God has been dealing with my heart on this. Call me dumb but I have never seen the problem with using law for obedience in Christian life. For me, the trick is to obey the commands of CHRIST not Moses. If I obey Christ's law, then I will automatically obey the Mosaic law. This means I can be a Christian and not have to try to be Jewish as well. In the Bible, blessing and power always follow the obedient ones. The same is true in the Christian New Testament. The Church though has flat batteries most of the time. Power is missing and the Church leaders justify its absence by claiming God has done away with it today. That CANNOT be true because the power of God is an attribute of His very presence and cannot be separated out. For God to separate his power and His presence He would have to use power to do it. He would also have to make himself mute, because his power is in His Word. In turn that would mean all the Bible tells us about His Word -- Jesus Christ -- is invalid. So that teaching is a great wickedness and a lie. So, while the Church leaders are falsely claiming -- in much but not all of the Church -- that God is now powerless and producing powerless people as a result, at the other end of the scale there are powerless people claiming to have power WHILE being disobedient to the commands of Christ. This leaves them wide open to deception and we have all seen where that goes today. By implication then, if the power of God is missing from your Church then God must be missing also. but if that power is there, then you are abiding in Him and He in you. Think about that. How much of what you think of as His presence on a Sunday, really is? Some deceptions are called great because they are big. 'Angel of light' .......REMEMBER? So, did Christ think obedience to HIS commands was important? Do a word study on the terms, "Obey" "Commandments" and "Obedience" in John's Gospel and, if you have never done it before, you will be amazed at just how much emphasis Christ puts on this (I would suggest some version other than the Nearly Inspired Version). The Church today has substituted faith for obedience as if the two are mutually exclusive but this is man's wisdom, not God's wisdom. 'Earthly and devilish' is I think, an apt term. It comes from substituting, listening to and being taught by the Holy Spirit, with listening to, and being taught by, "scholars." An error made by the Jews also, which Jesus sought to make them understand and correct to no avail. Of course, you cannot have the Holy Spirit within you if you do not obey. The one is conditional upon the other. Consider carefully the "if" & "and" statements in John 14:15,16 for example. Want to abide in and with the Trinity? Consider John 14:21 and John 14:23. Two of the most powerful verses in the entire Bible. Compare them to John 14:24 and think carefully how much you really love Jesus. The Love of Christ and the power of Christ the believer can receive are BOTH dependent upon obeying the commands of Christ, as even a cursory reading of John 14:15-26 will show. In fact, OUR love for Christ is shown, not by our words or worship in Churches, but by our obedience to HIS commands (John 14: 23,24). Faith alone is not enough. As James points out, "You believe? You do well. Even the devils believe and tremble." If you think having the faith in Christ that the demons have is enough then you have been badly misled. Don't be surprised at this. Most Church leaders today are NOT obeying the commands of Christ which is why they do not teach or model that obedience to their congregations. Many of them get their version of the "truth" from Bible School and never move past what they are erroneously taught there. They leave those places armed with excuses about why they are not supposed to have any power. Ever heard the old get out clause -- 'There is no such thing as a perfect Church' ? Covers all kinds of evil that one...Huh? Consequently, the view they have of Christianity is confined by the sides of the ditches they sit in with their congregations. Only rarely do they have enough humility to allow themselves to be shown the way out of the ditch so the ditches are where they sit convinced they are doing it right and are good shepherds to their flocks. They have no idea there are not supposed to be any sheep to lead within the mature local Church. They are supposed to be leading a Royal Priesthood not a bunch of bleating, whining, disorganised, misled, powerless, wolf fodder, sheep...... ......but they often are and telling them these things will tend to get you thrown out. Fear not, they did the same to Jesus. Listen to HIM, not them.
I don't think Dr. Reeves said these uses are valid. I think he just reported that they were traditional. Problems arising include observations such as the fact that the law did not convict 'the foremost of sinners' of sin and it did not drive him to Christ (second use); only the revelation of the risen and ascended Christ could do that, (when Saul was travelling to Damascus. As the Apostle Paul, he said, "as to the law (I was) blameless". The 'us' who were under the school master (i.e., child conductor, not teacher) was 'us Jews', not you Gentiles... and it was 'until Christ' in history. 2 Cor 3 implies a lot regarding all these uses. As we 'dogmatise' the significance of the Holy Spirit we will always find a need to dogmatise the Christian walk, make it a technique, another form of legalism. We do not know what the Apostle means when he says, "Walk in/by the Spirit and you will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh," which is a statement of fact or a promise, not an imperative. Walking by the flesh is actually the third use. Is the law somehow unholy then? No! It's just not the Spirit and it is incapable of producing that vitality we need to believe and to walk in love. Th civil restraint of evil is a secular use and does not pertain to Christians, i.e., to those who are born of the Spirit. I am a Gentile! though at my birth my mother hedged her/my bets i.e., 'she had two bob each way!' Oddly, circumcision was in, but baptism was considered to be 'only a shadow' ... go figure!
I love these videos, can't believe I never found them till now. Great job and God bless you brother
God has been dealing with my heart on this. Call me dumb but I have never seen the problem with using law for obedience in Christian life. For me, the trick is to obey the commands of CHRIST not Moses. If I obey Christ's law, then I will automatically obey the Mosaic law. This means I can be a Christian and not have to try to be Jewish as well.
In the Bible, blessing and power always follow the obedient ones. The same is true in the Christian New Testament. The Church though has flat batteries most of the time. Power is missing and the Church leaders justify its absence by claiming God has done away with it today. That CANNOT be true because the power of God is an attribute of His very presence and cannot be separated out. For God to separate his power and His presence He would have to use power to do it. He would also have to make himself mute, because his power is in His Word. In turn that would mean all the Bible tells us about His Word -- Jesus Christ -- is invalid. So that teaching is a great wickedness and a lie. So, while the Church leaders are falsely claiming -- in much but not all of the Church -- that God is now powerless and producing powerless people as a result, at the other end of the scale there are powerless people claiming to have power WHILE being disobedient to the commands of Christ. This leaves them wide open to deception and we have all seen where that goes today.
By implication then, if the power of God is missing from your Church then God must be missing also. but if that power is there, then you are abiding in Him and He in you. Think about that. How much of what you think of as His presence on a Sunday, really is? Some deceptions are called great because they are big. 'Angel of light' .......REMEMBER?
So, did Christ think obedience to HIS commands was important? Do a word study on the terms, "Obey" "Commandments" and "Obedience" in John's Gospel and, if you have never done it before, you will be amazed at just how much emphasis Christ puts on this (I would suggest some version other than the Nearly Inspired Version).
The Church today has substituted faith for obedience as if the two are mutually exclusive but this is man's wisdom, not God's wisdom. 'Earthly and devilish' is I think, an apt term. It comes from substituting, listening to and being taught by the Holy Spirit, with listening to, and being taught by, "scholars." An error made by the Jews also, which Jesus sought to make them understand and correct to no avail. Of course, you cannot have the Holy Spirit within you if you do not obey. The one is conditional upon the other. Consider carefully the "if" & "and" statements in John 14:15,16 for example.
Want to abide in and with the Trinity? Consider John 14:21 and John 14:23. Two of the most powerful verses in the entire Bible. Compare them to John 14:24 and think carefully how much you really love Jesus.
The Love of Christ and the power of Christ the believer can receive are BOTH dependent upon obeying the commands of Christ, as even a cursory reading of John 14:15-26 will show. In fact, OUR love for Christ is shown, not by our words or worship in Churches, but by our obedience to HIS commands (John 14: 23,24). Faith alone is not enough. As James points out, "You believe? You do well. Even the devils believe and tremble." If you think having the faith in Christ that the demons have is enough then you have been badly misled.
Don't be surprised at this. Most Church leaders today are NOT obeying the commands of Christ which is why they do not teach or model that obedience to their congregations. Many of them get their version of the "truth" from Bible School and never move past what they are erroneously taught there. They leave those places armed with excuses about why they are not supposed to have any power. Ever heard the old get out clause -- 'There is no such thing as a perfect Church' ? Covers all kinds of evil that one...Huh?
Consequently, the view they have of Christianity is confined by the sides of the ditches they sit in with their congregations. Only rarely do they have enough humility to allow themselves to be shown the way out of the ditch so the ditches are where they sit convinced they are doing it right and are good shepherds to their flocks. They have no idea there are not supposed to be any sheep to lead within the mature local Church. They are supposed to be leading a Royal Priesthood not a bunch of bleating, whining, disorganised, misled, powerless, wolf fodder, sheep......
......but they often are and telling them these things will tend to get you thrown out.
Fear not, they did the same to Jesus.
Listen to HIM, not them.
😍 We love these!
You never made the episode about Calvin's use of the 3rd law. I hope you do :)
I don't think Dr. Reeves said these uses are valid. I think he just reported that they were traditional. Problems arising include observations such as the fact that the law did not convict 'the foremost of sinners' of sin and it did not drive him to Christ (second use); only the revelation of the risen and ascended Christ could do that, (when Saul was travelling to Damascus. As the Apostle Paul, he said, "as to the law (I was) blameless". The 'us' who were under the school master (i.e., child conductor, not teacher) was 'us Jews', not you Gentiles... and it was 'until Christ' in history. 2 Cor 3 implies a lot regarding all these uses. As we 'dogmatise' the significance of the Holy Spirit we will always find a need to dogmatise the Christian walk, make it a technique, another form of legalism. We do not know what the Apostle means when he says, "Walk in/by the Spirit and you will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh," which is a statement of fact or a promise, not an imperative. Walking by the flesh is actually the third use. Is the law somehow unholy then? No! It's just not the Spirit and it is incapable of producing that vitality we need to believe and to walk in love. Th civil restraint of evil is a secular use and does not pertain to Christians, i.e., to those who are born of the Spirit. I am a Gentile! though at my birth my mother hedged her/my bets i.e., 'she had two bob each way!' Oddly, circumcision was in, but baptism was considered to be 'only a shadow' ... go figure!