Subject: Raven, do you want ALL the Law? |
Bible Note: Joe, You wrote: "The best way to look at it is that the moral law of God, his righteous demands of His creation, precede and transcend the Mosaic Covenant." This is exactly right, my friend. So even if someone could PERFECTLY keep the Mosaic Law, they would not accurately reflect EVERYTHING in God's character. But Who does? Who is our faith in? When Adam was created, he was created to look to God alone as his source for life and everything he needed. He was in an intimate relationship with His creator and, I don't believe, ever once looked at himself or his performance until the fall. Upon eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, his eyes we opened and he forfeited relationship in favor of performance. Suddenly, from his perspective, a relationship with God was no longer based upon faith and love - it was based upon performance - what he did and did not do. His focus shifted from his Creator to meet all his needs to relying upon himself to meet all his needs - love, acceptance, peace, joy, etc. His relationship became performance-based instead of faith based. Without God as his resource, man strove to re-establish the relationship with God through achievement. He was so convinced that he could do this if he just tried hard enough that God gave the Law (Mosaic) to show man the kind of perfection that was required in order to be acceptable by God. But, instead of being honest and admitting that they couldn't do it, the Jews exclaimed, "Oh, yeah, everything that the Lord has commanded, WE WILL DO!" How long did that last? The Pharisees thought that life was found in the Law. Jesus said that they searched the scriptures thinking that the Law would give them life but they wouldn't come to Him for it. They thought that they could be saved and sanctified by keeping the Law. There were so angry at being told that man could never attain God's standard in himself, that they ended up crucifying our Lord. They thought that because they kept the "externals" they were as righteous as God. This is why James says that if you believe that you can be made righteous by the Law, you have to keep ALL the Law - 99.44 percent just won't do. See part 2, please. ChristLifer2001 |