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Category: Discussion on Law

  • Book Extract: I only preach a relational theology

    Book Extract: I only preach a relational theology

    This post is part of our ongoing discussion of the law in scripture. It is extracted from Finding Stability in Uncertain Times by Ron Higdon.

    Finding Stability in Uncertain Times, pp. 89-90

    When Jesus was asked to give the greatest commandment in the Law, his reply essentially combined two Hebrew Scripture passages: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandments. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments (Matthew 22:37-40).

    In combining Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, Jesus refused to make religion solely a matter between a person and God. Th e Law (technically “the Law of Moses”) was never intended to
    prescribe ways in which we could be right with God without also being right with the people around us. Th e greatest commandment turns out to be about all relationships: with God, with my neighbor, with myself. Healthy religion (healthy spirituality) does not ignore any of the three.

    When I began my ministry and someone asked what kind of theology I had, I would reply, “I have a relational theology that encompasses the full spectrum.” Th e questioner was usually seeking a list of things I believed (and there are things on such a list) but I still contend that what God is most interested in for all of us is far more than correct belief. In my many different congregational experiences, I have frequently encountered those who had all their theological ducks in a row but didn’t have a positive relationship with many people around them. I often wanted to ask about their theology with these three questions: How are you doing with God?
    How are you doing with others? How are you doing with yourself? Simplistic, yes, but plainly shifting the focus to what life is all about.

  • Book Extract: The Story of Moses, Exodus, and Sinai

    Book Extract: The Story of Moses, Exodus, and Sinai

    This book extract is posted as part of our discussion on the law in scripture. It is extracted from Lee Wyatt’s book The Incredible Shrinking Gospel.

    Note: This section of the book is introduced as Jesus, as a child, hearing the stories of his people from Hebrew scripture.

    Freedom for God: The Story of Moses, Exodus, and Sinai

    Jesus continues to listen as his people’s story unfolds in a new chapter. Through the vagaries of history and under the providence of God, Abraham’s family ends up in Egypt under the sponsorship of Joseph (Jacob’s exiled son turned chief administrator of Pharoah’s empire) to weather a famine. After Joseph’s death, however, a new Pharaoh grew anxious at the Israelites’ increasing numbers and began oppressing them with harsh labor. The people cry out to God
    and God gives them Moses.

    Moses emerges as the Israelites’ leader and challenges Pharaoh to let his people go in the name of YHWH.71 After failed negotiations, a series of divine plagues do the trick and the people leave
    Egypt. Pharaoh changes his mind, however, chases them down, and soon the people are trapped – the sea behind them, Pharaoh’s troops in front of them. YHWH, however, delivers his people with a mighty act, opening the sea for his people to cross and then closing it back again on their Egyptian pursuers. After journeying for some time in the desert, Moses and the people arrive at Mt. Sinai.

    There God formally ratifies his relationship with them, establishing a covenant through Moses at the heart of which lie the Ten Words.72 These words constitute the people God has graciously chosen and redeemed as his distinctive covenant people among all peoples and nations, a people through whose life together God and God’s way will be made known to the world.73 The Ten Words form the distinctive life of the people around worship (the words or commandments
    prohibiting idolatry (basic issue), graven images (sin of and against the eyes), false language toward God (sin of and against the tongue), and Sabbath (sin of and against the body).

    And from this worship of YHWH flows the community life that pleases YHWH and reflects his character abroad (the remaining six Words). These Ten Words (and all the other laws given to Israel) are not requirements to merit salvation or gain entry into God’s people. God has already seen to that by calling Israel and redeeming the people from Egypt. Redemption has been accomplished; the relationship between YHWH and the people secured by his gracious love and mercy (formalized in the Abrahamic Covenant). The Ten Words guide the people in living out the proper response to such great salvation. As is sometimes said today, these commandments
    are not given for Israel to keep to “get in” to covenant with God, rather they are given to help them “stay in,” that is, function effectively and faithfully as God’s covenant people. Thus this Mosaic Covenant made at Mt. Sinai is conditional upon obedience to achieve its purposes of showing forth the life designed by God to the world. However, it is not determinative for salvation, that is, membership in the people of God.

    But what kind of world does God desire? What shape is human life to take? How are the Israelites to model this distinctive calling they have received to be the prototype of what YHWH intends for everyone?

    Hidden away in the book of Leviticus (and I say “hidden away” because so few people ever read Leviticus anymore), Jesus listens to a stunning and provocative display of the fundamental
    dynamics of the model Israel was to be for the world. So stunning and provocative, in fact, that Israel itself never quite managed to live it out. So powerfully did this Levitical vision mark Jesus that he picks up the substance and symbolism of this divine dream as the banner under which he marches as he announces and inaugurates the Empire of God. This model is known as the “Jubilee” laws and they are found in Leviticus 25.

    In essence, these laws required Israel as a society to build into its pattern of life legal mechanisms that, when practiced, would display YHWH’s compassionate justice as the only viable means to genuine human flourishing. These laws promote justice because they show right relationships functioning at every level of society. They are compassionate because they weave a network of these right relationships in which the well-being of the community is fostered only when everyone cares for the well-being of each other, especially the well-being of weak, vulnerable, and needy.

    The core of these laws requires a fundamental reorientation of Israel once every generation.74 First, slaves were to be freed. All were to have the chance to produce and contribute as they were gifted and able to the common future of Israel as God’s people. Second, all land was to be returned to the family to which it had been given when Joshua and his generation first settled the land. As the basic form of capital in an agrarian economy, land was fundamental to any hope of long-term economic viability. As a consequence, every fiftieth year, Israel was to economically empower each family to be productive members of the community. Haves and have nots were
    not to be a permanent of life in the community God desires. All this is, of course, rooted in the proper worship of YHWH.75

    You may well imagine that those who had benefited and grown comfortable throughout those forty-nine years might not be too anxious for such a “leveling.” And they would most likely have
    sufficient political and economic clout to sabotage it. And that apparently is just what happened. We have no evidence that the Jubilee was ever enacted. And we have only to look within our
    own hearts to know why! Nevertheless, the Jubilee remains “on the books” as God’s as yet unfulfilled dream for his people. And Jesus, once captivated by this monumental vision, could not help but cast his own vision as a reinterpretation of its imagery and substance for his “Empire of God” movement.76

    Footnotes

    71 The personal, covenant name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). Jews do not pronounce this sacred name but substitute “Lord” whenever it appears in the biblical text. I will use the four consonants without vowels to respect Jewish convictions concerning this
    word.

    72 Traditionally called the Ten Commandments though the Hebrew text of Exodus simply calls them the “ten words.”

    73 Deuteronomy 4:5-8.

    74 That is, after seven sabbatical years have passed, sabbatical years being every seventh year. Thus every fiftieth year was to be a Jubilee year. Or it could have been the forty-ninth year depending on how one reads the evidence.

    75 Leviticus 25:18.

    76 In this respect, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) might serve as Jesus’ basic reinterpretation of Jubilee.

  • Book Extract: Good Intentions

    Book Extract: Good Intentions

    This book extract is posted as part of the discussion on the law in scripture. It is taken from The Jesus Manifesto: A Participatory Study Guide to the Sermon on the Mount.

    Jesus says, “I come, not to abolish, but to fulfill.” It seems hard to tell the difference. In either case, they are ended. Fulfilling the law means completing it, accomplishing it, perfecting it, thus end- ing it. After saying this, Jesus gives six examples, “You have heard it said, but I say unto you … ” Do not murder becomes do not be angry, do not commit adultery becomes do not lust. Laws regarding divorce, oaths, revenge and loving are at least reinterpreted if not done away with.

    In a sense, Jesus is using the second of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People:
    “Begin with the end in mind.” Remembering the point and purpose of the law, the spirit and not just the text.

    Choosing to obey is a conscious decision. We live in the midst of widespread lawlessness.
    Corporations ignore commonly accept- ed accounting principles, industry standards and environmental impact for the sake of the bottom line. Do we always come to a full and complete stop at the intersection or do we slow down and roll through? How many cars go through an intersection after the light has turned red? I’ve counted as many as six! How many times, and by what speed, do we exceed the posted speed limit? All of these seemingly minor daily choices decide if we are law abiding or lawless.

    The Jews had 613 laws to observe and obey. I lived for a while in a neighborhood near an Orthodox synagogue. Every Friday af- ternoon driveways would fill up with out of town cars as family arrived for the Sabbath observance. Driving on the Sabbath was forbidden and walking was restricted. I attended a class in seminary led by a rabbi. For our final session, he invited us to his synagogue for a tour and a meal. When the entrée was presented we knew immediately he was Reformed; he served a beef and cheese casserole. In strict kosher, meat and milk dishes must remain totally separated, in preparation and in serving. One of my New Testament professors spent some time in Israel and explained that the elevators stopped on every odd-numbered floor. On the Sabbath, he could get out on the 5th floor and walk down to his apartment on the 4th, but he could not get out on the 3rd and walk up a flight — too much work!

    Jesus says “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” Paul writes in Romans 14 that some may honor one day over another and others observe all days the same, some account some food unclean and others consider all foods clean. Peter’s vision is recorded in Acts 10, where God says “Don’t call anything I have made unclean!”

    The law on writing goes into great detail, regarding which hand is used, what liquid is used, what
    language is used or what is written upon, if two letters can be read together, it is a sin.
    Different examples of unlawful writing are described. Only if the writing is not permanent might it
    not be unlawful. This is only one of the 613 laws; there are 612 to go!

    Of course, we could keep all 613 and still be a grouch. Keeping track of them all might in itself
    make us a grouch. Jesus’ one law is the law of love: love God, love your neighbor, love yourself,
    love one another. We can’t love and be a grouch!

    Marcus Borg’s Conflict, Holiness and Politics in the Teachings of Jesus explains that Jesus and the
    Pharisees agreed on the call to and the importance of holiness. They disagreed on what was holiness. The Pharisees held that purity was holiness, and so separated themselves from others. Jesus believed compassion was holiness, and therefore went out to and welcomed all.

    When Jesus says, “You have heard it said, but I say,” he raises the bar; he calls us to a higher
    code, a greater standard. Jesus says intention counts as much as action, that what goes on inwardly is as important as what goes on outwardly. He calls us to be authentic, to be true to ourselves.

    We’ve heard the expression, “Your actions speak so loud I cannot hear your words.” How we behave is more important than, and a truer statement of, what we believe. Jesus challenges us to end the law, not by abolishing it but by accomplishing it, even in our hearts.

    In the Kevin Costner movie, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, there is a line from Morgan Freeman’s
    character, Azeem the Magnificent, “There are no perfect men in this world, only perfect
    intentions.” No perfect actions, only perfect intentions. I doubt it. I doubt that I have ever had
    perfect intentions. Even in obeying the speed limit. I see myself as a patriotic American and law-abiding citizen and a good role model. I also don’t want to get caught! If I have mixed intentions
    in deciding how fast to drive, I have mixed intentions in everything.

    Jesus calls us to resonance, to allow God to sound through us. “Let your ‘Yes’ be yes and your ‘No’ be no.” As questions of obedience reveal the complexity of our will, the Law reveals the clarity of God’s will. “Will” means the longing, yearning, desiring of God. When I think of “law,” I think of something cold, uncaring, implacable. When I think of the yearning and desiring of God, I think of something warm, soft, loving, and living. Let the law live, let it be written not on tablets of stone but the tablets of our hearts.

    Jesus does not dispense with obedience, rather he invites it to be our loving response to God’s
    loving desire for us, offering a new life, new way, new world, where our daily lives bear true
    obedience even as a tree bears good fruit. Jesus invites us to resonance, where our lives
    reverberate with the yearning of God, where intention and action are in sync, where will and
    witness are one, where the inner and the outer match.

    Jesus also invites us to reverence, to fulfilling the law and the prophets, to respecting the law
    and the gospel, to see the law of God as the love of God. Reverence means great respect, honor,
    even affection. We are called to revere our brother and sister, our accuser
    and guard, the stranger and our spouse. Reverence for all life.

  • Book Extract: Paul and James on Salvation and the Law

    Book Extract: Paul and James on Salvation and the Law

    This extract is from pages 62-63 of Alexander Stewart‘s book Perseverance and Salvation in the Areopagus Critical Christian Issues series. It is posted as part of the discussion on the law.

    It is an irony of history that the only place in the Bible where the battle-cry of the Protestant Reformation, “faith alone” (sola fide), explicitly occurs is James 2:24, a text which plainly says the
    exact opposite.

    Is James right or is Paul right? Many Christians since the Protestant Reformation have clearly chosen Paul over James, but I have been arguing in this chapter that there is no reason to choose between them. They are both contained within the New Testament and neither should be used to marginalize the other. We desperately need to hear both messages. This is the diversity of Scripture whereby different authors wrote to different audiences at different times for different purposes.

    James wrote to people who claimed to have faith but used their faith as an excuse for laziness and inaction. James makes the strong point that a faith that is not accompanied by a transformed
    life is empty and useless. On the other hand, Paul wrote to mixed Jew/Gentile churches
    who were struggling with the relationship of works, particularly the works of the law, to salvation. The particular challenge in Paul’s context is the claim that Jewish works of the law were required
    in order to be right with God and be included within the people of God. Paul strongly argues that such works are not required for justification, but that God justifies all (Jew and Gentile) on the
    basis of faith in Jesus Christ with no requirement of works. Paul very strongly elsewhere focuses on the necessity of good works in the life of a believer (“the obedience of faith” in Romans 1:5; 16:26; “created in Christ Jesus for good works” in Ephesians 2:10; “work out your own salvation” in Philippians 2:12).

    Despite the different audiences, the reconciliation of James and Paul should not depend on the way they use the words “faith,” “works,” and “justify” with different meanings. Paul’s argument
    against works cannot be limited completely to the ceremonial and ritual works of the law, and Paul and James’ understanding of final justification is basically equivalent. It is true that Paul would never have conceived of saving faith as mere intellectual assent to orthodox doctrine (see the demons of James 2:19), but that point by itself does not result in reconciliation.

    I propose that the key to reconciliation should rather be sought in recognition of the distinction between merit and grace. Paul’s broad argument is directed against meritorious works: works engaged in to merit, deserve, or earn justification and salvation. This is what Paul seems to be opposing in Titus 3:5: “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Salvation is not by human
    achievement or righteous works. We do not and never will deserve it. It is based solely on God’s mercy and grace.

    James’ teaching seems to make works equal in importance to faith in the reception of salvation, but denies merit to both faith and works. Salvation is God’s choice and gift (James 1:18). Paul
    likewise often positively linked faith and non-meritorious works (Romans 1:5; 2:6–8; 6:17–18; 1 Corinthians 13:2; Galatians 5:6; 6:7–10; 1 Thessalonians 1:3). This solution seems to offer the best
    hope of emphasizing the unity of Paul and James without distorting the clear thrust of James’ words.

  • Book Extract: Forgive as We Are Forgiven

    Book Extract: Forgive as We Are Forgiven

    The following is an extract from pages 34-35 of Ultimate Allegiance: The Subversive Nature of the Lord’s Prayer by Robert D. Cornwall. It is posted here as background for the ongoing discussion on the law in scripture.

    To start with Luke, the Greek word used here is hamartia. This is, in contrast to Matthew’s usage, theological language. It speaks of falling short of God’s expectations or breaking divine laws. When we think of sins, we think of our relationship with God and the ways in which we break God’s laws. But if God is forgiving us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us – how would another person sin against us? Could it be words spoken in anger? Slurs against the character of another? Gossip? Perhaps, our understanding of Jesus’ usage here is illuminated by looking to the words of an earlier teacher, the Wisdom of Sirach:

    Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray.

    Sirach 28:2

    Although the words of Sirach seem more conditional than do those of Jesus, both suggest that our own condition is related to how we deal with the other. Once again, we hear the communal nature of this prayer, which subverts our sense of self-sufficiency or, at the very least, the individualism of our spiritual experiences of God (Culpepper, “The Gospel of Luke,” 9:235).

    Matthew’s use of the word debts (opheilemata – Greek), suggests economic implications or perhaps questions of loyalty. It could be said that, at least in regard to God, we stand indebted to God for all that we are and all that we have as human beings. This would include our own identity, which comes to us as a gift of God. If this is true, then we owe God our loyalty, our gratitude, our very lives. But how do we forgive the debts owed to us? In thinking about this question, the situation in Haiti seems illustrative.

    Here is a nation that has lived in deep poverty from the day of its birth. Then a natural disaster, in the form of a massive earthquake, added to the nation’s already overwhelming misery. Even as people
    from around the world, including thousands of church people, contributed to its relief, questions were raised as to how a country could find itself in such dire straits. Reading the history of Haiti, one discovers that the nation had mortgaged its future simply to break free from French rule. Over time, due in part to embargoes and poor leadership, the nation’s debts continued to grow. As a result, it had to give away even more of its natural resources in order to pay this accumulating debt. At this point in time, it would
    seem that the only way for this country to break free of its misery is for the debt-holding nations to follow the injunction of this prayer and forgive its debt. To forgive a debt is to set another free.

    One need not go to Haiti to find examples close to home. As I write this, the United States (along with much of the world) is facing a severe financial crisis. There are untold numbers of people, good law-abiding and honest people, who find themselves no longer able to pay their mortgages or owing far more on their mortgage than their homes are now worth. As a result, many are simply walking away from their homes, leaving the homes and their investments in the hands of the banks. The issue of debt has significant implications for people of faith. If we have been forgiven our debts by a gracious God, how should we handle the debts of those who are indebted to us?

  • Keeping the Law

    Keeping the Law

    This post was written by Pat Badstibner of World Prayr, editor/compiler of Energion title Walking in God’s Grace. It is a response to one of the posts linked in our online discussion on law in scripture.

    This is a response to Bob Cornwall’s post titled COVENANT RULES AND REGULATIONS – SERMON FOR LENT 3B (EXODUS 20).

    First, I want to thank Bob for laboring over this sermon and then sharing it on his blog. Bob shares some good insights here. Right off the bat, Bob hits on an excellent point. “The God who created the universe is a Covenant-Making God… We’re included in this covenant through our faith in Jesus.”

    What a wonderful truth of Hope given here! According to 1 Peter, this promise has been extended to us through Christ our Lord… (1 Pet. 2:9). Bob’s final paragraph is a challenging and encouraging mouthful of truth. I’m grateful that Bob included this statement; “Jesus, who didn’t reject the Torah but embodied it in His life, death, and resurrection. In doing this, Jesus showed us how we could love God and love our neighbors.” By doing so, Bob has opened the door to allow me to develop an overriding concern.

    Differing Foundations

    Bob and I might share the same conclusion. But, I question if our foundations are not different. Foundations are established by whether we conclude that we are doing for our relationship with God or resting in the assurance that our relationship with God is a done deal. Since Bob starts with the covenant established through the Ten Commandments, let us begin there to laying out the standards, “the demanding and commanding.’’ God expects us to perform these rules and regulations. A standard, when changed, changes the character of God to one of not being so “demanding and commanding. I am thankful to Bob for also sharing that quote from Rabbi Barry Schwartz.

    It makes the following commandments subjective to each person’s understanding of life and life experiences. Rather than that of a “demanding and commanding God,” it is a standard established by the “fully” in Exodus19:5-6, and elsewhere we find the word “all” (Deuteronomy 6:5, Ezekiel 14:6, 1Corinthians 10:31). In the tenth paragraph, Bob shares the following: “Besides, these rules aren’t all that burdensome. Yes, most of them start with the words “do not,” but they are straightforward. Do not make idols or misuse God’s name. Do not steal, commit adultery, or lie about your neighbor. As for the Sabbath, it reminds us to take a break from our labor. But as Rabbi Barry Schwartz reminds us, according to the Torah, “the demanding and commanding God is first and foremost the liberating God.”

    Easy, Non-Taxing, Not Oppressive

    In this paragraph, I find that Bob and I, might build that conclusion on different foundations while coming to the same conclusion. Let us begin with the first statement; “Besides, these rules aren’t all that burdensome.” I think it is necessary first to describe the word burdensome. Merriam- Webster defines burdensome as; “imposing or constituting a burden. That’s oppressive!” Google dictionary defines burdensome as; “difficult to carry out or fulfill; taxing.”

    The standard we gave takes this definition a step further and provides us with a meaning of the word burdensome as posing impossibility. In Matthew five, Christ gives us a deeper understanding of these rules and regulations. The first thing we should note is that they were so straightforward and burdenless that He encouraged us to follow the example of the Pharisees whose righteousness He praised.

    It did not quite happen that way, as Christ cranked up the requirements (Matthew 5:17-48). As He finishes laying out His explanation of the Mosaic Law, He sums everything up with two words, “BE PERFECT.” If all that was needed to maintain these rules and regulations was external obedience, then the Pharisees had it nailed down.

    Just Don’t Externally Commit

    Nonetheless, while praising their external obedience, Christ said that their outward obedience was merely paint covering the fact that their heart and the motivation behind the obedience itself possessed no life (Matthew 23:27-28.). Pointing to the fact that mere external obedience was not enough, something more was required. Perhaps, therefore the Torah quotes Moses as saying that God wants all our heart and mind. (Deuteronomy 6:5).

    It implies that God wants everything that is us, our very essence, including down to our deepest desire. Perhaps, therefore Rabbi Schwartz defined God as “demanding and commanding.” Giving us quite possibly a contradiction with Bob’s “isn’t burdensome.”

    Paul also elaborates on the Law’s burden, as he tells us that the Law accuses and kills (2 Corinthians 3:6; Romans 2:15). Suppose we are to believe that the Law is easy to carry out and fulfill its demands. In that case, we must also accept that our ability to do so would also allow us to maintain rightness with God and maintain our relationship with God. Yet, Paul’s very words and life testimony tell us something else (Romans 7).

    Life Says Wait A Minute

    Paul also tells us that the Law always produces the opposite of what it intended (Romans 7:10). He further exposes that these “rules and regulations” were never meant to sustain our relationship with God or any covenant (Galatians 2:14-21). The burden of the cross also supports the impossibility of these commands. We like to take the cross’s beauty and highlight what it accomplished, but the cross’s brutality is just as significant as it supports these Laws’ burdens.

    Finally, from the fall to Noah, to David, to the old testament prophets and continuing throughout the New Testament, we find one consistent truth; a truth that has remained pervasively consistent throughout the history of humanity, including our own lives. Christ showed absolutely no hesitation in believing that we will always break these commandments. He was not just convinced we would continuously break them; He was an optimistic pessimist about our ability ever to keep one to the standard God “demanded and commanded.”

    Heart Issues

    This is time to look at another part of Bob’s statement.” Yes, most of them start with the words “do not,” but they’re pretty straightforward.” The first issue with this statement is the keeping of these commandments. Like Christ and the Apostle John noted about keeping them that it was not just external obedience, but a heart deep motivation issue of the heart (See Matthew 16:19; 1John 1:15).

    The second issue with the statement is that there is an opposite do for every do not; and vice-versa. Pointing to the truth that the things we omit or fail to do are as much a failure to keep these commandments as those things we commit. We call these sins of omission.

    In other words, it is not enough to cuss someone out who just cut you off in traffic. The thought or desire should not have entered in our desires or minds (1John 1:15). In, the fact you should have blessed the other driver by praying for them (Matthew 5:44). So, right there, in the heat of the moment, your deepest desire should be to follow the example of Christ and to glorify God by praying for the idiot who cut you off.

    This points that the truth found within the first Law is the confirmation that it is not enough to morally and willfully choose to do or not do these things, but we must desire to want to do or not do these things. Everything that is us, our very core, down to deepest desires, must want to do. Let’s take a look at a couple of these Laws. So, let’s look at a couple of these Laws.

    “Don’t make idols.”

    An idol is anything you trust to make life right, easier, better, find solace in, or give you pleasure apart from God. Since the fall, our chief idol has been self, ‘Me, me, and me.’ I deserve, I am entitled to, or there is this, I am offended. Whenever I find my value, worth, significance, and identity in something other than Christ, I will make it an idol. After all, the heart wants what the heart wants.

    Is pleasure or comfort the key to life? You may have an idol. Do you need everything to fit, be in order, work out the way you think it should for life to be right? Maybe you are worshipping the idol of control? Always working to please others, fear their disapproval or displeasure, the idol of approval may be tugging at your heart.

    That must have morning coffee, wine for dinner, binge TV program, gardening moment, exercise burn, or anything else that is needed to give you that burst, calming, soothing, relaxing moment or that enables you to cope may be an addiction. All addictions are signals that our hearts and affections are leaning toward other lovers. Not all idols are bad things. Tim Keller calls an idol a counterfeit god: “A counterfeit god is anything so essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.”

    “As for the Sabbath, it reminds us to take a break from our labor.”

    Now, this one sounds easy right, do not do anything on Sunday. There is a reason the first commandment is thou shall not have any other God’s. If you cannot keep the first one, you will fail at all the others. There is a reason James said if you break one, you break them all (James 2:10). Self is the biggest idol we have; self-sufficiency and dependence result in our inability to rest from our labor. Our identity, value, worth, and significance are tied to proving that we are valuable contributors to the community and society.

    We should do that, but OUR identity, value, worth, and significance should only be found in Christ. When it is not, we will not know the heart and emotional rest. The biggest addiction the idol of self has is self-righteousness.

    When we are laboring to be seen as having the right stuff, and enough exhaustion and busyness will be our default, not rest. It is not that work is bad; God established work. The failure is found in our motivation that keeps us from fully knowing emotional, spiritual, and physical rest from proving and establishing. When we struggle to believe we are loved unconditionally and entirely by God, rest will always escape us. When accomplishment drives us, performance will be the lover that always needs more.

    “All day long we hear loud voices that demand ‘Prove you are worth something; do something relevant, spectacular, or powerful, then you will earn the love you so desire.’” -Henri Nouwen

    We are all do-it-yourselfers, as we try to prove ourselves capable. We all want a sense of belonging and knowing we are loved. If we do not find these things in Christ, we will falsely believe that it is up to us to prove we are worthy of belonging and loved. Escaping us even on the Sabbath will be emotional and spiritual rest as we continue in our labors to belong and be loved.

    Deep And Wide

    Each commandment is far more profound than anything that should be labeled straightforward. They were meant to be burdensome and impossible so that they would continually push the Israelites towards God. If they had been easy to do, then their addiction to self-righteousness would have feasted on their ability to do them over others, just like ours.

    Instead, they were meant to draw hearts away from the idol of self. They were given an impossibility factor to draw souls to hear again and again of the incredible rescue. Creating within them and us a greater thirst to hear of God’s love for us, continually and serving as reminders that just as the wilderness was not the home of the Israelites, this is not our home.

    Our Journey Of Freedom

    Not living from knowing that God has established the relationship, we have been set free and are deeply loved and treasured is the first sin. The sin makes it impossible to be obedient in the “commanding and demanding” God requires. The Law given was more than just a set of simplified “rules and regulations.” They were meant to reveal us, to show need, and to point us who are faithless, selfish, and weak to the God who is faithfully pursuing hearts. In this regard, the “commanding and demanding” God establishes the covenant based on Himself and then reveals the way out of the imprisonment they had known in Egypt.

    The loving, graceful God was giving not restrictions but invitations to the life of freedom.  As we learn to live not for the establishment of a covenant or relationship with God, but in the secure knowledge that through Christ it has been established is when we realize the freedom found in Christ’s words that His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). We discover what the Apostle John meant when He said that God’s Laws are not burdensome. He pointed out that they bring freedom as they establish the boundaries of slavery and freedom (1John 5:3). When living from belonging and being known, these impossibile laws become guides towards Bob’s conclusion in this post.

    “Christianity is not a religion; it is the announcement of the end of religion. Religion consists of all the things (believing, behaving, worshiping, and sacrificing) the human race has ever thought it had to do to get right with God. About those things, Christianity has only two comments to make. The first is that none of them ever had the least chance of doing the trick: the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins (see the Epistle to the Hebrews), and no effort of ours to keep the Law of God can ever succeed (see the Epistle to the Romans). The second is that everything religion tried (and failed) to do has been perfectly done, once and for all, by Jesus in his death and resurrection.”

     Robert Capon, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus

  • The Standard of the Law

    The Standard of the Law

    This post is part of our discussion on the law. Bruce Epperly’s article on the lectionary for the third Sunday in Lent was cited as a related article.

    This is a response to Bruce Epperly post titled “The Adventurous Lectionary -The Third Sunday in Lent” found here
    https://www.patheos.com/blogs/livingaholyadventure/2021/02/adventurous-lectionary-the-third-sunday-in-lent-march-7-2021/

    I want to thank Bruce for laboring over this article. Bruce’s article contains a lot of sound wisdom and encouragement. Alas, though, I do have some concerns. Let me start first, though by Despite all the things that brought that encouragement for me in Bruce’s words. Let’s start right at the beginning.

    Let me quote my Kenyan pastor friend, Joseph Koech, “Amina,” regarding this statement; “Awe and gratitude lead to a joyful life and enable our words and meditations to bring healing and wholeness to the world. God intends…in our personal and public lives.”

    There are many points I agree with here and find encouraging.

    I do have a few concerns, though, and an interesting thought. Let me start with my concerns. Though I find agreement within the following statement, I also want to stress that a note of importance goes along with this statement from my viewpoint.
    “Calls forth our fidelity and relationship with God and each other.”

    Needed here is a concerted effort to stress that God’s covenants are self-contained, meaning that God establishes covenants based on His character. He is faithful to keep his covenants because it pleases and glorifies him to do so. While they should elicit a response from us, they are independent of that response.

    The absence of this truth leads one to believe in a God whose actions are not sovereignly self-determinative but reliant on the created’s actions. Hosea chapter 3 and Romans chapters 8-11speak contrary to this. This concern may or may not have led to my next concern.

    I was perplexed using; “the people need to live up to the values of holiness.” If by “need to,” Bruce means to encourage the right response, then I can say, “Amina,” but if Bruce by “need to,” we have to do these to keep the right relationship or favor with God, then I merely echo Paul’s words in Galatians 2:14-21. While we are still under a covenant of works with our fellow man, we have been under a covenant of grace since Genesis 3, after the fall. Not to mention that the standard is one impossible to live.       

    I would have liked to have seen clarity here by stressing the standard for these same commandments: is not try hard, do your best, or give it all you got. Instead, the standard is found in the; “all” of Deuteronomy 6:5, the “Be Perfect” of Matthew 5:48, the “all” of 1Corinthians 10:31, and the “Be Holy” of 1Peter 1:16 as it is this standard that gives credence to the impossibility of the Law’s demand. An impossibility that led Paul to say as much in Romans 3:23, a standard that settles for nothing short of complete and utter heart-motivated perfect obedience

    There is no freedom in living to sustain a rightness or to stay in good favor with God. Such freedom is found living in response to the knowledge of the truth found in Galatians 4. Where I find I have gone from slave to child through no effort on my behalf. I’m blessed to call Almighty God Abba because of the actions of another.

    In this way, we see that the deliverance of the Israelites is a typology of Christ, pointing to our redemption. Before God gave a single command, He established without a shadow of the doubt that the people were to live from knowing He was their God (Exodus 20:2). They did not confirm this. He did. Just as today, as Paul reveals throughout Galatians that God, through the cross, establishes this about us, and we live in response. 

    Now I’m free to follow the wonderful encouragement Bruce gave not because I “need to,” but because it is the only right response. When my choice to live according to the encouragement Bruce gave is not a response to perfect love, it possibly leads to my last point.

    I wonder if our surprise at this truth “how many lies I hear invoked by political pundits, politicians, and posts on Facebook” doesn’t reveal something more about us than them (Romans 2:1-5). I question myself every time I am shocked by the sins of another. I wonder if it doesn’t reveal a misunderstanding of God’s moral, eternal, and natural Law. A Law that tells us that Jeremiah (Jeremiah 17:9) was right and that our hearts are no different than the Jewish believers whose hearts Paul addressed in Romans 1-3.

    I realize that Paul’s lament in Romans 7:14-24 is my own, and finding agreement with Chesterton in that “I Am” what is wrong with the world, I am less stunned. When I’m surprised by the wickedness in the world, I realize I’m being awakened to the remaining self-righteousness in me. This then helps me understand that there is a reason why the word labor was used in John 6:29.

    Other than then these concerns, I find, as shared, encouragement in Bruce’s words.
    Thanks again, Bruce.

  • The Law Is Not Soggy Cornflakes

    The Law Is Not Soggy Cornflakes

    This post is being reposted in response to my friends Alden Thompson and Elgin Hushbeck in the discussion on the law. Their posts to be found here
    https://www.energiondirect.info/2021/03/22/the-law-as-gospel/
    and here
    https://hushbeck.com/blog/2021/03/alden-thompson-and-the-law-as-gospel/

    Both have addressed a significant area of contention with me, the issue of Christians neglecting the Law’s distinct purposes. While I believe they addressed the need for the Law in the believer’s life, I think Alden’s title may point to the fact that greater clarity may still be needed regarding the need to separate the gospel from the Law, allowing both to retain their distinctiveness. As the gospel is not Law, and the Law is not the gospel.

    I do want to thank them both for pointing out the importance of this issue. Elgin raised the question of how to produce the love the Law commands? I believe this question gives further credence to the importance of this discussion.

    For me, the answer is found in retaining the bark of the Law. As it chases us to the gospel where we discover we are loved, and the knowledge of that brings that love out of us (1 John 4:10-19).

    This is also why both the gospel and the Law are needed daily like daily vitamins.

    I have dealt with these issues more extensively in God’s Law Is Not Soggy Cornflakes.

    God’s Law Is Not Soggy Corn Flakes
  • The Invincible Obedient

    The Invincible Obedient

    This book extract is posted in the series Discussing the Law in Scripture. See that page for a detailed directory of articles in this discussion. The initial article in that discussion is The Law as Gospel.

    https://www.energiondirect.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Weston_invicible_obedient.pdf
  • Steve Kindle on the Purpose of the Law

    Steve Kindle on the Purpose of the Law

    It appears that neither Israel, Luke, or the Revelator got it right (John anticipating it happening in his lifetime). Now some 2,000 years since the Jesus movement began, can we say that the church got it right?

    Steve Kindle, The Law’s Inevitable Tension between Ideal and Reality

    Steve’s post is included in our discussion of the law in scripture. A directory is included there.

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