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NASB | Hebrews 11:40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Hebrews 11:40 because God had us in mind and had something better for us, so that they [these men and women of authentic faith] would not be made perfect [that is, completed in Him] apart from us. |
Subject: Superior Hope |
Bible Note: EdB, I wanted to be nice about this subject, but I feel that you are insulting me now. The answer to your question is yes. I would gladly stand before God and tell him that the commandment of Jesus Christ was to love one another, so that all men will know that we are his disciples. Going to church, while a good and worthwhile thing, is not a commandment. You say that it is. I disagree with you. I do not disagree in order to suit a lifestyle. I disagree because it is not a commandment. Further, you are putting words in my mouth. I have stated clearly in all of my posts on this subject that I am an advocate for going to church. I think a person should. I think, however, that they should go because they want to, not because they have to. And as far as these commandments go, let us look at what the commandments are: A lawful person keeps the law. A lawless person does not keep the law. The law is comprised of 700-some-odd commandments according to a preacher I once spoke to. I really believe this is where it gets complicated for most people. With that many commandments, and each equating to murder if you violate it, how can we ever live up to it? We can't. That is why we had to die to the law [Romans 7:4-6 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were by the law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.], under the law, that we might be freed from the law and the sin that it occasions [Romans 7:7-11 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.]. That's why we are not under the law anymore in the sense of 700-some-odd commandments. Because none of us were able to live up to it in our former lives without Christ, we had to die to be free. In baptism, we go down in imitation of the death of Christ, and come up in the newness of life. When we accept Christ, we die, but because he died to be the propitiation for our sins, we don't pay the ultimate penalty of spiritual death. Instead, we are resurrected with him to live a new life, and this new life is not subject to the laws of the flesh. It is subject to the law of the Spirit, which is the intent that drives the law. [Romans 6:4-7 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.] So what then? If we are dead to the law, and no longer subject to it, how then can we keep what is not there? Shall we kill since we are not subject to the commandments of the law? Certainly not. We are slaves to do righteousness (slaves to do the right thing). Shall we steal because we are not subject to the commandments of the law? Certainly not. Again, we are slaves to do the right thing. While some maintain the idea that there is no law at all, I would point out that we are to keep the "law of Christ." [Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.] There is still a law that must be kept. Again, [Galatians 6:2 Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.] (Emphasis at this point on the existence of the "Law of Christ"). Continued ... |