This is meant to be a thread to have a view into the Christian mind and the Christian life. Basically, every Sunday and Wednesday, I'd like to simply share a Bible verse and talk a little about it.
There are a couple of reasons why I'm starting this. First, the atmosphere of WEPR has degenerated since I first joined AG in 2008. Second, I feel that those of us who are in the body of Christ, the church, should have a quiet place to increase our devotion and strengthen each other in the faith. Third, I've simply been moved by the heart of prayer to make this thread. Although I know none of you personally, I do pray for some of the people I have met here, whether they may like it or not. So let's encourage that.
Bible verses are in NIV, unless otherwise specified.
March 13-16: Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
When a non-Christian asks me to summarize Christianity in a short way, this is the first verse I turn to. All the problems in the world--the suffering, the pain, the hardship--stem from the first four words: "for all have sinned." And I know for me (and for many of us) this is the hardest thing, to acknowledge that we sin.
We sin, and we justify this to ourselves all the time: "This isn't quite so bad," "Not as bad as him," "Well, in this case." We become trained to think that morality is gray, that it is merely a social convention or a form of respect that we follow. And it's for this reason that the second point is fulfilled: that all "fall short of the glory of God."
There is nothing glorious about goodness if it must be justified here and justified there. And so, the reason why morality is seen as burdensome is not because it's something we should follow, it's because we constantly justify it to ourselves. And that is busywork.
Comments, questions, blessings, prayers all welcome!
When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment.
Looking over these rules on how to handle a slave girl I wonder if this means if he has his son marry the slave girl that he can then sell her to a foreigner since he is allowed to then treat her as his daughter.
some of the atheists in this world should actually try to listen to the bible. and i mean people of all religion.
I did, and really, the Lord of the Rings trilogy makes more realistic sense than the bible a lot of the time, not to mention it is probably more age appropriate than the bible for anyone who's not an adult. I mean seriously, have you noticed all the stuff that goes on in the bible? Revenge, ****, murder, sodomy, plagues, mass murder, etc... The bible is just a bunch of individual stories written by third or fourth hand accounts at best, and then further diminished because not even all of the "books" were accepted to be apart of the bible because they so violently conflicted with the common belief, and yet they claimed the same sources.
And indeed, among us, God still reveals to us his majesty, just as he has through the generations.
How can one believe in his existence if one never has been revealed his majesty? Why does he apparently privilege some persons over others?
We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
Is 'listen' here meant as, just listen to what you have to say, or listen and agree? Because we do listen to you, we just don't always agree, and it is rude to say that everyone that does not listen to you is automatically wrong. Oh, and do you listen to us? I'm sure you do, but often it's the religious people that are not open minded towards other opinions; so this passage seems slightly hypocritical to me.
We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
If Peter truly was eye-witness to Jesus then why did he wait 34 years after the crucifixion to write them down? Shouldn't something as important as the savior of humanity be put to paper as soon as possible? Or did God tell him to wait for Alzheimers to kick in before beginning his writings?
They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
That is because you have to already believe this superstition to find it meritorious. Sure, these passages make great sense to the Christian who already believes them, but to the one who has never been introduced to the Bible, or to those who have and who find no logical reason to believe it, then these works and stories lose their majesty and become a collection of often contradictory stories, parables, exaggerations, and the odd bit of good advice.
Thanks be to God, who knows all our struggles and loved us first. I am glad that the Bible continues to stimulate discussion, just as it has for millenia it's been around. Being one person, I am not readily equipped to deal with the questions of many, but I trust that through patience and perseverance I might be able to bring the message that has answered and continues to answer questions. At the same time, I do not expect that many will find a satisfactory answer in the Word, "for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." (2 Tim. 2:2)
Matthew 22:35-40
One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
A good deal of you have replied with a fairly common tactic, I see, which is to point at the various points of the old Law and judge them by the standards of this world. That is all well and good, but do you not know that of those of us who are saved, we have "died to the law through the body of Christ"? (Rom. 7:4) Instead, we are under "a new righteousness from God, apart from law," yet at the same time fully affirmed by the law. (Rom. 3:21) And how is it affirmed? Precisely by the call to love God and to love one's neighbor.
What, then, is the fundamental difference between the old Law and the freedom from it that we receive from God's righteousness? Before the Fall, where there was no sin, there was no law, because there was no need for one. But when sin came to the world, the Law appeared, for it was needed to instruct us in what was sin. (Rom. 3:20) But because of this, the law brings wrath. Whenever the law is broken, justice is needed to be done. And all of us have broken the law, for "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
But, in his grace, God presented Christ Jesus as a "sacrifice of atonement," that those who believe in him may die to the Law and be reborn in righteousness. This is justification by faith, that those who have faith to him and lose faith in our own limited human capacity die to ourselves and become reborn in him. If we follow the Law, there can only be death, because we cannot possibly follow it completely, but if we follow Christ, there is life for us in his forgiveness.
Romans 7:6
But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Parsat, I remember reading a verse or a sentence of the bible, saying we should only trust in god and not trust other humans. Do you see which passage I mean?
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
Let's have a look at where God says to love him in the ten commandments.
Deuteronomy 5:8-10 (KJV) Thou shalt not make thee [any] graven image, [or] any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me, And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Anyone else notice it's a conditional love where if we don't worship him we are to suffer? And this is what Jesus says is the most important?
A good deal of you have replied with a fairly common tactic, I see, which is to point at the various points of the old Law and judge them by the standards of this world. That is all well and good, but do you not know that of those of us who are saved, we have "died to the law through the body of Christ"? (Rom. 7:4)
If God is the ultimate source of morality shouldn't what we consider moral now be the same as what was considered moral back then? But instead it's barbaric a cruel.
But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Matthew 5:17 (NIV) "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
In the last verse I shared, I shared that as Christians, we are no longer subordinate to the Law, but to the grace that is in Christ Jesus. That brings us to an important point: What, then, was the purpose of the Law? What did it mean when Christ said that he had not come to "abolish the Law or the Prophets...but to fulfill them"?
As the highest order of goodness, God desires obedience towards himself. Is it not said: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice; to heed is better than the fat of rams"? (1 Sam. 15:22)
When sin came to the Earth, we were given the law because we were separated from God and from a state of goodness in which he had made us. We were given this because we had no idea what sin was, or what "good" was. "Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law." (Rom. 7:7) But with Christ's coming, we not only know what sin is, we become victorious over it. We are dead to sin. In this way, where we once had to sacrifice burnt offerings and cleanse ourselves constantly of our sin, we need this no longer.
The fulfillment of the Law and Prophets comes not only through the prophecy of the Messiah's coming, but also through the fact that the law cannot condemn us any further because of our direct union with Christ Jesus, with whom we can obey directly rather than with an intermediary law. (Rom. 8:1)
As the highest order of goodness, God desires obedience towards himself. Is it not said: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice; to heed is better than the fat of rams"? (1 Sam. 15:22)
This actually makes God sound insecure. Why would God delight in sacrifice at all?
When sin came to the Earth, we were given the law because we were separated from God and from a state of goodness in which he had made us.
How can someone possibly be separated from something that's suppose to be omnipresent?
We were given this because we had no idea what sin was, or what "good" was. "Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law."
Then Adam and Eve should no more be punished for the "wrong" they did then an infant should be.
Rom. 7:7
Yeah love how Paul wrote this saying how he wouldn't know right from wrong without God telling him which was which. Seems like the guy has no common sense reasoning or ability to think for himself here. And using this guys example of coveting, it's really not that big of a deal. It's a pretty normal human behavior. So here again we are having to apologize for being human.
But with Christ's coming, we not only know what sin is, we become victorious over it.
Then why are you still apologizing for it? Regarding everyone as sinners after having such a thing abolished doesn't make sense.
The fulfillment of the Law and Prophets comes not only through the prophecy of the Messiah's coming, but also through the fact that the law cannot condemn us any further because of our direct union with Christ Jesus, with whom we can obey directly rather than with an intermediary law. (Rom. 8:1)
This is just Paul kissing Gods @$$. Yet again Paul is just saying how we have to apologize fro being human.
This actually makes God sound insecure. Why would God delight in sacrifice at all?
If you take this into it's context, it seems more reasonable; just think of all gods and idols back then or further back, that asked for sacrifices; it maybe seemed normal for those people to sacrifice, and a god that wouldn't ask for such would have to be different. But of course today this does seem insecure.
