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  • What Was the Law Intended to Do?

    What Was the Law Intended to Do?

    A Response to Steve Kindle

    This post is part of our series, Discussing the Law in Scripture. It is written in response to Steve Kindle’s article The Law’s Inevitable Tension between Ideal and Reality.

    Steve makes a bold and faithful statement here in this article “As noted by scholars from Von Rad, Noth, to Bruggemann, the Law was given as an act of loving grace.” At the same time, this statement is troubling “Has God another plan in mind? Given God’s ability to change direction due to facts on the ground, we can only surmise and for some of us, even hope.”

    I want to explore this last statement a little further and possibly recapture HOPE by offering an alternative view to Steve’s final statement. Steve’s article alludes to the fact that the law failed to deliver what it was purposed to do. Still, I believe it can be proven that the Law was never given to establish a covenantal relationship. Instead, it was given to guide the people as they lived in that covenantal relationship.

    In the above statement, Steve states that God is subject to man’s failures and changes direction out of response. Yet, I think that scripture, including Deuteronomy, points to a sovereign and determinative God. Let’s follow Steve’s leadership and look at Deuteronomic Theology.

    The name of the book Deuteronomy comes from (deutero = second; nomos = law) and is often labeled “a second giving of the law.” This label, coupled with a misunderstanding of the Law and its purposes, creates a misunderstanding of the book. Adding to that confusion is the evocative image chapter seven conjures up of God as a warrior. A word picture was given to the Israelites just as an eagle, shepherd, and parent.

    It is not meant to be descriptive of character but to understand how God acts. Steve quotes Old Testament scholar Walter Bruggemann. Bruggemann advises caution in dismissing the parts of Deuteronomy that present terrifying texts or using them to redefine God’s character. Instead, we should contextualize them by seeing within the historical context of a vicious period and reflects the realities of such times. At the same time, we should see a God whose character portrays wrath.

    The depiction of God’s wrath, rather than being seen as problematic, should be seen as foreshadowing that something more was needed than the Law. Deuteronomy is a book about image-bearing and God calling His people to reflect His glory. At the same time, it Introduces new concepts and a way of living to the Israelites. The book reveals the gospel as defined by showing who God is, what He has done, doing, and doing.

    Deuteronomy contains three sermons from Moses that are meant to give the Israelites a sense of identity. Along with revealing God’s rescuing, forgiving, redeeming, restoring, and sovereign, loving grace. It is the first book to give a face to the covenant established by God.

    The majority of the book and its central theme present the Law (Deuteronomy 5-26) and the consequences of failure (Deuteronomy 27-30). Notice that I start with the Law beginning in chapter five; the first four chapters are a refresher course on God’s goodness, as defined above, presents the gospel. There is also another kind of grace we see that is part of God’s sovereign, loving grace and warning grace.

    Deuteronomy 6:10-12 gives us a beautiful example of that warning grace as Moses tells the Israelites; “You’re going to go into a land that
    you didn’t get by your power, in houses that you didn’t build, in fields that you didn’t plant.” and then “You’re going to forget the God who gave all those things to you, and you’re going to worship false gods.”

    The first eight chapters reveal to us a God who is not subject to the creation, but is determinative, and sovereign (1:6-8, 13-I4, 22-23, 27, 31, 34-39, 2:2-3, 13-14, 17-25, 29-33, 36, 3:2-3, 18, 21-28, 4:1O-13, 19-20, 31, 34-38, 5:6, 30-33, 6:10, 7:1-2, 6-16, 8:6-10, 13-18). Chapters four to six specifically reveal that it is because of the covenant God had made with Adam and Abraham that the Israelites had been brought out of Egypt to travel to the promised land (4;34-38 5:6, 6:10-11.). Then out of a response to God’s sovereign, determinative love, they were to live.

    Deuteronomy tells of the death of Moses. Moses carries significance in the Bible and literary and historical documents across the globe. Noting Moses’s importance is essential in understanding that like all O.T. characters, such as Noah, Jacob, and David, Moses is a typology (In Biblical exegesis topologies help us connect the Old Testament to the New Testament. [Luke 24:27]). Christ is the better Moses (Hebrews 3:3-4).

    Whereas Moses failed because of sin to deliver his people to the promised land, Jesus is the way into the promised land. Christ, though, doesn’t brush aside either Moses or the Law. When asked the greatest commandments, He quotes Moses (Deuteronomy 6:5-6 [Matthew 22;37-40])—establishing a connection to himself, Moses, and the Law while establishing authority. As He points to what the Jews called their Shema, the first prayer every Jew learns.

    He doesn’t dismiss the Law as a plan once tried unsuccessfully but instead establishes that the Law was to be followed as a response to the covenant first established with Adam (Genesis 3:14-15) and Abraham (Genesis 15-17). Faced with temptation, Jesus quotes the Law, as He quotes Deuteronomy 8:3.

    More than eighty times, the apostles cite Deuteronomy, revealing the continuity of scripture. Noteworthy is Paul’s referencing Deuteronomy in his Gospel opus, Romans. The apostle Paul draws on Deuteronomy to show how the Law points out sin (Romans 7:7; Romans 10:6–8, 19 [Deuteronomy 30:12–14]). Paul further connects that the Law guides and teaches us how to love our neighbor (Romans 13:9 [Deuteronomy 5:17–19, 21]). Continue to connect his gospel thesis to Deuteronomy by stressing not to seek personal revenge (Romans 12:19 [Deuteronomy 32:35]) and that the Gentiles would be included (Romans 15:10 [Deuteronomy 32:43]).

    In reviewing Paul’s continuity, it makes other things Paul said relevant to our understanding of the Law found in Deuteronomy.  Beginning with noting that the issue wasn’t the Law, it was that the Law could not produce within the people that which it demanded (Romans 7:10). Paul would further emphasize that the Law was never meant to establish a relationship (Galatians 3). Not only was Paul clear about the Law not being able to deliver, but he emphasizes that Abraham was saved through faith, and those with faith are Abraham’s seed (Galatians 3:6-10[ Genesis 15:6[Romans 4]).

    Continuing further in exploring the themes of grace throughout Deuteronomy as the last book of Torah, it should be noted that it ends on a note of grace. As mentioned already, the wrath of God is a foreshadowing that something more is needed. Chapter 30 picks back up the theme of foreshadowing. Moses notes three things about the future in verse 30.

    Beginning with noting the impossibility of keeping the Law, as stressed in verse one. “When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations . . .”

    Before he finishes his final sermon, he tells the Israelites you’re not going to keep the Law, your going to suffer as a result, and part of your suffering will be you’re going to be exiled and separated as nomads. He had already stressed in chapter 28 that the result of their failure would lead to being exiled and separated.

    The second thing Moses notes about the future is that God has a plan of rescue in place, a plan established before the world’s foundation (30:2–5[Ephesians 1:3]). In verse six, he lays this out as He tells them that God will rescue their hearts. Paul not only connects to this chapter in Romans 10, but he echoes the reality that our hearts are circumcised (Romans 2:29) but calls those in Christ the true circumcision (Philippians 3:3). What Moses speaks of here is the gospel, as already defined.

    Circumcision was an external act, but when Moses says God will circumcise their hearts, he’s speaking of an internal circumcision accomplished through Christ. Paul connects further to this circumcision in Colossians 2:11. The cross also points to this sermon of Moses. Christ experiences the covenant curse fully as He is cut off from God in His humanity. Bringing upon Himself the curse Deuteronomy states, again and again, is the result of sin against the covenant made with God.

    In this way, Christ fulfills the Law given through the covenant. He suffers the experience and penalty all lawbreakers deserve.

    Thus we no longer need to fear the circumcision of God, Christ having experienced it, and thus delivering it. Our hearts are circumcised when we accept that we deserved the cross’s brutality and place our faith in Christ’s finished work.

    Finally, in verses 11-15 of chapter thirty, Moses gives us a final futuristic vision. In these verses, it appears that Moses is saying that the Law is not too hard, and if they follow it, they will experience “life and prosperity.” Many read this and determine that the Law is easy, pretty straight forward and not burdensome.

    These final verses allude not to the Law’s straightforwardness but rather to the fact that the Israelites were without excuse, as God had revealed to them already, His will, and how He desired them to live. They did not have to wonder, go looking for, or in a search for God’s will; it had come to them. This is encouragement even for us as believers today.

    Yet, despite appearing just for the Israelites, Paul references this passage to give us a better understanding of Moses in Romans 10:4, 6–9. In doing so, he brings knowledge that the only thing that is not impossible, won’t crush you, won’t send you looking for resolution is the gospel. Jesus accomplished it so that there would be no more condemnation for us who can’t.

    Deuteronomy connects the Jewish faith to the Christian faith as both anticipate when the Deliverer will restore Hope. As Christians, we know Hope is embodied in Christ. Christ speaks not only that He is the way but that He will return to fulfill God’s promises (John 14) as the Deliverer. Paul points to a time when not only will the Gentiles have been brought in, but a remnant of Israelites will be rescued. Here again, he notes that it will not be obedience to the Law but by faith (Romans 11:5-6).

    Throughout the last chapters of Deuteronomy, we see that both faith and obedience are gifts from God. Along with the fulfillment of the covenant is based on God, not man. Covenant fulfillment is a work established and completed by God. It is a gift given freely to the undeserving, often unrepentant, and covenant breakers because this is all there is. This is the gospel found in Deuteronomy.

    Like most of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy disturbs us as it presents God’s wrath and His demand for perfect obedience. It reveals the US, our failure to obey, and our pursuit of other lovers, despite God’s relentless pursuit of US and goodness. It sharply challenges us in loving and treating those we see as possessing or being less, as God does all his covenant children.

    Nonetheless, it presents a vision of hope, promise, and where God has the last word, not our ability to hold up our end of the covenant. Simultaneously, revealing that the promise of covenant restoration and fulfillment should produce a response that says that we are Loved, set apart, loved by the Almighty God. So that He that cares most about His Glory, is glorified through the circumcision of our hearts.

  • 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.

  • 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 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.

  • We Matter to God and One Another

    We Matter to God and One Another

    An Extract from Holistic Spirituality: Life Transforming Wisdom from the Letter of James

    What we do matters! It matters to our brothers and sisters, and it matters to God. Many people, you see, believe that God is untouched by the world, existing in glorious perfection, unsullied
    by the brokenness of life. James thinks otherwise: God hears our prayers, feels our pain, and experiences our joy. Our spiritual lives are not just about our relationship to God; they are about
    our relationship to our neighbors, near and far. James asserts that if you want to love God, you need to love God’s creatures. Our sins matter because they involve turning away from our neighbor as well as turning away from God. God is not outside the world, aloof, and unaffected by what goes on; God is the one to whom all hearts are open and all desires known. Accordingly, our ethical life, here on earth, centers around one thing: doing something beautiful for God, as Mother Teresa proclaims, by doing something beautiful for our neighbor. Will we give God a beautiful world – with happy families, enough food on every table, the opportunity to do good work and serve the community, or will we give God an ugly world of starving children, homeless families, vanishing species, and melting polar ice caps? Still, although God feels the pain of the world, God can survive our apathy and injustice; our neighbor cannot. In the spirit of Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount, our neighbor is “God with skin,” living or dying as a
    result of our decisions and behaviors.

    Loving Jesus means loving your neighbor. And if James is right, it means standing aloof and becoming counter-cultural in relation to socially-acceptable, but life-destroying, values – “being
    unstained by the world” – that put profits ahead of people, neglect the needy, and blame the poor for their poverty. We are all created in the image of God and we all deserve to be loved, to have a place to call home, and an opportunity to live out our gifts and talents as God’s beloved daughters and sons.

    In the Jewish tradition, it is said that “if you save one soul, you save the world.” I believe that this is the best way to read Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep: the shepherd goes out on the darkest
    night, searching tirelessly until the lost sheep is found, not just to save the one lost sheep, but to bring healing and wholeness to the ninety nine in the sheepfold. We all matter; we are all in this
    together. As 1 Corinthians 12 proclaims, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice.”

    Today, the body of Christ includes your congregation, but we must think bigger than our local community and neighborhood – it embraces the whole Earth, its people and its ecosystems; it reaches out to include the future of our unborn grandchildren and children as well as our next door neighbors and family members.

  • From DOBE to BEDO

    From DOBE to BEDO

    By Pat Badstibner, World Prayr, Inc.

    This article has been updated as a response 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.

    There is something about having a mission statement for a mission that says, “Helping Christians act like Christians.” Such a mission statement creates mental images of Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible for me as I picture Tom Cruise jumping over motorcycles, walking down the side of a multi-story glass building, and other insanely impossible stunts. Yet, our minds are often so focused on Do that such a mission statement is the way we usually think.

    This type of thinking once so predominately ruled my life that when faced with not being able to DO, I found myself standing on a bridge one night ready to jump, late one evening. An award-winning artist, my life was defined by being able to do DO. Now, I was facing not being able to be the man I once was. The very thing my identity and significance were found in I was faced with losing.   

    Dozens depended on my ability to perform for their livelihood and the ability to feed their families. As my church’s largest employer, I was also a leader among men known for his ability to help Christians act like Christians. This was who I was until diagnosed with a crippling disease. A disease that left me with an uncertain future, wondering why God was mad at me, and feeling like I would let dozens and my church down. Entering a world of silence with doctors predicting I may never be able to walk without some aid, much less DO again!

    As I stood on that bridge, there were five prominent thoughts in my mind;

    • I wanted to end the tremendous emotional and physical pain I was in.
    • Was God mad at me?
    • Hadn’t I done everything right?
    • Why did it not seem enough? Why did I get the feeling that it wasn’t enough?
    • Was God throwing me on the trash heap of life, was he done with me?
    • How could I face anyone? What would they think of me now that I couldn’t DO?

    My dear friend Henry said it best recently. “The devil is a gambler; he gambled on the jump. Grace won that night.”

    I didn’t have the answers that night, and the pain of not knowing the answers to those questions was as painful as the physical pain I was feeling. Yet, looking back, it was not the bright lights that hit me in the face from the emergency road crew keeping me from jumping that night but God’s loving sovereignty. It was God’s loving sovereignty as he broke my self-righteousness, my idea of obedience, my self-sufficiency, and my idea of what a Christian should be to instill a different message. A message of hope and change.

    One Without The Other Doesn’t Work

    A message that focuses on both the gospel and the Law and reveals the necessity for both. Without a correct understanding of the Law, the gospel is not valid. Without the Law, we cannot express what we have discovered through the gospel in our life. Yet, the Law without the gospel is nothing more than a powerless to-do list unable to accomplish anything but make one weary from living life. I know firsthand about being tired from trying to be enough, to be right in the eyes of other Christians and God. My team and my family were indeed weary from my to-do lists and my insistence they perform to an unreachable standard.

    I had grown up with a Christianity that was all about DO. That night on the bridge, tens of thousands of hours of study and what is now sixteen years later has brought a different message. A message that has created what my family calls Dadisms. “It isn’t if you don’t get the gospel right, you don’t get anything right. It is if you don’t get the Law right, you don’t get anything right, including the gospel.”

    The Breakdown Begins

    The first breakdown in getting the Law right occurs in the game “Whose Standard Is It?” Where contestants are left to themselves to set the standard of God’s Law. After deciding the standard, each contestant can then use their determination to judge themselves and others. As one can see in this game, the law’s standard becomes subjective to each contestant’s subjective judgment. 

    Creating a Law that now has a consistent change variable, a change determined by each player’s external circumstances and life experiences. When the standard of the Law is changed, we are left with no choice but to change God’s character. Instead of a God who acts independently, and perfectly we are left with a God defined by each player’s life experiences in the game. Here’s the catch though, all of us are playing the game.

    The Game We All Know And Play

    This is the game of life we all play. Once, we had no choice but to play this game, as we defined not only God but ourselves by our ability to play. Thus, it is the most natural thing to accept an ever-changing subjective law as we expect everyone and ourselves to hold to these standards. When we don’t, we live out of fear, we labor to control, suffer shame, loss of love, loss of connection, and we create divisions, even within ourselves. 

    When we change the standard of the Law from one objectively demanding utter perfection from us to one of being subjective, we also change the gospel. Instead of a gospel that tells us that we are all moral failures, and none of them are enough, we find a gospel that pushes us to be more, do more and do better. Instead of a gospel that tells us our answers lie elsewhere outside of us, its message now places us on a tireless hamster wheel. When we rob the Law of its objective demand of perfection and thus robbing of its voice so that it ceases to scream at us of its impossibility, we will quickly fall into that which is most natural to us.

    We Must Let It Scream

    It is natural to us to want to be right, to find sufficiency and rightness in ourselves. This leads one to Find One’s significance in being obedient and walking the right life. Only by trusting in a law that no longer defines God, His character, or His actions can we even begin to lay claim to finding significance in such a life. Only a Law that screams failure at us can break us of such a natural bent to find significance or reason to matter in what we do, rather than what Christ did.

    Those who ignore the voice of the Law screaming failure at them find no reason to run continuously to the gospel (Gal 3:24-25) or explore its depth to a deeper level (Romans 8). For them, the gospel is a one-time done event. Such thinking, as previously noted, always leaves them imprisoned on the hamster wheel, running to be enough within themselves.

    All You Need Is A Little More

    As they labor to meet not only their expectations, everyone else’s but what they see as God’s as they run harder and harder to be more or prove themselves enough within their abilities. Only discovering, as John Paul Getty once remarked when asked how much money is enough, “just a little more.” Except now the question isn’t about how much money is enough, but “What more do I need to do?”

    They may pretend that the law is not screaming at them or hear the law laughing at them running on the hamster wheel; they may even state such, as they remain caught up on the hamster wheel of performance and perfectionism. Yet as the law screams louder to the falsity of such claims, they run faster as they remain unwilling to walk into the light with one’s failures, weaknesses, and sins (1 John 1:5-10) with both God and man, hindering the fellowship of both.  

    The Struggle Is Real

    Even sixteen years later, the idol of self pushes against what I know to be true about the gospel. As I labor with all of God’s elect to prove myself capable so that I might, I’m among those who are on the right side of Christianity—feeling the pangs of shame-driven guilt when I fall short of some imaginary standard. I find nothing that separates me from others as we labor in unison with a natural bent towards self-righteousness and self-sufficiency in our self-motivated efforts to be enough.

    Those grace messages that do not call us to face our weaknesses or failures forget essential truths. Truths that remind us that there are two parts to the equation of “His grace is sufficient for my weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).” The first part everyone seems to understand, but the second part of knowing one’s weakness either we or ignoring or unclear. Along with forgetting that grace is given to those who have heard the voice of the Law that they are not enough, nor will the most uprightness, the rightest person, the most together of us ever be enough alone (Psalm 138:6; Proverbs 3:34; Proverbs 29:23; Matthew 23:12; Luke 1:52; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). 

    These messages attract like moths to light, not realizing that such light may endanger them.  The following statement regarding society as a whole reflects this truth.

    “Bolstering, maintaining, and protecting self-esteem is the sacred cow of modern society. It’s a grievous evil to do anything that might cause others to feel bad about themselves or their performance.” – Dan Rockwell.  

    The Message We Want Is Not The Need

    Those who long ago downgraded the voice of the Law in such a way that it only gives them instructions on how to run better on the hamster wheel of life hunger and thirst to hear more of the words that tell them how to perform better, do more, be more pleasing and more worthy. As they scream out, “Give me instructions on how to improve, how to do better, then I can surely hold on to the hope that I’m improving.” “Tell me what to do,” their ego screams as it clamors for that which it falsely believes makes them significant, makes them enough, makes them matter.

    Of course, it is not their ego they think they hear, but simply directions on proving themselves pleasing, they will say.

    The longing for some form of righteousness is not an aberration perpetrated by capital-R Religion but a foundation of what it means to be human. – Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What to Do About It. – David Zahl  

    Possibly never coming to understand that such behavioral, morality-based teaching only keeps hidden the real bread and water that will quench their hunger and thirst to be enough, to matter, to be counted significant (John 6:35). To their detriment, they have flocked to those teachers who have left them without knowledge, The knowledge that l rightness comes not from within themselves, but outside of them (Hosea 4). It is not instruction in how to do better, manage their behavior, perform better or do more they need first.

    The Course They Need

    It is a course on how to hear the bark of the Law daily as it robs one of all hope in improvement of oneself to be enough. Instruction in how to listen to the voice of the Law denies any attempt to find solace in thinking that God is quite satisfied, try-hard, do your best, or give it your best shot mentality. Anything short of such a course will leave them on the same tireless hamster wheel they’ve been stuck on.

    Only such a course of instruction that leads them to grow less self-dependent and more dependent on the One who gave the ultimate performance enables them to change the questions that lead to new discoveries. Discoveries that point to the top performance that closed the application process for performers of the year. A performance that has now allowed all other performers to rest from the weariness of the hamster wheel (Matthew 11:28-30).

    Change Always Requires Risk

    Only when we take the risk to step off the hamster wheel of laboring to be special, significant, and made of the right stuff will our answers to the question of “Why Are We Significant” shift from; being about what we are doing and what others believe about us. When our lives are no longer based on making all the right calls, being right, or having it all together, only then will our focus shift away from ourselves to another apart from us. As our focus shifts, we discover life-changing beauty in the knowledge that because God has declared us His song of glory, the praise of His grace, His Crown Jewels, the reflection of the Trinity, and the beloved of the Son, we no longer need fear being exposed. Found out or seen as not having the right stuff.

    These discoveries help us understand that when Christ said, “It Is Finished,” he told us we could stop working to be enough. And accept that He had now made us enough. Here is where we discover the beauty that we no longer must find within ourselves the ability to be right or enough to have a sense of our righteousness but accept that we have Christ’s (2Corinthians 5:21). Our failure to respond and live life from the knowledge of these truths leaves our focus inward. As our focus remains inward, we are left with no choice but to maintain the predominant determining factor of our identity, worth, value, and significance based on our ability to run.

    The Real Battle

    This is the war that rages in us and why we, like Paul, are coveters. It is why we long to hear those “to-do” messages and why we focus so hard on being right, winning, and being seen as enough. Why is this so?

    It is what we lost in the garden. In the garden, we lost the knowledge that we were accepted, loved, and known. Since then, our curvature has been inward as we covet that which we deeply desire and turn to other lovers (Idols) to recover lost love. A curvature inward is always sin, as we focus on ourselves. The more we accept that we are deeply loved in Christ and are enough is when we will slowly experience our focus shifting away from us towards God and others. 

    The Real Beauty Of The Law

    Then instead of the Law being a vessel of self-service to regain what we lost, it reveals the grace contained within as it gives us instruction in the art of love—teaching us to love the One who loved us first (1John 4:19) back and love others. We no longer have to change the Law for our purposes, but now can choose to outdo others in love (Matthew 22:35-40; Romans 12:9-21). Instead of laboring towards what we feel are our rights, entitled to or deserving, we now can choose sacrificial labor on behalf of others.

    With the transformation of our minds, we move away from finding hope within ourselves to be right to ask, “How do I express that which I now am?”  Creating a mind shift that moves us from DOBE to BEDO.  Grow to realize that Colossians 1:10 is not an instruction on how to do more, but because we are more instruction on how to exhibit that we believe we are. Only as we give up any hope in a righteousness of our own, can we help others find the real source of righteousness, beginning with ourselves.

    Walking in God’s Grace
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