Saturday, September 22, 2007

Effortless Perfection

Over the past several days I have read a few things regarding perfection on the Boldgrace.com web site and also some comments regarding the same as well. One comment in particular on Boldgrace.com was by Randy (a good friend of mine) and we also discussed this very same thing a few days ago over breakfast.

Randy said this in his comment “How else is this even remotely possible if indeed it isn’t accomplished for us in Christ.” This is something to really ponder and seriously look at because if it was not accomplished by Christ on our behalf, like Randy said when we had breakfast, if that is the case then all of us are in deep trouble. Who do you suppose could ever even begin to come close to “being holy as He is holy”? Let’s be honest with ourselves and real as well and readily admit that this is not in any way possible apart from Christ having attained this perfection for us.

We have to realize of course that this perfection we are talking about is not in our flesh and it has nothing to do with the flesh. It has nothing to do with our actions and deeds. This is a spiritual thing we are talking about. We were placed in perfect harmony with God by what Jesus did at the cross and that totally apart from any of us being involved in the process. The new covenant was made between God and Christ and not us. We are partakers of its benefits of course because we were all in Christ when He died and resurrected but the covenant was sealed in Christ.

We have the other side of this as well and it is those that are trying to do something, anything, to appear acceptable and perfect in God’s sight. This of course is impossible as what people are trying to do is bring the flesh to a state of perfection. A verse quoted by Cliff on Boldgrace.com comes to mind and it is Hebrews 7:19. For the law (or trying to keep it) made nothing perfect. Trying to keep God’s laws will never accomplish the perfection that people are trying to achieve.

The rest of verse 19 tells us what did make everything perfect and that was the bringing in of a better hope. What is this better hope mentioned here? It is of course Jesus Christ and His accomplishments on the cross. That and only that could make everything perfect. After it was all done He could say “it is finished”.

I personally have it settled in my heart that the redemption of the entire world has been accomplished by “the bringing in of a better hope” and I have fully laid aside the futile attempts to try and attain a perfection that is pleasing to God. I already am in perfect harmony with God through Jesus and nothing I do or don’t do can change that. The churches are trying their utmost to get people to put a lifetime of effort in trying to accomplish a perfection that is absolutely impossible because they are trying to perfect the flesh. Look at it as what it is, a perfection that is spiritual and nothing you do or don’t do can ever change that. It is really finished, whether you believe it or not. Even our unbelief doesn’t change the fact.

Posted by Roy at 12:13:42 | Permalink | Comments (25)

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Breaking Laws continued

So what about us here and now in this day and age? When we do something that breaks one of God’s laws, does that mean we are sinning and are in danger of falling out of favor with God? Another thing to remember is that we (gentiles) were never under any law. The law was specifically for the Jews. The law was nailed to the tree so on this side of the cross we are not under any law. Jesus was never under any law either. Although the Pharisees looked at Him as breaking the law and sinning, as do the modern day Pharisees when they try to get people to follow their laws as well as God’s laws. How can you break a law where there is no law?

Let’s remember one thing here and that is that Jesus did not die because we do bad things. That is not why He died. He died so those things we do could never be held against us. This needs to be stressed as it is something that is very important in our understanding of the gospel of grace and peace. Jesus did not take punishment on the cross because we were breaking God’s law. The punishment He took included nailing the law to the cross. He took the sin (singular) of Adam’s transgression to the cross which was the sin of unbelief.

Adam’s transgression held everyone in bondage because it was passed on to every human being born prior to the cross. The cross took away that bondage and set us free. It did not set us free from bad things we do. If that was the case then we would have to say that the cross was a total failure. It set us free from the bondage that we were held under by the transgression of Adam.

We were all taken from the captivity of the sin of Adam and taken into the captivity that is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He led captivity to the bondage that was under Adams transgression and took the human race into the captivity that is His righteousness. We are now prisoners of the Lord like Paul said, as He has taken us captive. You can not remove yourself from this captivity of righteousness any more than you could remove yourself from the captivity that was under Adam’s transgression. It is a total work of the cross apart from anything we do or don’t do and it is in effect whether we believe it is or not.

I want to stress again that it’s important to remember always that Jesus did not have to die because you or I did bad things. Jesus had to die to remove the law that was imposed until the restoration of all things. That restoration took place at the cross and we are now righteous and holy in His sight. It has nothing to do with our belief. It has everything to do with the fact Jesus exercised His faith and that is how He set the entire world free from the penalty of sin. The law is dead and nothing in it can be held against us. It is finished.
Posted by Roy at 11:57:48 | Permalink | Comments (14)

Monday, September 3, 2007

Breaking Laws

I remember over the years when attending the evangelical churches for almost a quarter of a century that many times I heard it preached that Jesus was without sin. I doubt if you could find any person that calls themselves Christian that would disagree with that. It is something that is a given and of course I fully agree with that fact as well. If He had sin then He could not have accomplished what He did at the cross as it had to be a sinless and perfect sacrifice.

We also seem to think that God only gave 10 commandments to the Jewish people for them to keep but the actual fact is, He gave 613 commandments for them to keep. There were only ten given to Moses and of course those were written down, but they were only a very small part of what God gave for them to keep. We have to keep in mind that not only the ten were to be kept but all the remaining others as well.

Most churches will tell you to this day that the commandments have to be kept and if you do not keep them, then you are sinning. I think we can all agree that this is what is preached and has been preached for many centuries. It’s preached that if we break God’s laws that He gave we are then living in sin. We are then out of fellowship with God and He turns His back on us until we turn ourselves around and promise never to do this or that again, well until the next time that is.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, we all know that Jesus was without sin. He was the perfect God/man here on earth and was totally without sin. Let’s ask ourselves a question here……..did Jesus break any of the laws that God had given for the Jews to keep? I think if you follow along in the gospels that you will see he broke many laws and on many occasions as well. In one instance He healed someone on the Sabbath and He knew that was against the law because the Sabbath was to be kept holy and nothing was to be done on that day. So if breaking the law means we sin, and Jesus broke many laws and was without sin, how can we reconcile these two things because both of them are correct? If breaking the laws of God is considered sin then how can we say that Jesus was without sin and at the same time know for a fact He broke laws while here on earth?

The reason Jesus could break laws and still be without sin is that He was dead to sin from the moment He was born here on earth. The transgression and disobedience of Adam that was passed to the entire human race was not passed on to Him because of how He was conceived and born. All those born prior to the cross were born with the bondage of Adam’s transgression. Those born after the cross were also born dead to sin because Jesus had nailed the sin (singular) to the cross. Romans 6:2 tells us that we are dead to sin. The verse also tell you that it is possible to live as if this was not so. When Jesus went to the cross He did not die for transgressions. He did not die because of our actions and deeds. He died so the law that held transgressions against us could be put to death and done away with. He died for the sin (singular) of the world. If breaking the laws of God means it is sin, then Jesus could not have been sinless as we have seen he broke the law many times while He was here on earth.

Continued tomorrow.

Posted by Roy at 12:57:32 | Permalink | Comments (13)