Thursday, April 06, 2006

The Laws of God...Or The Age of Grace?


I cannot count the number of times I've heard it said, "we're living in the age of grace now brother" or "we're New Testament Christians", with the implication that God's Laws are now thrown to the wind. If that it true, then what is our guide to life itself? Stop... and think about this for a moment. Which Laws? All Laws? The 10 commandments? Remember that there was differentiation between clean and unclean animals when God instructed Noah how to load the Ark. So, there were obviously Laws given before that time. How else would Noah have known what God was talking about? What about the sacrificial laws? Does God still require a sacrifice for sin? The Laws of cleanliness? The Laws of Theft and Restitution? I'm not even scratching the surface here... The food Laws? What about Peter's dream? Was that really an indication that "God declared all food clean?" Or was it hyperbolic? Given to Peter as an overstatement to make a much larger point to him? Did the physical characteristics that made a pig (I'm be picking on pigs for a moment here) bad for you, (according to a perfect Law given by a perfect God) change, the instant that Christ died on the cross. Did it happen when He was resurrected? Maybe when He ascended into heaven? Maybe not at all? Maybe a pig is still a pig. And maybe a pig is still not put here for you to eat, but for another purpose. God's purpose. Is everything that crawls, walks, flies, hops, slithers or swims now meant for human consumption by God's people? God's people who are to set themselves apart from the world. If God is the same, yesterday, today and forever, then how exactly is, what was many times declared perfect in the operating manual for God's set apart people, tossed out the door, under the guise of the law of Grace through Christ? Is grace a New Testament phenom? Was King David telling the truth when he wrote in Psalms 19:7, The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul." Maybe he was just lucky. Maybe the stars just lined up in the right direction for Noah and his family. How do we live as "Christians?" Some will say, "live as Christ did and follow his example". If Christ submitted to The Father's will on earth, does He still submit to Him, while sitting at His side? Is God still the Father here or is Christ now over God?

Maybe we're as stiff necked, rebellious, hard headed and blind to the truth as the Israelites of old. Maybe even more so. Maybe we have scales in our eyes twice as thick as Paul did and still we think we can see. I believe that we need to dust off and re-visit that foundation that trains us in obedience to our Father through Christ. That foundation is the bright lamppost of Gods Perfect Laws.

"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in His ways and by keeping His commandments, His statutes and His rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take posession of it. But if your hearts turn away, and you will not hear but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish."
-Deuteronomy 30:15-18 ESV

much more to come...plus your comments please

-The Arkanblogger

12 comments:

mountainculinaire | Renée said...

Mr. Arkanblogger, I'm looking forward to your "coming soon" post...

I guess I don't have your email address, and Bryce is flying some friends to North Dakota, so I hope you don't mind if I answer your question here.

I agree, modest clothing is very hard to find: at least as hard here, I think, because there are not many choices (low population, few stores...)

I have gotten quite a few of my clothes from
www.llbean.com
www.woolrich.com
www.orvis.com
www.columbia.com.
They all have classic, fairly conservative clothing. We usually order from catalogs, which you can request from the websites, of course.

Also www.sierratradingpost.com has "seconds" with indistinguishable flaws, often having great sales on skirts, pants, dresses, etc.

I usually buy women's clothing at department stores, not junior clothing, but I hardly ever find what I like at malls, anyway. I do sew quite a bit for myself, but if that isn't the best option for you, then I guess just search for the few-and-far-between nice items that appear in stores, or order a lot of catalogs until you find a style your family likes.

Also, sometimes nice second-hand stores will have classic clothing that is in great condition. And, sporting-good stores or farm-and-ranch stores often carry longer styles, and not as trendy. Or, buy the winter or fall styles in colors that would work for summer, to eliminate searching for things during the summer when everything is geared toward lessening the heat and humidity.

I hope that helps a little! Thanks for asking!
Yes, we are all doing well. It's been raining for two solid days here, so we're waiting for some sunshine.

Patrick Anderson said...

Oh, boy. This is going to be good. And I mean that quite unsarcastically.

Looking foward to it.

In Christ,
Patrick

mountainculinaire | Renée said...

Thanks for posting on this subject! Ok, here's my comments: Salvation has always been by grace, and God's law has never changed in relevance. What the 10 commandments were as a "prohibition" in the OT, became "promises" for God's people in the new. God replaced the stony heart with a heart of flesh and wrote the law on our hearts, when Christ served as the blood sacrifice, instead of lambs and goats. But the law is still as applicable as ever, because God does not change, and Jesus is the Lord of our lives as well as the Savior of our souls!

Patrick Anderson said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Patrick Anderson said...

I responded to this in my blog, as my response was quite lengthy. I encourage anyone interested to read it. The url is http://blogofpatrick.blogspot.com/

The response is titled "Law vs. Grace". The title isn't very fitting, as this really isn't a battle or contest between the two, but it's the best I could come up with. lol.

In Christ,
Patrick

Arkanblogger Family said...

Renee, Amen on your comments and thanks for the tips. I took a look at a couple of those sites and I like sierratradingpost in particular. We'll be trying that one out. And...how do you make that little 'doohickey' over the first e in your name. I'm sure you like for folks to get that right, just like I like folks to call me Bruce instead of Brice, confusing my first and last names. Right Bryce?

Patrick-I read your response to my post on your site. Thanks for commenting. Sorry I haven't had time to get back. I get the idea that you see me as neglecting the sacrifice of Christ, for a lack of better words. I made my confession, and was Baptized in my early 20's. When I pray, I always do so in the name of Jesus. So, no, I don't believe that there is restorative life and a way to The Father without Christ. But Patrick, remember that Christ prayed to The Father. The Father is the Godhead. Christ sits at the right hand of the Father. The Father does not sit at the right hand of Christ. We go to God THROUGH Christ. I don't pretend to understand everything about that 'conduit' to God. But it was God who gave the ways of 'life' to His people in the Laws...all of the Laws. Christ came and further developed those ways/Laws. He did not do away with them and said it himself. There is still a law for sacrifice. Christ is the sacrifice to God for all sin. One either accepts the sacrifice and grace of Christ for ones sins or rejects them. Abundant life with the guidelines and rules thereof will ensue in a life in Christ or the opposite will happen, along with that person, becoming an imperfect sacrifice by forsaking the Father and the Son, if one rejects the same sacrifice of and grace through Christ.

This discussion on the Law is large in scope. Look carefully around you. Do you know what governs how high a building can safely be built? Have you ever seen a particular species of tree get "too tall". Not unless it's made from a 'hybrid'. And if that happens and it gets too tall, it will topple. What about when a wet and heavy snow comes early in the season and there are still leaves covering the branches of that tree. The Law of "load bearing" takes over. That's God's Laws of engineering and design. I think I'm safe to say that building design (or safe building design) is modeled after those very principles. To manipulate those principles or to deny them will be to risk structural failure...so it is with our lives and God's Ways. Why must you have oxygen at altitudes of over 15K feet when flying? We'll call that the Law of altitude. Whatever you want to call it, God saw to it that there would be less oxygen as one rises in altitude from sea level. None of these things changed when Christ died on the cross. All Laws remain basically the same. They are only developed further to meet our development as a people and a society. Remember the speeding ticket example I gave? And to single out food again, a pig is a pig is a pig. a catfish is still a catfish. A ostrich is still an ostrich. They have the same characteristics that caused God to say that they wrong for us to eat before the D, B and R of Christ.

Gayle-thanks for the info on the two legged canine. I'll check it out.

-The Arkanblogger

Patrick Anderson said...

Thank you for your response, Mr. Arkanblogger. It was very well done. I have responded, once again in great length, in my blog.

In Christ,
Patrick

Bryce said...

Patrick,

I can't seem to comment on your blog, so hopefully you will see this comment. I hope the Arkanbloggers won't mind my using their comment section as a message board.

I would like to comment on your blog, but my comments won't show up because you have comment moderation enabled. You may want to either disable comment moderation OR check your dashboard for pending comments. Thanks, Bryce

Arkanblogger Family said...

Bryce-please comment at your leisure. I had the same problem when trying to post a comment on Patrick's blog. And Bryce, how do you set up your posting section to have those "floating" codes that have to be entered?

-The Arkanblogger

Bryce said...

Mr. Arkanblogger,

In the "comments" tab of your settings you can enable "word verification".

Bryce said...

We are waiting for more good reading on The Arkanbloggers...

Bryce said...

Still waitin'...