"Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters." (1 Corinthians 7:19)
Wait! This can't be! This is the New Testament. The "commandments" went out with the Old Testament, right? We are now free to do anything we so desire, then do a follow-up with asking forgiveness in Jesus' Name, and all is good. I call the aforementioned Pop (popular) Religion.
The above is the, if not stated, surely the life style of very many in Christendom. I have said before that many live and believe as though God had a change of heart in the Intertestamental Period. Judgment, vengeance, anger was converted to love, compassion, everything's-okay, saith the Lord. Now of course we would all say, in our right mind, "That's ridiculous." Perhaps, but much of the life style in Christendom is evidence to the contrary.
The Evangelical/Charismatic community needs to embrace the reality that God is God, as James says, "....Who does not change like shifting shadows." The Bible teaches in both Old and New Testaments that the Law is, "for our good always, that He might preserve us alive...." Modern Evangelicals are so afraid of a "works religion" that they rarely, if ever, speak and teach the, "....for our good always,.." of the Commandments, the Law of God.
Jesus made it quite clear that He did not appear to start a new religion, a religion of love and flowers as opposed to vengeance and fire. I wonder if some who live that way read the same Gospels that I read, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill." We can say that the New Testament is not a rejection of the Old Testament, but a fulfillment of the Old Testament. Hebrews says that the New Covenant is, "better." Of course it is. The New is the "accumulation" of all that went before. Maybe we can say, in the vernacular, The New Testament is the Old Testament on steroids.
"Keeping the Commandments of God is what matters."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I fall so short, but I so desire to, "....press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me." Amen.
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Sarah sees our GP tomorrow. Please pray that our Health, Who is Jesus Christ, will manifest in her and me, us all!
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
