Subject: Why ask Why? Why ask Where? |
Bible Note: Continued .... To say that we are no longer under the law is to say that we are no longer subject to the dos and don'ts, except where brotherly love dictates the behavior befitting a disciple of Christ. Laws that have nothing to do with brotherly love are manmade. In the words of Paul, "If you are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?" Adhering to the teachings of Christ, and of the Apostles, our commandments must be summed up by brotherly love. If they are not, they are not commandments of God. Such pointless commandments and doctrines are nothing more than stumbling blocks, and I'll give you an example taken directly from Bible study at my house last night: Ben, who was an absolute "Law is valid; must keep the commandments" advocate, is slowly but surely coming around, because none of his arguments can stand up under sound doctrine. He has finally come to a point where he has conceded that love is the law, the law means to love. There is no passage that says we still have to sin. He has acknowledged that it is possible to live without sinning under a doctrine of love. He has acknowledged that any law we have must be summed up by love, and hence, that we must have no other commandment but to love one another, for this is not only the commandment of Christ, but also the fulfillment of the law. Then after all that acknowledgment and recognition of plain scripture that, try as he would, he could not refute, he says, "I still disagree, sort of. There are other commandments we have to keep, like taking the Lord's Supper." Now, if I am following the doctrine of Christ, knowing, trusting, hoping, and believing that if I am obedient in love that I will be approved of God, and there is now this commandment laid before me ... Say I went to church this last Sunday, but didn't take the Lord's Supper. It wasn't sin to me then. But if I believe now in this "command" and put myself "under the law" according to the traditions and doctrines of men, then this new law has just identified sin in a sense that love could never identify, and this is contrary to the commandment of Christ. Now, suppose, knowing now that I have to take the Lord's Supper, that I already had plans to do something this Sunday. I'm now faced with the option of being obedient to God by going to church and taking the Lord's Supper, or going about my plans. Let's say I chose to go about my plans. I have now willfully sinned, and according to Hebrews, if we willfully sin after coming to the full knowledge of the truth, there is no more sacrifice concerning sin. So what am I to do? I have just insulted the spirit of grace through which I am saved ... and this because someone placed a stumbling block before me; that being a commandment of men, and not a commandment of God (which would be summed up by brotherly love to begin with). So because he gave me the law, put me under its grasp, sin was recognized, sin revived, I was put back into a fleshly mind, I sinned, and I died, because the wages of sin is death. Do not be fooled, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that also will he reap. All in all, I'm not saying we should run around being scumbags. There is a great amount of freedom in the doctrine of love (thus the reason both Peter and Paul have to give the warning not to "use our freedom as an occasion for fleshly vices"), but the doctrine of love adheres absolutely to the Old and New covenants in their most thorough applications. You don't need to know, "Do not murder." You will love your neighbor as yourself and not kill him. By the standard of "do to other as you would have them do to you ..." Tell me how you would feel if someone vaunted themselves above you. It creates envy, strife, jealousy, anger, etc. So because you don't want someone else to feel that way if you are under a doctrine of love, you don't exalt yourself over someone else. It's all really simple, and it's not a hard doctrine to follow. Point of fact, it's easy to live without sin by this standard, and with this is mind, consider two separate statements: For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. We know we know God if we keep his commandments, and they are not burdensome. Modern doctrines teach perpetual sin and human imperfection, but the Bible teaches that the old man is dead, we are free from the laws that bring about death, we are perfected in Christ, and that sin is no longer our master. Questions or comments? Theo-Minor |