I have a few friends that espouse that we are free from the law of the Bible. That any form of following it is legalism and should be avoided. Oh, the doctrine of man interpreted reckonings and the clammering of the naive...we must be a loud resounding "GONG" to our God in heaven. However, I am trying to follow some of Jesus' words and it seems that they lead me to considering the Law and it's many benefits. Not for salvation, but as our "duty" to God.
Follow this and help me understand where I am off track.
So, my feelings have always been that, having been saved, I have a desire for the things of God; to receive the benefits from God's wisdom; to uphold the law to the best of my ability. Not the man made laws, but the God ordained ones. As an example, I choose to steer clear of any pork product or scavenger like catfish. I have felt conviction to do this and have reaped the benefit from it. My once easily irritated stomach has become as peaceful as I have ever known... So, to that end, I feel like Gods laws have so many benefits that we mere humans may not see. So, that's what I have "felt"...
I read a passage at lunch today starting in Matthew 7:21. It's a very familiar passage...but I stopped at the end wondering what it meant exactly... Here's the ESV version of the passage I am referring:
21(Z) "Not everyone who(AA) says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will(AB) enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who(AC) does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22(AD) On that day(AE) many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not(AF) prophesy in your name, and cast out demons(AG) in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' 23(AH) And then will I declare to them, 'I(AI) never knew you;(AJ) depart from me,(AK) you workers of lawlessness.'
So, there are a couple of parts in there that make me say, "Huh??" For starters, "but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven". Thoughts of Romans 12:2 - tells us how to know the will of God - Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God... But, the part that really sticks out to me is "depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Workers of what?
Matthew 13:41 was referenced by 7:23 as was Psalm 5:5 so here are both of those:
41(A) The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all(B) causes of sin and(C) all law-breakers,
5The(A) boastful shall not(B) stand before your eyes;
you(C) hate all evildoers.
So, if I understand the written word at all. The passage states that God's will = law. That not doing God's will is lawlessness. For it says, "the one who does the will of my Father", otherwise "depart from me, you workers of lawlessness".
It really reinforces, to me, that there are 2 distinct tasks in life. The first is to be saved from your sin, to trust in the Lord Jesus as your savior. That is the part that allows us to even say "Lord, Lord"...The second is to do that which God wills... What does He will anyway? "Love mercy, do justly, walk humbly with Your God." "Raise a godly seed." "Renew your mind" "1 Thessalonians 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 1 Thessalonians 5:18 15See that(X) no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always(Y) seek to do good to one another and to everyone. 16(Z) Rejoice always, 17(AA) pray without ceasing, 18(AB) give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Peter 2:15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. I am sure there are more...but it seems to revolve around those 10 things he made quite clear in Exodus.
It is interesting what Mark recorded as the last words of Jesus:
15And he said to them, (AC) "Go into all the world and(AD) proclaim the gospel to(AE) the whole creation. 16(AF) Whoever believes and is(AG) baptized(AH) will be saved, but(AI) whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And(AJ) these signs will accompany those who believe:(AK) in my name they will cast out demons;(AL) they will speak in new tongues; 18(AM) they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them;(AN) they will lay their hands(AO) on the sick, and they will recover."
Looks strangely familiar...Looks like simply believing is not enough...I mean, even the devil believes that Jesus is God. I need to research this even more I guess...
In the words of Paul - 31Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
I can't wait for Les to comment! :-)
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4 comments:
From Les:
I wrote a response, but it was too long to post. I'll break it up and post it in two parts later. Fun stuff.
From Les (Part 1):
You asked for it. Warning – a VERY LONG answer required, including several parts...
Your post is quite interesting. I think in your first statement, you are saying one thing, and using Scripture in such a way that it would mean the opposite of what you said.
It seems to me as I read your post that your premise is that you need to first, "be saved from your sin, to trust in the Lord Jesus as your Savior," and second, to then follow the Law. However, the way you interpret your primary passage would seem to me to be making an opposite point.
In Mat. 7:21, you interpret "the will of My Father" to mean to keep the Law, or maybe to keep some Law (could not tell precisely). However, if this is true, then the passage says that the way to get to the Kingdom of Heaven, is to keep the/some Law. This is the opposite of your above statement, that of trusting in Jesus for salvation. The way that this passage is worded, it cannot mean that you get to the Kingdom of Heaven by doing both, trusting in Christ, and doing the Law. The passage is making clear that the Kingdom comes from one of these. Its point is to make clear that the "workers of Lawlessness" are the ones who Jesus doesn't "know."
In fact, this passage says the opposite of your interpretation. Jesus is saying that many will do lots of "Law," but will not make it because Jesus does not "know" them. In fact, the implication of the passage is that the "will of the Father" is to know Jesus, NOT TO DO THIS OR THAT. Remember, Jesus is talking here to a group of people who follow God's Law better than you and I ever will. Their problem that Jesus wanted to address was not that they didn't do enough Law, but that they thought that doing enough Law would save them. In fact, He is saying that doing these things is NOT the will of the Father leading to life. It is knowing the Son that is the Father's will, leading to life.
As far as, "Depart from Me you workers of Lawlessness," we are all workers of Lawlessness. As you know, if you violate one, you have violated all. However, those who have trusted in Jesus have their Lawlessness paid for, forgiven AND FORGOTTEN. When God looks at those who know Him, He does not see the Lawlessness, but His children, white as snow. Those who do not know Jesus are stained with sin, those who know Jesus are clean and pure. The ones who are stained with sin will be dismissed from God's presence as sinners because He cannot be in the presence of sinfulness, the ones who know Him will be welcomed as children, even though we are equally as guilty of sin, falling short of the Law, as anyone, because He sees us as completely Lawful because of Christ.
(Continued in part 2)
From Les (Part 2):
So, should we who know Jesus be keeping "the Law?" That is a very good, and complicated question. First, when Jesus, Paul, and the others in the New and Old Testament talk about Law, they mean specifically the Old Testament Law. Given that, most of the people I know who say we SHOULD keep the Law are pretty selective in what they think they should keep. Most of them will want to keep dietary Laws, as you say.
However, what about other Laws? Laws like: Never refusing to loan to a brother (God's family) when asked, and forgiving their debt every seventh year (Deut. 15:1-11). Or, being sure to celebrate the feasts of Passover, Weeks, and Booths every year, an absolute command of God (Deut. 16). Deut. 25 commands that if your brother dies, you are to take his wife as your own, and raise his children as yours (25:5). It specifies not just taking care of her, but actually marrying her, and (explicitly stated) consummating that marriage. Most Christians don’t embrace that today. Or, in Leviticus 15, we are told about cleanliness of men and women. I'm betting that few Christians follow those commands. For instance, at a woman's time of the month, she is unclean, and should not be touched - no hand holding, kissing, hugging, etc. Anything she sits on is unclean, and no one is allowed to sit on that chair, bed, or bench. I don’t know anyone who thinks we should “follow the Law” that keeps that one.
I'm unclear why following dietary Law out of obedience to God is good and right, but following these others are not. They are in EXACTLY the same category of Laws, and are in the same sections of Scripture. It is really a glaring inconsistency.
The bigger question is, what does it mean that Jesus did not come to “nullify” the Law, but to "fulfill it." For instance, we don't participate in animal sacrifices, because those pointed us toward Christ, who was the ultimate sacrifice, cleansing us once, for all. Sacrifice would be redundant. So, can keeping other Laws make us any more righteous, or Lawful? What parts of the O.T. Law are intended to be followed today? It has been debated for centuries.
The book of Romans tells us that unless we keep the whole Law flawlessly, we are never made a millimeter more righteous by trying to keep any of the Law. It is only "apart from the Law" that righteousness is manifested in fallen humans. Rom. 3:21-23 says, "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…"
So what is a Christian to do? The most enduring interpretation among scholars, from the Reformation to today, is that we focus our attention on the elements of Old Testament Law that is picked up and affirmed by the New Testament, and we focus our attention on all the commands of the New Testament. There are many and varied reasons that scholars have landed on this, far too long to include in this already long comment. I would be glad to write more on that in the future if you would like. However, the understanding is that in keeping the things expressed in the N.T. will keep us in “center" of all of the Law, summarized by Jesus as, loving the Lord with all our heart and mind and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourself.
(Concluded in Part 3)
From Les (Part 3):
If you hold to this belief about following the Law as interpreted through the New Testament, then your position you gave would be absolutely correct that a person must "be saved," or I would rather say, enter into a relationship with the Lord, though faith in Christ, and would then follow the commands of the progressively revealed Scripture from that point forward. Action is the necessary element of faith. You’ve heard me say a hundred times, the difference between faith and belief is acting on what you believe. Without actions, you can’t have faith.
However, these actions are not to be followed to make us more righteous in God’s eyes, or to earn us favor with the Lord. They are to be followed for the purpose of deepening our relationship with the Him, conforming us to His image.
We are sons and daughters of God. We are to walk in that. Today, being a son or daughter means living under the same roof until adulthood. In the time of the New and Old Testaments, it was understood that being a son or a daughter means that you share fully in the responsibilities, the priorities, and the values of the family. When we enter God's family, we are to take on those things, not primarily out of responsibility or duty, but because they are traits of God. We do these in, through, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. In this, we are being transformed into the image of Christ (by the renewing of our minds). Scripture tells us over and over that we ARE being perfected, as we draw close to Him, and that He who began a good work in us WILL perfect it. We obey as children, because we are part of the family. However, here the family illustration breaks down. God has come to live in us, guiding and directing us into His likeness. The commands of God are commands, not suggestions. We don't get to choose to follow them or not. However, their end goal is embracing His nature in and through Him, not trying to earn His favor, which we already have.
I'm guessing the reason you are getting a reaction about "legalism" is because your speech might focus much more around obedience than around relationship. You can easily give people the impression that what you are about is making yourself more holy by trying harder to keep Law. This IS the exact error that Jesus and Paul rail against, the thing that Believers have now labeled "legalism." Perhaps you are misunderstood here, or perhaps your emphasis is slightly skewed in that direction. However, no one who knows you well believes that you think that justification comes through following the Law.
At the same time, it is hard to imagine someone being adopted by God, made a son or a daughter, and not wanting with everything in them, to walk in obedience to the Lord, taking upon them His values, priorities, and Holiness - His very nature, in and through His Spirit. We obey – as sons and daughters, grateful of being adopted, gladly walking in the ways of our new family, not as dogs, trying to earn a place at the King's table.
A side note. I have many friends who believe they are to be obedient to the Lord by following dietary Laws. I find it interesting that people who I greatly respect, have chosen THAT particular Law to follow, and not the others, some of which I mentioned above. That is singularly the Law that we find the New Testament specifically addressing, and heralding freedom in. I'm not sure why that is.
I grant you that this position is very different than those who believe that God has made all foods "spiritually" clean, but that they try to generally avoid these particular foods because they believe it will be better for their bodies. These will say that it is not out of obedience to God, but merely for health reasons, and that God no longer cares, either way. Then again, if these friends of mine are not eating pork, but are regularly wolfing down Big Macs...
Great topic. Sorry for the long response.
Les
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