Thy Law Cherished

With my last two posts I contrasted law and grace, and I intend to keep on this track. Contrasting law and grace, and contrasting liberty and sin. With all this talk one might think that I follow the familiar mantra, "We're not under law but under grace!" And while I do believe we are no longer UNDER the law I do not foolishly think to dismiss law. The law is to be our delight, and the fulfilling of the law in Christ is our wellspring of life abundant.
David understood this... "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But HIS DELIGHT IS IN THE LAW of the LORD;
and IN HIS LAW DOTH HE MEDITATE day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth SHALL PROSPER" Psalm 1:1-3
No I don't think to do away with the law in my blog, just simply to frame it where God intends it to be according to the Word. Jesus is the fulfilling of the Law.
"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but A NEW CREATURE.   And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God."
Galatians 6:15-16
As many as walk according to this 'rule'. This word is, kanon, it is often used metaphorically of any rule or standard, a principle or law of investigating, judging, and living, and acting.

No I do not want to dismiss the law, I want to embrace the law in the context of faith.
As James put it...
James 2:10-13 KJV
"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment."
I want to understand the law in the context of love,
"Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Romans 13:10 KJV
How about you?
As for me The Law is Cherished they are Cherished Laws of Life.

The Law a Shadow

This is a continuation of yesterday's post about Hebrews 10:25. I made mention in my post yesterday that we see similar thoughts being conveyed to the church of Galatia as we read here in Hebrews, the more I read and re-read this book the more I see this to be so. To me it is incredible. In Galatians Paul spells out in no uncertain terms the difference of wrongly embracing the law for salvation and sanctification and properly embracing the grace of God through faith also for both salvation and sanctification. It is the difference really between genuine faith and hypocritical faith, if you want to call the latter faith at all. Really it is not faith, hypocrisy is a show of faith where the one who puts on the show is deceived. By deceived I mean they don't even really know they are doing it. There is faith involved in this to a point but then it is blurred and obscured by critical and judgmental attitudes towards some 'not-so-spiritual' others. Again I only say this because I walked several miles in those same shoes. Keep in mind that only God knows a persons heart and motives. It is not for us to identify hypocrisy in others, we must learn to identify it in ourselves. The Pharisees of scripture and what God had to say about this group of men is a great place to look to identify and evaluate the issue of hypocrisy. It is the only safe place, if we try to identify it anywhere else we will find ourselves slipping on those shoes and I don't want to go there again.

Now concerning the weakness of the law and the power of resting our faith in the Person of Christ, chapter ten, and again all of Hebrews lays this out quite nicely for us. And perhaps if we were Jewish, and even possibly if we were Pharisees or doctors of the law and scribes we would see this even more clearly.

Hebrews 10:1 says "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."

The Law is simply a shadow, or a foreshadowing of good things to come. What wonderful and awesome and powerful good things they are too! For by one offering Jesus Christ has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Once, for all, forever! Wherefore the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us (verses 14-20) that the way into the holiest of all is now made manifest. He says we may now have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Praise God the vail has been rent and we can now enter into a most holy and precious union with our Lord. In this union we can lay aside the letter of the law and embrace the Spirit of things. We can in holy sacred sacrificial christian love fulfill all that is spelled out to us in verses 22-25. We can draw near with a true heart. We can provoke one another to love and to good works. We can exhort one another to look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Praise God the vail has been rent! With this in mind, I think you will find it most edifying to go back and read in your Bible chapter ten of Hebrews, and I will continue this my own personal study notes and commentary another day.

TO BE CONTINUED...

For Goodness Sake Don't Forsake

There are so many halfhearted Christians running around doing things 'willy-nilly', if you will. That is to say... without much thought, consideration, or concern for others or the glory of God. Not according to the will but according to the whims of their own hearts. They may be faithful, or have a show of faithfulness to the sanctuary but in their hearts they are so many millions of miles away from the Lord, figuratively speaking.

Oftentimes they are Pharisee-like in their attitude towards church attendance, and even use Hebrews 10:25, a negative assertion, as a sort of 'bully club' to keep others in line and on the church bench. Trust me on this, I was there. I was Pharisee-like in many of my spiritual disciplines for quite some span of time.

Now concerning Hebrews ten, apart from the negative assertion of 'not forsaking the assembling' there are so many positive affirmations that can scarcely be missed if one would read all of the chapter carefully and prayerfully. God certainly does not want us to forsake the assembling of believers together in corporate worship, He never would have included that verse in His Word if it were not so, but in all reality if we would give much diligent attention to all of Hebrews ten and indeed all of Hebrews then the forsaking of ourselves together would not even be a consideration. I suspect it is added simply because it is the manner of some.

But there is another manner of some that is far more harmful to the body than the forsaking of ourselves together.  It is adhering to the letter of things and insisting that others also comply without following after the Spirit of things. We find this same admonishing, behavior, and strong reproof to the church in Galatia and without the involvement of the Spirit of God it is very damaging to the spirit of man. To say the least but there is more.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Three Forks in The Road

THERE are two ways by which a man may lose his own soul. What are they?

He may lose his soul by living and dying without any religion at all. He may live and die like a beast, prayerless, godless, graceless, faithless. This is a sure way to hell. Mind that you do not walk in it.

He may lose his soul by taking up some kind of religion. He may live and die contenting himself with a false Christianity, and resting on a baseless hope. This is the commonest way to hell there is.

What do I mean by useless kinds of religion? I will tell you.

The first thing I wish to say is this. A religion is entirely useless in which Jesus Christ is not the principal object, and does not fill the principal place.

There are only too many baptized men and women who practically know nothing about Christ. Their religion consists in a few vague notions and empty expressions. "They trust they are no worse than others; they keep to their Church; they try to do their duty; they do nobody any harm; they hope God will be merciful to them! they trust the Almighty will pardon their sins, and take them to heaven when they die." This is about the whole of their religion.

But what do these people know practically about Christ? Nothing: nothing at all! What experiential acquaintance have they with His offices and work, His blood, His righteousness, His mediation, His priesthood, His intercession? None: none at all! Ask them about a saving faith - ask them about being born again of the Spirit - ask them about being sanctified in Christ Jesus. What answer will you get? You are a barbarian to them. You have asked them simple Bible questions; but they know no more about them experientially than a Buddhist or a Muslim.

And yet this is the religion of hundreds of thousands of people who are called Christians, all over the world.

If you are a man of this kind, I warn you plainly that such Christianity will never take you to heaven. It may do very well in the eyes of men; it may pass muster very decently at the church vestry-meeting, in the place of business, in the House of Commons, or in the streets: but it will never comfort you; it will never satisfy your conscience; it will never save your soul.

I warn you plainly, that all notions and theories about God being merciful without Christ, and excepting through Christ, are baseless delusions and empty fancies. Such theories are as purely an idol of man's invention as the idol of the Hindu Juggernaut. They are all of the earth, earthy: they never came down from heaven. The God of heaven has sealed and appointed Christ as the one and only Saviour and way of life, and all who would be saved must be content to be saved by Him, or they will never be saved at all.

I give you fair warning. A religion without Christ will never save your soul.

But I have another thing yet to say. A religion is entirely useless in which you join anything with Christ in the matter of saving your soul. You must not only depend on Christ for salvation, but you must depend on Christ only and Christ alone.

There are multitudes of baptized men and women who profess to honour Christ, but in reality do Him great dishonour. They give Christ a certain place in their system of religion, but not the place which God intended Him to fill. Christ alone is not "all in all" to their souls. No: it is either Christ and the Church; or Christ and the Sacraments; or Christ and His ordained ministers; or Christ and their own goodness; or Christ and their own prayers; or Christ and their own sincerity and charity, on which they practically rest their souls.

If you are a Christian of this kind I warn you also plainly that your religion is an offence to God. You are changing God's plan of salvation into a plan of your own devising. You are, in effect, deposing Christ from His throne, by giving the glory due to Him to another.

I care not who it is that teaches you your religion and on whose word you build. Whether he be Pope or Cardinal, Archbishop or Bishop, Dean or Archdeacon, Presbyter or Deacon, Episcopalian or Presbyterian, Baptist or Independent, Methodist or Plymouth Brother - whosoever adds anything to Christ, teaches you wrong.

I care not what it is that you add to Christ. Whether it be the necessity of joining the Church of Rome, or of being an Episcopalian, or of becoming a Free Churchman, or of giving up the liturgy, or of being baptized by immersion, whatever you may practically add to Christ in the matter of salvation, you do Christ an injury.

Take heed what you are doing. Beware of giving to Christ's servants the honour due to none but Christ. Beware of giving the Lord's ordinances the honour due unto the Lord. Beware of resting the burden of your soul on anything but Christ, and Christ alone. Beware of having a religion which is of no use, and cannot save.

It is an awful thing to have no religion at all. To have an immortal soul committed to your charge, and neglect it, this is dreadful.

But it's no less an awful thing to be content with a religion than can do you no good.

Do not let this be your case. - J. C. Ryle