Growth Through Others

Last week I was involved in two discussions that ultimately came together to form the foundation for what I feel like God is putting on my heart to discuss today.  The first discussion is an extension of a blog I wrote a few weeks back.  The second referenced Isaiah 54 and how to apply prophetic scriptures of this nature to our lives.  Later that day I saw that Isaiah 54 was the haftarah portion for last week.  This sealed the deal and I knew that this is what I would be writing on. 

The overarching message I feel God is calling me to share is again one on unity and getting along with others who may not see things exactly in the same way we do.  A few weeks back I shared how some people are strong in comprehending the giving and receiving of love in particular ways.  As such, they are more prone to extend and receive love in those ways.  At the same time, they may be weak in comprehending the giving and receiving of love in other ways.  As such, they are less likely to extend or receive love in those ways.  What I shared, is that it is very easy for us to judge people as “unloving” if they do not extend and receive love in the same ways we do.  This is simply not true.  Our responsibility is to understand the other person and recognize who they are and see and comprehend in what ways they give and receive love.  This accomplishes two things.  First of all, it allows us to embrace another person for who they are while allowing them to remain who they are and not pressuring them to become just like us.  Secondly, this gives us the opportunity to grow as we learn and comprehend new ways to give and receive love that we may have not understood before.  In doing these two things we become more spiritually whole people capable of giving and receiving love in more ways while holding onto our own sense of identity. 

This week I want to take that same principle and apply it in a much broader sense.  Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who was going into incredible depth about something that you just were not interested in?  Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who just didn’t seem to care about details that you find incredibly relevant?  More than likely, most of us can answer yes to both of these questions.  The reason is that there are things that each of us are really passionate about.  On the other hand, we all have lots of things that we are simply not that interested in.  At the same time, some of us just naturally have a tendency to want to research things and “go deep” while others do better in life seeing what is on the surface. 

The challenge is again to allow other people to be who they are and not “judge” them based on our own personal approach to life based on what we think is and is not important.  One person may have a great desire to talk about guns.  On the other hand, someone else might not.  The tendency for the one who does not is to judge the one who does for being fanatical.  This judgement blinds the second person of their ability to see and understand why the other person may be so passionate.  The reality is, there are many reasons that someone may be fanatical about guns.  Maybe, they are concerned with home safety.  Maybe they feel a strong responsibility for being prepared to protect the lives of others.  Maybe they experienced some things that led them into a pattern of fear.  The point is, in our judgement of them based on a superficial assessment we miss the opportunity to get to know the other person AND create the opportunity for what they see as important to become something that we can agree is important too.  Maybe that person who wasn’t so passionate about guns might become a bit more passionate if they asked a few questions and truly tried understanding the person who they previously judged. 

The concept of this acceptance leads us straight into the Word of God.  God’s Word is filled with opportunities for people to become fanatical about its various aspects.  Some people are fanatical about creation and exactly how old the earth is.  Some people are fanatical about prophecy and how end time events will ultimately unfold.  Others are fanatical about God’s involvement in pain and suffering while others may tend to be fanatical about the power of healing.  Some people read scripture from the context of how it applies to our lives today.  Some people read scripture strictly to gain a historical context.  Others may read scripture to understand patterns of God’s interaction with mankind while others may focus more on learning about what He says about His character and what drives Him to interact in the ways that He does. 

Herein is where Isaiah 54 comes into play.  Isaiah 54 can be read and understood from many different angles and as such be important to people for a variety of reasons.  I will not attempt to share all of the ways in which this scripture may be seen as important for all people, but will share what my limited view provides.  For me, Isaiah 54 is important because it is, what I believe to be, a prophetic summary of a discussion that God will have between Himself and the Jewish people at some point in the future.  There are many reasons that I believe all believers should open their hearts to being passionate about this concept.  Notice, I did not say that I believe that all believers should open their hearts to agree with me about the context of Isaiah 54.  I simply expressed a belief that all believers would benefit from being passionate about the concept that this scripture is about a future discussion. 

Let’s just take a moment and do a quick gut check.  Do you agree with me?  Why or why not? 

Now, let’s take another approach.  Isaiah 54 is a beautiful section of scripture that every believer can lean on.  The entire chapter is all about hope, redemption, and a knowing that God will never leave us or forsake us.  Isn’t this what this is all about?  Who cares what discussions might take place in the future, life is hard, sometimes I feel like God has abandoned me, and in those moments, this scripture gives me hope?  Isn’t this what the bible is all about? 

OK, how are you feeling now?  Do you agree with this last paragraph?  Why or why not? 

The point is, just like understanding how others give and receive love makes us more spiritually whole, so does understanding why others are so passionate about what motivates them to research, study, and discuss the things they invest their time and energy into. 

There is no doubt that in the day to day life of most people, I would probably agree that the second summary of how to approach Isaiah 54 is gong to be of greater value.  However, let’s take a minute and go a bit deeper and present an opportunity for growth. 

I am going to take a minute to layout a foundation of how I see several chapters of Isaiah.  I will also share why I believe all believers would benefit by opening their hearts to the concept that these prophecies may be unfulfilled discussions between God and the Jewish people.  In doing so, I am in no way minimizing what I said in the last paragraph.  In actuality, I believe that going the full mile will not only provide a greater understanding of the scripture, but will even provide the opportunity to expand the hope spoken of in the second view.

From how I see it, Isaiah 53 to the end of Isaiah are prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled.  Don’t get me wrong, Isaiah 53 definitely talks about Jesus and His crucifixion.  However, I do not see the main prophecy of Isaiah 53 as being about the crucifixion but more so, I see it as a future discussion between God and the Jewish people when we (as a people) are coming to see Jesus for who He was (as a man).  You will notice that the writing style of all of these chapters of Isaiah are in the form of discussion between God and a people.  Isaiah 53 is written in a past tense form.  In other words, it is a discussion between two parties about something that happened in the past.  This is why I see this scripture this way.  From there, Isaiah 54 through the next several chapters are all written in future tense.  As such, I see this section of Isaiah as a set of discussions that will take place during the next transition between dispensations.  If I am correct, this discussion is between God and the Jewish people and will take place right before He returns to set up the millennial kingdom.  This would put the fulfillment of this prophecy at the end of the dispersion which is also the end of the “Time of the Gentiles” which is the dispensation that we are currently in. 

Isaiah 54 has particular imagery and language (Isaiah 54:8 “I hid My face from you”) that references back to the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32.  Not only does this chapter provide imagery and language, but the promises that are being made are the very promises that have yet to be fulfilled and according to all prophecy will only be fulfilled at the end of the dispersion and during the messianic kingdom.  These sections of the Song of Moses are the same references that Jesus, Paul, Peter and the other New Testament authors referenced in giving us a prophetic timeline as to where we are in God’s plan of salvation through the Jewish people. 

So, why is this important beyond just proving that I am right and anyone who disagrees is wrong? 

First of all, knowing that God still has these promises in store proves what we believe to be true really is true.  It is easy to read that God will never forsake us.  However, we can’t forget that He is talking to Israel.  Up until 60 years ago there was no proof that He hasn’t really given up on us.  Afterall, it has been over 2,000 years since we were sent into exile and dispersed across the face of the earth. We have been the most persecuted people ever to exist and antisemitism is again on the rise.  This time period of his “hiding His face” from us still continues to this day.  What proof do we have that He won’t forsake gentile believers if He hasn’t proven to not forsake Israel?  The proof comes in the prophecy.  From how I see it, Jesus, Paul, and Peter along with all the other New Testament authors and the Old Testament prophets all provided prophecy that date stamps us to right where we are today.  It is in the prophecy that has come to pass that we can rest assured that what is still to come will come and that ultimately Israel will be redeemed.  In other words, our hope rests in the belief that the redemption of the Jewish people will come because so far everything that God said would come about has come about.  This leads us to conclude that if He is true to His Word with the Jewish people, then gentile believers can rest assured that He will be true to His Word concerning their future too.  Understanding that these verses are speaking of a redemption still due provides that hope. 

if I am correct in how I am viewing these scriptures, Isaiah 56 moves into an aspect of the discussion that is applicable to every believer who is not from the bloodline of Abraham.  In Isaiah 56:6-8 NASB we read ““Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, To minister to Him, and to love the name of the LORD, To be His servants, everyone who keeps from profaning the sabbath And holds fast My covenant; Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”  The Lord GOD, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, “Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.” 

Understanding that there are promises and conditions set aside for the gentile believers who want to be a part of Jesus’ 1,000 year rule here on earth is a critical concept to consider.  This scripture again points to the gathering of the dispersed but promises that the gathering will include those not of the blood line of Abraham.  In this, gentile believers can find promise that they too will be part of the kingdom while also coming into an understanding of what conditions God will be looking at when culling through those who will and will not be a part of that dispensation.  This provides the opportunity for hope alongside belief that leads to prayerful decisions as to how to go about our relationship with Him.  All of these could prove to be very important if what He says really is true.  It is scriptures like these that help us make the right decisions today so that we will be properly prepared for what will come tomorrow.

At the end of the day, the point is not about who is right and who is wrong.  The point is that we need to be open to not only what other people are passionate about, but probably even more importantly, why.  It is in the asking of why something is important to someone that we can truly see who they are, what drives them, and where their greatest strengths may be.  In this, we can grow as we start seeing the world through the eyes of others and in the process, become more complete. 

I pray that this has been a blessing to all of us and that in and through what has been shared we have all been challenged to be more loving, more accepting, and more thought full in posing the right questions when we just don’t understand where someone else is coming from. 

Maintaining Balance

The scroll has been rewound and it is time to begin.  Time to begin a new year’s journey through Torah.  Time to start a new year’s spiritual journey with God.  Time to start anticipating what this year might bring.  For me, the past several weeks were all about looking back.  Looking back over my previous year.  Thinking about what God showed me.  Remembering my growth, the relationships, the blessings, and even my failures.  Remembering those moments when I wish I could have taken back my words, reactions, or even the things that I had done.  The last few weeks were about closing out last year’s spiritual season right and thanking God for the love and grace He extends to us each and every day.

With the Torah rewound and the festivals behind us, it is time to start back at the beginning.  With that said, I find no better place to begin our journey for this year than with John 1:1-5 NASB “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” 

I firmly believe that understanding the concept of Spiritual Yeshua changes everything about how we view each of the covenants, God’s interaction with the world, and ultimately God’s plan of salvation. 

When we read scripture, like Romans 9, that talk about the Jewish people stumbling over the stumbling stone, it should lead us into a place of contemplation.  In this place of contemplation, we might ask ourselves:

• What was the character of Spiritual Yeshua before He was physical Jesus,
• What was the role of Spiritual Yeshua before He was physical Jesus,
• Is Spiritual Yeshua the same today as He was before He was physical Jesus, and
• Can we stumble over physical Jesus just like the ancient Israelites stumbled over Spiritual Yeshua?

In all reality, the vast majority of the letters written by Paul to the early churches are all addressing this exact problem.  Church after church was stumbling over Christ.  One group was connecting salvation to particular festivals, another to not drinking alcohol, another to circumcision, others to food sacrificed to idols, and the list goes on and on.  In Galatians 5:4 NASB, Paul goes as far as to say that “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace”.  In this example, the stumbling comes from a spirit of religion that simply can’t accept the concept of Grace.  In Romans 9:32 Paul explains that this was the issue that caused the stumbling for the Jewish people.  He says that “Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works” they stumbled over Christ.  This would be the most common way of stumbling over Him.  However, I believe there are a few more that are not quite so obvious.

In John 3:14 Jesus tells Nicodemus that He must be lifted up just like the serpent that Moses lifted up in the desert.  This scripture comes right before the famous John 3:16 and sets the stage for what Jesus is attempting to communicate.  In what Jesus is saying, He is referring to an event that happened when the Israelites were traveling through the desert.  The story is told in Numbers 21.  In the story, the people were grumbling and wanting to return to Egypt.  In short, they had come to the place where they had lost belief that the difficulties of the desert experience and all that they were learning and growing into were less desirable, less profitable, and less promising than what life in Egypt promised.  They had lost faith that the promised land would be worth the difficulties of the desert and they were willing to let go of what they had not experienced to return to what they had always known.  In this, God sent serpents to bite the people, Moses sought God’s favor, God told Moses to make a bronze statue of a serpent, and when the people gazed upon the serpent after being bit, they lived.  This is the example Jesus uses for how He would be lifted up and how people who “looked” upon Him would live.

What I find interesting about this is that God had Moses make an image of the very thing that was biting them and causing them to die.  It was this bronze statute of the serpent that they had to look upon to live.  Scripture doesn’t really tell us too much about this but I believe there is something really important for us to understand.  Knowing that Jesus used this very scene to express how people would need to look upon Him puts it into an even more important context.

There are a few things that are important to look at:

• The people wanted to give up on the promise and return to the bondage they had known,
• God sent the serpents,
• The serpents were bringing death to the people, 
• When the people were dying they knew that they had to listen to God to live, and
• When the people who had been bit looked upon the bronze statue they lived. 

If Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, is it possible for us to see Spiritual Yeshua not only as the one being lifted up, but also in each of the other aspects of the story?  In essence, I believe that all of these things are Yeshua working for us because He is more than a man.  He is the Word made flesh, He is the way, He is the truth, and He is the life.  He was with God in creation and He is with God now.

As I end this a bit shorter tonight, I simply want us to ponder a few questions.  If Christ is in and through each of these things, where might we be stumbling over Him?

• Do God's Laws, statutes, and ordinances trip us up?  How about His appointed times?  Has a theology of minimums for salvation led us to stumbling over the gifts of wisdom and the very things that will help give us what we truly seek?
• Do we let God use the struggles of life to grow us or do we miss the opportunity for growth by complaining and simply praying for the challenges to be removed so that we can go back to our old patterns and the life we are most comfortable in?
• Do we trust God's sovereignty to the point that we can thank Him by "holding up and gazing upon" those very things that He used to kill something that was dead within us so that we may experience new life apart from that which needed to die?

I pray that each of us have come to see some areas where we too are tripping over Christ.  I pray that as we become more aware of these areas, we find a new strength, a refreshed mind, and a new way of thinking.  I pray that we let Him help us regain our balance, and that we let Him take us by the hand and lead us into a new freedom that can only be found in Him.  Amen Amen

Guilty or Not Guilty? Does it matter?

During our last night of Sukkot, I asked everyone who attended to share a little about what this year meant to them spiritually.  What was God really moving us to see, hear, understand, and embrace.  There were a few reasons for this.  In this blog I am going to present some thoughts on three concepts that are not typically talked about or discussed.

• How do repentance and intercessory prayer work together,
• What is it to be guilty, and
• What is the “unforgivable sin”?

As I ponder the relationship we have with God and the work He does in each of our lives, I thought it important to share a few thoughts, give a little encouragement, and tie together some missing pieces.  For the most part, my intent is to leave each of us with a challenging concept.  Where has God used the circumstance of life, other people, the Holy Spirit, our devotions, teachings, church time, or any other source of speaking into our lives to move us from a place of innocence to a place of guilt.  Going one step further, how important is our response in our demonstration of love?  This is a tough concept for most of us to consider.  At the same time, if what I am seeing in scripture is true, it could be a concept that will change how we view ourselves and even more so, how we see (or judge) others.

In this process I am going to share some concepts that are typically not taught and as such most of us do not spend much time thinking about.  I believe these concepts are foundational in our relationship with God and with others.  In the end, I want each of us to ponder what areas of thought and behavior we tend to hear and respond to what we feel in our souls while also acknowledging those areas where we remain somewhat resistant to change. 

As we move into the new year, let’s all challenge ourselves to really see those areas of our lives that we are more resistant and as such, typically less than proud of.  Let’s take some time to step out from under the shame and accept that not meeting the righteousness of Christ is a normal human condition and that we have a God who loves us and accepts us just like we are.  At the same time, let’s also come to accept that if there are patterns of thought and/or behavior that we are less than proud of, then deep down inside something stands witness to the fact that we are not meeting the righteousness that we have been called to walk out and it is time to let God transform us in those areas.

Over the past few years, I have been hearing a lot of preaching about “revival” for the church and “intercessory prayer” for the world.  Most of the time, these prayers have to do with our observations of the hurt and lost souls who live amongst us and focus on asking God to change the direction of the moral decay the world seems to be transgressing.  A lot of these prayers are directed at things we find unholy, immoral, and in opposition to how we understand God’s ways.

I really like how, in most the situations I have observed, the two concepts (revival and intercessory prayer) are put together because this is rightly the way it should be.  According to 1 Peter 2:9, all believers should consider themselves as a part of a “royal priesthood”.  As a part of a priesthood, we really should understand some foundational principles regarding what it is to be a priest, and how it is that we should go about our job.  In 2 Chronicle 7:14 NASB we read “and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

In this context, I would have to believe that God’s people are aware that their land needs healing and that they, just like those mentioned above, have been calling out to Him to do so.  In this scripture, He clearly tells us where the healing begins.  Notice there are four things that GOD’s PEOPLE must do to move God into the position of “hearing from heaven, forgiving their sin, and healing their land”.  I have to believe that this scripture was given by God during a time very similar to this, and that these directions are as relative to us today as they have always been. 

If you are getting stuck on the “forgiveness of sin” not being extended until all of what God is asking for is met, I ask you to let that go and understand we are not talking about heaven and hell issues here.  We are talking about God’s intervention and the answering of prayers.

Going one step further with this, we need to understand that this was a concept that was introduced from the very beginning.  In Leviticus 16:6 we read that before the priests could make a sacrifice for the people, they would have to offer up a sacrifice for themselves and for their household.  Then, and only then, could they offer up a sacrifice for the people and enter into the Holy of Holies.  In this context, we can consider the offering up of the sacrifices as meeting the conditions God put forth above as these concepts are the proper heart attitude God called the priests into when preparing and offering the sacrifices.

Here is what I believe is happening in the spirit realm regarding these things.  What I believe, is that as the world falls apart around us, we see what is blatantly obvious to us as not being of God.  Our first tendency is to go to God and ask Him to fix what we see and what bothers us.  What we fail to see is the sovereignty of God, and how He may be attempting to use what is obviously disturbing to us to reveal to us what we are thinking and/or doing that is sin but that we are not yet aware of as being sin.  It is only through prayer and the processing of humbling ourselves that we can take what we are observing and expand it to reveal similar areas of unholiness in our own lives.  Maybe our intercessory prayers should start off with a petition for God to show us if there is some aspect of our being that is supporting the immoral behaviors we are observing around us.

Does the thought of sex slavery disgust us while at the same time we have no issue with watching movies that exploit the sexuality of people for the purpose of providing profit to the big companies and pleasure to those watching?  Does the thought of abortion make us sick while at the same time we see countless church going parents sacrificing the spiritual well-being of their children while they chase after wealth, power, materialism, or inappropriate entertainment?  Are we allowing the social decay around us to be a mirror that reveals our inability to love those that persecute us?  I could go on and on, but my job here is not to be the Holy Spirit in each of your lives. 

The point is, the disfunction of the world is only one step further down the abys from where God’s people are living and God uses their sin to reveal our sin to us.  In this process, if we are truly His people, we go to Him, ask Him to use their disfunction to show us ours, and get on our knees and ask Him to heal us.  This is the reality of what “revival is”.  To be revived we must first admit that we are dead and need Him to breathe new life into us.  By definition, being dead is living apart from God.  If the church is seeking revival the first steps are exactly what is outlined in 2 Chronicles 7:14 as noted above.

With all this in mind, let’s take a look at the concept of guilt and innocence.  For most of us who have been brought up in the church this concept and the next might be really tough to reconcile.  The problem is that we have not been taught the depths of the Old Covenant.  As such, it may be a surprise to come to understand these next two concepts.  But again, they are important as we find Jesus re-expressing these concepts in His teachings and knowing the source of what He is sharing is foundational to our journey with Him.  Paul also writes from these same perspectives and as such, understanding these perspectives is critical to understanding Paul in context.

In John chapter 15:24 NASB we read ““If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.”  In this, the word “sin” is actually “guilt” but for some reason it is retranslated a sin.  Understanding what Jesus is saying here is so foundational to our understandings of how God intervenes in our lives.  Before we go to far in thinking about this concept of guilt, I need to share our third concept.  That concept is the unforgivable sin of blasphemes against the Holy Spirit.  We need to keep our minds clear of confusing the concepts of innocence, guilt, and ultimate unforgiveness.

Being guilty IS NOT A PLACE OF SHAME.  It is NOT A PLACE OF CONDEMNATION.  It is simply a state of mind.  This state of mind is defined over and over again throughout Leviticus.  I will use Leviticus 5:4-5 NASB as my example.  These two verses come at the end of a list of things that someone might do unintentionally and then “become guilty”.  This is the last in the list, “Or if a person swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, in whatever matter a man may speak thoughtlessly with an oath, and it is hidden from him, and then he comes to know it, he will be guilty in one of these.  ‘So, it shall be when he becomes guilty in one of these, that he shall confess that in which he has sinned."

In other words, God understands that we will sin and that there are sins that we are unaware of as well as sins that we are aware of.  The fact of it being sin does not change with our awareness.  However, the fact of our guilt does.  When we are found guilty, we are told that we are to “confess that in which we have sinned”.  This is simply the progression of our sanctification.

The way I read scripture and have grown in my understanding leads me to see things as follows:

• God works in our lives in many ways all at the same time,
• In areas where we are in innocent sin, He brings things about in such a way to help us see that sin while giving us the opportunity to judge ourselves regarding it,
• In areas where we are in guilty sin because He knows that we have already acknowledged that we are in sin we fall under His judgement.  In Paul's letter to the church in Corinth he addresses this reality when they were not properly discerning the body of Christ while taking communion,
• At any point we are free to humble ourselves, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, and in so doing free Him up to answer our prayers.

The only exception to this is when we absolutely refuse to bend our knee, remain in rebellion, and call what is evil good and what is good evil.  This would be a life dedicated to ignoring all that is going on around us and refuse to accept that God is attempting to move us beyond what we know to be sin.  In Mark 3:29 NASB we read “but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”.

There are two Old Covenant references to Blaspheming the Lord.  They are Leviticus 24:16 and Numbers 15:30-31. I believe that Jesus was referring to the Numbers verse because it ties the blaspheme to being cut off from the people.  Here is how it reads “‘But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people.”

Notice how blaspheme is connected to acting “defiantly”.  This moves us beyond guilt and is exactly what Jesus was talking about with the Pharisees.  In Luke chapter 12 Jesus is talking to a group of religious teachers and pointing out to them their hypocrisy.  He is revealing to them that He knows that they know the truth and yet they continue in their rejection of who He is.  Ultimately in verse 12:59 He summarizes what their afterlife experience will be like because of their blatant defiance.  In Matthew 5:25-26 we have Jesus giving very similar imagery to the people as He gives his famous sermon on the mount.

The point is, God loves us, He wants to set us free, and He wants to walk us through this process of sanctification.  We all have areas where we are moving faster and we have areas where we are moving slower.  In the end there are areas where we are innocent and areas where we are guilty.  How God intervenes in our lives is largely associated with how we respond to what has been made known to us.  How He intervenes within the world is largely a result of how His people as a group are progressing through these same issues.

The questions we must ask ourselves are:

• Are there places I claim innocence where the reality is, I am truly guilty (the sin has been made known to me),
• Are there places where I am in active defiance (refusing to accept my guilt even though the evidence is substantial and convincing),
• Do I love my neighbor enough to humble myself, seek God’s face, turn from my wicked ways, so that He can heal our land?

I pray this has been a blessing to you and that through the next days and weeks we each allow God to continue to bring areas into our minds that we know He has been speaking into, that we as a body hear what He is attempting to convey, and that we do what we must so that our prayers can be heard.  Amen

The End of Law

 

Last week our pastor shared a teaching on the last few verses of Romans 9 through the first few verses of Romans 10.  After church he, my youngest son, and I spent some time talking and going a bit deeper than the sermon covered.  It was a great discussion that we then continued moving into the other night when he and his family came over to celebrate Sukkot with us at my home.  During the Sukkot celebration my oldest son joined the pastor and I as we again went a bit deeper.  Over the last few days, I have been considering a few things that I felt would be profitable to share. 

The first thing is the love and respect that was shared between all of us as we shared and discussed.  In all reality, for me, this is the big realization of the time we shared.  The funny thing was that we never really talked about it.  It just was. 

Over the years I have come to understand that one of the greatest indications of spiritual maturity is exhibited in how we share our theological views and/or how we respond to others when they share theirs.  Undoubtedly, we all believe that what we see in scripture is “obviously” what the scripture is intended to communicate. 

When discussing issues such as the application of God’s Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances to this dispensation and beyond, eschatology & prophecy, the mystical aspects of spirituality (the spirit realm and how it specifically interacts with humans), what makes something clean or unclean, what is holy and what is profane, and how God may be specifically acting or allowing circumstances to unfold we must accept that these are all areas of ambiguity.  Moving beyond the limitations of the Word we have issues like politics, foreign policy, and how we should respond in day to day life given particular circumstance. 

We must learn to share how we see and understand as a summary of “what I see”, “what I believe God has shown me”, and “from how I interpret what I am reading”.  At the same time, we must allow others to share their views and understandings in a like manner.  It is so easy to become so extreme in our views that other views appear as “obviously” wrong.  But, what would we discover if we gave the people sharing those views the respect of sharing what lead them to believing what they believe?  

The bottom line is, if all we ever do is surround ourselves with people who see and believe in the same way we do, and if when challenged with a different perspective, shut those people down before giving them an opportunity to share, we leave little room for growth and new understanding.  When we live this way, what opportunities do we have to see things in a new way?  What opportunities for growth have we shut down before they ever got started?  And what damage may have we done to another person’s journey with the Holy Spirit and the commission that God has on their lives?  What if that person is fragile, looking for confirmation in something that God really has given them, and respects us enough to trust us with our response?  What if there are other people listening and the very thing that this person is sharing is being brought up through the Holy Spirit for the benefit of all those present?  How might our definitive response impact the ability for those people to ever overcome the setback caused by our overzealous and self-righteous response. 

The truth is, I am working toward being strong enough in my faith that I don’t need to argue with people.  I don’t need to defend my perspectives and my views to such an extent that proving my view correct overshadows my desire to love others and provide them the opportunity to bring new and relevant understandings into my life.  I want to trust my relationship with the Holy Spirit enough to know that if someone brings a perspective that is different from where the Spirit is leading me, He will make it clear and I will not be led astray.  I want to trust that the Holy Spirit will lead people into my life to help me move beyond my blinders, and to the point where I value growth more than victory.  How much different would the world look if we could all listen to each other enough to really understand why others believe what they do?  How much more insight could we gain?  How much more could the Holy Spirit use us?

This leads me back to the discussion that the pastor and my sons and I were having.  During this conversation the concept of Jesus being the “end” of the law came up (Romans 10:4).  This took us to the concept of the Law being a “tutor” as shared in Galatians 3:24. What we began to see is that the word “end” can have two different meanings in this context.  Using a race as an example, the race has two ends.  The end of the race is when all the competitors have finished competing and the race is over.  At the same time, the finish line is the “end” of the race.  It is a physical thing that defines where the competitors are racing to.   

Now let’s take a look at Galatians 3:24-25 (NASB) “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” 

These two scriptures really support each other in a beautiful way.  In one way, we could argue that according to the Galatians scripture, the tutor has been done away with because the point of the Tutor is to lead us to Jesus.  In this case, the “end” in Romans 10 would indicate that the Law is no longer applicable to the Christian faith and that Christ did away with or replaced it. 

But, is this the only way of seeing things?  If we choose to take on the vantage point of the Law being good, the very definition of life, and a gift from God, it is difficult for me to understand why God would take something so wonderful away.  From this perspective the scriptures noted above take on a completely new meaning that also fit into the context of what Paul may be attempting to communicate in both Romans and Galatians. 

Maybe what Paul is attempting to communicate is that Jesus is the end of the law like the finish line is the end of a race.  Maybe what Paul is saying in Galatians is that we need to understand what is unholy, unclean, and profane so that we have something to mediate on to grow us in a deeper understanding of the world around us.  In other words, without an understanding of what is and is not acceptable we can’t ponder why it would or would not be acceptable.  Going even deeper, we would have no reason to ponder why we choose to do what is not acceptable while avoiding those things that are. 

From this perspective, I can see that any physical law of righteousness (be it the Law of Moses or whatever level of righteous behavior is preached in our churches on any given Sunday) is simply a tutor that leads us into a deeper pursuit of truth.  This pursuit of truth investigates the unseen laws that govern our world and the motives of our heart.  This pursuit ultimately reveals if we are truly loving God and loving others as we love ourselves.  It is in this investigation that we come to see the root of our behavior, how our flesh nature, old hurts, or poor influences have led us into self-destructive patters of living.  In this we come to understand why we eat foods that are damaging to our health, why we struggle against activities that we know will damage our relationships with others, and why we chose to do things that will make us feel separate and apart from God. 

In John chapter 8 Jesus is talking to a group of religious teachers and He is telling them that they are slaves to sin and that Satan is their father.  In verses 31-32 He tells them that if they come to know Him, they will come to know the truth, and the truth will make them free. 

From the second perspective I just shared we can go back to Romans and come to see an entirely new meaning to Romans 9:31-32 (NASB) “but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.  Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 

Putting things together, here is what I believe Paul is getting at.  Regardless as to what “law of righteousness” we are embracing, if we are seeing that our righteousness in God’s eyes comes when we are able to walk in accordance with that law, we are stumbling over Christ.  All of the physical definitions and images of what righteous living looks like are only provided so that we know when we are living apart from Him.  Knowing that we are living apart from Him should force us to ask the question “why have I chosen to live apart from God?”  When we ask that question, He will answer us and the answer will be the truth because the truth is at the end of every question just as there is a finish line at the end of every race. 

No matter what area of morality or righteous living we may be struggling with, ultimately there is a truth that when looked at, listened to, repented for, and turned over to Him will set us free.  He is standing at the finish line of every battle we face, He is calling out to us, and He is willing to supernaturally bring us to where He is.  It doesn’t matter where we are on the track, how many times we have gone around and around.  He is the end of the battle, the end of the struggle, and the end of the fight.  He is our rest, our comfort, and our shield. 

I pray that maybe this blog has helped some of us see where we too are making the same mistakes as those that came before us, that we too can pursue a law of righteousness by works instead of faith, and that we too can trip over the stumbling stone (Christ).  I pray that in the areas that this has been revealed that we have the strength and courage to move deeper into self-reflection and seek the truth that awaits us at the end of our own race.  I pray that we seek that truth, and that as He has promised, in that truth we find Him, His love, His peace, His rest, and the freedom that can only be found in Him.  Amen Amen.