Monday, January 30, 2006
Acceptable Righteousness?
Matt:7
V23. "And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'
“Depart from me,” is the command that directs one to the dead end of the broad path which is destruction. I list the footnote in our textbook (A Harmony of the Gospels by Robert L.Thomas and Stanley N. Gundry): “In Jesus’ teachings, to find life was equivalent to entering the kingdom, and to meet with destruction was equated with exclusion from it. One’s relationship to the anticipated kingdom was thus of crucial importance.”
Those who meet destruction do so because they are those who practice lawlessness. This is a crucial Christian doctrine that all must clearly understand. Let me start by saying that for one to be just and righteous he must be above the law or he must have lived a holy/spotless life completely within the law defined by the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-7; Deut. 5:7-21). This is not good news (gospel) because we all have transgressed some if not all of these laws. Man then reasons that he is not that bad and bases his comparison with something of lower than God’s standard. The bad news is that God does not recognize man’s lowered standards of what is righteous and just. He set the standard for Moses to proclaim circa 1500 BC and the same law and standard applies to man as long as the earth turns.
V23. "And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'
“Depart from me,” is the command that directs one to the dead end of the broad path which is destruction. I list the footnote in our textbook (A Harmony of the Gospels by Robert L.Thomas and Stanley N. Gundry): “In Jesus’ teachings, to find life was equivalent to entering the kingdom, and to meet with destruction was equated with exclusion from it. One’s relationship to the anticipated kingdom was thus of crucial importance.”
Those who meet destruction do so because they are those who practice lawlessness. This is a crucial Christian doctrine that all must clearly understand. Let me start by saying that for one to be just and righteous he must be above the law or he must have lived a holy/spotless life completely within the law defined by the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-7; Deut. 5:7-21). This is not good news (gospel) because we all have transgressed some if not all of these laws. Man then reasons that he is not that bad and bases his comparison with something of lower than God’s standard. The bad news is that God does not recognize man’s lowered standards of what is righteous and just. He set the standard for Moses to proclaim circa 1500 BC and the same law and standard applies to man as long as the earth turns.
# posted by Castusfumus : 3:29 PM
