Legal Mumbo Jumbo



My husband and I recently refinanced our mortgage. The sheets of legal mumbo-jumbo produced was impressive. We read through every page of it diligently.....just kidding!  We didn't even contemplate doing that. We thought we understood what we were doing because we somewhat understood what the loan officers, bankers and other experts told us, but one thing we knew for sure. If we started to read those pages we would be hopelessly confused. 

 I just had a discussion with some believers who were hopelessly confused about the Ten Commandments and Grace. Even unbelievers revere the Ten Commandments, I mean Charlton Heston as Moses branded God giving  the commandments into our retinas, and preachers, teachers and parents have branded them into our minds and sometimes backsides over the years, so we all have issues with casting those sacred tablets aside. Most believers vacillate between Grace and Commandments. As one woman in the discussion said, "our society would crumble without them" and most of us wouldn't argue with that as it seems to be happening around us.


Truthfully, we couldn't choose a better foundation for our society, but let's not forget who God gave them to; a society-The Israelites. The soundness of the commandments as Godly wisdom for our society is proven, however, obedience to them was never presented by God as the way to eternal life, even for The Israelites.



Remember, the Hebrew people were saved from eternal death by the sacrifice of the High Priest on The Day of Atonement. Every year their sin as a Nation was atoned for by the sprinkling of blood in The Holy of Holies by The High Priest. The Old Testament law had  earthly consequences of punishment, sometimes death, but the sacrifice of blood atonement for sin was always intended to be a picture of Jesus.


Jesus, The High Priest of eternity who offered His blood as our atonement in Heaven-ONCE FOR ALL!  The Apostle Paul put it this way, "[Jesus] blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was contrary to us, and it out of the way, nailing it to the cross."


Our faith as believers is in the power of the blood of Jesus Christ to save us from spiritual death forever, and to join us forever in this world and the next with His Holy Spirit of Grace. It is the precious Holy Spirit who reveals to us the heart of God our Father and the Truth of His eternal love for us.

 The law, although Holy, dealt with the flesh and so will ever be an appropriate standard for justice in the legal systems of this world, but Jesus showed by His grace toward the woman caught in adultery that He, being the complete Wisdom of God, knows when the law should not be applied.




 She is a picture of us who believe and Jesus saying 'go and sin no more' is a benediction, not a commandment.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Junk Food Is Poison!

Image
I'm one of those people who eat when they are emotional. I eat anything-things I don't really want. I'll go stand in the kitchen or gaze in the cupboards and refrigerator just thinking about what I can eat next. I haven't had much success overcoming that habit and you know, food is just not helpful. It looks good. It smells good. It tastes good. It offers no warnings. It is silent, never saying , "Ahhh, I'm nutrionally bankrupt", or "I'll put a good five pounds on you if you keep eating me."   Unfortunately, my wrong believing-that food is comforting, or distracting, shows on the outside of me too. Lots of us show the effects of wrong believing on the outside, but even if our wrong believing has no visible effect, wrong believing always has an inner effect. I often wish I had been one of those people who could eat anything and maintain a healthy weight. However, hidden from view, my arteries would be clogging and my liver would be ge
Read more

If It Stinks It's Probably Garbage

Image
Jesus talked about treasure and riches, wealth and mammon. He didn't shy away from using the most valuable thing in our world as an object lesson in His teaching. One of His most personal teachings, found in Luke 6:45 gives us a profound way to know what is buried deep in our heart.  Jesus says, " a good person out of the good treasure in his heart produces good talk while an evil man out of the evil treasure in his heart produces evil talk."   Jesus says it's our heart that does our talking.. The word Jesus uses, treasure, can mean a jewelry box or a coffin. The Bible speaks specifically of treasure because the word implies something that is hidden or buried.. Jesus is painting a picture of our heart, our most valuable organ, the seat of our feelings and their origins, as both chests of buried treasure and coffins full of dead garbage. We have many ways to excuse the things that come out of our mouths. Often after saying something ugly, vile or unkin
Read more

Tea And Toast

Image
I love snow and living in Virginia's Southside means I don't see it very often. I flew to the windows this morning hoping for snow and, be still my heart, the sunlight was glittering off that pearly white stuff everywhere I looked! First thing I did was open all the curtains and pull up all the blinds in my house so I could see the brilliant winter beauty everywhere I went. Then I set about making me some hot tea and raisin toast. It didn't take long for me to notice that my clean kitchen wasn't really clean. My wood floor was covered with dust and specks of cracker crumbs and other debris of life. I am not a OCD kind of homemaker by any stretch of the imagination, but I could not stand looking at that floor and headed to the broom closet. As I waited for my toast to pop up I noticed my counters weren't all that clean either, but littered with toast crumbs and smudges, so while I could see I wiped down all the counters. As I took my tea and toa
Read more