All too many people see religion as an investment. They expect a ‘return’ on their investment, that being an eternity in a paradise they were convinced to invest in. They are, for the most part, ‘banking’ on the wrong banks and bankers.
Scripture calls them wolves in sheep’s clothing. They appear to be sheep, even the lamb of God. They devour flocks, financially. They use them to feed their own bellies at the expense of others they convinced to bank their future on them. They are the religious ‘middle-men’ who have placed themselves between God and others. They are the religious gurus who interpret the Scriptures for those not willing to invest the time to read and interpret the Scriptures for themselves. They bought into the wolf’s advertising that instilled fearful responses of what happens to those who refuse to commit.
The investment seems reasonable, up front. Seeing though they were among those unwilling to invest the time and effort to ‘decipher’ Scripture, they are unlikely to read the fine-print of what they are getting involved in, where the investment will cost them dearly in the end.
Jesus came among His own, who, for the most part, rejected Him. They were already vested in the law, where the Rabbis were there; the Pharisees and others, interpreting Scripture for them. They were perceived as legitimate ‘investment counselors’ so that, when Jesus referred to them as evil children of the devil, doing the will of their father the devil, Jesus’ testimony was rejected. The Pharisees were already well established as the religious elite and teachers, instructing them in the way they should walk within the framework of the law.
With the law, and the interpretation of the Pharisees, they could see where deceivers and false prophets would arise to test them, and here was a prophet, right on queue, as they were taught who went about flaunting the law; specifically the sign of that covenant between God and themselves. Here was now an opportunity to demonstrate their dedication; their obedience to the law and the prophets. Condemn this impostor, like so many others that preceded Him. He broke the law; the Sabbath and gave a ‘lame’ excuse about good works being lawful on the Sabbath, when all could plainly read the Sabbath law forbade all work; any work. The law was the final arbiter, and not this itinerant self-appointed and proclaimed Rabbi with no schooling in the law from the Rabbinical teachers of the law.
There was a lot for any of them to overcome in order to recognize Him as the actual Messiah to come. He would restore Israel to its dominance among the nations. This man appeared to only be interested in gathering a following to Himself for who knows what purpose.
The Pharisees had an easy method for testing Him, and that was that the real Messiah to come surely would validate them as the guardians of the law; that the real Messiah would not allow Himself to be put to death by them or the Roman occupation. So all they had to do to prove or disprove Him was to charge Him with sin, condemn Him according to the law, and see what happens. If He dies, they were right. If He didn’t, they could always claim they were following the law to the letter. He broke the law; He sinned, and they acted accordingly, as they were commanded in the law.
Consider this carefully. It was the law that was the final arbiter of their decision process; not God who performed miraculous healing through the Holy Spirit that only could be attributed to God. They attributed those things to the devil anyway, even raising the dead.
The law was their de facto god… their graven images of stone that they never questioned as actually being treated by them as another god they obeyed in the hope of being blessed as a result. Appease the law and receive blessings. Ignore the law and the law would curse them.
Today’s Pharisees take this even further, openly assigning the attributes of God to that same law, engraven in stones. Eternal. Unchanging. A transcript of God’s Character.
To “change” the Sabbath commandment so as to permit “good works” would open the floodgates on the Sabbath command where everyone would deem their works good and not evil, seeing as that was the contrast Jesus presented. That God said He judges according to the heart didn’t come into the equation of the law, especially the Decalogue.
It was God Himself who called out from Mt. Sinai none of them were to do any work on the Sabbath, where many years later God also, through the prophet Jeremiah, informed those descendants of those Hebrews that in God’s eyes, ALL the works of their hands were only evil in His sight. They would have concluded this was rhetorical and not actually literal, as they believed they could do good and did do good, despite God also declaring their hearts were deceitful and desperately wicked through the same prophet.
What desperately wicked people do as a result is not to conclude the true purpose and function of the law really was: To regulate an evil people in order to minimize the damage they cause.
All the signs were there, that they being evil, could not perceive; the constant sacrifices for sin at the temple where the place was a literal blood bath. They were a constant reminder of sin.
Contrast this with the prophesied New Covenant to come, said by God NOT to be like the old covenant with the constant reminder of sin through the constant sacrifices. With the new, there would be no remembrance of sin. (Jeremiah 31:34)
What is the emphasis with today’s modern Sabbatarians, such as Adventism? There is a constant, incessant reminder of sin through the declaration that it is the law; the Decalogue that defines sin. Break this law, especially the Sabbath, and you sin. You stand condemned before God who said through the prophet He would remember our sins no more. God is no longer condemning sin and sinners through that law, replaced by the new that is of such a nature, there is no remembrance of sin on the part of God.
Adventism thrives on sin; the sins of others who refuse to be dragged back to the old covenant ministration of condemnation and death.
In the New Covenant, our sins have been forgiven and forgotten. The true believers are given a new heart by God, where the fruits of the Spirit are such that the apostle Paul wrote that against such there is no law. Those led by the Holy Spirit cannot be charged with sin by a God who said He judges according to the heart. It is ludicrous in the extreme to conclude God would judge and condemn a person led now by the Holy Spirit in them with their “new” heart and “law” of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)
Those with a carnal heart; an evil heart, have the attributes that are the diametrically opposite of the fruits of the Spirit. Instead of humility, there is arrogance that leads them to believe they can keep the law and not sin. They overestimate themselves, so that the very law they opt for still condemns them in the end, where they avidly embrace it. Their own pulls of the flesh end up condemning them with the very thing they rely upon to prove otherwise.
The next time, it won’t be the Pharisees; keepers of the law and Sabbath, standing there condemning Christ. It will be Christ standing there, allowing the law they embraced to do the condemning of them. They believe in the law. They have faith in the law that it will not condemn them because they “keep” the law.
The Hebrews believed the same thing, and it is expressed in Psalms 44. They claimed to be keeping the law and bewildered why they were being punished as though they were not.
What was the condition of their collective hearts?
Deceitful. Desperately wicked. Stony. Evil hearts of unbelief when it came to God.
Don’t be banking on the law. The law can’t save you. The law cannot hear you. The law can only take your sins and condemn you with them, and all have sinned.
************
It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom. ; )
Acts 17:11
************
No comments:
Post a Comment