Sunday, July 15, 2012
– The Lord woke me this morning with the song “Seven Woes” playing in my mind. “Lord, open my heart and mind to
receive from your word what you have for me today. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen!”
I read Acts 15:1-11 (NIV 1984):
Some men came down
from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are
circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”
This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul
and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to
Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent
them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they
told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very
glad. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the
apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through
them.
Then some of the
believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The
Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.”
The apostles and
elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and
addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among
you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and
believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the
Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us
and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to
test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor
our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of
our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
The Issue
Christian Jews were trying to force Gentile believers to be circumcised
and to follow (obey) the Jewish law as though these were required of God for
salvation. They were trying to carry the Old Covenant requirements into the New
Covenant relationship between God and his people, now followers of Christ,
whether Jew or Gentile convert. And, that wasn’t working. So Paul and Barnabas
and some other believers were sent to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders
there about this question. Along the way they reported all that God had done
through them and about how many Gentiles had come to faith in Jesus Christ.
God’s Plan
Nonetheless, some of the believers who belonged to the party
of the Pharisees protested and insisted that Gentile followers of Christ be
circumcised and forced to obey Jewish laws and traditions. Yet, God did not
require that, obviously, because he had given his Holy Spirit to the Gentile
believers in Jesus Christ. We can’t have the Holy Spirit within us if we have
not been given the gift of salvation. The Holy Spirit was proof that these
Gentiles had salvation. God accepted the Gentile believers as his own people,
even if the Judaizers did not. I love that! God made no distinction between Jew
and Gentile, and in fact scripture teaches that Jesus Christ’s death on the
cross not only abolished the Jewish law - actually he fulfilled it - but he
made Jew and Gentile one in Christ, and he destroyed the dividing wall of
hostility that stood between them, so that now both Jewish and Gentile
believers in Jesus Christ have the same Spirit and the same access to the
Father (see Eph. 2). True followers of Jesus Christ are now God’s people,
whether Jew or Gentile by birth.
At the council, Peter addressed the Judaizers and asked them
why they tried to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke
(burden) that neither the Jews nor their ancestors had been able to bear. No
one could obey the law perfectly, that is why the law could not save them. The
law was put into effect to lead us to Christ Jesus, and Jesus is the
fulfillment of the law. He summarized the Ten Commandments into two: 1) Love
God, and 2) Love others. If we love God, scripture teaches, we will obey his
commandments (under the New Covenant), which have to do with matters of the
heart, not externals. We will turn from our sin, and we will turn to follow
Jesus Christ with our lives. If we love others, we won’t sin against them and
purposefully do things to harm them, but instead we will demonstrate God’s
righteous and holy love, and his grace and forgiveness to them. Jesus taught
the spirit of the law over the letter of the law, esp. regarding ceremonial
laws and Jewish customs. We are never free from the law of love for God and for
our fellow man.
The book of Galatians goes into great detail to explain this
issue, and to give us the correct teaching with regard to what is or is not required
of us for salvation. Paul addressed this issue by teaching the new believers
that they did not receive the Holy Spirit because they observed the law but
because they believed in Jesus Christ and in what he did for us in dying on the
cross for our sins. He compared this obeying of Jewish law now to trying to win
God’s approval through human effort. Then, he cited Abraham as an example.
Abraham was justified before God because of his faith before he was
circumcised. His circumcision is not what saved him, even then. He was saved by
grace, through faith, just as we are.
And, then Paul said something the Judaizers, or even many
Jews today would not like to hear. He said that all who believe in Jesus Christ
are the children of Abraham. Not only that, but those who refuse to believe in
Jesus Christ, though born Jewish, are children of Hagar, the slave woman, and
that physical Jerusalem is of the slave woman, too, whereas spiritual Jerusalem
(Israel) is of the free woman, Sarah. So Jews cannot claim Abraham as their
father and, thus, they are equal with Muslims and people of all religions, in
God’s sight, if they do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Messiah, Savior
and Lord.
The promise Abraham was given by God was for many spiritual
descendants from Jesus Christ (the promised seed). The promise of Christ came
first, then the law, which then led us to Christ, and Christ fulfilled the law,
so there is no longer a need for the OT Jewish laws and regulations. As well, a
person is not a follower of God merely if his mark of discipleship is outward
only. We are saved by faith, and true circumcision is that of the heart, by the
Spirit of God, not by the written code (see Rom. 2).
Application to Today
Do we, in the church today, have people who try to put a
yoke of Old Testament law and practices or of man-made religion on the people
of God? Yes! And, it is not just the legalistic congregations who do this,
either. There is a very interesting blend of the old with the new in today’s
modern churches. For one, I believe the institutional church of today (and
yesterday) have carried over many Old Testament practices (yokes) that are not
intended for the body of Jesus Christ to bear.
In the Old Testament, the Jews went to a physical building
to worship God. The Ark of the Covenant, representing God’s holy presence,
dwelt in a physical temple built by human hands, though God himself was most
certainly not confined to a man-made structure. They met once a week on the
Sabbath (Saturday) to worship. This was a day given over to God when they also
rested from their work. Yet, when Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins,
he split that veil in two that stood between us and the Holy of Holies, so
that, through Jesus’ shed blood, we now have access to the Father and no longer
have to go through human priests. We can now worship God 24/7 in spirit and in
truth.
The New Testament church met daily from house to house and
in the temple courts. The church is the people of God, not a building, not an
institution of men, and not a private social club. When we enter a church
building, we do not enter into the presence of Almighty God. That building is
not God’s house. It is no more holy than any other house. The sanctuary in that
building is not the sanctuary of God. The sanctuary of God – his temple – now dwells
in the hearts of those saved by grace through faith. So, we do not have to go
to a building called a “church” on a Sunday morning, and to a man-made
sanctuary, nor do we have to sit through what some call a “worship service” in
order to be in obedience to God and his word, and in order to be part of the
church, the body of Christ. Yet, we should be meeting with other believers for
the purpose of fellowship, the breaking of bread, the teaching of the word and for
prayer, as well as for the purpose of sharing our spiritual gifts with the Body
of Christ for their strengthening and encouragement in the faith.
What I have just shared is only a small part of the human
rules, regulations and requirements that are added to grace and are taught in
today’s churches (even contemporary ones) and are passed off as though they are
from God when they are not. There is so much that is being taught in today’s
church in America that comes straight from modern books written by modern men
utilizing modern marketing techniques for building God’s holy church, but they
are building businesses of men, not the church. The church is built by Christ,
by his word of truth, by the Spirit of God in transforming human hearts,
through the spread of the gospel (the whole gospel) message and the salvation
of human lives. It is built through us maturing in Christ and in encouraging
one another in the faith, and through us using the spiritual gifts God has
given us for the strengthening of the Body. Yet, many of today’s churches are
rejecting God’s plan for his church and are favoring the teachings of men, even
over and above the teachings of scripture, in many cases.
So, although many of today’s church congregations market
themselves as without the constraints of human tradition, rules and
regulations, they are still following a gospel of men, in many cases, over and
above the gospel of Jesus Christ. They add on human rules and regulations,
distorting or even denying the teachings of scripture, while they remove the
heart requirements of the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to make the gospel
less offensive. They either deny altogether that Jesus and his word teaches
that we must repent (turn away from our sins) and turn to follow (obey) Jesus
Christ (God) in order to be saved, and as synonymous with what it truly means
to believe in Jesus, or else they minimize these truths and kind of brush over
them, or purposefully leave them out of gospel presentations because they want
many converts, but to what? If we don’t teach the truth of the gospel, then we
are leading people to a false gospel just as much as these Judaizers were
trying to do, and worse, because we still leave people in their sin. A false
hope is worse than no hope at all.
Those who preach a false gospel, either of works-based
salvation via obeying Old Testament laws and regulations, including teaching Old
Testament principles as though they apply to today as necessary for salvation
or for spiritual growth and maturity (for obedience), or who preach a
cross-less (no death of the sinner required) gospel message, willfully leaving
out repentance and obedience to Christ as necessary for salvation (faith in
action), are just like the Pharisees spoken about in Matthew 23.
They refused to obey the truth, and they kept others from
coming to true faith in Christ, too. The converts they win are not to Christ
but are to the teachings and practices of men, to forms of religion, and to
social organizations of men. They distort the word of Christ (God) in order to
gain followers to themselves. They focus much on the outward show, but spend
little time dealing with sin issues in people’s hearts. And, they often reject
and mistreat God’s messengers who try to bring them the truth of the gospel.
So, we need to be in the word of God daily, and we need to
pray for much discernment so that we are not led astray by false teaching of
men who distort the word of God to their own advantage. Just because it looks
and smells like truth does not mean it is truth. Sometimes it is grievous lies
cleverly disguised as truth in order to deceive naïve and undisciplined minds. We
need to know the truth through careful study of and obedience to God’s word,
and through taking the time to check out what we hear from men against the word
of God. Make sure what you are hearing taught is what was taught by Christ and his
word to his followers. Then we will be free from the yokes of men and man-made
religion.
Seven Woes / An
Original Work / May 31, 2012
Based off Matthew 23
Woe to you, teachers
of the law;
Hypocrites, you keep
men from God.
You refuse to obey the
truth,
Nor will you permit
others to.
You travel o’er land
and sea
To win a single
convert to you.
When he becomes one
You make him twice as
much
A “son of hell” as you
are.
Woe to you, blind
guides of mankind.
You distort the words
of your God.
By your practices you
declare
Your oaths mean
nothing, though you swear.
You give a tenth of
your spices,
But you neglect
justice, mercy.
When you focus your
Time and talents on
What is external, you
miss out.
Woe to you, who appear
so clean,
When inside you are
crass and mean.
You work hard to look
so upright,
While you hide all
your sins inside.
You deceive yourselves
when you think
You would not have
done what others
Did to God’s
messengers
And prophets of old,
For you will do much
the same.
You’re to blame.
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