The Humble Study

The Jews were chosen by God and given His Law that was to govern their lives.  It contained the proper order of the worship of God, the designs for the tabernacle, priestly vestments and furnishings, outlined blessings for those who kept the Law and the curses for breaking the Law.  The authoritative word of God given to Moses and the people gave them the ability to know and assert objective difference between what was right and wrong.  The 10 Commandments were important commands and prohibitions in the Law of Moses that numbered more than 600.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 8:1, "Now concerning things offered to idols: we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies."  The Law identified the fashioning, worship and possession of idols to be a sin punishable by death.  It was very easy for Jews to look upon Gentiles with contempt for being given over to idolatry in their ignorance of God and His law.  What the Law did not explain in full, however, was idolatry is not limited to graven images made by craftsmen for veneration, but could be established by the love of self or anything rather than God in the hearts of men.  Jews who did not have images of Zeus, Jupiter or Diana and condemned those who did were not necessarily free of idolatry themselves.  Knowledge of the Law puffed many up and were themselves condemned by hypocrisy.

In my younger days I have been guilty of the same error as a person familiar with the Bible from childhood.  By exposure to the truth of scripture I became aware when a person in the Bible said or did something wrong and I took pleasure in identifying it with self-righteous scorn.  I would have done well to heed Psalm 1:1-2 in my Bible reading:  "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; ² but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night."  God did not give the Law for people to be puffed up but to be humbled by the scope and gravity of their own sin so they might repent.  The LORD has graciously provided His word to learn from the lives of others so we would follow the example of Jesus to walk in love and forsake the pattern of sin common to all other men.

While there are benefits to look back briefly upon our past decisions so we might learn from our mistakes, it is not possible to go back and change what we did.  It does us no good to use our Bible knowledge to criticise the sins of others in the scripture as a fault-finding exercise as if we do not need to repent of our sin or grow in love today.  It is hypocrisy to mock or scorn people for decisions that exposed their lack of faith when we are no better than they--and likely worse given the full revelation of God's word we read.  We ought to use our knowledge to edify the Body of Christ, and it is not loving to jibe or sledge people of faith whose failures are recorded because we fail and fall woefully short.  There's nothing funny about making fun of people God commends for their faith.  If there is humour to be found in a puffed-up approach to Bible study, it might be to realise whenever we did so the joke was on us.

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

What we believe has a major impact on what we do and how we live.  If I truly believed valuable gold coins were being sold in a shop for a fraction of their value, I would purchase all the stock I could.  But if believed them to be lead adorned with gold spray paint, I would not consider buying a single one.  While the cruel dictator rules with oppression the people feign reverence in the presence of his person and images.  Yet when they believe the cruel dictator is dead and beyond power to torture and murder them, they celebrate without fear when statues are torn down and images desecrated.  As beliefs in our minds are lived out, so spiritual realities have a practical impact on our decisions daily.

Paul wrote in Romans 6:8-11:  "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹ knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. ¹⁰ For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Christians are those who believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died on the cross and rose from the dead, and by faith in Him we are born again.  Because Jesus is risen from the dead, death has no dominion over Him.  This is the reality we appropriate by faith in Jesus practically:  we reckon (consider, credit) ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God.  Sin and death no longer have dominion over us because we are in Christ.

There is a difference between something being "dead to me" and I reckoning myself "dead unto" it.  To say something is dead to me acknowledges existence of the thing but I am choosing to treat it as if it does not, I don't care about it or want anything to do with it.  This won't prevent us coming into contact with the thing we are pretending is dead to us and it exerting sway over our minds or bodies.  To reckon myself dead unto a thing is quite another.  Everything and everyone in the world can continue as it is by I am not impacted by it at all.  Nothing can have a hold on me because I am dead:  I cannot be tried in a court of law, forced to pay a fine, or serve time in prison.  Paul says we are to reckon or consider ourselves dead to sin, and because we are dead in Christ sin wields no authority or governance over our decisions.  Having been raised to new life by faith in Jesus, we are to reckon ourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus our LORD.

Reckoning ourselves to be dead unto sin and alive unto Christ is not a mind game we play with ourselves, but is the spiritual reality of our new identity in Jesus by faith.  Romans 6:13-14 continues:  "And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴ For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."  Believing Jesus died and rose and again, we reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, alive to God and present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness.  Sin does not have dominion over us, yet because we live in bodies corrupted by sinful thoughts and desires we can imagine the only hope for us walking righteously is in the eternal state.  Paul destroys this foolish misconception.  By God's grace through faith in our risen LORD Jesus we can present ourselves to God as being alive from the dead.  Since we believe Jesus died and rose from the dead, on that basis we consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God.  Having been made righteous by faith, by His grace we yield ourselves to walk righteously.

Putting on Jesus Christ

We have a tendency as human beings to ascribe honour to what is undeserving and not give honour to whom it is due.  We credit a person with being a good teacher when it is Jesus Christ Who teaches them.  I have been to "holy sites" in Israel that are crawling with people (literally crawling!) to venerate slabs of stone believed that were  supposedly touched by the body of Jesus.  In the church I attended in my youth, effort was to prevent kids running or wearing hats in the sanctuary because it was "God's house," a place set apart for worship and ministry of the word.  It was easy to think being in that room meant you were closer to God than somewhere else--like in a movie theatre, bowling alley or video game arcade.

There were occasions in the scripture where the LORD told people to remove the shoes off their feet because they stood on "holy ground."  With childlike understanding I imagined Moses and Joshua happened by chance to wander onto a patch of ground that was somehow holy.  It was like the restaurant sign that said, "No shoes, no service."  It seemed as a prerequisite to walking on holy ground, shoes were not to be worn.  What I didn't understand was the ground was holy because the presence the holy God was there!  In the high priest's attire sandals or shoes were not mentioned, and thus many believe those who ministered in the tabernacle and temple did not wear them.  In every case when a person was instructed to remove their shoes, they did so without hesitation.

When Jesus was transfigured and His glory was revealed on the mount with Moses and Elijah, three disciples were with Jesus.  They awoke from sleep to behold Jesus shining like the sun, speaking about His decease and all He would accomplish in Jerusalem.  Not knowing what he was saying, Peter piped up it would be good to build 3 tabernacles, one for Jesus, Moses and Elijah.  He would have memorialised the spot when the presence of God the Father surrounded them.  Luke 9:35 said, "And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!"  The voice of Jesus, God-made-flesh, was to trump the voice of the Law and Prophets who spoke of Him.  Rather than setting up tabernacles that would likely become shrines of a moment or place in history, God directed His people to look to Jesus as their stand-alone Saviour.

It is intriguing after Jesus Christ the Son of God assumed human form and put sandals on his feet, there is no mention of holy ground.  Peter, James and John did not need to remove their sandals from their feet or even wipe the sleep from their eyes before beholding the glory of Jesus Christ.  Jesus has revealed the glory of God to us lost sinners, and by grace through faith we stand with feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.  We are not to put off the Holy Spirit, the spiritual armour He provides, His fruitfulness or gifts, for it is only through Him we are empowered to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Jesus.  It is ourselves we are called to put off having been made holy by spiritual regeneration:  by faith in Jesus it is by denying ourselves we discover the true, abundant life God provides by grace.  It is not places, things or people we are to venerate but Christ Whom we love, trust, follow and hear.

Rather than taking shoes off our feet to stand in God's presence Romans 13:12-14 tells us:  "The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. ¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts."  The shoes we wear or the life we lived before Christ did not lead us or result in us finding life, but putting on the LORD Jesus Christ by faith Who is our life is to walk in holiness.  Whether we are on a mountain or wearing shoes on our feet is of little consequence to our good standing before God by grace through faith.  Praise the LORD for all Jesus accomplished!

On Keeping the Law

"Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law."

Romans 3:31

The Law of Moses is good when used lawfully under the New Covenant established by Jesus Christ, for by Law is the knowledge of sin.  Unless there is a righteous standard in force that holds man accountable before God, there would be no righteous judgment of grace possible.  The Law's power to condemn a Christian has been nailed to the cross, even as our sin has been destroyed forever by atonement in Christ's blood.  We have been justified by faith and held to a higher standard than that of Law.  The fact Jesus did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill does not mean "Law-plus" for the Christian.  No one but Jesus ever kept the Law or even came close, nor does God call Gentiles to to live as Jews.  This was clearly established in the early church when Jewish believers were pushing circumcision and keeping the Law of Moses as necessary for salvation after people believed on Christ.

They were not saved by the works of the Law, but there was a legalistic draw for them to place upon others a yoke they nor their fathers were able to bear.  Did they forget what Jesus said about the Law on the Sermon on the Mount:  "It has been said...but I say unto you?"  Since Jesus is the substance, Christians are no longer obligated to keep the Law that was a shadow of the Righteousness Who has now been revealed.  We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone by God's grace.  Now if we do what is written in the law by faith in God we do not sin nor are condemned, but to lay this yoke or requirements upon others for salvation or good standing with God is clearly in error.  The Galatians returned to what Paul called the "beggarly elements" in their zeal without knowledge or consideration of all Jesus accomplished, and we can too.

To fail to keep the Law in one point means a person is guilty of breaking the whole Law.  Legalism is the demand placed upon others to keep the Law (usually picking and choosing because much of it is impossible to keep today regarding feasts, sacrifices, etc.) as the standard God has called us to live up to when Jesus leads us to go further.  Instead of merely honouring our father and mother God would have us also love them--including all our enemies.  The legalist pushes against lawlessness; antinomianism pushes against the idea God holds Christians accountable to any moral standard.  Antinomianism means "against Law," and this view discards the Law as completely irrelevant and unnecessary when it still is profitable to bring knowledge of sin, establishes a righteous standard for living, and magnifies God's grace.  God did not save us to keep the Law of Moses, nor are we to be lawless, immoral or use grace as a cloak for our sin.

Jesus has fulfilled the Law, added to it, and finished it.  It does not need to be kept (as far as legalistically followed as a means of earning good standing before God) but it should be kept (as in retained and considered) because it is God's word and His righteous standard that reveals man's sinfulness and need for a Saviour, leading us by the hand to Jesus as LORD.  Our confidence ought to shift from our efforts to keep the Law to our LORD Jesus Who fulfilled it, provided atonement for our sins, and gives us commands to obey.  Rather than keeping the letter of the Law, Jesus has given new commands founded upon His love.  1 John 5:1-3 says, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. ² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome."  Having been justified by faith, we are called to love God, one another and obey Jesus Christ.