Don't Grab a Man by His Law

Deut 25:11-12

“When men fight with one another and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity.
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A verse like this is not often brought up by Christians, for fear it will only bring scoffing.  Certain questions arise such as, "What if it's a woman who is not the wife? Perhaps a sister, a friend, a mother, a daughter, or just a passer by?  What if it's not a female at all, but a man who intervenes and does this?"

There is no specific law for that.  This is simply, what it was.  I imagine this very situation came up, and so this law was created to set precedent for future matters, according to the law.  There was a time when this didn't exist, but as much of the law as time went on issues were taken to Moses.  He judged between the people and matters were written down, and the legal response for such things were put in place.  This was the crime, and the punishment. "This is what happened Moses,  What should we do, Moses?"  This is the way I understand it.

It's definitely one of the "stranger" miscellaneous laws in the OT, but one among many we must keep if we are to teach the keeping all of it. The law gives no luxury of choosing between "strange" and difficult laws, and those that are not.

If anyone chooses to keep the whole Jewish law as recorded in TORAH, the means by which they establish righteousness, either in this life or the next... then the entire law must be kept.  There is no choosing between what ones we like, and what ones we don't like. So if, "Because the TORAH says so" is the reason we say that we choose to abstain from pork products, then we cannot ignore any other part just because it suits us.  If this situation arises as described in Deut 25:11-12, they cannot be ignored.

Sin does exist, but how so?  What is it, and how do we avoid it?  How do we know what sin is? Doesn't the law tell us what sin is?  What is the difference between this law, and the ten commandments?  Is there a difference?

Romans 8:1, which we all universally love as one of the greatest Christian promises in the Bible, says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus".  But, we must see that it says so entirely based on the understanding that we are set FREE FROM THE LAW (Romans 7:1-6).  Yes, immediately following in Romans 8:2-4 we are told, "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

It's a bold thing that God has done, by giving us His Spirit in that we can walk in a way that pleases Him, apart from the law.  Without the law, how can we know that we walk in integrity? How can we know what one man does is right and what another man does is wrong?  It was a bold move, but the only means by which we are saved.  Those are just my thoughts for now. It doesn't feel like a complete thought for a blog... but there it is.

What if God is Evil?

People have often speculated that they would not worship or love a God who was unjust, or ask the question, "What if God was evil?"

These thoughts (sincerely entertained) ultimately fail to consider our lowly state, and the supremacy of God as Creator. Ultimately, these thoughts are not truly seeking to understand God as a person supposes to be doing, but rather, seek merely to justify self before a holy God.

If God made us, then He is Who decides what good and bad are. Good and bad exist because God divided them, and said what is. He then allows us to perceive it, based on the reality He makes available to us. We can only entertain such thoughts because God allows it. At best we are able to perceive something as good or evil--and assuming we get it right--it is only by God's supreme design and definition that something can be evil or good for us discern in the first place.

If we, however, create in our minds a scenario where we become God's judge (maybe God is evil) and by our own self determined thoughts judge God as evil... then have become God's judge, and God ceases to be God.  You see, if God is evil, then evil would be good, and it simply becomes a moot point. Even saying so is a bit ridiculous.  Good is good, because God makes it good.  He makes it good based upon his sole discretion, power, and will.  We then exist in the world He created.

What man does not want to face, however, is that God is absolutely good all the time, and we (mankind) are continually evil of our own accord. Ultimately, the goal of such thinking that God might just be evil, is to dethrone God and justify ourselves by our own measurements and our own deluded righteousness--which is evil, by the way.

So, is God evil? The real question is, "Am I evil?" Likewise, the answer must be "yes," otherwise we are holy and perfect like God, and we have made ourselves to be God.

Not only is God absolutely good... but this.

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Romans 3:21-26 ESV

The Miraculous Conception of Jesus, and the Abortion Debate.

I understand that this argument will fall on def ears for those who do not believe the Bible is God's Word, who otherwise do not believe in the stories therein, the miraculous conception of Christ and the events that surrounded it.  That's okay.  We should still know what we believe, and this was helpful to me.  As I was reading through Luke recently I had some thoughts strike me as relevant to the abortion debate.

Luke 1:41-42

And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 

Notice what leaped in the womb--a baby.  That is John as a baby while in the womb, leaped.  A baby, not because Elizabeth chose to give birth yet, but because John was a baby in the womb regardless of her choice whether or not to slay him.  Also, notice that the fruit of Mary's womb was blessed, and the cause of his leap.  Now, this "fruit of the womb" that was in Mary, was Jesus at a very early stage of human development.  Yet, He was already blessed for what He was, as He was in the womb.  Blessed not because Mary chose to give birth, but blessed regardless of he choice whether or not to slay Him.  The person of Jesus, in all His humanity, fully God and fully man, was all of that at the earliest stages of development.  He was six months younger than John (verse 26).  He was as much a blessed human when he was fruit in the womb, as when He was a full grown man.  The blessing did not wait for the birth, but it preceded it.  God makes no differentiation, and neither should we.

How cute was Jesus as a baby?

To look at the baby Jesus with "cuteness", I believe is to gravely misunderstand Him.  Personally, I have a hard time looking at Jesus as a baby (as we remember Him portrayed when He was born as a baby during this time of year), and thinking, "That's cute".  Even as an infant, He implores this kind of worship, as expressed in O'Holy Night.

"A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new glorious morn
Fall on your knees"

It is not the cuteness of the baby that drives you to your knees, but His holiness.  The gravity of Who He is, and the weight He would be lifting off the world's shoulders (all who trust in Him).  Given this gravity of Who He was and what He came to do, the baby Jesus was probably the least "cute" baby that ever was born, to those Who recognize Him for Who He is.  Not that He was less than average in physical appearance, but his physical appearance whether aesthetically appealing or not would be obsolete, in light of His Lordship.  Do you know Who He is?  The knowledge of Who He was and Who He would become was all planned out (Isaiah 53:2), and should greatly overshadow these temporal observations.  This is not just any other cute baby.

It was when the child grew and began to speak that many people chided Him, and ultimately would torture Him to death.  When we look at the baby Jesus, we must consider His calling and His end (on the cross).  Not this was His end forever, because He is risen and is alive today at His rightful place in the heavens--Ruler over all the universe.  Do not just consider his mere physical form as a baby, because He was not just any other baby.  This baby was miraculously conceived, born of a virgin, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings.  It was by Him and through Him, that the world exists (John 1:1-5).  This little baby, is worthy of infinitely more than our cute thoughts.

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Isaiah 42:1-10

42 Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
    he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
    or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged
    till he has established justice in the earth;
    and the coastlands wait for his law.
5 Thus says God, the Lord,
    who created the heavens and stretched them out,
    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
    and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
    I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
    a light for the nations,
7     to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
    from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the Lord; that is my name;
    my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to carved idols.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
    and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
    I tell you of them.”
Sing to the Lord a New Song
10 Sing to the Lord a new song,
    his praise from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it,
    the coastlands and their inhabitants.

Nobody is Perfect

"Nobody is perfect".

Have you ever said this? I have. Besides the obvious, what are we trying to say?

Often this is said when a mistake has been made and we are trying to make ourselves or someone else feel better. Indeed, we should seek to lift others up and make them feel better, *in Christ*. Apart from Christ, we should feel miserable--because that's what we are.

Instead of finding the encouragement of, "nobody is perfect", in the Bible we see things like the following recorded.

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48 ESV

“And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:4

“Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”” Matthew 19:21 ESV
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It would seem that instead of trying to make us comfortable in our obvious imperfection, God would seek to make us very uncomfortable in our imperfection.

When we all stumble and fall in many ways, we must not rest in our imperfection. We must find rest in His perfection--the One Who is willing and able to make anyone perfect.

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
John 6:37 ESV

The Greatest Threat to the Church

The threat to the church is not the fiery furnace of persecution. The threat is not the stripping of native "religious freedoms" we have become accustomed to. The threat is not the pressing trials on our bodies in sickness or poverty. No, God through Paul told us that these were even to God's glory as Christ would be manifest in us through them (2 Cor 4:8-10). The great threat is not even the charlatan who boasts great blasphemes and heretical things. Such men or women are easily set aside with a few words from Scripture and left for the spiritually deprived and reprobate to follow. Not to go completely unaddressed, but His sheep know His voice. The great threat is a lackadaisical approach to sin in our every day lives. It is the insincerity of heart that in a supposed familiarity with God, breeds contempt towards His holiness and how we live up to our calling in response to it. It's not the outlandish God-hater, or blasphemer who brings the greatest threat. Rather, within an otherwise Scriptural-sound company of brothers, it's sleepiness towards God and indifference to our calling, taking root in our every day lives. The greatest threat to the church is found in the lukewarm waters of tolerance towards our own sinful state; a heart that leads to the lighthearted approval of carnal pursuits, lusts, and desires that have no actual sincere thought to the glory or holiness of Christ. We sing glory, but we do not pursue it. He would not have us lukewarm (Rev 3:15-17). This threat to the church has a mind to see another brother indulging in irreverent speech, only to long for an excuse to do the same; or, perhaps to just ignore it. Never does it lovingly take issue, as not to offend with the holiness of God, or bring a concern to how the holiness of God as expressed in us is under attack. After all, we all must have a little fun in fruitless pursuits, and all things are permissible. The great threat is the claim on "Christian liberty" as a means of fulfilling our own lusts. A smile at the audacious things of outsiders we think to be somehow set apart from the reality of how our own heart reacts to such things. Does it yearn for the holiness of God, or does it smirk? Do we not also indulge in their behavior in our hypocritical thinking? Jesus said that to lust in the heart and to be angry without just cause was to be an adulterer and a murderer. Do we get His message? Or, do we with piety in the light of day agree that we would never participate in those sinful things--but say those things are still good for a laugh! In the dark of night it delights us. Not in His light but in light of our televisions and computer screens. Then, as if sin was some joke to be trifled with we give it a subtle wink and confess "my bad", to move along quickly and go unnoticed. We are a "my bad" lukewarm society. We try not to take notice of our sin, but God notices. He notices that we have both had our light fill of sin, and our light fill of repentance. At worst this leads to mocking those brothers and sisters who do daily pine earnestly for a sanctified life after Christ; viewed as being unnecessarily "hardcore", and meanwhile being satisfied in our own hardcore pursuits of permitted carnality. So long as "grace" is invoked, then holiness needs not chased. The great threat is forgetting Him (Who He really is) Who snatched us from the files of hell to a higher calling; calling us instead to His unchanging and ever-consuming holiness, by which we are being saved.

Step into the Light, in order to have all your (secret) sins exposed.

Who is going to take care of your secret sins--the secret sins you don't even know about?

Proverbs 21:2 says, "All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD evaluates the motives."

We often think we are great judges of character--especially our own character.  They may think they know me, but they don't know me... not like I know me.  I'm a really good person.  I have evaluated myself, and look, see I am very good.

Left to our own devices, we are not great judges of our selves at all.  Oh sure, we are able to evaluate ourselves honestly to a degree.  But, wholly, completely?  No.  Much of our sins are hidden in darkness (and many are laid open for others to see).  Consider the entire spectrum of sin, and consider the entire spectrum of light.  Much of light is not seen by the naked eye so to is man's sin.  Though we think we are great at seeing all the light, we really aren't good at all.  We miss so much.



Consider how little of the light spectrum we can see.  Now, sin is not light... Jesus is the light.  But it is by the light that our sins are exposed and dealt with.

Jesus said, "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed." (John 3:19-20)

Most often, this saying of Jesus is simply understood as there are parts hidden in darkness; willingly concealed or otherwise, but sins hidden that are in shadows we aren't willing (or maybe even able) to see.  I think that is a fine understand of what Jesus is saying.  However, I believe it is also understood in considering the spectrum of light that exists beyond our scope of vision.

With Jesus, He will reveal things to us (by the light) that we never saw before.  Even then, though, our minds can only fathom so much at a time.  He reveals it little by little over our entire life, and He is faithful through it all.  Our only hope for true exposure of our sin and consequently forgiveness, is to step into the light--the One who covers the entire spectrum seen and unseen--in order to be healed.

It is often put forth that "No man (mankind) can judge me, only God can do that!"  In some regard, I say Amen!  You (I) cannot even judge yourself!  Yet to truly grasp the depth of our own depravity, is to grasp that we are as equally unqualified to judge the depths of our own motives as any other man would be.  Only God can judge me (truly, wholly, completely), and He will.  If you haven't stepped into the light, however, then we shouldn't count on that fact working in your favor.

So, what then?  If we cannot even know the depravity of our own hearts such that we can stand firm on our own righteousness, how can we hope to stand before God who knows the motives of our hearts?  How can we ever hope to justify ourselves and make ourselves pure? We can't.

When God judges sin--all sin--in the most secret regions of your heart, how can a man hope to be ready?  There is coming a day when God will judge the secrets of our hearts (Romans 2:16); secrets even to us.  Secrets that if revealed to you--fully the whole depth of depravity--it would leave us as an irreconcilable heap of pity.

SO, JESUS.

We cannot deal with our own blindness to our own sin, on our own.  We cannot see the entire spectrum of our sin without the help of the light, or hope to have it reconciled.  With man, this is impossible; but with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).  He is our only hope to have our sins--both sins glaringly obvious or secretly concealed--paid for completely above and beyond what we could have ever understood on our own.

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)