Law and Life

Matthew 12: 1 – 2

At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath through the grainfields, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Behold, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.”

Whoa! This is major bad news! Jesus, he whom we hold up as perfect, as having never sinned, broke the law. He and his disciples did not keep to the law regarding the Sabbath. The law says, “For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 31: 15).

How many times have we read over this without even pausing to consider the significance? For myself the answer is, many times. This passage is right here in the middle of the first book of the New Testament; in the gospels. It would seem to have calamitous results for our faith. So, what gives?

Jesus’ answer is contained in verses three through eight but the substance of it is in verse seven, “But if you had known what this means, I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE, you would not have condemned the innocent.” What does he mean by this and how does this answer the problem of the law?

The answer is found in 1 John 4: 8, “God is love.” Compassion has greater weight in the Kingdom of God than law. I am not disregarding the law, only showing that there is something superior and that is the love of God which is most clearly demonstrated in acts of grace. Jesus came to bring God’s Kingdom to earth, but what is His Kingdom? Here we see that God values grace over law. He sent Jesus so that we could be free from the curse of the law.

How many of us stand in the same shoes as the Pharisees? I know that I have in the past. When confronted with someone who was engaged in an adulterous affair, all I could see was the law. It is very, very hard not to be so hide bound that all you can see is the letter of the law applied to the situation. Where does grace fit in here? What does love have to do with it and why was Jesus not put to death for his violation of the law? How does compassion apply to this situation and who are the innocents of whom Jesus speaks?

The Pharisees had them dead to rights. Why didn’t they prosecute? Even the Pharisees were forestalled by Jesus’ response. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath (v. 8) which means what Jesus brought into the earth is a higher law than the law of Moses. Jesus reminded the Pharisees, who knew the law, what was recorded in Hosea 6: 6, “For what I desire is mercy, not sacrifices.” Mercy, grace and compassion, those are the laws of the Kingdom of God. They are a higher law than anything else.

This, I believe, is what Jesus was trying to tell us in this passage. We have a tendency towards strict application of the law to all people other than ourselves. We get a revelation of grace when we are in the hot seat, but it is considerably harder when we look upon others. Why were the actions of Jesus and his disciples not sin? Because the higher law stepped in. God’s mercy and Jesus’ lordship are bigger than the law. There is a higher law in the land now, one that is rooted in the love and compassion of God. Jesus came to set us free from the bondage of the law so that we too can walk in the grace of our Lord. This explains why the fruit of the Spirit and the characteristics of God are shown in kindness, goodness, gentleness, etc. When we are able to really wrap our heads around this, we will understand a great deal about the Kingdom of God. I would say this is a great passage to meditate on and even to journal. Ask the Father to explain this to your heart, “How can Jesus be sin free when he broke the law?” The answer is as big as God Himself and will completely revolutionize the church if we can grasp it. Herein lies the Kingdom of God in its glory. Partake of His goodness in full.

Move the camera

Hebrews 10: 2

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?

This is a discussion about sin consciousness versus righteousness consciousness. The author of Hebrews contrasts the sacrifices of old with the sacrifice of Jesus. The Old Testament sacrifices were not able to completely erase the sin stain which is why sacrifices had to be made every year. The sacrifice of the perfect, unblemished lamb, however, has once and for all, cleansed the saints, completely removing even the smell of former sin. This author writes that we have been made perfect by the sacrifice Jesus made, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10: 14). That is you. You are the one who has been cleansed, sanctified and perfected. Because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice, even the memory of our sin has been blotted from God’s memory. If we are cleansed, then, we should “no longer have . . . consciousness of sins.” But we do, don’t we.

Here is where the idea of moving the camera comes into play. Imagine yourself as a major Hollywood director. The actors are on the set, all is in readiness and you tell the camera operator to begin filming the scene. At the end of the scene you realize that the placement of the camera tells a different story than the one you intended to convey so you shift the camera just a little and eureka, an entirely different tableau is revealed. This is what we have to do with sin, forgiveness and our consciousness of each.

If we have the camera positioned on ourselves all of the time, our failures, sins, short-comings and brokenness are going to play like a melodrama if not a horror story. However, we can move the camera. So take your camera and shift it until Jesus is in the frame. What do you see now? What kind of movie will that camera shift make? It should be an adventure movie of heroic proportions where the hero saves the day and saves the lives of every person. It is Superman on steroids. Our hero saves us and even blots out the thoughts of the calamity which loomed so heavily before us. The difference in watching a film where we are poor sinners and one where we are saved is all in moving the camera just a tic. We change so that the lens is no longer focused on us but rather on Jesus and that makes all the difference in the world.

I find this teeter-totter between sin consciousness and righteousness consciousness to be a bit like the old glass half empty/half full proverb. Half empty people are focusing on themselves and what they see would frighten anyone. Glass half full people have abandoned their close-up for a shot of Jesus. When we focus on him and what he has done, it becomes ludicrous if not insulting for us to talk about our sins or even remember them. We have all failed. That is a fact. But the bigger and controlling fact is that Jesus took away all of our failures and laid them at the foot of the cross. Unless you are so important that your sin is bigger and more important than Jesus, then you have permission today to be completely free from every sin your ever committed. You have been cleansed. If Jesus cleansed you, why do you keep looking at yourself as dirty?

It’s all about him and what he has done. You have never done anything big enough to eclipse his victory. You have been sanctified and perfected by Christ so your thoughts should no longer be about YOUR sin, but rather about HIS righteousness. You should embrace righteousness consciousness and leave sin consciousness behind. It is an affront to the blood of Christ. All you have to do is to move your camera just a bit. Put Jesus in the frame and he will put you in his glory.

Our Gift to the Lord

1 Samuel 15: 22

Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.”

This is a fairly well known scripture, especially the latter part of it but let us also read it from the God’s Word translation: “Is the LORD as delighted with burnt offerings and sacrifices as he would be with your obedience? To follow instructions is better than to sacrifice. To obey is better than sacrificing the fat of rams.” This version speaks plainly about the weight of sacrifice vs. obedience.

Clearly we do not offer burnt sacrifices today so how do we equate this in modern terms? We would talk in terms of “works”. Our sacrifices are more in the line of working at the church, participating in all of the food drives, etcetera. There has never been anything wrong with the sacrifices nor the works. The problem lies in the fact that over the eons we have all substituted the true sacrifice desired by God with all of these other things. We need to be able to speak honestly about works the way the old prophets spoke openly about burnt offerings but in order to do that we must first agree that there is no open criticism about any of those things. Our projects are worthy. They just are not worthy as a sacrifice because what God is seeking is our obedience.

God wants to rule in our hearts. I remember when God told me to leave the practice of law and go into full time ministry. It made absolutely no sense to me. But why does what God tells us to do need to survive our scrutiny? Anyway, it took me a long time to heed God’s instructions. I was very active in church but I was in disobedience and things got messy for awhile. Eventually I got the cart righted and did as I was told and believe me, my life improved as a result. Being outside the will of God is just not a good place to be. I was trying to do all the right things but I was missing the big one, obedience. God was trying to lead me into a place of peace and blessing but I was too busy working myself to death to heed Him. It sounds silly now but I just couldn’t hear Him through the noise of my life.

This shows that you can have the very best intentions and still miss the mark by a mile. We busy ourselves with what we think God would have us do rather than simply spending some quiet time with Him finding out. I have learned that He doesn’t think the way we do so the only way we can know His mind is to give Him time to convey His thoughts to us. Ministers are the very worst about this. It is easy to spend so much time doing the work of God that we never spend any time with Him or in the Word. This is great error and will always end in trouble. We all must be still and listen to the voice of the Lord so that we can follow His instructions. He is always leading us on the blessed path but we must be able to hear Him. And then, once we do hear, we are really best served if we will hurry to obey Him. You don’t have to understand what He is doing or why. Just know that He has your interest in mind. He is leading you to the blessing place, the oasis in the desert. If you don’t heed Him, believe me, it is going to be barren and dry. 

Forget your religious sacrifices and traditions and seek His face. Ask Him if you are doing what He has directed you to do. If you have missed something, don’t fret, just get on track. Your obedience to His Word and to His instructions will serve you well because it will lead you to your anointed place. It will be well with you if you will obey the Lord.