Saturday, May 4, 2013

Cost of Discipleshp Pt 53 Adherence to Christ Means Adherence to God's Law.

Chapter 8 The Righteousness of Christ Continued…

Mat 5:17  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Mat 5:18  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Mat 5:19  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 5:20  For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Bonhoeffer- 'Instead the disciples now learn that genuine adherence to Christ also means adherence to the law of God.

But if Jesus comes between the disciples and the law, he does so not to release them from the duties it imposes, but to validate his demand that they should fulfill it. Just because they are bound to him, they must obey the law as he does. The fact that Jesus has fulfilled the law down to the very last letter does not release them from the same obedience. The law is fulfilled, that is all. But it is precisely this which makes it properly valid for the first time. That is why he who obeys and teaches the law will be great in the kingdom of heaven. "Do and teach": we are reminded that it is possible to teach the law without fulfilling it, to teach it in such a way that it cannot be fulfilled. That sort of teaching has no warrant from Jesus. The law will be obeyed as certainly as he obeyed it himself. If men cleave to him who fulfilled the law and follow him, they will find themselves both teaching and fulfilling the law. Only the doer of the law can remain in communion with Jesus.'

My thoughts-

Our world is filled with Christians who believe the law was done away with. Our world is filled with Christians who believe it doesn't matter a whit what they do, Jesus loves them and will save them in spite of how they continue to live. Our world is filled with Christians who have made up their own feel good religion that has nothing to do with all of Christ's truth. They've taken bits and pieces that please them and suit their lifestyles and that's all she wrote, they need nothing more.

Deceived!

So much comes back to the fact that there will be a whole slew of people who think they are Christ's, but they aren't! 

Shouldn't this fact alone cause us to study God's word and study it hard for all the truth it holds?

Bonhoeffer is stating facts here, Biblical facts. He's saying that Jesus fulfilled the law and by doing  so is teaching us that we too much do the same!

It boggles my mind, it truly does, that people can genuinely believe that the God of the Old Testament somehow changed into a big ol' softy and decided people no longer had to follow His laws. Those moral laws are as everlasting as God, there will NEVER be a time it's okay to lie, cheat, steal, murder, etc..etc.. All ten Commandments remain in effect forever!

Reading the Old Testament for my daily Bible reading has only revealed more and more how exacting God is, not WAS, but IS! He's NOT to be trifled with!  Constantly every 10, 20, 30, 40 years God's chosen people would turn away from Him, disobeying His laws, choosing to have other gods before Him, and they'd suffer for their decision as God tried desperately over and over to get His people to understand that only in Him is there truly life.  Judge after judge would rise up and bring the people back to God, but then they'd stray.  The danger in abandoning the law is extreme.  In truth we ABANDON Christ when we abandon His law.

More from Bonhoeffer- 'No one who failed to do the law could be accounted righteous. But the disciple had the advantage over the Pharisee in that his doing of the law is in fact perfect. How is such a thing possible? Because between the disciples and the law stands one who has perfectly fulfilled it, one with whom they live in communion. They are faced not with a law which has never yet been fulfilled, but with one whose demands have already been satisfied. The righteousness is demands is already there, the righteousness of Jesus which submits to the cross because that is what the law demands. This righteousness is therefore not a duty owed, but a perfect and truly personal communion with God, and Jesus not only possesses this righteousness, but is himself the personal embodiment of it. He is the righteousness of the disciples. By calling them He has admitted them to partnership with himself, and made them partakers of his righteousness in its fullness. That is what Jesus means when he prefaces his teaching on the "better righteousness" with reference to his own fulfillment of the law. Of course the righteousness of the disciples can never be a personal achievement; it is always a gift, which they received when they were called to follow him. In fact their righteousness consists precisely in their following him, and in the beatitudes the reward of the kingdom of heaven has been promised to it. It is a under the cross, it belongs only to the poor, the tempted, the hungry, the meek , the peacemakers, the persecute-- who endure their lot for the sake of Jesus; it is the visible righteousness of those who for the sake of Jesus are the light of the world and the city set on the hill. This is where the righteousness of the disciple exceeds that of the Pharisees; it is grounded solely upon the call to fellowship with him who alone fulfills the law. Their righteousness is righteousness indeed, for from henceforth they do the will of God and fulfill the law themselves. Again, it is not enough to teach the law of Christ, it must be DONE, otherwise it is no better than the old law. In what follows the disciples are told how to practice this righteousness of Christ. In a word it means following him. It is the REAL and ACTIVE FAITH in the righteousness of CHRIST. It is the new law, the law of CHRIST. '

My thoughts-

Our Savior lived the LAW - the OLD TESTAMENT MORAL LAW perfectly!  He did NOT invent some new law to fulfill. He came and PROVED it was possible to fulfill the law of God and WE THROUGH HIM can live it too!

As I mentioned earlier it seemed impossible for God's chose people to follow His laws for long, they were trying to do it in their own righteousness. Only those who placed their faith in GOD, could keep His law.

When we say Jesus was sinless, we mean, Jesus did not break a single moral law given to the people of God to follow. He followed all the laws perfectly! He never coveted! He never lied! He never broke the Sabbath! He always honored His mother and father! He never stole! He never committed adultery! He never took God's name in vain! He never put another before God! He never bowed down to any idol! He never murdered!

You might sit there and be able to say that you've never down most of those things, but in truth, you've done some of them.  For even our thoughts of doing them betray us. The Pharisees could lay claim to keeping them all, but in truth their hearts, their thoughts condemned them, and Jesus exposed this fact.

It's the same for us, we are betrayed by our own thoughts and hearts!  This is why we must constantly seek forgiveness, and lay claim by faith to Christ's righteousness, a better righteousness!  

To say the law was done away with, any part of it, is to negate the keeping of it all in every point by our Savior.

Please LORD, help us to teach and do Your law, through Your righteousness, and only through Your righteousness! Help us be Your true disciples!  All by YOUR grace and mercy, YOUR love! Our hope is in YOU, all in YOU!

Love us, know us, Lord! Please!


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