Grace, Faith & Life

The Christian faith and practice of every believer is based on certain Scriptures and passages having dominance or more importance in their beliefs and in the application of the Christian message to their life. (Although some believer’s faith and practice is not really based on their personal study of scripture, but on a denominational teaching to which they have subjected themselves.)

Many Christians can express what they believe, but are not necessarily able to explain why they believe it. It may have simply been a catchy phrase in a sermon which they adopted into their belief system. Christian cliches may be relevant to mature Christians, but they may be offensive to non Christians and they should not be the basis for teaching new Christians.

I think 2 Tim 3:16  “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”, may be the  most misunderstood and therefore misapplied and taught Christian Scripture.

The typical teaching/application of this passage is that all Scripture is intended to be applied to the Christian life in the same way that it was intended for the Jewish people and/or Gentiles  to whom it was first given. See:  The Jew and the Gentile Background of the Jew in the Old Testament | Bible.org. For instance, even though it is in the New Testament, Jesus, the Jew was preaching  the Sermon on the Mount to his people. There were no New Covenant believers at that time to which it was directed.

Of course, If Christians know anything they know that they are not under the Law. The distinction between the Law and Grace is a prevalent sermon in all of Christendom. So teachers will say it is not a law for Christians, but it is an “example for us to live by” and since we now have the power of the Holy Spirit we can do it. Thus many denominations are taught a form of “legalism” that says we should live by the law as an example.

The trouble is, I don’t see any people understanding how to live the Law by the power of the Holy Spirit. Once you look at the Sermon on the Mount and many other passages as being an example to live by, you have just made the whole Bible a rule book for Christians. That is an attitude which is not good for the New Covenant believer, who is trying to learn how to live by the Spirit and love. John 13:34,35 We need to understand that the Law (obedience, duty, expectations) always speaks to the Flesh.

So we don’t need to think that all scripture is intended as a rule book for Christians. Read the Scriptures given to the Jews and about the Jews as God preparing the way for His New Covenant. This will give a new understanding of scripture to you. Scripture is all relevant and instructive to understand God’s plan of redemption, but we should not try to do what God was telling the Jews to do. Because God says, in His plan, things are going to change.

Ezekiel 36:26 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

In the New Covenant, the Christian learns to live by love of God and love of others, not by obedience.

Romans 13:8
“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Romans 8:4-6
⁴ so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

2 Corinthians 3:3-6
³ being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. ⁴ Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, ⁶ who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

 What we learn should not be what we are taught. “We learn something when we figure it out for our-self”. (Richard Feynman)

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Copyright © 2014 Daniel R. Boliek www.gflstudy.org