BLUE VIEWPOINT
This one is so hard to address because there are so many levels. No one seems to want to find out what each stand they take really means.
After that, what does "Obedience to God" mean?
Take the first of the "only two commandments" listed above in the FACT box: "believe in Jesus". This is easy to do if you have no definition of who Jesus is and what He has done. I mean really, ask any believer if He loves God above all things and believes in Jesus. What will he/she say? "Of course, I do!" Now, ask them who God is. What will they say? Those answers will be all over the map, but the general answer will be something like, "He is the King of the Universe who loves and protects us from all harm. He sent His Son Jesus to die for us and save us from punishment for our sins." You might answer this a little differently, but, really, how much different would it be? In fact, stop for a minute and think about how you would answer this question. Now, after thinking about it for a minute, what does it mean to "obey" the God you just described in your thoughts?
Now, Who is your God?
Now, without panicking about the list below, see if you considered any the following attributes of the God we know from His word:
Creator of the universe and everything in it.
Maker of the rules - His rules.
Enforcer of the rules throughout human history.
Commander of armies sent to wipe out the pagan Gentile
nations so the Israelites could inhabit their lands.
One who sent prophets to His people because they never
followed His instructions for long
One who loved His people but sent plagues to remove the
belligerant and disobedient.
One who told us through the Old and New Testaments not to
follow the ways of the pagans in worshiping Him.
One who tells us through the New Testament authors that
certain types of people will not enter the Kingdom of
Heaven.
One who tells us through the New Testament that there will
be a judgment in the End of Time that will send the
disobedient to Hell (Lake of Fire).
One who tells us that the path to salvation is narrow and
there are few who find it.
Does this describe your God?
Of course, this is nowhere near a complete list, but did you include at least some of these in your thought process? What does it mean to "obey" the God described above? Is your God even close to the one we know from the Bible? Not just from one passage, or even a few selected passages, but the real God described in the whole Bible. Even after spending some time in the Bible, then listening to their pastors, many think of God as the Jesus who will save everyone who believes in Him - no matter what they believe about Him.
Everyone has their opinion, but...
Sure, everyone should be allowed their opinion, but if you are a gay or lesbian pastor, do you still have the opinion (as many do) that you will be saved by your Jesus while maintaining a lifestyle condemned in both the Old and New Testaments written by the same God you claim to believe in? Just because your opinion is shared by the majority of people around you, your opinion is not what will determine the final judgment. Not to make too fine a point of this, but, if it was, wouldn't that mean that God (and Jesus) is lying to someone - either to you or to me? That alone would make Him different than He who is described in the Bible.
Believe in the whole, real Jesus
No, I'm not just being flippant here. The lenient Jesus that many people believe in does not even exist. Now, this not saying that He is sending everyone to Hell for any slight disobedience. However, remember how He spoke to the Pharisees, Sadducees, and even His apostles when they strayed from the Bible truths or overloaded the people with burdens. He was very direct and abrupt with those who misled others about the word of God (Matt 23:16
"blind guides"
, Matt 23:17
"fools"
, Matt 23:27
"whitewashed tombs"
, Matt 23:33
"serpents" and "vipers"
, Luke 11:44
"hypocrites"
). There is no Jesus who says, "Everyone will be saved who believes in Me, even if they continue to disobey the commandments and living their sinful lifestyle.", or "Repent, be baptized, then continue in your life of sin. I have you covered." If that were the case, Heaven would look just like today's world - and that is not what we have been promised.
The real Jesus who was here on earth said to obey God's commandments and love your neighbor (Matt 19:16-23
The Rich and the Kingdom of God
16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
17 "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments."
18 "Which ones?" he inquired.
Jesus replied, " 'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.' "
20 "All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"
21 Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
). For those of you who say "He didn't mention the Sabbath, so we don't have to follow that any more!", He also didn't mention the first three commandments. Does that mean that we can ignore them?
We are not in charge
We cannot do anything to gain our salvation. However, there is much we can do to lose it. This is where trouble comes with the "love" Christians. They seem to feel that the New Testament takes away all the rules, leaving only a paper Jesus with no strength or will to follow His Father's clearly stated will.
Jewish Rabbi says "the law has been discarded"?
My wife has recently listened to the words of a Jewish Rabbi who preaches against the current validity of the Moses Covenant by using the book of Galatians, specifically chapter 3. We listened to one of his sermons and can see that he understands the deeper meaning of what the passages mean, but he is trying to get followers to completely discard the reason for the law beyond "keeping the Jews in line until Christ came". Once that happened, he says, the law was gone for good. Perhaps he is trying to get people to not depend on the law, but it sounds more like he is setting them free of any law.
My question is, how does he explain the statement in Galatians 6:1
1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
, the very book he uses to say the law is gone? If you remove the law, there is no such thing as sin or temptation to sin, but John disagrees with that assessment (1 John 3:4
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
). This is also in direct contradiction to Matt 5:18
For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
. Of course, after the rabbi made these statements, he pleaded for people to send in a generous donation to help their missionary efforts around the world.
But, Jesus says...
Now, what is the bottom line of this kind of preaching? Is no law effective after Christ came and died? If that is the case, then why would Christ refer to the law when answering the rich man's question about eternal life (Matt 19:18-19
18 "Which ones?" he inquired. Jesus replied, "'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"
)? Then, if this hints that the law still has purpose, what about what Paul has told us in Galatians 3:24-25
24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
? He said that the law guarded us until Christ, and that now we have no guardian. What are we to think about the law from this - is it gone?
Make sure the interpretation fits
Remember what Paul said about the "growing up" in Christ in 1 Cor 3:2-3
2I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
? This is the same context. The law was our guardian, teaching us the way. Until you attain the age of responsibility, you are responsible to the guardian. Now that Christ has come and we have the Holy Spirit, we should grow up and act like adults in Christ because we have learned the lesson of the guardian. The guardian is no longer there to spank us if we do wrong. Instead, many want to go back to being children who must be supervised, because they did not learn the lesson. That which the guardian taught us was sin is still sin, so we must become responsible for our own actions. To deny this is and say the law no longer matters is to make John a liar (1 John 3:4
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
).
In danger of too much repetition, one more that might tip the scales - how about what Jesus said in Matthew 5:18 -19
18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
? Looking around, most of us still see heaven and earth, and everything is still not accomplished. And it's verse 19 that really cements it. Jesus even predicted a future toward the end times when lawlessness would increase (Matt 24:12
Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. (NASB)
And the Interlinear Greek says:
). You can't have lawlessness without the law, as 1 John 3:4
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
told us. Based on the words of Jesus Himself, does it sound like the law was "done away with"? Which one of the commands would it be OK to ignore or set aside, based on these words of His? Dang, there's that pesky Will of the Father getting in the way again.
The Bible must hold together
What about an explanation that actually conforms to the statements of both Jesus and Paul, and fits with the context of the whole Bible? What if Paul is not saying that the law is no longer in effect here in this passage. If you read his words, he is saying that until Christ came, we needed the law to guide us in the will of God, so that when we wandered, we knew the way back. But, when Christ came, He offered us the salvation we seek directly from God, not leaving us hoping that we could get it from obedience to the law. However, Jesus did not tell us we could then continue to be lawless and still expect salvation. In fact, He remarked to his disciples about how hard it is for a rich man to get to eternal life. Not because the rich man did not have faith, but because he cared for the riches more than salvation, and could not follow the advice of Christ. The rich man's sadness was because he knew this truth. Paul is speaking to this same context.
Now, how about the second law of the "only two commandments" we have to follow: "Love your neighbor as yourself."? How well do we do at this one? Who is your neighbor? Some say that fellow Christians are the only ones meant here. Others, including Jesus, say that we should love all people - criminals, rapists, murderers, homosexuals, thieves, the guy/gal on the corner with the cardboard sign - everyone. This one is pretty easy to define - we are to love the same people that Christ loved when He was here - everyone.
Without judging
We can't say who will repent and join Christ and who will not, so we should not distinguish between them. Yep, that's what we should do. I don't know about you, but it's not so easy for me. I have trouble thinking love thoughts for the guy who slashed my tires or broke my car window. Well, I can think, "Jesus please help this person find You.", but I cannot go so far as to want to invite them into my home. I think we are expected to do just that, within reason, and not be like the rich man who loved his money more than eternal life.
We need help
So, we cannot keep the commands of God as Jesus said to do, and we cannot truly love our neighbor as He did, so how are we doing on the "only two commandments" we have to follow? Not to mention that the two commandments of Jesus are from the Old Testament (Deut 6:5
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
and Lev 19:18
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
), not the New, and are actually a summary of the Ten Commandments, not a new set of "freedom" sayings.
If you think that Jesus created the sayings anew, look at the quote marks and the reference in the margin (if your Bible has references) of your Bible for Luke 10:27. They indicate that He was quoting from the Old Testament - words straight from the Father as indicated in Deut Deut 6:1
These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,
(through Moses) and Lev 19:1-2
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy...
(direct quote from God). If that is the case and these have been around since the beginning, how can these two replace the Ten that the same Father wrote in stone? That seems pretty plain to me, but please, don't take my word for it. Look it up.
Disagree? Find an error? Contact us at glenjjr@gmail.com and give us your view.
