I've heard this a million times, "He who the son sets free is free indeed." But free from what? This comes from what Jesus said in John 8:34-36, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."
He was talking about freedom from sin!
Oh but there is something incredibly deep here.
He says if you commit sin you are a slave of sin. Do you commit sin?
If you do that would mean you have to constantly go back & forth between slave to sin & free from sin. How is that possible if Jesus says when you are set free you are free indeed? If your freedom depends on you not committing sin how free can you really be?
John recorded the words of Jesus above. Let us look at something else John wrote in 1 John 3:9, "Everyone who has been born of God does not commit sin, because God’s seed resides in him, and thus he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God." Our flesh is not born of God but our spirit is. God identifies us by our "new creation" which is our reborn spirit. That spirit cannot commit sin. Twice Paul says, "It is no longer I who sin but sin living in my flesh that sins" (Romans 7:17,20). Sins still come through our bodies but we, in our true spiritual identity, are not the source.
Does your flesh commit sin? Yes.
Are you your flesh? No.
Does your spirit commit sin? No.
Are you your spirit? Yes.
Is your flesh responsible to prevent your flesh from committing sin? No. That just makes things worse.
Is your spirit responsible to prevent your flesh from committing sin? Yes.
"You have been called to live in freedom. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. Walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." (Galatians 5:13-14,16)
Your flesh is something you carry around that you have power over by your spirit. You are not a sinner, you are not a slave to sin, you cannot commit sin. You are a powerful child of God. Self-control is spirit-control. When we renew our minds to the truth we lace our brainwaves with the spirit.
You've been set free by Jesus! You are free indeed! And you've got the right to bear arms to put to death the deeds of the flesh & fight off the lie that sin can be your master. People quote Romans 6:16, "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?" They say this means you as a Christian can be a slave to sin but they fail to quote anything after it. Let's see it all together, "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? BUT thanks be to God that though YOU WERE slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and HAVING BEEN FREED from sin, you BECAME slaves of righteousness."
This is saying that once you believe the gospel you will never be a slave to sin again. The "form of teaching" was the truth of the good news. It says if you present yourself to obedience it results in righteousness. Obedience to what? Obedience to the gospel which is trusting in Jesus to be saved. If you are saved you've already made your choice. With this scripture in context we see that it isn't talking about a back & forth 'slave to sin, slave to God, slave to sin, slave to God,' type of life. It clearly says once you obey the gospel you are free from sin. How free? As Jesus would put it, FREE INDEED!
Here is another explosive part. When we offer ourselves as servants & slaves God instead makes us sons & daughters. This is what happened to the prodigal son. He offered himself as a servant & his father received him only as a son. Jesus said, "The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever." You are indeed free forever because you are a son not a slave!
For more posts on this see our Sin? Forgetaboutit! page
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Seeing God as Father: Grace Comes with Counsel
Is a father who utterly refuses to disown his child a bad father? If your actions make God stop "accepting" you then He is not a good Father & He doesn't love you. If people actually thought of God as a Father this whole "grace is a license to sin" goofiness wouldn't even come up.
Here is the truth:
YES YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT & GOD WILL STILL LOVE YOU because THAT IS WHAT GOOD FATHERS DO! Good fathers also try to help walk you out of harmful behaviors because good fathers don't want you to hurt yourself or others!
IT IS THAT SIMPLE!!
Sadly people aren't supposed to consider or relate to God as a Father or even as an actual living being. They are just taught doctrines about God that say, "If you do this then God will do this." Thus you "relate" to an imaginary God. You convince yourself that God feels a certain way based on what other people have told you. You can do this with anyone, imagine their thoughts & feelings & convince yourself that your assumptions are reality.
Churches & preachers & pastors & even bibles have replaced the Spirit of the living God who lives inside of us. The religion of Christianity doesn't need a living God to operate. All you need to create a religion is a book, a boss, & a boast. Families have fathers. Religions make you out to be orphaned, abused, or in constant danger of either one of those.
Please understand that just because God loves you without condition that does not mean He leaves you without counsel. "His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). Please don't just see Him as Mighty God, please. Trust in His name. Understand that grace is a Father's love. In His love He counsels as well as comforts.
Grace doesn't make you pretend that you are not hurting yourself or other people. Grace gives us the the opportunity to engage God about our faults without fear, shame, guilt, or condemnation. Grace gives you a Father to share life with. Those who attack grace mistake grace for freedom. Grace sets you free but grace is far far more than freedom. Grace comes with counsel & everything else a loving Father provides because grace is your Father's love for you.
Here is the truth:
YES YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT & GOD WILL STILL LOVE YOU because THAT IS WHAT GOOD FATHERS DO! Good fathers also try to help walk you out of harmful behaviors because good fathers don't want you to hurt yourself or others!
IT IS THAT SIMPLE!!
Sadly people aren't supposed to consider or relate to God as a Father or even as an actual living being. They are just taught doctrines about God that say, "If you do this then God will do this." Thus you "relate" to an imaginary God. You convince yourself that God feels a certain way based on what other people have told you. You can do this with anyone, imagine their thoughts & feelings & convince yourself that your assumptions are reality.
Churches & preachers & pastors & even bibles have replaced the Spirit of the living God who lives inside of us. The religion of Christianity doesn't need a living God to operate. All you need to create a religion is a book, a boss, & a boast. Families have fathers. Religions make you out to be orphaned, abused, or in constant danger of either one of those.
Please understand that just because God loves you without condition that does not mean He leaves you without counsel. "His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). Please don't just see Him as Mighty God, please. Trust in His name. Understand that grace is a Father's love. In His love He counsels as well as comforts.
Grace doesn't make you pretend that you are not hurting yourself or other people. Grace gives us the the opportunity to engage God about our faults without fear, shame, guilt, or condemnation. Grace gives you a Father to share life with. Those who attack grace mistake grace for freedom. Grace sets you free but grace is far far more than freedom. Grace comes with counsel & everything else a loving Father provides because grace is your Father's love for you.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Free & Fearless: The Truth Behind God, Humanity, & The Law
In Luke 1:67-79 The father of John the Baptist, Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying... "The Lord God of Israel has granted us the freedom to serve Him without fear because He has saved us from the hand of our enemies."
This is huge. Here the Holy Spirit through Zacharias says God no longer requires us to fear Him. Many of us have suspected as such but may not have seen it so concise in the New Testament. But here is the reason we need not fear God, "He has saved us from the hand of our enemies (sin, death, Satan)." This says the only reason people had to fear God in the Old Covenant was because of the power the enemy had to harm them!
In Luke 17:4-7 (while still under the Old Covenant) Jesus cleared this up further. He said God values you deeply so do not be afraid of Him but instead be afraid of "the one who kills" which Hebrews 2:14 makes clear is Satan who has the power of death. So the point of fearing God was to trust Him like one would trust a body guard. If you didn't fear God, meaning fear the consequence of refusing His instructions, you would face turmoil or death. That is why the old covenant was based on performance because sin & Satan were based on performance & without the law showing people the consequences or "curses" of their actions they would be lying down in the street not knowing that they would be run over.
When Moses says in Leviticus 18:5 "The man who obeys these laws will live by them" he literally meant "live by them" as in obedience would prevent Satan from killing them. Paul said in Galatians 3:24, "the law was our guardian until Christ came." The law could not give life but obedience to the law could prevent death & guard people. God did not want to curse or harm anyone. Lamentations 3:33 says, "God does not make people suffer nor cause them grief from His heart." Whether we like it or not God did have to put some consequences out there upon some of His people for the greater good of the whole of His people. But He didn't do this because of His "holiness" or "justness." He did this because He was protecting His people from Satan who holds the power of death.
This was NOT about God having a "holy standard" or requirement that people weren't meeting so He had to give the law to show them that they didn't measure up to His expectations. He brought the law to reveal sin because sin earned people death, sin produced death in people, sin crouched at people's doors waiting to devour them. God was ALWAYS a Savior. God has ALWAYS loved the world. God would have never given Adam & Eve the law. His only "law" to them was to "avoid the one thing that will kill you."
The law was not God's guidelines to righteousness. Romans 3:20 says flat out that "no human is made righteous by keeping the law" & "the law was given to make people conscious of sin." Why? Because "the wages of sin is death." Death is God's ultimate enemy because He loves mankind. He is life & the life giver. But there was a huge problem with the law. It was weak because obedience to the law was based on human effort. Sin took ahold of the law & produced more death. The only upside to this was that sin made itself even more evident as a problem that needed to be fixed.
Mankind was addicted to the drug of sin & destroying themselves with it. That is why God hated sin so much, it destroyed those He loved. As any parent would, God became angry with His children who were willingly destroying themselves & especially angry at those who were destroying others, the drug dealers who drug other kids into danger (something Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for doing).
Those God killed in the flesh & those who did not or were not able to trust in Him, God sent to what 1 Peter 3:18 calls "prison." A good father would let his drug dealing son go to prison or even turn him in to be imprisoned, particularly if it kept his other children from following the same path of addiction & drug pushing. That is a picture of God & the flood & every other place in scripture where God commands or threatens death for people.
"Jesus told the good news to those who were dead. He gave them the same choice that living men have, the choice to live like God in the spirit." (1 Peter 4:6)
Instead of sin being something where God deemed mankind unworthy of life because of their actions, God actually deemed mankind worthy of life despite their actions. He took some people's life away in the Old Testament & locked them up in "prison" so that they would one day take the chance to "live like God in the spirit" after Christ came off the cross.
So you see it was never about God being "too holy" to accept people or let them live. That is absurd. It was about God going to any lengths to save men from sin even if it was by taking their life here on earth, sending their spirits to prison, then giving the life of His Son to save them & set them free.
Hebrews 2:12-15, "Since God's children live in flesh & blood Jesus Himself became flesh & blood, that through death He might render powerless the one who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."
Even the most wicked people you could imagine, those you would help hunt down before you would forgive them, God gave the choice to be set free & know Him. The bible says humans were slaves to sin & slaves to the fear of death. Slaves are victims to those more powerful than themselves. Humans were victims of sin because of Satan, sin, & Adam's choice. Adam chose death. God didn't say, "Good you deserve it!" No, instead God said, "You chose death but I choose life. I will defeat death itself. I will save you & give you life again, life that lasts forever." Then God stepped into the world & bore the curses, consequences, & wages of sin.. He died so that we may live. He did not save us from Himself! He didn't kill His Son because He was unwilling to forgive us unless His anger was satiated & His wrath satisfied. He died saving us from our enemies & rose again to life to have triumph over them. Because of Jesus we are freed from all fear, fear of death, fear of sin, fear of Satan, & even fear of God. We are slaves no more! We are His sons, daughters, & friends.
Related Posts
Second Chances & Why God Killed
The Devil Has the Power of Death
To Fear or Not to Fear?
For all related posts see my Choose Life & Live! page
This is huge. Here the Holy Spirit through Zacharias says God no longer requires us to fear Him. Many of us have suspected as such but may not have seen it so concise in the New Testament. But here is the reason we need not fear God, "He has saved us from the hand of our enemies (sin, death, Satan)." This says the only reason people had to fear God in the Old Covenant was because of the power the enemy had to harm them!
In Luke 17:4-7 (while still under the Old Covenant) Jesus cleared this up further. He said God values you deeply so do not be afraid of Him but instead be afraid of "the one who kills" which Hebrews 2:14 makes clear is Satan who has the power of death. So the point of fearing God was to trust Him like one would trust a body guard. If you didn't fear God, meaning fear the consequence of refusing His instructions, you would face turmoil or death. That is why the old covenant was based on performance because sin & Satan were based on performance & without the law showing people the consequences or "curses" of their actions they would be lying down in the street not knowing that they would be run over.
When Moses says in Leviticus 18:5 "The man who obeys these laws will live by them" he literally meant "live by them" as in obedience would prevent Satan from killing them. Paul said in Galatians 3:24, "the law was our guardian until Christ came." The law could not give life but obedience to the law could prevent death & guard people. God did not want to curse or harm anyone. Lamentations 3:33 says, "God does not make people suffer nor cause them grief from His heart." Whether we like it or not God did have to put some consequences out there upon some of His people for the greater good of the whole of His people. But He didn't do this because of His "holiness" or "justness." He did this because He was protecting His people from Satan who holds the power of death.
This was NOT about God having a "holy standard" or requirement that people weren't meeting so He had to give the law to show them that they didn't measure up to His expectations. He brought the law to reveal sin because sin earned people death, sin produced death in people, sin crouched at people's doors waiting to devour them. God was ALWAYS a Savior. God has ALWAYS loved the world. God would have never given Adam & Eve the law. His only "law" to them was to "avoid the one thing that will kill you."
The law was not God's guidelines to righteousness. Romans 3:20 says flat out that "no human is made righteous by keeping the law" & "the law was given to make people conscious of sin." Why? Because "the wages of sin is death." Death is God's ultimate enemy because He loves mankind. He is life & the life giver. But there was a huge problem with the law. It was weak because obedience to the law was based on human effort. Sin took ahold of the law & produced more death. The only upside to this was that sin made itself even more evident as a problem that needed to be fixed.
Mankind was addicted to the drug of sin & destroying themselves with it. That is why God hated sin so much, it destroyed those He loved. As any parent would, God became angry with His children who were willingly destroying themselves & especially angry at those who were destroying others, the drug dealers who drug other kids into danger (something Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for doing).
Those God killed in the flesh & those who did not or were not able to trust in Him, God sent to what 1 Peter 3:18 calls "prison." A good father would let his drug dealing son go to prison or even turn him in to be imprisoned, particularly if it kept his other children from following the same path of addiction & drug pushing. That is a picture of God & the flood & every other place in scripture where God commands or threatens death for people.
"Jesus told the good news to those who were dead. He gave them the same choice that living men have, the choice to live like God in the spirit." (1 Peter 4:6)
Instead of sin being something where God deemed mankind unworthy of life because of their actions, God actually deemed mankind worthy of life despite their actions. He took some people's life away in the Old Testament & locked them up in "prison" so that they would one day take the chance to "live like God in the spirit" after Christ came off the cross.
So you see it was never about God being "too holy" to accept people or let them live. That is absurd. It was about God going to any lengths to save men from sin even if it was by taking their life here on earth, sending their spirits to prison, then giving the life of His Son to save them & set them free.
Hebrews 2:12-15, "Since God's children live in flesh & blood Jesus Himself became flesh & blood, that through death He might render powerless the one who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."
Even the most wicked people you could imagine, those you would help hunt down before you would forgive them, God gave the choice to be set free & know Him. The bible says humans were slaves to sin & slaves to the fear of death. Slaves are victims to those more powerful than themselves. Humans were victims of sin because of Satan, sin, & Adam's choice. Adam chose death. God didn't say, "Good you deserve it!" No, instead God said, "You chose death but I choose life. I will defeat death itself. I will save you & give you life again, life that lasts forever." Then God stepped into the world & bore the curses, consequences, & wages of sin.. He died so that we may live. He did not save us from Himself! He didn't kill His Son because He was unwilling to forgive us unless His anger was satiated & His wrath satisfied. He died saving us from our enemies & rose again to life to have triumph over them. Because of Jesus we are freed from all fear, fear of death, fear of sin, fear of Satan, & even fear of God. We are slaves no more! We are His sons, daughters, & friends.
Related Posts
Second Chances & Why God Killed
The Devil Has the Power of Death
To Fear or Not to Fear?
For all related posts see my Choose Life & Live! page
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
The Victory of Jesus Has Brought Liberation from Sin
Whether or not we sin isn't the primary issue of life. We are free from sin (Romans 6:6-7,18,22, 8:2).
If I am freed from a country that once enslaved me I could..
1. Stay there and try to fight against the people who imprisoned me.
2. Go enjoy my freedom elsewhere.
I don't have to fight to maintain freedom, Christ freed me.
Hebrews 10:1-2 says that when we know we are cleansed, we lose consciousness of sins, meaning we no longer have to count sins against ourselves.
"The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt and consciousness of sin would have disappeared." (Hebrews 10:1-2)
I've been perfectly cleansed for all time because of the perfect sacrifice of Christ. God's value of me as His child is not based on my behavior. God does not charge His children with sin (2 Corinthians 5:19-20; 1 John 3:5-6,9; 1 John 5:18). Because He loves me I want to love others & do good.
Romans 6:8-14 says to "Consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." God does not intend for us to focus on or strive to "be good." God intends for us to focus on Him and His goodness.
A liberator's victory brings freedom. Jesus is our savior, our liberator. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:17). Our victory doesn't come from trying to obtain or abstain it only comes from trusting in the victory Christ has already won, what He has already obtained for us. "The victory that overcomes the world is made evident through our faith, our trust in Christ's victory" (1 John 5:4).
If I am freed from a country that once enslaved me I could..
1. Stay there and try to fight against the people who imprisoned me.
2. Go enjoy my freedom elsewhere.
I don't have to fight to maintain freedom, Christ freed me.
Hebrews 10:1-2 says that when we know we are cleansed, we lose consciousness of sins, meaning we no longer have to count sins against ourselves.
"The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt and consciousness of sin would have disappeared." (Hebrews 10:1-2)
I've been perfectly cleansed for all time because of the perfect sacrifice of Christ. God's value of me as His child is not based on my behavior. God does not charge His children with sin (2 Corinthians 5:19-20; 1 John 3:5-6,9; 1 John 5:18). Because He loves me I want to love others & do good.
Romans 6:8-14 says to "Consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." God does not intend for us to focus on or strive to "be good." God intends for us to focus on Him and His goodness.
A liberator's victory brings freedom. Jesus is our savior, our liberator. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:17). Our victory doesn't come from trying to obtain or abstain it only comes from trusting in the victory Christ has already won, what He has already obtained for us. "The victory that overcomes the world is made evident through our faith, our trust in Christ's victory" (1 John 5:4).
Friday, May 18, 2012
Freedom from Struggling with Sin
The actual struggle most have is not with sin but with their perception of what sin is and how God feels about their behavior.
If you think you have to repent, say you're really sorry and promise not to do something again, and ask God to forgive you then you don't understand what Christ bought for you on the cross.
God does not count people's sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:19). No matter what you do He doesn't get angry with you, He doesn't break fellowship with you, He doesn't love you any less.
So many fail because they think it is their job to succeed. Jesus already won the victory over sin. You only defeat it when you take part in Christ's victory party. The bible says many times that we are free from sin. You only live that freedom if you believe it is there. I live it and my spiritual life is indescribably wonderful because I don't try to improve myself, I just bask in The Father's love for me and my behavior is transformed as a side-effect.
Freedom doesn't come from perfect behavior but from properly placed trust. Christian your freedom is a fact. You experience freedom by trusting in God's love for you. His love is unconditional. His love for you is not dependent on your behavior, if you ask for forgiveness, if you ever read your bible. His loves passes all understanding because we think we have to earn love. Jesus fulfilled every condition for you. Believe it and live it. If you don't you will always fall & always fail.
While my flesh still causes me to behave in harmful ways I am indeed free from sin. My identity is in my spirit, not in my flesh. When you understand & believe this you can be free from sin while in this body. The experience of that freedom doesn't come from perfect behavior but from trust in God & what He has done for you.
If you think you have to repent, say you're really sorry and promise not to do something again, and ask God to forgive you then you don't understand what Christ bought for you on the cross.
God does not count people's sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:19). No matter what you do He doesn't get angry with you, He doesn't break fellowship with you, He doesn't love you any less.
So many fail because they think it is their job to succeed. Jesus already won the victory over sin. You only defeat it when you take part in Christ's victory party. The bible says many times that we are free from sin. You only live that freedom if you believe it is there. I live it and my spiritual life is indescribably wonderful because I don't try to improve myself, I just bask in The Father's love for me and my behavior is transformed as a side-effect.
Freedom doesn't come from perfect behavior but from properly placed trust. Christian your freedom is a fact. You experience freedom by trusting in God's love for you. His love is unconditional. His love for you is not dependent on your behavior, if you ask for forgiveness, if you ever read your bible. His loves passes all understanding because we think we have to earn love. Jesus fulfilled every condition for you. Believe it and live it. If you don't you will always fall & always fail.
While my flesh still causes me to behave in harmful ways I am indeed free from sin. My identity is in my spirit, not in my flesh. When you understand & believe this you can be free from sin while in this body. The experience of that freedom doesn't come from perfect behavior but from trust in God & what He has done for you.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Thoughts on The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs
Keeping the law doesn't result in knowing in God.
After over a year of trying to keep all of the biblical commands literally Jacobs still did not believe in God. Truly you can't know God through the law but only through trusting Jesus. After a life time of being an agnostic & a non-practicing Jew to 8 months of being a practicing Jew Jacobs began his quest to keep the New Testament commands. One reason he said that he did not keep the command to believe in Jesus was that he felt it would betray his Jewish heritage, very interesting considering all of the Jews who have and do reject Jesus. Some laws did improve his character. After all one of the purposes of the law was to help people know how to love others.
No one can keep the whole law and certainly not all the time.
After hearing about the multitude of laws Jacobs tried to keep along with the many Jews who try to do the same it is absurd for any Christian to claim that we should keep the old testament laws. No christian comes galactically close to keep the laws that many strict Jews do and even the strictest Jews don't recognize or keep everything. The worst screaming from the pulpit legalists still only hold most biblical commands' importance in the abstract (only mentally, impractically).
Everyone does picking and choosing when it comes to the bible and its commands.
Continuing from the above, most Christians think that we still are bound to the 10 commandments (which we aren't, see 2 Corinthians 3:6-18) but I've never seen one try to keep the real sabbath (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday). Absolutely nothing in scripture says that the sabbath became Sunday and Julian calendar Sunday at that! I don't understand this type of pointless hypocrisy. Why claim to hold something so important and push it on others when in practicality you don't ever feel like you need to keep 1-2 of the commandments. Again I know people aren't to be burdened by having to keeps laws anymore so I'm not saying they should try. But 10 commandment pushers are as perplexing to me as someone who says, "I use all of the ingredients of mac & cheese" and never uses the cheese. The emperor has no clothes! Why pretend?
Literally vs. literally to me
The old testament laws were written to the Israelites. Some of what Jesus said clarified those laws. When Jesus died those laws ended. The bible says they were nailed to the cross with Jesus. The new testament letters were written much like an advice column or a letter from a parent to a child who lives away from home. The advice and commands given to the recipients of those letters don't apply to every Christian for all time. It may be beneficial advice especially if you have similar issues as they did but you are not bound to take the advice. It is still good advice but it was not advice for you. The general information presented can still be taken as universal truths without assuming that the commands apply to everyone.
Sadly most Christians seem to approach the bible as a rule book, "find the rules and obey them or you're in trouble with God." This approach is like reading a history book and seeing George Washington telling his troops to attack the British and thinking, "If I'm going to be a good American I need to go attack the British too" and then feeling guilty whenever you are not attacking the British.
Jesus used figurative language
This was a point I have never had emphasized to me before. In John 3 Jesus says to Nicodemus that "a man must be born again to see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus takes this literally and asks Jesus "How can an old man be born? He can't reenter his mother's womb." Jesus then goes on to talk about it referring to being born of the spirit. This story is a solid example showing that Jesus did in fact use figurative language even outside of parables. Thus statements such as "this bread is my body" can have symbolic or deeper meanings. Since Jesus is God that would suggest God would have used such language in the Old Testament too. It is usually pretty obvious but John 3 makes it undoubtful that God talks like this.
Freedom from the law is joyous
At the end of the book Jacobs no longer had to keep the law, his experiment was over. He said he felt free. He was astonished at the freedom of choice and lack of burden. He also said as time went on the guilt of not keeping the law faded away. As a christian who once felt obligated to & tried to keep commands I had a similar experience. Even though Jacobs didn't find the ultimate freedom of knowing Christ he did find the freedom from the law that Jesus earned on the cross for all mankind. No one is bound to keep the law anymore and only Jews were before Christ. Those to try to keep it now only pick up a burden to carry or have others encourage them to pick it up. Thank God for His freedom! Knowing Him is the greatest joy in life!
The red marks of Jesus
Here is something the author didn't address but the symbolism sprung to life when I heard it. Jacobs was keeping the law that said to bind God's words to your forehead and at the same time the law that says to bind money to your hand. He said at the end of the day when he took them off they "left red marks on my head and hands." Wow! What a symbol of Jesus wearing the crown of thorns and having nails put through His hands.
Jesus said the scriptures point to Him and Hebrews says that the old covenant practices contained foreshadows to Jesus. So the strange things like this reasonably can somehow show us Jesus. Here the law is worn on your head. Jesus took the full judgments and curses of the law on His head. The law had money being bound to your hand. Jesus paid our debt for sin and that payment was paid in part with nails through the hands. Amazing!
The book is entertaining and exposes you to the multitude of commands and types people that are out there. So read it if you want to. You're not obligated by law nor do you have to be fearful of sin. And A.J., if you are still obsessively Googling yourself thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment telling me how many laws I broke in this post.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Forcing Beliefs
From Matthew 13:34, here is Jesus explaining the kind of love He has,
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"
Jesus wants people to know that He is forgiving even of the worst kinds of things. He longs to love, protect, & comfort people. Jesus doesn't violate someone's choice to reject or disbelieve Him. Those who want nothing to do with Him get what they want.
While I think it is good to humbly admit potential ignorance and suspend your disbelief the idea that someone should accept something with no evidence is absurd and that was never the way Jesus presented Himself nor was it ever how the gospel was presented in the first century.
Just as Jesus didn't force Himself on anyone it is not a good idea for a Christian or anyone else to try and force their beliefs on someone else. I mean that not only for individuals but also on on political, national, & legislative scales. Compassion does not consist of entitlement because you think you are right or fighting against something because you are afraid of it.
There is no record of Jesus bursting into pagan temples and telling them how wrong they are nor is there of Jesus going to Rome to get Caesar to change the laws and practices of the empire. Jesus allowed people to not follow Him. While it may not look like it because of the people who claim to follow Jesus, that was His way.
It is ok for everyone to have a voice but it is not loving to try to remove someone else's choice unless you are legitimately protecting another person from them. Sadly it is hard for people to understand that their personal fears do not equal compassionate protection for others.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"
Jesus wants people to know that He is forgiving even of the worst kinds of things. He longs to love, protect, & comfort people. Jesus doesn't violate someone's choice to reject or disbelieve Him. Those who want nothing to do with Him get what they want.
While I think it is good to humbly admit potential ignorance and suspend your disbelief the idea that someone should accept something with no evidence is absurd and that was never the way Jesus presented Himself nor was it ever how the gospel was presented in the first century.
Just as Jesus didn't force Himself on anyone it is not a good idea for a Christian or anyone else to try and force their beliefs on someone else. I mean that not only for individuals but also on on political, national, & legislative scales. Compassion does not consist of entitlement because you think you are right or fighting against something because you are afraid of it.
There is no record of Jesus bursting into pagan temples and telling them how wrong they are nor is there of Jesus going to Rome to get Caesar to change the laws and practices of the empire. Jesus allowed people to not follow Him. While it may not look like it because of the people who claim to follow Jesus, that was His way.
It is ok for everyone to have a voice but it is not loving to try to remove someone else's choice unless you are legitimately protecting another person from them. Sadly it is hard for people to understand that their personal fears do not equal compassionate protection for others.
Friday, March 27, 2009
In Context: "The truth will set you free."
What the Bible actually says:
To the Jews who had trusted him, Jesus said, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." -John 8:31-32
So the truth just doesn't set me free.. I have to know it?
Well what is God's word?
God's word is truth -John 17:17
Well what is truth then?
Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." -John 14:6
So God's word is truth & Jesus is truth!
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. -John 1:1,14
And Jesus is also the Word of God!
So If I continue in God's word/Jesus, then I am truly a disciple of Jesus; and I will know the truth (God's word/Jesus), and the truth (God's word/Jesus) will make me free.
What does that mean though?
Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. -Psalm 37:4
So if my delight in the Lord my desire will be for more of Him.
So then continuing in God's truth allows me to know God more.
Let us look at this again
To the Jews who had trusted him, Jesus said, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." -John 8:31-32
So this was written to those who trusted Jesus. So I can't continue in His word if I don't trust Him & I can't be His true disciple if I don't continue in His word. If I don't trust Him that means I don't trust the truth and if I don't trust the truth which is God's word I will not continue in it & I can't be His true disciple and won't be set free.
It's like a big circle. I can't trust God if I don't know the truth & if I don't know the truth which is God's word then I won't continue in it but if I don't continue in it I won't know the truth.
So those who trust Him will continue in His word & be His true disciples & those are the only ones who are set free.
Free from what?
The wages of sin is death -Romans 6:23
Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." -John 8:34-36
Ok free from being slaves to sin but how?
He Himself (Jesus) bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. -1 Peter 2:24
But is that it just being free from being a slave to sin?
Now that you have been set free from sin and have become servants to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. -Romans 6:22
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