiah at all. Instead they become more of a way to separate us against one another through a denominational, or divisional practice of a man-made doctrine.
CIVIL LAW was the kind of law that Moses gave to the Israelite nation that kept them alive throughout their journeys in the wilderness. We can look at Deuteronomy 24: 10 through 11 is an example of the civil law. Because modern culture is so radically different from the time in the setting of these guidelines they are no longer followed specifically, but the commands behind these civil laws are timeless, and they should guide our conduct. Even today most of the principles of our daily living and social structure are based upon the civil laws that were given by God through Moses for the Israelites. These things include our law and order structures, our courts, and the social laws that we follow as unwritten codes of behavior.
MORAL LAW which includes things like the 10 Commandments is a direct command from God, and it requires strict obedience. (Exodus 20: 13 ). This moral law reveals the very nature and will of God for us and it still applies today. It was this moral law that Jesus obeyed completely. There were many in Jesus's time who were experts at telling others what to do concerning the moral laws but they themselves were missing the central point of God and his laws for themselves. I want for you to realize in all of this that Jesus completely changed the game being played by the synagogues of his time when he brought into effect (the spirit of the law). Never before in history had anyone gone as deeply into the law as Christ did. While other men were concentrating on the letter of the law, and attempting to obey both the written law, and all of the amendments that men had made to those laws for their own conveniences Jesus simply said that it did not matter if we had physically done something or not, for we were just as guilty of breaking the law by breaking it within our own heart and mind. It was this revelation that caused the scribes and Pharisees, and all of the leaders of the synagogue to lay awake at night unable to think of a way around it. What it really meant was that there was no way that a man could find forgiveness without humbling himself before God. Up until that time there had been no past forgiveness. These men realized that if they accepted Jesus as the Messiah they had no other path to God except through Jesus Christ as their Savior. That was simply too much for the ego of these men to endure after they had set themselves up on such high pedestals.
When it comes to obeying the word of God, which is the law, and which is the heart of God toward man we have no recourse other than to accept the gift that Jesus Christ gave to us on the cross of Calvary as a perfect sacrifice for sin. The only choice we have is to humble ourselves, ask forgiveness through Jesus Christ as our Savior and then become living sacrifices in exchange for a blessed and forgiven eternal life through Jesus. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
The church today has a lot to do with laws, thinking of course that in some way God is going to be found within the law. As men and women most of the time we don't think about law in terms of their being types and kinds of law. God has a moral law, and then there are ceremonial laws which were given to help people draw closer to God in their hearts and minds. Even within these simple differences from God man has a history of misquoting, and miss applying God's law.
By the time that Jesus came to us the religious leaders had already turned these laws from God into a confusing mass of rules that no one really understood. What God did through Jesus is to actually try to bring back the people to the original purpose of the law. Jesus never spoke against the law in itself but he did speak against the abuses and the excesses that had been used by church leadership who were manipulating the law for their own benefit. Jesus said himself that he did not come to abolish the law which means that all of the Old Testament laws still apply today. When Jesus actually did through the power of the Holy Spirit wants to bring even a closer scrutiny to how the law was obeyed. He brought to light the truth of the spirit of the law, which made every man and woman guilty of sin to some degree because it dealt not with what we did on a physical basis to obey a law, but what we did within the intent of our heart about the law.
There are three different types of law that we can look at today that may change our views of what we are doing with God's law. CEREMONIAL LAW is a type of law that relates directly to Israel's worship. Each one of these laws had a purpose to point toward the coming of the Messiah, therefore when Jesus Christ did, these ceremonial laws were no longer in effect because Jesus had fulfilled all of these laws. He fulfilled the principles behind them; which were to worship and love a holy God. Today however these ceremonial creeds and doctrines that many churches follow really have nothing to do with the Messiah at all. Instead they become more of a way to separate us against one another through a denominational, or divisional practice of a man-made doctrine.
CIVIL LAW was the kind of law that Moses gave to the Israelite nation that kept them alive throughout their journeys in the wilderness. We can look at Deuteronomy 24: 10 through 11 is an example of the civil law. Because modern culture is so radically different from the time in the setting of these guidelines they are no longer followed specifically, but the commands behind these civil laws are timeless, and they should guide our conduct. Even today most of the principles of our daily living and social structure are based upon the civil laws that were given by God through Moses for the Israelites. These things include our law and order structures, our courts, and the social laws that we follow as unwritten codes of behavior.
MORAL LAW which includes things like the 10 Commandments is a direct command from God, and it requires strict obedience. (Exodus 20: 13 ). This moral law reveals the very nature and will of God for us and it still applies today. It was this moral law that Jesus obeyed completely. There were many in Jesus's time who were experts at telling others what to do concerning the moral laws but they themselves were missing the central point of God and his laws for themselves. I want for you to realize in all of this that Jesus completely changed the game being played by the synagogues of his time when he brought into effect (the spirit of the law). Never before in history had anyone gone as deeply into the law as Christ did. While other men were concentrating on the letter of the law, and attempting to obey both the written law, and all of the amendments that men had made to those laws for their own conveniences Jesus simply said that it did not matter if we had physically done something or not, for we were just as guilty of breaking the law by breaking it within our own heart and mind. It was this revelation that caused the scribes and Pharisees, and all of the leaders of the synagogue to lay awake at night unable to think of a way around it. What it really meant was that there was no way that a man could find forgiveness without humbling himself before God. Up until that time there had been no past forgiveness. These men realized that if they accepted Jesus as the Messiah they had no other path to God except through Jesus Christ as their Savior. That was simply too much for the ego of these men to endure after they had set themselves up on such high pedestals.
When it comes to obeying the word of God, which is the law, and which is the heart of God toward man we have no recourse other than to accept the gift that Jesus Christ gave to us on the cross of Calvary as a perfect sacrifice for sin. The only choice we have is to humble ourselves, ask forgiveness through Jesus Christ as our Savior and then become living sacrifices in exchange for a blessed and forgiven eternal life through Jesus. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Comments
Post a Comment