Posted in Atonement • Church • Clean & Unclean • Continuity & Discontinuity • Law • Love • Reading • Righteousness • Tradition

Righteousness

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In the late ’90’s as an elder at a Bible Church, I gave a message on the holy days of our Father listed in Leviticus 22.  I summarized the group of holidays by saying something along the lines of knowing and doing them was like knowing the bus schedule. If you want to ride the bus you have to know where and when it’s going to stop, then you have to be there at the proper place and time. I was trying to make the point that believers need to know all of the Bible and do what our Father’s Word tells us in order to figure out what behavior is expected of His children. If we ignore the parts of the Word that the Church (in general) says to ignore, then like the bridesmaids in the parable of the Ten Virgins we will not be as prepared for what is coming as we should be.

Afterwards, a young married man, schooled and hardened in the traditions of Church, was rather irritated at me and asked if I followed the entire Bible (especially the Law), and he didn’t, then was I holier (or more righteous) than he? It was a very telling question for several reasons. First was that salvation righteousness is not measured by actions but by grace through faith, meaning that nothing can be added to the sacrifice of Jesus for salvation. However, after one is saved then comes growth through the Word, which we call sanctification. So this man was confusing salvation righteousness with sanctification righteousness. Salvation righteousness is given to us by Jesus with no strings attached. Once salvation is gained then we exhibit the truth of our salvation by what we do and how we behave through the life-long sanctification process.

Second point of confusion for this young man was that yes, in sanctification it is possible for one individual to be more righteous than another. This is not to say that one is more “saved” than another, or that we measure our entrance into the Kingdom with right actions. It is simply that once we have our ticket for entry into the Kingdom of our Messiah we produce fruit in keeping with repentance and the love that was shown by His death on the cross.

To make an extreme analogy, it’s obvious that if I don’t murder someone, but another does, then I am more righteous than the murderer. I probably wouldn’t get an argument from anyone with that comparison. But let’s go a step further and say that if I don’t eat pork and someone else does, am I more righteous that he who does? The Scriptural answer is yes, but this answer is obscured by Church tradition taught as God’s Word in the Church. The tradition is that somehow the laws on eating pork were supposedly terminated by Jesus. This tradition is not in the Bible anywhere.

Isaiah 65:2–5 ESV. I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks; who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels; who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.

Sadly, I was not able to straighten out the young man’s confusion at that time because I was working my way through my own confusion caused by the same false Church teachings. It takes a while to extricate one’s self from the twisted teachings of most of the Church traditions not found in the Bible. With consistent reading and applying all of the Word to life, it can be done, but it requires much self-sacrifice as we put off our old man (sinful flesh) and put on the new man (Ephesians 4:20-24).

Isaiah 66:15–17 ESV. “For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the Lord shall be many. “Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig’s flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares the Lord.

So by the Word the answer is yes, those who practice the commands of Jesus such as avoiding the eating of pork (or mice), are in fact more righteous than those who don’t. Genuine followers of Jesus continue to practice all His righteous instructions in our sanctification process, building our houses on the strong foundation of all His Word.

 Luke 6:46–49 ESV. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Remember that the words of Jesus include those given at Sinai, and that the so-called New Testament was not formalized until about 200 A.D. Believers live all the words of Jesus at Sinai and after filled with the love of the Father and His Son in community with each other then and now. If this irritates those who wear only a facade of righteousness and rely on church tradition and membership or time in the choir for righteousness, so be it. The Words of Jesus are the Words of the Father, and all of them help build and strengthen our houses.

John 14:23–24 ESV. Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. Salvation righteousness is a gift, and sanctification is the working out of that gift. The penalty of death for sin has been paid, so we are free to practice His Words without fear and in joyful dedication. Jesus is life, and if we grab hold of all His Words, that life will not be denied and will break out all over in our lives. Shalom.

Posted in Clean & Unclean • Daily Living • Faith • Healing • Prayer • Repentance

I’ll Pray for You

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What does it mean to pray for someone?

 

What are they really asking? If an unbeliever asks me to pray for healing for them, will God listen? Does God answer prayer even if we are out of whack with Him? Does someone who claims to be a believer, but ignores God’s righteous decrees, automatically get healing just because they ask? Or is persistent sickness or tragedy a sign of unconfessed sin? Should the believer concentrate on asking for healing, or asking for forgiveness? And is asking forgiveness just to get well, or restore a right relationship with God?

 

The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. (Proverbs 15:29, ESV)

 

Can a divorced believer ask for God to bless their divorce, or the results of divorce (like someone needing a job or day care or something like that)? Or will God only bless something in divorce for one of the people who isn’t at fault? And how do we determine fault?

 

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. (James 5:16, ESV)

 

Can a homosexual ask God to heal them of AIDS though they persist in the behavior? Can he ask for any kind of blessings or reprieve from judgment? Will God hear him if he needs a job? Or rain for his crops?

 

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3:12, ESV)

 

Moving on a little from obvious stuff like sexual immorality, how much evil can we get away with before God doesn’t answer, or stops answering, prayer? Is a little disobedience okay? Will the cosmic eraser of Jesus that the church preaches cover any iniquity, so let us sin that grace may abound? How much of His Law (or Word) can we ignore and still expect Him to answer our prayers?

 

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:27–32, ESV)

 

What if He put things in His Law that have spiritual effects, such that we can’t see the connections but they are nonetheless connected? If we eat piles of bacon, for instance, is there a connection to illness? Maybe His Word and the physical and spiritual are more interconnected than we think? We know we can get sick from improperly prepared seafood, but just because there is no immediate affect from properly prepared seafood does that mean it doesn’t harm us?

 

You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. (Leviticus 20:25–26, ESV)

 

What are the spiritual effects of following His Laws? Is there a spiritual aspect to being sick? Does righteousness make us well? Is harm really random, or is it related to sin? Or is sin like mold on our souls, and the physical reaction is illness? Maybe it’s not just our own sin, either. Is there a spiritual corruption that emanates from other people’s sin and contaminates people around them too, such as is taught in God’s Laws of clean and unclean?

 

But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. (Leviticus 18:26–28, ESV)

 

Do we look to doctors first, or do we look to God first? Do we consult the database of His Word in every area of life, before we get sick? Are we taking preventative measures that are recommended by our Heavenly Physician before we consult and believe human doctors who don’t have a place in their worldview for God’s Word? Are we sick because we have a chemical imbalance, or because we have disobeyed?

 

It is possible to be afflicted by God for other reasons than our sin. The book of Job shows us that. Sometimes God afflicts to test us, and sometimes to build trust and obedience. But it is clear from His Word that sin is a big part of health (or lack of it) in many instances. And our heart is the one place where we have control. At the very least we should be aware of the possibility of sin and seek God’s cleansing by confessing and the washing of His Word before we pray for Him to remove the possible by-product of disobedience. It would behoove us to kneel on solid, clean ground every day in constant communion. It might go a long way toward not getting sick in the first place.

Posted in Humility • Law • Righteousness

Summaries of the Law

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A number of times in the Word the Law is summarized. Some of them equate the Law to the fear of the Lord through the treatment of the widow and orphan and the proliferation of sorcery (probably connected with the use of drugs), adultery, oppression of the hired worker by stealing his wages (like our government) and those who swear falsely (such as politicians who take the oath of office to defend the Constitution and do not).

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 3:5, ESV)

Some equate justice and righteousness to the treatment of the widow and orphan or the shedding of innocent blood (think of Benghazi, abortion or the Gosnell murders).

Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. (Jeremiah 22:3, ESV)

And some are more comprehensive, covering what is “just and right” whether it is ceremonial, civil or moral.

“If a man is righteous and does what is just and right— if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual impurity, does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully—he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 18:5–9, ESV)

But His statutes and rules by any measure are the definition of justice and righteousness.

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:18–19, ESV)