Bible Devotions with UW

Why did Jesus gave the Law? Part 2
This portion of scripture above is another favourite "misquoted out of context" by christians who belong to the older brother of the prodigal son.
Who is the older brother of the prodigal son?

If you read the Prodigal Son story, you'll find that He is the one who don't likes it when the Father throws a party to celebrate his lost son return. They want everything to be dead serious with God. If possible, jealously separating God on a high pedestal trying to stand in the way of God's children whom may have not been as obedient as he has.

Luke 15:29 (NIV) - But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

Look at the scorn. Some Christians are like that.

This older brother has an erroneous perception of who God is. Look at the way He responds to a loving Father in Luke 15:29. He does not have a "Doxa" Perception of the Father. Doxa is the Greek word for Glory and in my last devotion, I've showed you, the very first definition of Glory is Having a Good Opinion of God.

This older brother thinks that God wants him to have a slave or servant mentality. In other word, it's a form of self righteousness trying to earn a place before God.
But UW, how can you say that? When you have a Slave/Servant mentality before God, in other words, you are trying to please God by your performance.

A servant is like that. A Son inherits effortlessly. I believe when this older brother spoke in such a manner, the father was hurt in the heart because this son did not have a good opinion of God.
He see Him as someone separated that needs to be appeased. 

And there are many christians like that today. They'll use scripture like above (Matthew 7:21) trying to separate many prodigal sons from coming close to God. Do you know why? Because they themselves feels separated from God. I believe, all that I have learned is not for me to be kept inside but to be shared to help draw every sinners, the lost, the lame, the gays, the ungodly, etc near to God.

This message is for you if you are confuse to the revelation of difficult bible verse. Today I will debunk this and lay it to rest once and for all.

Read the Text carefully.

Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

When Jesus spoke this at the mount of beatitude, I believe many Jews was present. You must understand that when Christ spoke, some of the word was meant for the Jews who are steep in Judaism. God's word is not bound by time. It was for the crowd back then and also for certain crowd Today. Why did Christ gave this "condition", Not everyone who calls him Lord Lord will be saved? If you look at the following verse, " ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?"

All these speaks of the work of the kingdom. But is that the condition to enter Heaven? Oh you didn't hear me. You who shouts so loud wanting to uphold the Law so much,

Is that the condition to enter Heaven?

Lord Have I not done this for you? They are counting on a form of self righteousness just like the older brother of the prodigal son. I have done this for you therefore I qualify.
What was Jesus answer?

I never knew you.  Why?

The answer is this. "only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter Heaven". Before you think that the word "does the will of the Father" means upholding the Law, think again. The right question to ask is; what is the will of the Father?

Answer is here:

John 6:40 (NIV): For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day."

Again this points back to Grace (Jesus Christ) and not the Law. 

Hallelujah! 

God Bless.

Wsup Loud,

1 Peter 2 is talking about submitting to the Governing authority in the context of living as good citizens, not to break the law of the country. Nothing to do with Slave Mentality.

IN Fact Romans 8:15 debunks the notion that God wants us to have a slave mentality at all.
Romans 8:15 (NIV) - The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."

In the New Testament, when scripture mentions Law is talks about the entire law as a whole not just ceremonial laws.

For example.

In 2 Corinthians 3:7, God calls the 10 commandments a ministry of death, not life. Why is that?

2 Corinthians 3:7 (NIV)
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was,

This means that, the more you try to reinforced the 10 commandments, the more you give strength (the tendency) to sin.

1 Corinthians 15:56 INIV)
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

Only Grace is the Solution to the abundant Life that Christ promised. Not the Law.

All the scripture above that you quoted are based on the principle that because you are already made righteous by Christ's work, then Live your Holy Life, not the other way round. You don't try to perform Holiness to be Holy. This is not what the Bible teaches.

No, Read the Bible carefully, God's Salvation is made easy by God. If anything I dare say, it's the thinking of Man that's trying to make it hard. Besides if what you say is true, it defeats the purpose that Christ need to come at all. If Christianity is the same as any other religion, First Christ need not come and To make it hard God just had to reinstate the Old Covenant and pit the OT Law against us.

Here is the evidence of scripture that God abolished the OT Law
Hebrews 10:9  All in 5 translations

New International Version
Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second.

New Living Translation
Then he said, "Look, I have come to do your will." He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect.

English Standard Version
then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

New American Standard Bible
then He said, "BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL." He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

King James Bible
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

Now with all that being said, before it is mentioned, I might as well blurt it out. Am I teaching believers to a licentious lifestyle? To sin as they please? HA! I'm preaching the same Gospel that Paul preaches because the same accusation was levelled against Him as well as to me, in these verses below.
Romans 6:1 (NIV) - What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

Romans 6:15 (NIV) - What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!

Hence the meaning of antinomianism, as in my siggy.

That is why I'm doing a series on this.

If you followed my previous devotions, it addresses the messines to be understood easily.

Erm, no we can't eradicate Sin by whatever effort. Only Christ can. The purpose of the Law is to bring Man to come to the end of himself and give up trying so that he completely turn to Christ to be saved.

When I say completely I really mean literally.

There's no half half. <---I can tell you while even saying this, people will still not get it. There's this veil of blindness that the devil do not want Christians to fully understand the depth of God's Grace which is so powerful..anyway,  The focus is now on Christ, no more on the Law, that is the end objective. The Law must be removed completely from Christian life for the work of the HS to take place.

No, what i meant about Antinomianism is the misunderstanding that people have about the Grace that Christ came to give. They think that grace will cause people to live a licentious lifestyle. That is not what the Bible teaches but the opposite. Grace teaches people to live right.

Under the new covenant, the word righteousness always refer to Christ's Righteousness, not yours.
God credit it to you because of your Faith.

So when the Bible mentioned to be a slave of righteousness, it means that to understand you are to subject yourself to understand it is God who made you righteous in Christ 24/7, striving in that, having that repented mind thought (you are already righteous by faith) will lead your subsequent actions to holiness. You don't even have to be conscious to work it out because as a Man thinketh, so is he.

Our only effort or striving which the Bible allows us to strive to rest in God that Salvation has been settled for you once and for all. In there you keep resting. It will be fight because the devil doesn't want you to be assured, he wants you shaken easily in there.

When it come to what is right or wrong, the most practical thing that will help to know what is right to wrong is to just walk in love. When you walk in love, you don't need the Laws of God to govern you. God has design this in such a way, it becomes natural. Read Galatians 5:23.

Question 1 - You have a wrong understanding of righteousness. Your righteousness has no value in the eyes of God. The only righteousness that has value are the work of Christ at the cross, the only one, legal before the eyes of a righteous God, one He readily accepts because Christ is without Sin, His Sacrifice is perfect atonement for all of you.  When you put your Faith in Christ, God literally credit Christ's righteousness unto you, You are MADE (literally) righteous in Christ. Whatever righteous deed you perform is for the justification before Man to praise God. The more you do it, for Man to gauge your life, that you walk the talk. And God does rewards you for all your righteous deed, all your effort, your works for the Kingdom of God, not to justify you to enter Heaven.
Question 2 - And continuing to explain the definition of righteousness. This Righteousness that God imparts to you due to your Faith is a status. Not because you do righteous acts. Your position before God is a state of being. Your Position is righteous but your acts have yet to match up. So it takes time to grow.

That is why the Bible says it like this in;

Romans 12:2 (NIV) - Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The Christian life is a journey. 

It takes time for your mind and spirit to conform to God's word because all the while you live by system of the world. Your mindset have to change and believe God's opinion of you (that you are righteous in Christ 24/7) before you start to exhibit God's Value.

Hope that helps to answer your questions.

Wait a minute, you're arguing with me as a Christian or non-believer pov?

You're not answering me, you're arguing me from a Non Believer's POV or you're a Christian yourself?

No worries, just need to find out to appropriate the answer.

The reason being, when you're not a believer, the word of God is an offence to your spirit due to your fallen nature.

Okay, give me a bit of time, middle of working and trying to reply you.

Actually may I know what is your point, the objective you're trying to achieve?

Why I ask this, is because you don't even believe there is a God. I don't see the reason why you would want to pursue further into the details base on the first premise.

Okay, thanks for expressing what's in your heart.

Well,

What did the dying thief on the cross do to qualify to enter Heaven? I mean you know that his hands and feet was nailed to the cross, so obviously any effort to do charitable works, to perform good deed is out of the question.

How difficult was it for Him to attain Salvation?

The dying thief has yet to prove himself to act in love or to abstain from all those mentioned in Galatians 5.

I mean even if we go by your erroneous understanding of  1 Corinthians 13 and Galatians 5, still proves that Salvation is easy compared to other religion because all I have to do is have new mental habits and you mentioned how hard is it to do that.

So what are you trying to prove? Is it easy or hard?

p.s: I want to see how you're going try to swing what you've just contradicted with your earlier statement, Christianity' Salvation is hard like all other religion.

He then goes on to explain those who belong to God and those who don.t

Those who belongs to God is explained in verse 24:

Galatians 5:24 (NIV) - Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

In comparison with those who are not Christians who are bound to the corruption of Flesh.

Galatians 5:19-21

9 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this* will not inherit the kingdom of God.

* Those who live like this means those who are not saved. They are helplessly subjected and controlled by the corruption of the flesh as above.

Those who are saved is define in verse 24 as above. And verse 1 of Galatians 5 stand in testimony of this. Because we now have Christ (Christians) in our lives, we are free from this corruption and it takes the renewing of our mind to agree and conform to God's Word for it to happen and it will be a journey, meaning it will take time. But mean while, in between the growing period, are we saved? The answer is yes.

Shifting the goal post so fast? Earlier you mentioned how hard is it for the thief (indicating that it's not that hard) to introduce new mental habits and would Jesus accepts his plea if it was from selfish ambition. Now you say it's hard. 

So how much time did the dying thief devote himself strenuously to contemplate or meditate that impressed Jesus so much, He gave him freely the gift of Salvation? 
Because right now you're giving the picture, devotees of other religion spends a lot of time meditating and all that. Remember that He's hung on the cross with his hands and feet nailed.

Answer this first and I'll attend to your other questions about Cain and Abel and about resting in God producing the works of God in the believers life. That too and what you quoted above is erroneous doctrine in your context.

So what did the thief do remove that sinful tendency? You'er not really able to answer what you're suggesting aren't you?

Well, first and foremost all your wider point are based on speculations at most.

I bring up the incident of the dying thief to kill off all your speculations and thank God for including that part of history.
Because God foresaw there will be people with your mindset trying to discredit the Gospel. The dying thief is key to understanding what Grace is all about.

The Salvation that God offer comes by having Faith in Christ as the Savior. It can't get any easier than that. That dying thief simply believe Jesus is the Son of God.

Romans 4:5 proves this.

Romans 4:5 (NIV) - However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

God made is easy for anyone who believe in Christ unto Salvation. It is the thinking of Man that tries to complicate it. That is the religion of this world, law based.

This Gift of Salvation is also offered to you freely.  Think about it when you have the time.

Just a word of advice. You may think this is fun to you, exercising what you think is just a buttheading challenge.

What you don't realize is, you're trying to change the word of God to something that is not which is what we call perverting the Gospel as what Paul mentioned in the books of Galatians.
Real People have died because of holding on to the integrity of the Gospel, this is not a fiction or some made up story.

This is a very serious matter to us. If you want to continue based on "just for fun", my advice is, stop. If you want to learn then be genuine and respectful, we can continue.

What acts of repentance there is? The dying thief couldn't perform anything. So is that easy or hard? Answer me now.

I'll answer the rest about your claims of ceremonial law, cain and abel, and among others, this I promise.

But Answer the above first. All your other avenues have been destroyed; need rigorous mind training and all that eastern mysticism religion is out of the window.

You're not answering my question.

Well..even if what you say is true (which is not), Let say, The dying their did out of fear and is not genuine, is that easy or hard?

It's not a paranoid question. I'm destroying your claims that the Christian Salvation is hard like other religion.

And Here is the final blow.

If repentance in the mind is all it takes, then that basically also destroy of your claims that the works mentioned in Romans 4:5 is pertaining to ceremonial laws and the 10 commandment is enforced for justification.

Why? because the dying thief could not and did not perform even 1.

Okay, let me up this one for you.

Aren't you the one on the side of "Faith without works is dead" camp? 

Faith is proven in Luke 23 but Loving other? When did the dying thief do that? 

And what did he do to repent? Just saying  is enough?

lol, He was rebuking the other thief and acknowledged who Jesus is.

Nothing to do with repenting or showing Love or compassion for that matter.