The Law of Love

 The problem with basing public policy on public opinion is that the public changes its mind- sometimes with good reason and sometimes seemingly on a whim. This is why we need standards common to all that do not change- without that, we slide into chaos where everyone does what's right in their own eyes. (Judges 17:6 and 21:25) However, we have one Top 10 list that never changes and is not subjective but objective and is for all people- The Ten Commandments. (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5) God has set His standards and He never changes. (Malachi 4:6) But The Law calls for absolute perfection. (Leviticus 11:45) None of us can attain that. (Proverbs 20:9, Psalms 14:3) Thankfully, Jesus did that for us. (Matthew 5:17, Hebrews 4:14-15, Hebrews 10:10-23) Because Jesus met all the requirements of God's Law and died as the ultimate righteous sacrifice for our sins, we can go free while He pays the toll. Earthly comparisons pale in explaining, but it's like Jesus paid our bail so that we could get out of prison. Better still, it's like we were on death row and Jesus volunteered to take our place in the electric chair. And ever The Good Samaritan, Jesus did for those who considered Him as an enemy and who had no way of paying Him back- but Jesus doesn't want even our useless attempts. He wants our freely offered love. He died on the cross and rose again and now The Law that was our schoolmaster and showed us our need for Christ is no longer necessary because we are now under grace. (Galatians 3) And in this new covenant with Christ by faith, we receive His Holy Spirit when we ask Him in. And He Himself guides us into all Truth and to the good that we should do. (Romans 8:5-11) And His Word in The Bible guides us too. And now we desire to do right out of love and gratitude to Jesus. And as imitators of God, we walk in Love and grow up every way into Christ. (Ephesians 4:15-16 and 5:1-2) 

As Colossians 3:1-17 tell us, we have died and our lives are now hidden with Christ in God. And we seek to do everything in the Name of The Lord Jesus. And now following Jesus is all we need to do. As Romans 12:8-14 says, Love is the fulfilling of The Law. As Jesus told us, the summary of The Law is this: Love The Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:34-40) As Ephesians 4:15 reminds us, speak The Truth in Love. As Jesus tells us in John 14:6, He is The Way, The Truth and The Life. No man comes to The Father but by Him. (Any other leads to Hell; only Jesus leads to Heaven). 1 John 4:8 says that God is love. John 10:30-33 and many others affirm that Jesus is God. Thus, we must speak Jesus in Jesus/(Love) and have the same relationship Jesus had with His Father and be as Jesus to our neighbor. That's the only policy that changes all the public- Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of The Law and the embodiment of Love. :-)

       For those who seek to establish standards of "good" and "evil" and "right" and "wrong" outside of the authority of Christ- (and who deny the existence of any god and any moral standards upheld over all that apply to all)- this is the dilemma. God has taken care of this by setting firm moral standards that don't change. And best of all- He has kept all these standards perfectly Himself. When we recognize that we can never do this and we look to Jesus for our righteousness, we get His perfection imputed to us- and therein we ride into Heaven on His coattails.

Whose Law is it Anyway?

(Note: This entry contains comments based on questions raised by a friend about an article. As such, this entry is divided into sections for various parts of this discussion.)

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/05/920416357/justices-thomas-alito-blast-supreme-court-decision-on-gay-marriage-rights)

First of all, I commend you for reading and researching to be well informed on issues! :-)    

      This is a thorny topic and there are a lot of things that could be said on it. I will try to answer some questions raised here as briefly as I can.

    Why is the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling considered to be "ruinous" for religious liberty? If those who oppose same sex unions based on religious views, (which would include Orthodox Jews, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and Christians), are forced to perform and endorse such ceremonies or ostracized because of their beliefs, then yes- those are ruinous effects on religious liberty.

    To the point about the divorce rate among straight couples, it is true that it is a 50% or more rate and that is very sad. That is certainly not part of God's design for marriage. In Matthew 19, Jesus says the only allowance God makes for divorce is for marital unfaithfulness. 

Of course, just because the sanctity of marriage has been cheapened by this sin does not mean that it should be further compounded with more sin.

   To be clear, the phrase "separation of church and state" is not actually in The U.S. Constitution. I agree the state should not tell the church what to do. The church doesn't tell the state what to do though; God tells everyone what to do in The Bible.

   Laws man puts in place must still be based on something beyond himself otherwise it's just popular opinion.

   Marriage is indeed a religious institution as God performed the first marriage in Genesis 2 in giving Eve to Adam. Genesis 2:24 defines God's standard for marriage, as Jesus quotes in Matthew 19- "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two shall become one flesh." (Note the order there of leaving parents, joining in holy matrimony and then having sexual relations as husband and wife. Note also that God's design is one man joined with one woman for life.)

    That is the primary reason for objecting to the idea of a same sex union, though one could argue biology speaks to this as well, which would be a non-religious reason.

   To hold to this belief only makes a religious person bigoted against sin, as is God for that matter. Of course, God doesn't say things arbitrarily. As the Creator and Designer of all life, He has the right and authority to lay down laws for everyone.

    No one wants their freedoms taken away but I don't believe that has happened. People who identify as having homosexual tendencies have always been free to marry. However, marriage is still defined as the "institution whereby men and women are joined in a special kind of social and legal dependence for the purpose of founding and maintaining a family." It's "the mutual relation of husband and wife in wedlock." (That's from the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, copyrighted 1999.) The word "marriage" itself dates at least to the 14th. century in the English language. And the institution is as old as the beginning of time.

    What the 2015 US Court case does is redefine the meaning of marriage to be expanded to include partners of the same sex. And that directly goes against God's Word, both in violating the design laid out in Genesis 2:24, as well as in violating the commands against homosexual coitus (Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, among others). (Since many people enter into marriage with the expectation of having sex at some point with their spouse.)

    Yes, we should all be concerned about our walk with God. Part of that requires Christians to speak out against wrong doing and warn people about the wages of sin, which is death. (Romans 6:23) But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus died and rose to pay for all sins for all time, including the sin of homosexual relations. He wants to save everyone who will let Him. All one needs to do is to confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead. (see Romans 10:9-13) Put faith in Jesus and Jesus alone for forgiveness of all sins and follow Him in repenting of those sins and asking Him to help you in obedience to Him. We are saved by faith alone in His grace alone through Christ alone- and that salvation changes us to do the good deeds He made us to do all along in gratitude to Him for what He's done.

    All that said, everyone has to make their choice. We all have free will. America must base its laws on something. It has largely been based on the moral precepts of The Bible due to the Judeo-Christian heritage of many of the founders. How does one distinguish which laws Americans deem acceptable? What is the moral basis for those laws?

The standard of "do no harm to self or others" seems to be what I often hear. If that's the standard used, I would say that homosexual unions do hurt someone- they hurt God and they hurt the people who engage in them.

   Of course, even if one wanted to argue that a particular action could not be hurting any human- like choosing to kill one's own pet animal- I would still say it's wrong because it is a violation of the higher law that God has put on all of us to take care of all His creation.

1 Corinthians 10:31 says that whatever we do must be done for God's glory. Thus, any sin that one engages in would be violating that command.

   That's what it comes to in the end. Either we will choose to follow Christ and live for His glory or reject Him and live for our own. I personally don't agree with the 2015 court ruling but I also recognize I can't force anyone to live according to The Bible. All I can do is lovingly tell people about Jesus' grace and the salvation He offers that gives us a peace and joy and satisfaction infinitely better than the hell our sins lead us to and any temporary enjoyment they might bring before then. Jesus is better than anything else I desire. I choose to follow Him. All I want to do is love The Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and love my neighbour as myself and speak the Truth in Love. 

(Follow up comments)

Those are some good questions. Should people of different religious beliefs (or none) be forced to comply with rules they may not agree with? Perhaps that comes across as unfair to some but everyone has to deal with that though. The law applies equally to everyone. Thus, there are things the law allows that I don't believe in but I am still forced to abide by the laws of the country.

(This is a bit of a different conversation, but this is where Romans 13 and its call for me to respect the government authorities God put in place would come into play. However, at the same time, I must obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29) As I've long said, if it ever comes down to God vs. the government, I choose God over the government.

   As to the way people are born, I would agree that there are people born with homosexual inclinations. That doesn't mean God made them to be that way. In fact, Ecclesiastes 7:29 says God made man upright but they have sought out many schemes. God made Adam and Eve morally perfect but He also gave them free will. They chose to sin and cursed the whole world to be subjected to sin ever since. Thus, those born with homosexual inclinations are born that way because we're all born into sin. (Psalms 51:5)

 (One could say the same for someone born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and a proclivity to drunkenness as a result. Getting drunk is a sin (Ephesians 5:18) but such a person still has a choice over whether to pick up the bottle or not. The same is true for homosexual people in choosing whether to engage in such relations or not.)

In fact, there are a number of Christ followers who struggle with that inclination who choose to deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Christ in a life of celibacy in order to be obedient to the sexual ethos God lays out in The Bible. (Check out  

https://spiritualfriendship.org/ if you're interested in hearing their testimonies and writings on these matters.)

    And of course, I don't expect you to agree with everything I say and that's okay; that's your right to do so, just as I don't agree with all your points either but I respect your right to them.

   That is sad that some would be disadvantaged financially with healthcare because of a marriage by law. It's a shame that our laws are not made to incentivize marriage more. 

I don't mean to be harsh but if one wants an answer to God's view of marriage, I would point one to Jesus' words in Matthew 19 about one man being united to one woman for life in holy matrimony.

I do believe God understands and cares about people in such conditions though as well. I would also suggest considering Jesus' words to the Samaritan woman in John 4. Philippians 4:19 says God will provide for all our needs for those who are in Christ. Oftentimes following Jesus means going against human wisdom but we must also trust that His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

   I am sorry for those facing trying circumstances in relationships and I pray that God might bring them aid in dealing with those and wisdom in regards to marital status. I would also suggest seeking counsel with a church pastor, who might be able to help with further resources. ❤

There are a number of Christian ministries that help with such concerns. Here is one such example. (http://www.coopmin.org) 

(Other comments)

Every person's beliefs guide their work (and life in general). That goes for religious and non-religious people.

   The Supreme Court justices are supposed to rule based on the Constitution, even if it's at odds with their religious or non-religious beliefs.

   Of course, it's worth noting that the framers of the Constitution certainly at least to some degree relied on the moral precepts of The Bible, given the Judeo-Christian heritage of many of the USA's founders.

   Whatever laws man puts in place are based on something- either God's Word or popular consensus. 

I can understand people's concerns on this and I appreciate the sentiment that Supreme Court Justices should be interpreting the Constitution and not seeking to work their own particular religious beliefs into law. They are not supposed to be lawmakers in the first place.

And yes, I am thankful for the First Amendment that guarantees the freedom of religion for all (as well as the freedom to not hold to a religion too.)

     

The Power of Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go

     A lot of people have a wrong view of Christianity as a list of "do's and don'ts" and because of this they wind up making their identity about things they do for Christ instead of finding their identity in Christ alone and what He has done for us. We can never do enough good and avoid enough bad to measure up to God's standard. His standard is perfection. (Leviticus 11:45, Matthew 5:48) That's why we all need Jesus because He met the standard of perfection for us- because He is God's perfect son and He is perfection. He is God. His death and Resurrection pays the price for all sins- the punishment of Hell we all deserve Christ paid for us. When we put faith in Him, He saves us because He loves us and He keeps His Word. And His Spirit dwells in us to guide us into all truth and draw us closer to Himself.
     I was thinking on this some as I read about Hawk Nelson's lead singer who has sadly fallen away from his faith in Jesus. :-( Among other questions and doubts, this is one of the concerns he raised. He felt his faith was more about obligation and "do's and don'ts" in some legalistic pretense of The Gospel.
    But that's not The Gospel at all. The Good News of Jesus is that the work is done! The good we could never do has been done for us. When we put faith in Jesus, we enter into a covenant much like that of marriage. (Our relationship with God is even described in those terms in Ephesians 5 and Revelation 21:2.) A husband and wife united as one in the holy bonds of matrimony are not seeking to do things to impress each other. They do things for each other because they love each other! There is a relationship there that is real and active and it's driven by love! There's a reason husbands and wives tend to even physically look like each other over the years as they become so united in body, mind and spirit. They accept each other and come to enjoy even activities they may not have previously liked or cared about solely because their spouse enjoys them! Anything that reminds them of each other brings them joy!
     The song I have linked came to mind for me because I think it captures that feeling of ecstasy so well that comes with being in love for the first time. I think it's a great picture of the love relationship that develops between us and God. We want to get to know all we can about Him just as I would for my wife (if I had one.) We want to spend time with Him in the same way. We pray to Him constantly and we read and reread and reread over and over again His love letter to us in The Bible. We love saying His Name and thinking about Him. We love seeing acts of love and kindness that remind us of Him. We love to do those things that we know please Him- even things that we previously may not have liked because being with Him changes us. We hate the things He hates as well because we are of one mindset with Him.
    Our attitude should be like David's in the Psalms where he pours out his love for The Lord! In Psalms 119:2, we are to seek God with our whole heart. (And verses 9-12) In verse 14, I delight in God's testimonies as much as in all riches. In verses 15-16, my eyes are fixed on God's ways and I won't forget His Word and statutes. I hope in His Word in verse 81 and I meditate on it all the day in verse 97. The entire chapter says over and over again how much David delights in The Lord and His Word.
      Jesus is the treasure hidden in a field worth selling everything I have to buy the field and get the treasure! Jesus is the pearl of great price worth selling everything I own in order to buy the precious pearl! Of course, I don't have to pay anything to have Jesus- God gives Him to me for free! (See Matthew 13)
In coming after Him, I deny myself, take up my cross daily and follow Him. I lose my life for His sake and He saves it. (Luke 9:23-24) There's no profit in gaining the whole world and losing my soul. (Matthew 16:24-28) But for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21) Jesus is better than anything else my heart desires. (Psalms 73:23-26 and 84:10) The love relationship I have with Him naturally makes me to be more like Him each day and naturally makes me fall deeper in love with Him all the time as I understand more and more the depths of His love for me. (Romans 5:8, Romans 8:38-39)
     That's the power of His love and The Gospel. It's not rote religion- it's reinvigorating relationship! It's the power of being "seized by a great affection", as N. Gordon Cosby put it. As Lifehouse put it, it's like "feeling alive all over again" and "being in love for the first time". That's the power of Love that wilt not let me go! It's believing wholeheartedly, whether I always feel it or not, that God is there and that He loves me beyond all my imagining and understanding and loving Him for who He is because He's worthy of all worship- and knowing that I'm right where I'm supposed to be in His arms forever and seeking to let everyone know about Jesus and His love. :-)
 
Lifehouse- "First Time"
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J0YvWQNWEJA

Andrew Peterson- "The Power of a Great Affection"
https://youtu.be/_dtBVvMmHnY

By Faith (song)

Note: Though I didn't really write anything with a Christmas theme for the blog this year, these last three entries were all written in some ways as gifts for others, so consider them as Christmas presents to remember the Giver of all good gifts Who gave us the very best when He sent Christ that first Christmas to save us all from our sins. Merry Christmas! Praise God for His love. :-)

It seems that Christianity has some paradoxes that we will just never fully understand even though both are true. The age old question of faith vs. good works is one that has long confounded me in the course of my walk with Jesus. Of course, I know that we are saved by grace through faith and it's not of ourselves- it's all God's work so no one can boast. Of course, the very next verse where all this is stated (over in Ephesians 2:8-10) says that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do the good works He intended us to do all along! So, let's be clear- good works don't save anyone because none of us have enough good works to meet God's standard of absolute perfection. (Leviticus 11:45, Matthew 5:48) Jesus Christ is the only One who has met that standard- because He is absolute perfection. Of course, once He saves us by His grace, we will naturally start to do good works because we are being molded into the shape of our Saviour- and the fruit of the Spirit is just who He is! Naturally, we're going to start looking like our Father. Good works show that we belong to God and that He is working in us to make us more like Himself all the time. But we lean wholly for our salvation on the good work that Jesus performed by dying and rising to pay for our sins. We don't do anything to earn salvation and we can never pay God back for what He's done. We can only humbly accept it with gratitude and praise Him for eternity for His amazing grace and love for us! I have struggled with assurance of salvation time and again throughout my walk with Christ, but as this song mentions- He sent me a special friend named Carmen (just as the original song speaks of a Carmen!) who reminded me of a simple truth that is sometimes hard for me and others to accept- God loves me for me! I don't have to be anything special or do anything special to make Him love me- He already loves me because I am His creation. And His love came down at Christmas so that He could save us all on Good Friday and Easter. I am very thankful for my friend who has been so helpful to me in reminding me of these truths. And I am eternally thankful that the weight of my sins is on Jesus who has paid for them all and has adopted me into the band of followers like Martin Luther (whom I reference in the song) and so many others who enter Heaven one way- through Jesus by faith.


"By Faith"
(parody of "The Weight" by The Band; copyright by Nathan Ludwick 10/29/2018)
(Isaiah 64:6, Isaiah 1:18, Isaiah 61:1-2, Ephesians 2:1-10, Ephesians 3:14-21, Hebrews 8-11, James 2, Luke 15, 1 John 2:15-17, John 6:40, Luke 4:16-30, Leviticus 11:45, Matthew 5 (particularly v. 48), Deuteronomy 18:13, Deuteronomy 30-33, Luke 6:20-49 (particularly v. 36), Galatians 3, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 5:17, Romans chapters 1-7 (particularly 3:21-31; basically, just read the whole book), Jude 1:24-25)

He pulled into Nazareth- was reading out battle plan
He just reads the place where Isaiah- it says
"Lord's Spirit is upon Me- (to) share Good News and free oppressed"
Jesus then just shook them up- Yo! "Fulfilled," He said

61 Isaiah- take the scroll to read
It foretold His ministry- Covenant of Old- Christ completes

Like Nicodemus, I was looking not to grace, but pride
Got that flaw in garden with the devil- bought in to pride to life
God sent me Carmen- lightened the load of self-doubt
She said, "Our God loves us- 3 Ephesians- good works aren't how."

(You) take a load off, Nathan- Christ loves me for me!
Take a load off, Carmen- and we put the load right on Jesus!

I'm down with Moses- ain't under Law but Grace
It's 8 Hebrews- our new High Priest of the Covenant of Grace
6 Luke, Matt. 5- what about Deuteronomy?
He said, "You need My perfection (perfect Son)-
Once you're saved by Me- can't you see? It's done for thee!"

Take a load off, weary- in Matt. 11 read
Take My yoke on- easy
And you get a load light from Me.

Christ- He gestured "Follow Me" and He sought me when I was lost
Said, "I will trade your ash for beauty, Nate My dog"
I said, "Wait a minute, Master- You know I can't pay You back"
He said, "That's okay, boy- It's a free gift- no strings attached."

Take 3 Romans and read- Take Galatians 3
Take a note of James 2- saved by faith alone for good deeds!

Catch the prodigal's bro- Luke 15- such was I
My rags are stinking though- when I do "good deeds" it's a lie
Take me back, Jesus- Lord please! You know You're the only One
Who's sinless here- it's Your righteousness I rely on

Take a load off, Martin- Christ's reformed you- see?
24 in Jude and 1 Thessalonians 5- read!

Season for the Reason: Grace and Law- Of Sex, Marriage and Jesus' Word

Note: This blog post entry deals with some issues I've written on before, but takes on some things from different angles. They stem from real conversations I've had regarding the seeming inconsistency Christians have in following all of The Bible, including Old Testament laws that have since been rendered obsolete by the New Testament covenant of grace. (The entire book of Hebrews is a great read for this particular topic.) Thus, there are numerous issues being addressed here and again, it is in the context of a discussion on homosexual sin, regarding the upholding of the moral prohibition on that versus upholding dietary restrictions for the Israelites. To be clear, I don't regard simply having same-sex attractedness as a sin in itself; rather, I regard that as a byproduct of the fall of man, as I don't believe God made any of us to be that way originally. However, acting on lustful temptations (whether heterosexual or homosexual) is indeed a sin. Sex is relegated to a special act to happen between one man and the one woman he's married to for life. Any other occurence of this is sin. (1 Corinthians 7 deals with this, along with a number of other Scriptures.) Lust is sin- period. We must desire to serve Jesus above anything else and that means denying ourselves in the temptations that pull at us. (Luke 9:23)
     
      I see some have some interesting opinions of Paul, but that aside- but seeing as how Paul directly met with Jesus and was called The Lord's "chosen instrument to carry His Name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel." (see Acts 9)- I'd say Paul is trustworthy. (Especially considering that he suffered incredibly for Jesus' Name- including being hunted by the government, shipwrecked, bitten by a viper (and miraculously survived), even stoned- and all still kept alive by God, until he finally died a martyr's death by beheading. And all this is in keeping with God saying that Paul would find out how much he must suffer for God's Name. (Acts 9:16) It's also important to note Jesus' calling for Paul, as related in Acts 26:12-23- Jesus says he is appointed as a servant and witness to the things in which he has seen Christ and to those in which Jesus will appear to him- all for the purpose of opening the eyes of the Gentiles from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the power of God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus.
      Another point to be remembered is that Christians regard the entire Bible (Genesis to Revelation) as the Word of God- as 2 Timothy 3:16 indicates that all of it is God-breathed. The whole Bible was written by people inspired by the Holy Spirit to record "the word of The Lord" (as the prophets often put it in their writings.) Jesus identifies Himself as having oneship with The Father in John 10:30. Another important aspect of Christian belief is belief in The Holy Trinity, a concept seen throughout the entire Bible. (all the way back to Genesis 1:26 this can be seen.) In John 1 and Colossians 1, for example, Jesus is identified as being God- and being there in Creation. All three Persons of the Trinity are in place at The Lord's baptism when we see God the Father speaking about His Son Jesus and the Spirit descending on Him in the form of a dove. (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit- Three in One- the Triune Godhead.)
       Thus, all of The Bible is Jesus' Word. And all the verses in Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Timothy 1 all count as Jesus' Word. Of course, Jesus also said, while praying to God the Father, "Father, Thy Word is Truth." (John 17:17) Thus, Jesus validated all of God's Word. Of course, Jesus also prophesied that The Holy Spirit would come after He ascended back into Heaven and He would guide the disciples into all Truth. (see John 16) Jesus even said He had more to tell the disciples then, but they couldn't bear it right then. But He did say the Holy Spirit would come and tell them these things and He's only going to declare what He hears and He will declare the things that are to come. He will glorify Jesus, for He will take what is Jesus' and declare it to the disciples. (Thus, He will take Jesus' Word and speak it to the disciples after Jesus' ascension. How was that accomplished? The Spirit moved upon the hearts of people to write down God's Word via the New Testament letters of Luke, Paul, Peter, John, James, Jude and the dude who wrote down Hebrews (most scholars think it was Paul as well). Thus, the New Testament is also Jesus' Word, as much as the rest of The Bible is as well. (Jesus also speaks to the validity of the Old Testament as God's Word in Luke 24.)
      However, to go back to Jesus' Word in Matthew 19, it is true that He speaks about marriage in the context of answering a question about divorce. Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? "He answered, 'Have you not read that He Who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What God has joined together, let not man separate.' " In quoting Genesis 2:24 here, Jesus upheld God's created order and model for marriage. (It's important to note that this verse is before chapter 3- which is where the fall of man happens. This is before the sin of Adam and Eve that corrupts the entire world. In God's original perfect Eden, this is the model of marriage that God lays out. This is the model that Jesus upholds for marriage. Jesus even goes on to point out that it was only because of the hardness of our hearts that Moses allowed for men to divorce their wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
       There may be people today who have same sex attractions, but from the beginning it was not so. God made people upright, but we've gone off in search of many schemes. (Ecclesiastes 7:29)
Jesus states that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery. The disciples then say that if such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry. Then Jesus tells them that not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. "For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it." (Matthew 19:12)
(Here, in answering the disciples' shock and conclusion that it was better just to stay single and live a celibate life, Jesus refers to men who have been born with a birth defect [and thus wouldn't be able to marry, in keeping with Jewish law], some who have been castrated by others [and thus wouldn't be able to marry in keeping with Jewish law] and some who choose to castrate themselves and/or live a celibate life for God's kingdom (i.e. much like Catholic priests today.) (Paul also speaks of himself being in the last category in 1 Corinthians 7, where he speaks of his chosen celibacy in order to focus fully on preaching Christ. This is also an excellent passage to consider in thinking about marriage as The Bible defines it.)
       Since sex is only allowed within the bonds of holy matrimony (one man and one woman for life, as Jesus defines it in Matthew 19:4-6) [see Hebrews 13:4 as well], and sexual relations outside of marriage are condemned throughout the Old Testament and New Testament- including specifically by Jesus in His human form in this very passage- Jesus also thereby condemns any other sexual relationship as sin. (In John 8:11, Jesus identified adultery as sin again, when He told the woman caught in adultery to "go and sin no more." Jesus also called out the woman at the well in John 4 about her sexual relationships, asking her to call her husband to come there. She responds that she has no husband and Jesus agrees with her, saying that she's right to say that because the fact is that she's had 5 husbands and the man's she with now isn't her husband. Jesus had a habit of doing such things to call people out on their sin, as He did a similar deal with the rich young ruler when He told him, since he claimed he'd kept all the commandments since he was a kid, to go and sell all he had and give to the poor and follow Him. [This got to the heart of the matter, as the rich young ruler was unwilling to part with his wealth in order to get to eternal life in Christ.])
      It is true that Galatians 3:28 states, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Of course, verse 29 states, "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise." What promise is that? The promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ- through faith in His substitutionary death and Resurrection for salvation and forgiveness of sins. Chapter 4 even goes on to berate the Galatians for observing "days and months and seasons and years". The chapter goes on to make the comparison between Abraham's sons (Isaac and Ishmael- Isaac being the one of promise and Ishmael the illegitimate one Abraham had from Hagar) allegorically as a comparison between being under the law and being under grace. All this leads up to a famous verse in Galatians 5:1, which says, "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." When we keep reading, we find that Christ makes us righteous and that we should not use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love we must serve one another. We are commanded to walk by the Spirit so that we won't gratify the desires of the flesh. First among the desires of the flesh listed is sexual immorality. We are not to indulge the flesh, but rather we regard it as crucified with its passions and desires. 
Galatians 3:28 is indicating our status of oneship in Christ Jesus in metaphorical terms. Of course, race and gender and slave status still exist (the latter to this day in some places, unfortunately), but we don't let them separate us from being one in Christ. We are all Father Abraham's sons [and daughters], as the classic Sunday School song says. :-):-) This verse in the right context would not be indicating God's dismissal of gender and gender roles, but rather a symbolic picture of oneness in Christ.
        And Christ addressed the law as well in Matthew 5:17. But what exactly did He say? "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until Heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from The Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of Heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven." (Matthew 5:17-20)
         Now Jesus was addressing His disciples and the crowds who had gathered to hear Him speak. Jesus went on in the Sermon on the Mount to address a number of laws given in the Old Testament and reaffirm and redefine them for us- expanding beyond the limited idea held of them previously. Jesus said that just getting angry with your brother makes you liable to judgment, insulting him makes you liable to the council and calling him a fool puts you in danger of the fires of hell. Jesus said that not committing adultery goes beyond just the physical act; even looking at a woman lustfully is committing adultery with her in your heart. Jesus addresses divorce and states that, rather than divorcing for any and every reason, if it's not done on the grounds of sexual immorality, the one who divorces his wife then makes her commit adultery and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Jesus goes on to address oath-taking, retaliation and treatment of enemies and more. It's clear that Jesus did not rescind any of the moral laws of the Old Testament, but rather reaffirmed them and expanded them beyond the original understanding.
         However, what did He say about dietary laws and civil laws for the Israelites? Well, the Pharisees called Him out about breaking some of these laws on various occasions. In Mark 7, the Pharisees bust Jesus' chops about His disciples not washing their hands before eating, thus being ceremonially defiled. Jesus points out that they ignore God's commandments in order to hold to the tradition of men. (Jesus gives the example of the command to honor your mother and father, yet the Pharisees would tell their folks that they couldn't give any money to help their parents because it's Corban (i.e. given to God). Thus, they were making the Word of God void by their traditions.)
Then Jesus goes on to state that whatever goes into a person is not what defiles him, but rather what comes out of his heart. "And He said to them, 'Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?' (Thus He declared all foods clean.) And He said, 'What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.' " (Mark 7:18-23)
        Note that verse 19 explicitly states that Jesus declared all foods clean. Thus, He just rescinded all dietary laws for the Israelites, and He also in the same passage addressed ceremonial traditions as well. Also, in John 4, Jesus spoke of a time when true worshippers of God would worship the Father in spirit and truth, rather than on the mountain in Samaria or in Jerusalem. (Thus, more rollback of laws regarding worship in the temple.) The entire book of Hebrews is also an excellent companion to reading the Old Testament in light of the new covenant in The New Testament. It explains that the old covenant is rendered obsolete by the new covenant. (see Hebrews 8:13, as well as all of chapters 8-10 particularly.) And the New Covenant of grace calls us to be led by the Spirit (as Galatians 5 tells us), which leads to bearing the fruit of the Spirit- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Goodness and self-control would certainly speak to maintaining sexual purity, among other things. Under the New Covenant of Grace, we are still called to uphold sexual purity (see 1 Corinthians 6 for a good discussion on this) along with other other morality commands (prohibitions against theft, murder, slander, etc.). 
        As Jesus summarizes for us in Matthew 22:34-40, the two greatest commandments are as follows, "You shall love The Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." Loving God means obeying Him in all His commandments, as laid out for us in the New Covenant of grace in the New Testament. (Jesus Himself says that if we love Him, we will obey Him in John 14:15. [See also Luke 6:46 and Matthew 7 for even starker pictures.]) Of course, none of us can really keep all of God's commands on our own. (Jesus tells us to be perfect as our Heavenly father is perfect. [Matthew 5:48] This is the standard we must meet for entry into Heaven.) We all fall short on that. (Romans 3:23) Thankfully, God knows this and He sent Jesus to fulfill the Law for us. Jesus met the standard of perfection and kept the Law perfectly, as He stated He came to do in Matthew 5:17. In His meeting of the standard, we are set free from that burden through putting our faith in Jesus' death and Resurrection to pay for all our sins that we could never atone for on our own.
       And when we become part of God's family (John 1:12), we get Christ's righteousness imputed to us and God declares us righteous because of Christ's completed work. (basically the entire book of Romans.) And we are then set free to do the good works that God created in advance for us to do- not in an effort to earn the salvation He's already freely given us, but in a way of showing gratitude to God by seeking to grow to be more like Him in all we say and do. (see Ephesians 2:8-10 and 1 Corinthians 10:31)

Season for the Reason: A Corollary to Last Time's Blog

Note: Here is a follow up piece to my last blog entry. This is in reaction to a related article to the topic of the Old Testament Law versus the New Testament covenant of grace. This article was brought to my attention by two different friends at the same time and it is definitely interesting to consider. Thus, this entry here is based on this article from Patheos and serves as a further expounding on some of the points I was trying to establish in my last piece on this topic.
As always, there is plenty more that could be said on this topic, but I do hope this entry will be helpful in shedding some light on this tricky topic and ultimately be presented in a loving, Christ-like manner, always seeking to point people to The Light Himself, Jesus Christ. (John 8:12)

        This is an interesting piece- a nice and concise summary of some key Christian teachings and I like a lot of what it has to say. (And let me say from the outset that I do not intend this response to come across as just a criticism of the author and his writing. I do not wish to mar his work here, but rather use it as a springboard to point out some discrepancies I noticed and that come up at times in discussion on this topic of Old Testament law versus New Testament grace.)  However, I do have some observations on it. Was this in response to something that the author was reading? And while I gather that the author was offering his take on Jesus' statement about coming to fulfill the Law rather than abolish it (Matthew 5:17), I am not sure that I see exactly where he was going with his conclusions. I looked at the Bible passages mentioned as I read the article and it seems to me that they are all in agreement with the fact that Christians are no longer bound to the Old Testament Law as the Hebrews were. The overarching point I wish the author would have mentioned is that when the New Testament Scriptures speak of this fact, the context is generally in response to a bigger question that has been struggled over in the Christian church and that is the question of faith vs. works for salvation.
          (This can be a complex matter in itself, but essentially- The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone- see Ephesians 2:8-10. However, when you read verse 10, you will see that we are saved to do the good works God intended all along for us to do. The order of operations is very important here though. Because we are sinners by nature who have no good in us of ourselves, and even the good things we do are considered as filthy rags in comparison to God's perfection [Isaiah 64:6], we cannot do any good works to save ourselves. We must rely solely on Christ's righteousness and His death and Resurrection to save us. Of course, if we have truly put our faith in Christ's saving work on the cross, then we should be transformed by God's Spirit to obey His commands and do good works (such as loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves). James 2 makes it quite clear that faith without works is dead. [As I have mentioned before, this is one reason why Christ calls people to count the cost of following Him beforehand. Some people mistakenly get the idea that salvation is nothing more than asserting a mental belief in Christ as God and His death and Resurrection. Yet Jesus states that following Him involves a full surrender of the will and all rights to Him. [see Luke 9:23] Thus, the good works performed after putting faith in Christ are the sign of a living faith that is true. As Jesus Himself said, why do people call Him, 'Lord, Lord' and don't do what He says? (Luke 6:46) And in even starker terms, in Matthew 7, He clearly warned that many would call unto Him, 'Lord, Lord' at the judgment day that will not be admitted into Heaven but rather they will be sent away into Hell, because they did not do the will of God the Father. [i.e. While they may have made the mental assertion of Christ's divinity and even called upon His Name, their hearts were not truly changed and they did not truly seek after Christ or obey Him.] In the end, faith and works come together in tandem, but faith always leads the way and is foundational, whereas good works are just the fruit.)
          And all of that was mainly to say that if people are seeking to uphold the Old Testament Law (or the New Testament laws, for that matter) in an attempt to appease God and earn His favor, it is a misguided attempt that will never work. This is the whole reason for Christ- He came and did for us what we could never do on our own. He fulfilled all The Law and died to pay for our wrongs and rose again. So we don't look to the Law anymore for salvation, but rather the New Covenant of Grace that Jesus has established through His work at Calvary on the cross.
          And while I agree that we don't necessarily find the OT laws neatly divided into various categories as such, it is fairly easy to distinguish at least some dietary and ritual laws from moral laws. (In the Old Testament there would be no reason for there to be any such distinctions because all of it was The Law together- it was a moral reflection on the Israelites if they failed to keep any one part of it.) When we get to the New Testament, we find that God Himself has rescinded the dietary laws, when He gives Peter his vision of unclean animals upon a cloth and commands him to get up and eat. (See Acts 10). (There are other supporting passages for this too, of course- a number of which the author mentioned- such as Colossians 2:16-17.)
           Hebrews 10 is an excellent chapter to look to in reading as to why the ritualistic laws (of sacrifices and festivals and not wearing clothing made of more than one fabric, etc.) are no longer needed. As the author mentioned in the article, 1 Corinthians 8-9 are also good chapters for this topic, where Paul speaks of giving up his rights and conforming himself to the Law in places where it might make a brother or sister stumble from the Gospel if he did otherwise. (In the context, he is speaking of dietary laws and/or ritual laws- never the moral law as he states that he is under the law of Christ in 1 Corinthians 9:21). Also, in 1 Corinthians 7:17-24 (which I believe the author also mentioned), The Bible states that neither circumsion nor uncircumsion counts for anything, but rather-keeping the commandments of God. Thus, since circumsion would be a ritual law (as this is one of the things Israelites did to set themselves apart from the rest of the world), the ritual law is nullified, but the moral law is upheld. Galatians 4 and 5 also speak well to this point. Note that in Galatians 5, after Paul (under The Holy Spirit's inspiration) notes that anyone who accepts circumsion [as an effort of pleasing God] is obligated to keep the whole law. They are severed from Christ because they are seeking justification through keeping the law, rather than from grace. (This verse- Galatians 5:4- is actually where we get the phrase "fall away from grace".) But as we go on to read in 5:16, we must walk by the Spirit and then we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And if we're led by The Spirit, we are not under the law. Verses 19-26 tell us a list of things that are the works of the flesh- a list of sins that we fall into- but, in contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control- against such things there is no law.
That is the New Covenant we live under- Christ's grace which compels and empowers us to live by the Spirit (as the Holy Spirit indwells believers in Christ) and the fruit of the Spirit are the results- some of the good works we are called to do after putting faith in Jesus.
While I appreciate the author's call for Christians to remember Christ's summary of the greatest Laws of the Old Testament for us to follow (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18) in Matthew 22:34-40, I am still not sure as to his purpose in this conclusion. If the goal is to say that it is no longer necessary for Christians to follow out the dietary and ritual laws of the Old Testament, I wholly agree. However, in telling us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength first and foremost, Jesus certainly expected us to obey God's commands- His moral law, a point which Jesus makes very clear in passages like Matthew 7, Luke 6:46 and John 14:23-24 and 15:10-14, among others.
        In conclusion, the main thing I want to remind people of here is that as we are called to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves. (As Jesus told us in Matthew 22:34-40). And as Ephesians 4:15 tells us, we must be speaking the Truth in Love. If we can keep these things in mind, it helps everything else fall in place. Jesus has kept all the Law for us- and we rely on His obedience to justify us for salvation. (And of course, as Philippians 2 tells us, His obedience took Him to the cross and to His glorious Resurrection, which brings us our salvation.) And after justification, Jesus continues to work in us to make us holy for our sanctification, which ultimately results in glorification in Heaven. (Philippians 1:6) In obedience to Christ, we seek to obey His commands out of gratitude to Him, but we never rely on our own deeds to obtain God's favor. It's all through Him- and even faith itself is His gift.

Season for the Reason: Picking Jesus, Not Cherries

Note: This is the first in what I hope will be a series of blog posts dealing with some common objections that are raised against Christianity, some of which even Christians get confused on at times. (I certainly get confused on them too.) However, I firmly believe, as Chris Rice once wrote, that God has "an exclamation point for every question mark." And I believe The Bible addresses every issue we face, whether directly or indirectly. While this certainly isn't comprehensive and won't be definitive, I hope these posts will be helpful in explaining why Christians believe some of the things that we do and that they will do so in a loving way that does not seek to denigrate other beliefs, put merely present the teaching of Christ in His Word. These are based on questions that have been personally raised to me and I thought it might be helpful to talk about these topics here, as they reflect concerns and questions that many seekers and agnostics as well as skeptics share. [And as I said earlier, Christians also wonder on these things at times too, I do believe. Or at least this Christian has at times.] Let me also state that I do not believe in arguing or convincing anyone into Heaven; only the Holy Spirit can change someone's heart and bring them saving faith in Jesus. So I don't expect to convince anyone with any brilliant logic here, especially since I know that I don't have that much of that. ;-) (If there is anything brilliant or good in here, it's from Jesus, not me.) But 2 Timothy 4:2 commands us to be prepared in season and out of season in preaching the Word and to correct, rebuke encourage- with great patience and careful instruction. And I do want to do that, as I seek to always have an answer for the reason that I have hope, as 1 Peter 3:15 says. :-)


          

For the first point raised, this is a common question that comes up that even many Christians get confused about as well, but it is one that is well addressed by The Bible. I will talk about ye olde problem of the seeming disconnect between Old Testament law and New Testament law and why it seems that Christians seem to cherry-pick which rules to follow at times. Since this objection is often raised as a counterpoint when the topic of homosexuality comes up and The Bible's prohibition against it, please note that this piece will focus on that topic as a backdrop for this question regarding the Old Testament and New Testament.  I will include a link for further reading if you’re interested, but I never like just posting a link without at least trying to address the issue some myself. (Otherwise I just feel like I’m shuttling people off because I don’t want to confront the topic myself and I never want to do that.) [Here is said link- http://thecripplegate.com/shellfish-mixed-fabrics-and-homosexuality-picking-and-choosing/]
            Jesus states in Matthew 5:17-20 (ESV)- “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
           

This is an important point here. It cannot be emphasized enough that Jesus upheld the Old Testament. What I should have explained further is the reason why Jesus upheld the Old Testament and its laws. The key word in verse 17 is “fulfill”. Jesus Christ fulfilled all the demands of the Old Testament laws. This gets to the crux of the matter of salvation in Christianity. It is coming to the point of realizing that we have done wrong and can never live up to God’s standard for living. (Which is absolute perfection- Leviticus 11:45- God states it here and Jesus reiterates this in Matthew 5:48- “Be perfect therefore as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”) Of course, as Psalms 14:1 and Romans 3:23 and a number of other verses state, there is none righteous. There is no one who has perfectly kept all of the law. Thus, we are all imperfect sinners and wrongdoers who fail to meet God’s standard. God says in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death- both physical death and spiritual death. (i.e. eternal punishment in hell.) However, the same verse also says that the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God knows that no human being can meet His standard. And He also knows the consequence of this. And as one of the most famous verses in The Bible tells us- God loves us so much that He intervened and sent His Son Jesus to rescue us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17) And Romans 5:8 confirms that God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The very thing that I most celebrate as a follower of Christ- Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday- this is where the literal crux of Christianity lies- in Easter. Because Jesus died to pay for all the sins ever committed in the world and He rose again- He paid once for all the payment for sin- and in the process, He defeated death, sin, the devil and hell- and our sinful nature that we are all born with.
           

When we put our faith in Christ to forgive us of our sins and to submit to following Him as Lord and Savior, a metaphysical, supernatural transaction takes place. God The Father sees our plea for Jesus’ forgiveness and credits us with Christ’s righteousness. Though we ourselves are spiritually and morally bankrupt as Romans 5:12-14 states (the sin of Adam and Eve tainted the entire world), Jesus is perfect and He imputes that righteousness to us at the moment of conversion. Romans 5:15-21 goes on to talk further about this- how just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, one Man’s righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. As Romans 6:14 states, once we have received Jesus as Savior and Lord, we are no longer under the Law system anymore- but we are now under the New Covenant Jesus came to establish through His blood (as Christ mentions during The Lord’s Supper to His disciples)- and that is the New Covenant of grace. In the Old Covenant of the Law, the Israelites followed God by endeavoring to obey all the commandments- including the dietary laws and other ceremonial laws that were aimed specifically at them. However, there are other moral laws (which is where the prohibition against homosexuality falls) that were given to them and that are still in place in the New Covenant of grace.
          

Galatians 3 puts it this way- (starting in verse 19)- “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.” (That was verses 19-23). [My parenthetical here- indeed, as The Bible notes elsewhere, the law is what shows us just how much in the wrong we really are and how much we need a Savior because we can’t keep all of the law perfectly ourselves.]
        (resuming in verse 24)- “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
             The point I am trying to make here is that the Old Testament law served as our guardian until Jesus came. When He came and fulfilled the Law, we were no longer bound by the Law. We trust that He fulfilled all of the Law and put our faith in His righteousness to forgive us our sins and to make us presentable before God in Heaven. No one enters Heaven but by the righteousness of Christ, for as Isaiah 64:6 makes painfully clear- even the righteousness we think we have of our own account is nothing but filthy rags in comparison to the supreme holiness and righteousness of God Almighty.
      

Galatians 3:1-6 is also important to note in understanding this point. Here Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, berates the Galatians for abandoning their walk of faith by the power of the Holy Spirit and instead looking again to their own righteousness (i.e. the flesh) for perfection. The whole point of the Law is to show us just how futile our own efforts are and to show us our need for the Savior. Thus, in the Christian faith, we must always lean wholly on Jesus for all our righteousness.
                Hebrews 8 explains this point quite well. It calls Jesus the High Priest of a better Covenant- the New Covenant, which Jeremiah 31:31-34 prophesied would come. Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophecy. (See also Hebrews 9:11-14, which emphasizes the ceremonial system of sacrificing animals that the Israelites did is no longer necessary- this includes the prohibitions against eating shellfish and mixing fabrics, etc. However, the blood of Christ purifies our conscience from dead works (i.e. the flesh) to serve the living God. Again, we rely on Christ’s completed work and not any of our own.) (The whole book of Hebrews is an excellent New Testament companion book to read alongside Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It gives a lot of insight to how the Old Testament covenant of the Law compares to the New Testament covenant of grace in Jesus Christ- and it explains how we are no longer under the law, but under grace instead.) In fact, on this point, I have read Tim Keller has said that for a Christian to try to live out all of the Old Testament law is an insult to Jesus and a demonstration of a lack of faith. Because I have faith that Jesus has completed all that is necessary for salvation through His death and Resurrection and perfect upholding and completion of the law, I know that I don't have to try to keep all the Old Testament law- and in fact, I cannot. Jesus has done it for me and I trust His completed work for salvation. Of course, as James 2 points out, true saving faith is always accompanied by works AFTER faith has been put in Christ's redeeming work. And as Ephesians 2:8-10 makes clear, God intended for me to do good works all along anyway. After having been saved by grace through faith, I strive to do the good things that Jesus commands me to do out of love and gratitude and obedience to Him- not out of a misguided attempt to pay Him back or somehow earn something that has already been given to me for free. I can never earn it- I must only freely accept it. But when I do, as 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, it makes me a new person in Christ and God transforms me to be the person He made to be all along.
               

Now here is the caveat I want to make sure is clear. Part of following Christ is being molded more and more to His character. The Bible uses the image of a potter and clay many times, with God as the Potter and us as the clay. We are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27)- and of course, Adam and Eve’s sin tainted that image. God has provided for the restoration of that through Christ’s death and Resurrection. Through putting our faith in Jesus, we begin undergoing the process of sanctification, being made like Christ (the personification of perfection.) Romans 8:4 instructs us that now we must walk according to the Spirit (i.e. God the Holy Spirit) and no longer to the flesh. (i.e. our own sinful nature.) Romans 12:1-2 calls for us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, which is our spiritual worship. We are to no longer be conformed to this world, but instead be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that by testing we may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Again- we are reminded that God’s will for us is to be like Him- perfect. (Leviticus 11:45, Matthew 5:48). However, even as Christians we still fail and fall back into sin at times. And God promises in 1 John 1:9 that if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thus for Christians, it’s an ongoing process of being made more holy each day- a process that ultimately reaches its culmination when we enter Heaven. (Philippians 1:6)
          

While the ceremonial laws of the Israelites no longer apply to us, the moral laws most certainly do. In the case of homosexuality, even if we were to put aside the prohibitions in Leviticus for the moment, we still have the prohibitions in Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and 1 Timothy 1:10. And those commands are all part of the New Testament covenant of grace that we are under- and that we are expected and commanded to follow. Part of the reason homosexual acts of any kind (no matter what the relationship status is) are condemned is because they fall outside of God’s revealed character. God is the One who created marriage and ordained it as an institution. This is a point where Jesus spoke to the issue of homosexuality in Matthew 19 when He upheld God’s standard for marriage- the union of one man and one woman for life. God has designed men and women to relate to each other in the context of marriage, which is symbolic of the relationship He desires to have with us. Just as the husband and wife become one flesh and become united, God desires to be united with us and indeed- Galatians 2:20 and Colossians 3:1-4 speak to this exact unity that we have with Christ- where I no longer live [my old life centered on just myself is dead]- my new life centered on Christ is my real life now. We ultimately enjoy that full unity with God when we are back in His presence again- in Heaven. And as I said before, God’s standard for entry into Heaven is absolute perfection- a standard only met by Jesus Christ. We can gain entry into Heaven (and thus an escape from our default sentence of punishment in hell because of the separation that comes with our sin) only through faith in Jesus. As Jesus Himself said in John 14:6 “I am The Way, The Truth and The Life. No man comes to The Father but by Me.” It is also worth noting that God uses the picture of marriage specifically to speak to His relationship with us- He extensively used this as an object lesson in the book of Hosea with Hosea and Gomer representing Himself and Israel (Hosea 2 is a beautiful picture of the love God has for us and His plan to redeem us and take us back as His own, even though we have rebelled against Him)- and the picture is also used in Revelation 21, which describes Christ as the bridegroom and His church as His bride.
  I know that was a rather lengthy explanation and even after typing it, I feel I still could say much more on it, but I hope that helps with the first point.
                A good example occurred to me that may help illustrate the point about the Israelites having ceremonial and dietary laws that pertained only to them that modern-day Christians no longer follow, though we do still hold up the moral laws as Israel did as well. Why is it that we restrict the sale of alcohol in America? It almost seems rather discriminatory that we forbid persons younger than 21 from consuming or purchasing alcohol. Society as a whole frowns upon it in general and we have a law on the books for that purpose. However, this seems a mere compromise in comparison to previous laws. Why is that we as Americans pick and choose when it comes to upholding the laws on our books? Doesn’t the 18^th. Amendment, ratified on January 16, 1919, prohibit the manufacture, sale, transportation within, importation or exportation of alcohol? Why do we not hold to that law anymore? Why is that we freely allow the manufacture, sale, transportation within, importation and exportation of alcohol now? Aren’t we picking and choosing which laws to follow? Of course, the answer to that is that we are not picking and choosing. We uphold all of the laws on the books- including the 21^st. Amendment (ratified December 5, 1933) which repealed the 18^th. Amendment. Thus, we are no longer bound by the 18^th. Amendment. However, even so, we still hold to a remnant of that law to some degree. We still hold to some of the spirit of the law in that we restrict the sale of alcohol to only those who are 21 and older.
         In the same manner, Christians are no longer bound to the Israelites’ dietary and ceremonial laws because the New Covenant of Grace repealed the Old Covenant of The Law. (See 2 Corinthians 3 for a great discussion of this point. The New Covenant is WAY, WAY better, by the way.) Thus, Christians are not bound to the dietary and ceremonial laws, even though there are still some general moral principles that the laws are based on that we do uphold. And we still strive to maintain the moral laws, but now it is not out of guilt or our own self-effort as a means of salvation- it is out of love and gratitude to our Savior Jesus Christ, as He works in us to shape more into His image of perfection. He has fulfilled all the laws for us and we rely on His perfection to get us into Heaven- not our own. We rely on the perfect completion He brought when He died and rose again to seal the deal for us. And that is why it is not a matter of picking and choosing. I pick and choose Christ and He picked all my sins off of me and chose to bear them on Calvary. Christ has set me free from the law and free to be a slave of grace.
 

Sunday, March 8, 2015

The Glory's So Bright, He's Gotta Wear Shades (song)

So I thought I'd give you not just one, and not just two, but three posts in one day! Yeah- this is better than Timbuktu even- it's Timbuk 3! :-)
This is yet another parody song for you- a fairly new one that I finished a while back and have been holding off on posting. This is one of these songs that it helps to have some background on first, so I'm going to try to quickly go over that first- it may get a bit lengthy, so hang with me on this.
        Let me set up the scene first- Moses and the Israelites have been in the desert on their way to the Promised Land, after a dramatic and miraculous deliverance by The Lord from the hand of the Egyptians by crossing through the Red Sea on dry land! God rolled the river back up on either side like a scroll and gave them a safe, dry passage to walk through. And in the desert, they didn't remember God's Name. Moses went up on Mt. Sinai to get The Ten Commandments and Aaron and the crew decided to ditch The Lord and make a golden calf to worship instead. After Moses came back and the Israelites faced God's chastisement (which included about 3000 people dying), Moses went back to talk with God again and interceded for the people. God spared the remaining Israelites and renewed His promises to them again. And after Moses spent time in God's presence- and even got to see God's back! (God covered him in the cleft of the rock on the mountain when He passed by, so that He only saw God's back- as The Lord tells us in Exodus 33:20 that no man can see His face and live.)
            Moses gets a new set of tablets to replace the original copy of The Ten Commandments that he had smashed in anger during the whole golden calf incident. And when Moses came back down off the mountain, all the people were freaking out because Moses' face was glowing bright. As Exodus 34:29 tells us, Moses' face was glowing because he had been talking with God. God's glory was reflected off his face now and it was so bright, he had to wear shades! :-) (Okay- so he didn't actually wear his sunglasses at night- or at day, for that matter- but he did wear a veil. ;-))
           Now fast forward to 2 Corinthians chapters 3 and 4. Paul talks about these events when he, under The Holy Spirit's inspiration, writes to tell us that it's like this with every person in the world. The god of this age (i.e. Satan) has blinded the eyes of unbelievers so that they can't see the Truth of Christ. In fact, 2 Corinthians 3:14-15 says that their minds are hardened and a veil is over their hearts. And it's only through Christ that it's removed and they are able to see His glory and come to salvation. And then they join the ranks of those of us who have put their faith in Jesus after having had the veil removed from our hearts so that we can see Him and know Him. "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of The Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from The Lord Who is The Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18)
          I particularly love how Old Testament passages like this that we might forget come up again in the New Testament. The more we read and understand all of God's Word, all the different passages speak to each other and help increase our understanding of The Bible as a whole- of course, we have to be listening to The Holy Spirit's gentle instruction as He leads us into all Truth. :-)
And, as another quick note of reference, my brother Ryan and I have been reading through different books of The Bible together and that's helped fuel this all the more. (Hence the reference at the start of the song, which I used Twitter language to explain, even though I don't really dig all the hash tag stuff- unless it's a tag to indicate where the hash and grits are in the buffet line. ;-)) We haven't studied Exodus yet, but we'll probably get to that one soon enough. :-)


The Glory's So Bright- He's Gotta Wear Shades
(parody of "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" by Timbuk 3; copyright by Nathan Ludwick 12/5/2014)
(Exodus 34, 2 Corinthians 3 and 4:1-6, Philemon 1:6)

Let's study Exodus, Ryan
(#mybrother#- hashtag)
It's got a famous feature
The Ten Commandments

Things were going great
But they made a graven image
After doing their time
Tablets replaced
The glory's so bright
Moe's gotta wear a veil
He's gotta wear shades

He talked with God stationed
On Mt. Sinai patient
34 is where
Moses just got that glare
He negotiates
And The Lord just set new charter
They do what's right
Get His good graces
They choose sin- those times
God's gotta send plagues
He's gotta send plagues

Well, we're Heavenly blessed
With good things in Christ
In a peeping Tom world, we
Live X-rayed lives

If old glory's great
Then Spirit's glory's that much better
The Spirit gives life
The letter kills, babe
Its glory was bright-
Moe had to wear a veil
He had to wear a shade

Let's study 2 (two) Corinthians
All of 3rd. chapter
World's got a great deceiver-
his ware's dark glasses

Keeps The Gospel veiled
And there's only One Unveiler
It's through Him- Lord Christ
Get His good grace
His glory's so bright
I gotta just praise
I got (an) unveiled face
And God effects change
So I gotta share Grace.
..............................................

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