Archive for category Law
Proposed Amendment to the Ten Commandments
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Law, Old Testament on May 20, 2009
Admittedly, I wrote this in my newly-saved days, in response to all of the email forwards I was getting. But I thought it was pretty funny then, and I happened across it today, and I still think it’s pretty funny:
The Lord’s House Bill No. 0001
AN ACT of the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, relating to the distribution, dissemination, and/or duplication of electronic message transmittals (e-mails) the subject of which is, involves, or in any manner relates to the Lord God Almighty, the Son Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the believers and followers thereof, and/or any combination thereof.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY THAT:
The HOLY BIBLE, OLD COVENANT and NEW COVENANT, the Books of THE EXODUS, Chapter 20; THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT MATTHEW, Chapter 34; and THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT MARK, Chapter 12 are hereby amended as follows:
THE EXODUS, Chapter 20:1. And God spoke all these words:
20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
20:4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
20:6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
20:7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
20:10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.
20:11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
20:13 “You shall not murder.
20:14 “You shall not commit adultery.
20:15 “You shall not steal.
20:16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
20:18 “You shall not delete any e-mail you receive concerning me or my kingdom and you shall immediately forward same to all of your neighbors.
20:18 20:19 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance Ex 20:19 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW, Chapter 22:34. Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
22:35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
22:37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 22:38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
22:39 And tThe second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
22:40 And the third is: ‘Forward all e-mails you receive about me and my Father to all your neighbors that you may prove your love.’
22:4022:41 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two three commandments.”THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK, Chapter 12:28. One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
12:29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
12:31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
12:32 The third is this: ‘Forward all e-mails you receive about me and my father to your neighbors out of love. There is no commandment greater than these.”
12:32 12:33 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 12:33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
If anyone is interested in printing this, here is the pdf file (The Lord’s House Bill).
YOU CAN FORWARD IT TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS, AND ASK THEM TO FORWARD IT TO ALL OF THEIRS.
Apparently Tithing is Still a Touchy Subject
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, Law, New Testament, Old Testament on March 9, 2009
It’s funny to learn what subjects generate interest.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a short post wherein I simply asked the question, “Why is the tithe a tenth?” And it is still generating more comments than my other recent posts combined.
It‘s not is my post with the most comments (yet)(as of 3/10/09), but I went a whole weekend without looking at a computer screen (or accessing any of my blog stuff from my iPhone – I bet that’s a record for me), and I return to several weekend comments all on that same post.
I don’t mean to be critical of the commenting, not at all. The comments have, for the most part, been great. I enjoy reading them, and I have learned a great deal from them. I simply posed a question that had been nagging at me for a couple of weeks expecting a few friends to share a few thoughts, but now I’m even questioning some of my own ideas.
Maybe I should write about speaking in tongues, healing, or whether Paul authored Hebrews and really get the fires stoked.
Thank you all who have commented. Please don’t stop.
Question: Can You Be Legalistic About Anti-Legalism?
I hope that I am as anti-legalism as they come (which is funny seeing as how I am a lawyer by trade). However, I was wondering if you can actually become legalistic about being anti-legalism.
I hope to one day be as bold and comfortable in my own skin about my views of legalism as the Apostle Paul was, but I sure want to avoid becoming legalistic about it. It’s just something I have been thinking about lately. Any thoughts?
To Which Well Are We Drawn?
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, Israel, Jesus, Law, New Testament, Old Testament on June 4, 2008
My wife, my mother and I were returning from a trip to Dallas a couple of weeks ago, and we began discussing John 4. The question was posed, “Why do we still thirst?” It’s clear from the text of John 4 that if we drink of the water provided by Christ, we will not thirst.
John 4:1 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), 3 He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. 4 And He had to pass through Samaria.
5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”
It has been my experience that most Christians I know try quite to hard drink of the water Jesus claims to provide, yet they still thirst (myself included). Therein lies the problem. We try really, really hard to drink of the right water, but our very effort indicates that we are trying to drink from the wrong well.
John 4 is so rich in symbolism and meaning, it’s easy to get lost in it, and it would take a whole series of posts to begin to cover it, but one point is key to the question posed (Why do we thirst?). And that point is this, we need to drink of the water that is freely given, not that we have to go and draw for ourselves.
This story of one Samaritan woman’s encounter with the Jewish Messiah is a beautiful portrait of law and grace. Here we have Jesus telling a Samaritan woman that she will never be completely satisfied by drinking from Jacob’s well, but only by drinking from the water that He will freely give.
How often do we retreat to drinking from Jacob’s well? Probably more often we would like, and certainly more often than is necessary. It is almost incomprehensible, especially to those of us who grew up in America, that we can never satisfy our thirst by our own efforts. We instill in children from a very early age to work hard, make good grades, and do the best that they possibly can, and I will do the same with my children. But, the lesson in our constant return to Jacob’s well is that we can never attain through our own efforts what we can attain through God’s gift of grace.
This truth is not limited to our efforts to achieve righteousness through obedience to the law, we simply cannot. It is through the gift of grace that we are made righteous and enabled to live righteously. This principle is applicable to every aspect of our lives.
It is no different for the study of God’s word. You can spend hours, days, or even years reading the Bible, commentaries, and researching and never comprehend a simple passage better than you will with a tiny drop of God’s grace in revelation. I often find myself praying about scripture after several days of struggling with something, only to find that a simple prayer for God’s help was all that was required. I wonder how much better my study would be if I intentionally begin by doing what I will most likely end up doing anyway.
If we all apply this principle of receiving freely before we begin doing, the doing part might get a whole lot easier and the receiving a whole lot better.
The Lesson of Nicodemus Continued.
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, Israel, Jesus, Law, New Testament on March 11, 2008
Last time, we began The Lesson of Nicodemus and learned that there’s a little of Nicodemus in all of us. We also learned that Nicodemus didn’t quite get what Jesus was trying to teach him about the “victory of the people” not coming through the “ruler of the people.” Do you think he ever got it? Let’s explore.
Near the end of this conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus tried one last example. I don’t think it was so much to make him understand, that clearly wasn’t going to happen, but to simplify and tell him what to do. For example, I desperately want to learn more about the internet, code, programming, and web design, but for the time being I rely on tutorials that simply tell me where to input text and which buttons to click. I think what Jesus finally did was say to Nicodemus, “Okay, look, you don’t have to understand it all, just do this.”
What is the “this” Nicodemus was supposed to do? Lift up the Son of Man just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness. John 3:14. Jesus is referencing a short section of the book of Numbers wedged in between war stories. The Israelites had just achieved victory over the Canaanite king of Arad, and they started grumbling against God and Moses because of the “wretched food”. God, perturbed with the Israelites much the way Jesus was perturbed with Nicodemus, sends poisonous snakes among the people. Many were bit and many died.
The Israelites recognized their sin and asked Moses to intercede on their behalf. God instructed Moses to make a bronze snake and mount it atop a pole, and to tell the Israelites that whenever anyone was bit to look at the bronze snake and they would recover. In other words, when the Israelites suffered the consequences of their sin (snake bites), they had to look at a reminder of their sins before their recovery.
By contrast, Jesus refers to the scribes and the Pharisees as the “snakes” and a “brood of vipers”. Matthew 23:33. The new remedy for the snakes and vipers: placing Jesus on a pedestal and keeping your eyes focussed on him. Jesus knew that the condemnation that came from the scribes and Pharisees (the law, the ruler of the people) was venomous, and that He was the antidote (the victory of the people).
There is no escaping Paul’s conclusion that I have now written about three posts running, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
So, did Nicodemus ever learn this lesson? When we next hear from Nicodemus he is defending Jesus before the Sanhedrin. John 7:50-51. As we discussed last week, Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a ruler of the people. Essentially he was a high court judge whose interpretation of the law very likely became law. However, when the Sanhedrin is trying to persuade the temple police to arrest Jesus, Nicodemus speaks out in Jesus’ defense. He says, “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”
Imagine, Nicodemus, a first century Pharisee, saying, “Our law doesn’t judge a man…” Nicodemus might not have completely got it by this point, but he was definitely learning. Our last encounter with Nicodemus is when Jesus is about to be entombed. Pontius Pilate has just given Joseph of Arimathea (also a member of the Sanhedrin, but a disciple of Jesus) permission to remove and bury Jesus’ body. Who shows up? Nicodemus, bearing gifts, 75-100 pounds of myrrh and aloes.
Why is this significant? Myrrh was the key ingredient in the holy anointing oil God instructed Moses to make in Exodus 30:23. The anointing oil was reserved for the ark and sacred items only. The only people allowed to be anointed with the oil were Aaron and his sons, the priests. The creation of this oil for any other purpose or for use by any other person was punishable by being cutoff from the people of Israel.
Do we know definitively the myrrh Nicodemus brought to anoint Jesus was of this holy concoction? I cannot say for certain. However, we do know that myrrh was often worth more than its weight in gold, and Nicodemus brought 75-100 pounds of it to anoint Jesus. Whether he offered jugs of this precious oil as an homage, or whether he realized Jesus was a high priest worthy of anointing subjecting himself to the potential for excommunication, Nicodemus was there at the end preparing the body of Christ for its return.
So, either Nicodemus really got it, choosing Jesus (the victory of the people) over the law (the ruler of the people), or he just fixed his eyes on Jesus and followed. Either way, Nicodemus is a lesson for us all, even when we don’t quite get it, we fix our eyes on Jesus and follow.
But, I’m hoping he finally got it. One day we can ask him.
John 3:16: The Lesson of Nicodemus.
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, Israel, Jesus, Law, New Testament, Old Testament on February 28, 2008
I hope my readers know that I try my best to give fresh, new, if sometimes controversial insight into the most wonderful of texts, which has been around in some form for approximately 4000 years, yet never, ever gets old.
So, it should come as no shock that I felt somewhat surprised to find myself contemplating writing about the most recognized, memorized, and athletic eventized scripture in the history of the world: John 3:16. Actually, I have felt over the last week that my last post, Therefore, there is now no condemnation, was somehow incomplete. I realize it was long, but I think volumes could be and need to be written about condemnation.
Anyway, I was thinking about whether to continue the condemnation discussion or just move on. So, I sent a quick wire up to the Lord, “What do You want me to write about today?” Honestly, it was somewhat rhetorical, I wasn’t really expecting an answer, but the answer came almost before I finished the question, “John”. (A lesson for another day: God will answer even the most insignificant of questions, so be careful what you ask.) That was it, “John”. But, it was so clear I knew it wasn’t a mistake.
- “John what?”
- “John three.”
- “John three? John three what?”
- “Sixteen.”
Okay, so I decided it was just me. I mean, come on, John 3:16. Everybody knows everything there is to know about John 3:16. Or, do they? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
When Jesus spoke those words, He was answering the questions of a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Nicodemus is referred to in John 3:1 as a ruler of the Jews. The phrase “ruler of the Jews” means Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest legal or judicial body of the Jewish people. Nicodemus was a teacher and interpreter of the law, and, as a member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus’ interpretations of the law could very well have become law. Like a high court judge today, if there is ambiguity in the law, and the court decides the issue in question, the decision becomes the law.
Yet, despite his credentials and knowledge of the law, Nicodemus just didn’t get it.
Nicodemus recognized that Jesus had to be a teacher from God. All this cool stuff Jesus was doing and saying could not have come from anywhere else, but that was as close as Nicodemus got to really getting it. How did Jesus respond? I’m paraphrasing, “You’re a teacher of Israel, you should know this stuff and you don’t get it. You don’t get the earthly things I’m telling you, how are you possibly going to get the heavenly stuff?”
So, what does Jesus do? He cuts to the chase and gives Nicodemus the greatest lesson ever. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” But, that’s only half of it, here’s the best part:
- For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned… And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. John 3:17-19.
Why does Nicodemus get this lesson when he wasn’t getting the rest of it? Why Nicodemus, when Jesus even said Nicodemus wouldn’t get it? Nicodemus gets this lesson because Nicodemus is the lesson. The Greek name Nicodemus means “victory of the people”. Only God is capable of such wonderful irony: the ruler of the people unable to see the victory of the people, which is within him. You almost get the idea that Jesus must have wanted to bop Nicodemus on the head.
This is Paul’s lesson from Romans that I talked about last week all over again. To be more precise, Paul’s lesson in Romans is the lesson of Nicodemus all over again. Nicodemus was a prisoner to his own knowledge of the law. He could not escape.
But wait, then most of us would need the same bop on the head because we all fall into this trap. God did not send Jesus to condemn, but to save. From what? The condemnation of the law of sin and death. Nicodemus is really a picture of each of us. Nicodemus embodies the law as a ruler of the people. Nicodemus is also a portrait of the victory of the people, that elusive victory that remains just beyond the grasp. The lesson of Nicodemus is that the victory of the people is already a part of you.
Nicodemus didn’t get it. And when we try to see the victory of the people (Jesus) through the lens of the ruler of the people (the law), we don’t get it either. The victory of the people does not come through the ruler of the people. The victory of the people is the liberation of the people from the ruler.
Yes, an important lesson of John 3:16 is that God gave his only begotten Son to save the world, but the more important lesson is what the world was saved from: the ruler of the people, or the condemnation of the law of sin and death.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation…
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, Jesus, Law, New Testament, Old Testament on February 24, 2008
I think one of the most difficult concepts for Christians to grasp is that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1. Have any of you felt condemned lately? And by lately I mean since you’ve started reading this blog post (shouldn’t you be doing something else instead of playing around on the internet?). I’m sure I haven’t felt condemned in the last 10, 15 minutes anyway.
I suspect we all know people who wake up and go to bed feeling guilty about something. I suspect, too, that we all know people who wake up and go to bed making others feel guilty. In my last two posts, I have discussed forgiveness at length. Condemnation is the companion of unforgiveness. Actually, condemnation is just another form of unforgiveness. It is an unwillingness to forgive yourself, and the consequences of condemnation are just as dire.
In quoting Romans 8:1 above, I left out the most important word in that verse: “Therefore”. Romans 8:1 actually reads, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The great Derek Prince would say, “When you find a therefore you find out what it’s there for.” I couldn’t agree more. One of these days, take a book of the New Testament and underline every “Therefore” and read what is written right before and right after. If you have ever had difficulty understanding portions of the Bible, this is a good way of extracting explanation.
Here is how it works. Romans is great for practicing this because it is packed full of therefore’s. Before the Romans 8:1 “Therefore” the first paragraph following the last paragraph with a “Therefore” is Romans 7:14. Therefore, a new lesson. “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” Verse 7:21 begins the next paragraph, “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.”
Let’s stop for a minute and contemplate this. Paul is describing the internal struggle that goes on in all of us. Paul, in essence, is saying, “I want to do good so badly, but this evil within me just won’t let me. I’m a prisoner to my own sin.” That paragraph concludes, 25“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”
Now, the “Therefore,” 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus.” What??? [Insert head scratch here.] Yeah, I know, it’s a little weird. Paul is saying, “We can’t win this struggle against the flesh, we can’t escape the slavery to sin. Therefore, we shouldn’t worry about it.” It’s one of those things that make you go “hum”?
Actually, that is exactly right. This is why, verse 8:2 says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” This is key. Paul does not say we are free from sin or death, rather that we are free from the law of sin and death. Even better. We would all like to be without sin and death, but how much better is it be out from under the system of law that fashions sin and death in the first place?
Paul goes on in verse 3, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh 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.” Notice, God did not condemn us. He condemned “sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us…”
The word “For” in verse three is just as important as the “Therefore” in verse one, it is the “because”. You will find this structure repeatedly throughout scripture: concept, conclusion (therefore), explanation (because). Because “the requirement of the Law” is now “fulfilled in us” who walk according to the Spirit, there is no condemnation in Jesus.
We all understand this: If you do the crime, you do the time. As a lawyer, I have heard this countless times. Similarly, we understand the idea that sin has consequences. But, through faith in Christ, we are no longer under the rule that if we do the crime, we do the time. Jesus served our sentence for us. This is not to say that we don’t deserve to do the time. We do, and God knows this, so in order to make sure that justice was served, He sent Jesus to be punished in our place. How much better is it that the law is fulfilled in Jesus than merely abolished (which would have put God in a compromising position since his Law was perfect)?
Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17. To fulfill means to pay in full. We owed a debt to God, we may still run up the bill from time to time, but our obligation is fulfilled in Christ. It is PAID IN FULL.
Will you continue to pay your bills after they are paid? Will you keep sending the bank or credit card company a check after your debt is paid off? Of course not. Yet, this is exactly what we are doing when it comes to sin. We are still trying to pay for what has already been paid for. However, the currency we try to pay with is good deeds, not sinning too badly, giving a little here and there, and not being as bad as the next guy.
We are still using scales to measure our “goodness” when we can never, ever do enough to make them balance. Does this sound familiar, “I go to church occasionally, I volunteer here and there, I don’t drink or use drugs, and I’ve never hurt anybody, so, I think I’m a pretty good person.” That is a lie from the devil. He wants you thinking like this for a whole host of reasons I’m sure, but two that I know of: (1) so that when you do do something wrong, he can hammer you for it, and (2) so you will continue to be under the bondage of the law. The law of sin and shame is a prison, and you have been set free. Why go back?
God doesn’t measure our “goodness” the way we do. We have got to grab hold of this (and not let go). We are righteous through faith in Jesus. God doesn’t look at us and see dirty, rotten scoundrels. He sees the righteousness of Christ. If we could ever see ourselves as God sees us, there would be no limit to our potential.
Which do you suppose is more distressing to God, that we sin or that we render Christ’s sufferings worthless by walking in condemnation? “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation. No condemnation means no condemnation. No condemnation.
It still means no condemnation. No, not yet, still no condemnation.
The Ministry of Death
Posted by Peter in Ancient Hebrew, Bible, Christianity, God, Hebrew, Jesus, Law, New Testament, Old Testament on January 17, 2008
Imagine the uproar if an unbeliever were to call a pastor preaching about the 10 Commandments a “Minister of Death”. The battle lines would be drawn, would they not? Ah, but would the unbeliever be right?
…ugh! Yes, I was as horrified to write it as you were to read it. I cannot even imagine a Christian thinking such a thing…except one. In 2 Corinthians 3:7 the Apostle Paul writes: “7 But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory… 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?”
I have read this before, probably more than once, but this latest time I was stopped dead in my tracks. I could not leave it. I read, and reread, and reread. I read commentaries on this passage, read different translations, I tried breaking down the Greek, I even resorted to reading blogs about it, imagine that (just kidding), and still, nothing. I felt completely unsatisfied.
I have been very blessed in my life to have been exposed to amazing teachers and lecturers. I have also been fortunate to have heard extraordinary preachers and teachers of the gospel. And yet, I have never once heard a sermon or teaching on the “ministry of death”. So, I turned to the greatest teacher of all, the author Himself. Not Paul, although that would have been really cool, but here is what I believe the Holy Spirit had to say on the matter. For now.
“What is death?” It’s funny how the Holy Spirit answers a question with a question. Where better to find the answer than the first place death is mentioned in the Bible. Genesis 16 “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”
Interesting: you die only after the knowledge of good and evil. Please note, God did not say you die after you commit evil, rather when you first know about good and evil. The Hebrew word translated “evil” is rah, spelled in Hebrew RESH AYIN. The ancient Hebrew pictograph for the letter RESH is a man’s head and its symbolic meaning was the first or highest person. For AYIN it is an eye meaning to see, and not simply to see but to see with divine sight, to see how God sees. Thus, to know evil is for the FIRST MAN (or Adam) to SEE as God sees.
Why would the knowledge of good cause death? For that matter, why would the knowledge of evil cause death? Simple: none of us are perfect, yet we are.
And this paradox hurts our brain so much that it just kills us. No, not really. You see, none of us are righteous, and no amount of attitude adjustment, behavioral modification, or religious rule following will ever make us so. Yet, at the exact same time, we in Christ are wholly and completely justified before God. Spotless. Washed whiter than snow. Otherwise, Jesus’ sacrifice was insufficient.
The intent was never for man to be perfect, contrary to popular opinion. How could we? We are not God. Man’s ability to be in the presence of God, walk with God and fellowship with God was always a matter of divine gift. It is the knowledge that we are unable to do this on our own that causes us such grief. Therefore, God, in his mercy, asked man to not partake of the knowledge of good and evil, so that we would never realize our unworthiness.
Once man did obtain this knowledge, the process of teaching man this lesson began. Now, through Jesus’ sacrificial life and death, we are worthy again. Jesus was perfect, and as “He is, so also are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17. We can walk with God, fellowship with God and even be in the presence of God, and once again it is as a matter of divine gift: God’s gift of grace.
So, the ministry of death is aptly named, it is God’s 4000 year long lesson about overcoming death, or the knowledge of good and evil.
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