Not everyone I know likes Skip Moen’s digging and teaching and viewpoint, but he makes a point in his post today that really states why I am so fascinated by his understanding: When we read Scripture, we enter the world of Hebrew culture. The more we are able to grasp that view of reality, the better we are able to worship the God revealed in Hebrew thought. That is the answer to my “Why?” question. Why learn about Hebrew culture and try to understand the writers as they were when they wrote it, including the actual Hebrew of the text and the idioms and other metaphors that play such a huge role in Hebrew? To know God better. I believe that Yeshua died to cover what ritual sacrifice couldn’t cover – purposeful sins. In covering these sins He also removed the guilt of the unintented/unintentional sin that had previously been dealt with through animal sacrifice. I believe it’s by grace that we receive this forgiveness, through believing that He is who He says He is and choosing to make Him lord of my life. I believe that studying His word, and possibly even following the commands in the Torah (there are only about 20 that are even relevant today), are acts of worship and obedience that come out of my choice to serve God as my liege Lord. My obedience makes me useful to His kingdom purposes, which is to restore what was perfect and was lost in the Garden – the relationship between God and man. Does that mean I am not useful if I don’t follow the commands of Torah (which we only partially do today – yes, we are partially Torah observant in that we believe in one God, we don’t worship idols – unless you count money I guess)? No. I can still be used. Look at the many, many people in history that God has used in HUGE ways even if they didn’t understand or agree with the link between the Old Testament and the New – Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, Martin Luther, etc. But, if they had understood, how much greater an impact could they have had? One of the books that I want to read is called, Constantine’s Bible. It’s about the changes that were solidified in the Messianic Jewish (aka Christian) church in order to separate it from the Jewish synagogues and make it the “official” religion. Most of what we consider Christian today actually came out of the changes made by Constantine. And, according to most scholars (Christian and secular), most of what we consider Christian is actually based on pagan rites and rituals. Ultimately, God is God and will do as He chooses. He knows the heart of man and searches and examines it to see its true motivation. For those of us who have lived out lives in the Christian church, never exposed to the idea that maybe some of the stuff in the Old Testament actually applies still, I can’t believe God would penalize us for that. And I don’t think He’s shaking His head. He is sovereign and as such He can use whatever He wants and do whatever He wants. He is my God despite my imperfections. I want to know Him more and understand Him better. And I do that in the only way I know how… I learn, I read, I listen, I pray. And somewhere along the way, my thoughts get sorted out, and I develop a larger and clearer picture of who I am, and more importantly, who He is.
I keep running into the question of the Law vs. Salvation and how they are connected or not connected. Skip did a post about the link between Moses’ Law and Jesus’ Salvation. I was going to just put a link here, but I know that most of the time nobody ever follows the link…. So, the following is from Skip Moen’s website: For the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (KJV) John 1:17 But – You won’t find the Greek word for this translation in Today’s Word index because there is no Greek word in the original text. The translation adds the word “but” to the sentence. That little addition changes everything. It’s not a slip. It’s deliberate. And it’s deliberate propaganda! About a month ago I got a letter from Boaz Michael. He mentioned this verse in his letter, pointing out that the addition of “but” created a terrible tragedy for believers. It is the tragedy of thinking that law and grace are opposed to each other; that Moses and Jesus don’t say the same thing. When the translators added “but” to the sentence, they implied that Christians and Jews have different gospels. They separated believers into two camps; those who lived under the Mosaic code and those who lived under the free grace of the Gospels. What a disaster for all of us! It’s hard to imagine that men took such steps to break the Word of God in two, but they did. They wanted an unbridgeable gap between the Older Testament and the Newer Testament, and for hundreds of years they have succeeded, convincing millions of God-fearing, humble followers that Jesus did not teach what Moses was given. All those followers struggled to find a clear path of obedience. Some succeeded. Many did not. God always uses what we are able to give, but we certainly made it much harder by believing what the “professionals” told us rather than looking for ourselves. They got away with theological murder – and we let them. The first principle of biblical interpretation is this: God does not contradict Himself. If He tells Moses that there are certain steps to be taken in obedience to Him that will insure our greatest usefulness in His purposes, you can be assured that Jesus did not say something different. This is even more that case when we realize and profess that Jesus is God. When it comes to salvation, God has not changed His mind. Salvation is by grace and grace alone. That was true for Moses and it’s true for us. That is exactly what Jesus taught. But usefulness comes through obedience and obedience is determined by a code of conduct revealed to Moses and endorsed by Jesus. That has also always been the case. Don’t let any translator slip that one past you. You do not serve two gods. You serve only One God and He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. I know that many of us struggle with this truth. We have been hearing the gospel of grace and the evils of the Law so long that we are convinced that Jesus was a radical revisionary. Please look again. You have nothing to lose by asking yourself exactly what Jesus taught about the Mosaic code of conduct, but you have a great deal to lose if you just go on thinking that none of the “Law” applies to you. Don’t become a “yes-man” just because your favorite translation adds a word here or there. Insist on truth. Demand that those who know tell you what words are really in the text and what words aren’t. Pray that God will lead to you someone who will help you know what He said. God listens to those kinds of prayers. I know because I was blind myself before He heard my cry. This is a journey and we are traveling together. Just hold on to the one who is a step in front of you and ask a lot of questions. [1] This clears up a lot of questions for me, making a bit of the confusion clearer. And even if no one ever reads this post, at least some of my issues were sorted out and I have an easy reference next time I get confused again! [1] Moen, Skip. “Theological Propaganda.” Hebrew Word Study | Skip Moen . N.p., 7 Sept. 2008. Web. 7 May 2010. <http://skipmoen.com/2008/09/07/theological-propaganda/>.
Romans 10:3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Instead, they are clinging to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. They won’t go along with God’s way. Man! Isn’t this the human way to do things? God has a way for us that is good (and maybe difficult), but we stubbornly persist in doing it our way! We don’t go along with God’s way because, of course, our way makes more sense or seems easier or we “have a good feeling about this”. I know I’m guilty of this. So often I do the same thing over and over and over, ignoring God’s way because I’m too busy doing it my way. I think that’s called tunnel vision. Maybe it’s called pride, too. Sometimes we don’t do things God’s way because we think it can’t possibly be that easy. For example, here it’s talking about salvation. Just believing seems so ridiculously easy that it can’t possibly be the right way. But it’s that simple. It says so just a few verses down – Romans 10:10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. And later in Romans 10:13 For “Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. We must like to complicate things… which could be partly because of our guilty consciences and the whispers of the Enemy of our souls, “you’ve got to do more, be better, to be saved.” But Jesus did all the work, and because He loves us so incredibly much, we reap all the benefits simply by believing that His hard work made us right with God. And, yes, it’s that simple.
Romans 3:30-31 There is only one God, and there is only one way of being accepted by him. He makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law. Let me start by saying that I don’t want to get into a debate over this issue. Obviously there are many sides to this and I’m not a religious scholar, so I don’t pretend to know them all. I’m just writing my thoughts…. I know there is some confusion over whether people are saved because they believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus and His forgiveness of sins or whether people are saved by doing good things and being good enough. I’m not sure why though. This verse seems pretty clear about what God wants. He makes people right with himself only by faith. It doesn’t matter your color or your background or any of that. All that matters is faith. The second thing here speaks to the questions I had about the Old Testament law and how we seem to pick and choose the parts of it that we follow today. I’ve had some great comments about how Jesus’ death and resurrection did away with the old rules and regulation because, as I mentioned above, we are made right with God through faith not through following rules. However, here it says that the law cannot be forgotten and tossed out just because we have faith! On the contrary, faith emphasizes our fulfillment of the law! So faith and the law somehow fit together. The law isn’t totally invalidated because of Jesus. Obviously, we still adhere to many of the ten commandments (particularly the ones like don’t commit murder), and some people still adhere to other parts of the law given to Moses such as not piercing or tattooing themselves. Yet, it’s interesting that people who adhere to this part of the law have no trouble wearing polyester or eating bacon, which is also forbidden just one verse earlier than the piercing and tattooing bit. Sorry, getting off topic! Anyway, I just thought it was interesting that Paul says not to throw out the law just because we are made right with God through faith. Faith should emphasize our ability to truly fulfill the law… perhaps by truly loving other people and loving God (which I believe is what Jesus said summed up the entire law anyhow).
Zechariah 3:1-2 Then the angel showed me Jeshua [fn] the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD. Satan [fn] was there at the angel’s right hand, accusing Jeshua of many things.And the LORD said to Satan, “I, the LORD, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from a fire.” The following is from Chuck Smith’s commentary. I thought it was interesting because we are so often taught that we have authority of Satan because we are saved by the blood of Jesus. But this perspective caught my attention because it talks about and looks at the way that God himself rebukes Satan. I agree with the author’s statement at the end: I feel so much safer when I keep the Lord between me and Satan! Anyhow, here is what Chuck Smith had to say about it: Now, I do feel that in the scriptures we do have a pattern when we are dealing with Satan. That is, of not directly dealing with him. I’ve heard people say, “I rebuke you, Satan.” And every time I hear them say that, I shudder. Because I am certain that he is saying, “Paul I know, Jesus I know, who are you?” It is interesting in the book of Jude we are told that when Michael, who is one of the chief angels of heaven, when he was disputing with Satan over the body of Moses, Satan was probably wanting to desecrate the body of Moses, and Michael was standing there, and they were disputing over the body, they were fighting over the body of Moses, that Michael did not bring any railing accusations against Satan. He didn’t rail on him. But Michael this archangel said, “The Lord rebuke thee.” Michael didn’t say, “I rebuke you,” but he said, “The Lord rebuke you.” Here when he saw Satan standing at the right hand of Joshua the high priest seeking to resist him, and Joshua was standing before the angel of the Lord, that the Lord said unto Satan, “The Lord rebuke you.” So I think that if you’re going to be rebuking Satan, that is the way you should do it. That rather than saying, “I rebuke you, Satan,” or even, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” I think that you would be better off to just say, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan, in the name of Jesus.” I always like to keep the Lord between me and Satan. I feel so much safer when I do.
Habakkuk 3:17-18 Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. This verse reminded me a lot of our current economic situation. The fig trees have no blossoms, there are no grapes on the vine, and the fields lie empty and barren. Jobs are scarce, many people have lost their homes and life savings, and yet others are struggling to make it through each day and put food on the table. But the author, while he acknowledges these difficult times uses that contraction “yet” – despite it all. He will rejoice and be joyful in God – my salvation. My Salvation isn’t just a pretty term. Salvation is the One Who Saves. It’s one of God’s attributes. He saves. He saves physically, spiritually, economically. He does it all. So, the author is praising God because he knows that God can rescue him (and us) from the bad conditions of the country. In these times when things are difficult (and believe me, my family knows about difficult, even though we’ve been blessed to still have jobs), we can choose to rejoice in God our salvation. Easy? Nope. Helpful? Yep. It’s amazing how a little praise can change your perspective on a situation.
Ezekiel 43:12 And this is the basic law of the Temple: absolute holiness! Ezekiel has another vision. In this one he is watching the Temple being measured. My thoughts… this thing is huge! Some of the walls are 8 feet thick!!! Crazy! Anyhow, God enters the Temple (sounding like roaring, rushing waters) and speaks with him about this coming Temple. But the law of the Temple is absolute holiness! For humanity, on our own, holiness is a pipe-dream. We can’t be holy because we are imperfect… However, there’s hope! Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection gives us the ability to be holy. No, not on our own or on the merit of what we try to do (imperfect beings can’t achieve perfection since our very nature is flawed), but through the mercy and sacrifice of Jesus. Being washed in His blood we become like Him. Not God, certainly, but in His image. So through Jesus we can at least attempt holiness. He does, after all, say “be holy as I am holy” (although that definition of holy may not be the traditional meaning – you can read my other post on that one). So, there is hope! By the blood of the perfect Lamb we are made clean and holy… and therefore we can come before the Lord of Hosts in His absolutely holy Temple worshiping Him and bringing Him glory!