For God
will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil. Ecc. 12:14
Are you a troublemaker?
Do you take pride in your reputation in pushing against the boundaries? It used
to be that the clean-cut, law-abiding protagonist of the story was who we
wanted to be like, but now society has done a complete turn around and made
heroes out of villains. Morality has become subjective. No one in history
pushed His society’s morays more than Jesus. His ways were not what was
expected of the Messiah. His message wasn’t one of rebellion against the
governing authorities, nor was it one of peace and harmony as believed today.
His message was of repentance to prepare for the day when this sacrificial Lamb
of God, who had come to do the atoning work of reconciliation, would return as
a Lion, a Warrior, coming to reclaim His Kingdom.
Many times people like
to portray Jesus as accepting people for who they are, right where they are,
and letting them stay just as they are. While it may be true that Jesus loves
you, for who you were created to be, and He does love you, He certainly did not
come to leave us in our sin.
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or
the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Matt. 5:17
This one verse is what
the Grace Principle hinges on. Some people believe that when a person gets
saved it is like they have received a free pass on all of their sin. Whatever
sin has been in their life, is in their life, or will be in their life can now
be erased by just showing this free pass called the “Moment of Salvation”,
meaning the moment they prayed the prayer and said that Jesus is Lord that it
was it, they bought their condo in heaven. They believe this is grace. They
take this grace card and play it whenever it suits them. If they choose to sin,
they play it saying, “God’s love covers a multitude of sin,” or “We are all
saved by grace,” and go right on living their lives and excusing their sin,
even when confronted. People will even point out the speck in their brother’s
eye while sinning openly through the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh,
or the pride of life and claim grace upon themselves. Yet the word of God
clearly states, “For him who knows the
right thing to do, and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” James 4:17 What they fail to recognize is that grace is a
gift offered by the giver, not a demand made by the receiver.
Jesus didn’t come to
take away the expectations God has on us to live our lives in observance of
what is right. It’s always right to do as Christ said, “You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart and all your soul
and with all your mind. This is the first commandment. And the second is like
it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend
all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew
22:37-40. The Law and Prophets
are the parts of scripture that were given to us to determine how we are to
live in relation to Him, to each other, and to the world around us. It is like
carrying our identity card around with us, only it is inscribed upon our
hearts. Having read through the books of the law it is refreshing to see that
before germs and viruses were known to man, God had a way of keeping illnesses
from spreading. It is easy to see that knowing the heart of man, God knew how
to keep integrity within relationships. God, being a good Father, is watching
out for His children. The prophets gave directions of which way we needed to
go, and the warning of what was up ahead.
Together the complete instructions of the covenant of God is laid out
before us. The contract terms are made, but we fall short of the terms and
conditions we needed to complete the deal and inherit what we were created for;
so Jesus stepped in to do it for us. “For by one offering He has perfected forever
those who are being sanctified.” Hebrews 10:14
It
amazes me when people paint the Lord as being heavy handed because of the way
God dealt with the enemies of Israel in the Old Testament, and as being too
much of a pacifist in the New Testament because He told people to love their
enemies. Let me clarify one thing, the God of the Bible is One God. He doesn’t
change. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 As for being heavy handed, if someone were to
mess with your children, take them from you, enslave them, do all kinds of
horrendous things to them, what would you do to them? “If you then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is
in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Matt.7:11 We consider
it an admirable quality when a parent defends their child. If you are the child
of God, wouldn’t you want Him to defend you? And as far as being a pacifist,
this is the same Messiah who proclaimed, “When the Son of Man come in His glory, and
all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.”
Matthew 25:31 & “He who
believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36 Our teacher isn’t coming in softly with this
lesson.
For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and
earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till
all is fulfilled. Matt.5:18
The rules exist for a
reason. We don’t have to like them but there are purposes for them. Sometimes
we like to push back and think we don’t have to follow them, but at other times
we don’t give them a second thought once we’re used to following them. Consider
the rules of phonics. We were expected to know certain elemental principles. We
were expected to know what sounds letters made in order to read. Once we are
beyond basic reading ability we don’t really stop and think, “That’s an ‘o’ and
it sounds like “uh” in this word, and in other words it sounds like “oh”. We
just read it because of the elemental principles we learned as we learned the
rules of reading. The rules didn’t go away just because we got used to them. We
use them all the time. We’re just not used to thinking back on them as we read
through the words. We may think we’re breaking the rules when actually we’re
following along completely submitting to them. If tomorrow, however, the rules
suddenly changed, and all the o’s suddenly had to be pronounced differently,
say like a ‘t’ then your reading ability would serious decline. Just try going
back and reading this paragraph making the o’s sound like t’s.
Other rules just can’t
be changed no matter how we fight them. We cannot defy gravity. We can fly in
planes, but that’s not defying gravity, that’s using other laws to push higher,
but eventually the planes succumb to the laws of gravity. Some laws exist for
our benefit. “For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by
send his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He
condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be
fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the
Spirit.” Romans 8:2-4 Our Master Teacher set the example for us of what
sin would cost us and in doing so allowed us to be freed from suffering the
consequences of the sin for eternity.
Praise
God there are laws that must still be fulfilled! The law that must still be
fulfilled that has been proclaimed I cling to is the promise God gave: The
Lord has appeared of old to me Saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an
everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” Isaiah 31:3
And there are other laws that will
not pass away until they are fulfilled, and promises that have yet to be
honored. “These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them,
for His Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called,
chosen, and faithful.” Rev.17:14 & “He will be great and will be called the
Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father
David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom
there will be no end.” Luke 1:32-33 All of what God has said will be
fulfilled through Jesus Christ. Have faith!
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of
these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of
heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:19
Have you ever thought that your little lie was
not that big a deal, or that taking something wasn’t yours was okay because the
person you took it from had plenty more? Then you’re missing the point. A lie
is still a lie, and a thief is a thief. It’s not about the words used, it’s the
fact it veered off the truth, and it’s still wrong. If we miss the target by
one degree, we still missed the target. When we think that’s not a big deal
consider this, if we are in a space ship headed for the moon, and we veer by
just one degree and miss our target we will be doomed to the vacuum of space
forever. It only takes being off in a little thing to mess up a lot. “A
little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Gal. 5:9
We tend to want to bring God down to our level and
forget that God is a completely Holy God, which means there is no sin in Him. Since
He is completely void of sin, how can we expect Him to be okay with our piles
of little sin that add up quickly to heaps of sin? It is not in His nature to
be surrounded by this sin inside of us. It was never His plan for us to be in
sin and suffer death either. “Therefore, just as through one man’s sin
entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men,
because all sinned.” Romans 5:12. We fail to see the purity of God
because it causes us to see the fall again. Once again we feel exposed by the
truth.
For I say to you, that unless your righteousness
exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means
enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 5:20
In Jesus’ times, there appeared to be no one in Jewish
culture that was more righteous than the scribes and the Pharisees. They were
the law interpreters. If anyone had a question about the law, those were the
people to go to for understanding. They practiced the law down to the smallest
principles, and yoked other people with it as well. Legalism became their way
of life, and they lost the reasons behind the law. Strictly adhering to the law
took the place of looking into the eyes of the people in need of the
restrictions. They found it easier to punish those who didn’t meet their
criteria than to show compassion to those who needed to be guided into doing
right. It’s easier to see wrong in others than to continue to point out the
right.
Jesus was telling the people that
even in those they believed always, did the right thing, there was fault. No
one is perfect when it comes to the law. So why did God give us the law? ”But
before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the
faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to
lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” Gal.3:23-24 NASB The purpose of the law was to educate us on
the way things are supposed to be done. We are to know what is good, and what
is bad, not based on what we feel, but based on what works within creation. The
standard is set. Since we can’t meet that standard, Jesus has met it for us,
and we meet Him through faith. If we try to meet up to the standard of the law,
we will fall short. We can’t do it. We all sin. We all fall short. “For
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His
grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23-24
We have a teacher, who
has come to teach us in a better way, and is telling us when it comes to the
test He knows we will fail if left on our own, but don’t worry. He’s taken it
before us. He knows all the answers, and He’s got it covered for us. He wants us
to do our best because we’re His students, and He taught us well. He set the
example, and where we fall short His work makes up the difference.
People may not want to
live by the standard set by Christ and those called by His name. They might
think it’s cool to be the bad guy because they can get their fifteen minutes of
fame, but what about after that? Have you ever considered what happens after
that ends. So many people today want to make themselves stand out for the
wrongs suffered. What if we were to stand up and actually do something about it
in a positive way, even if they don’t get any attention at all? If we were to
feed people just because they’re hungry, or clothe them because they’re cold,
or help them because they’re sick, and not be looking for what we could get out
of it; then we’d be doing what our teacher taught us. “But God demonstrates His own
love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8
