GRACE AND TRUTH

GRACE AND TRUTH

                “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.” Jon 1:12-14, 17

                The book of John is very different from the other three Gospels. Matthew. begins with the genealogy of Jesus proving His Jewishness. Mark introduces Jesus as the Son of God who, rather than baptizing us with water will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire. Luke gives us a detailed account of the life and ministry of Jesus. But John introduces Jesus as the One who is qualified to bring us a New Covenant.

                In the beginning was the Word. He was God. He created everything that exists. He became flesh and dwelt among us and whereas Moses brought us the Law… Jesus brought us grace and truth.

                This is astounding because John is here comparing the Law to grace and truth and apparently the Law provides us neither with grace; nor with truth, but how can that be?

                Think of it this way. The Law pointed forward to grace and truth, but it was not in itself grace or truth, but a sign pointing forward to it. This is why Jesus, beginning with Moses and with all the prophets explained to His disciples the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. Luke 24:27

                So think of the Law or Old Testament as being a sign. You are traveling across country and a welcome sign appears along the roadside announcing that there is a restaurant and fuel and refreshment just three miles ahead. You can stop at the sign and observe it all you want to but it is never going to provide you with food or drink or refreshment. The sign has none of those things. It can only point forward to those things that lie just 3 miles ahead.

                So then, according to John, Moses brought us a Law… a sign pointing forward to, but not containing either grace or truth. Grace and truth can only be found in Jesus Christ, the Creator and Savior of mankind.

                Paul asks the question: “Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up all men under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3:21-25.

                Some people don’t like Paul because of his treatise on the Law and yet he says essentially the same thing as John. The Law came through Moses… Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

                We can refrain from worshipping idols or taking God’s name in vain, but that does not make us righteous. We can refrain from killing and stealing and lying and that may make us into model citizens, but it will never make us like Jesus. Even the Sabbath is an empty shell, because while it points forward to rest or even gives us a break from our six days of labor, it can never enter us into the rest that Adam and Eve lost in the fall. So the Sabbath is a sign too and not the reality of what Jesus came to bring to us.

                What I am saying here is extremely important given the issues of our day. There are actually Christians and Messianic Jews that are denying Jesus and going back to Judaism today and they are going back in surprising numbers and we are going to see many more of them when Noahide laws begin to be enforced. Believing in Jesus as God in human flesh is beginning to be treated as a form of idolatry. Even in America (a once Christian nation,) the name of Jesus is being squelched in favor of the more generic term “God.” We can use the name “God” in public prayers and public discussions but don’t use the name Jesus because that is exclusive to a certain group of people (Christians) and the world increasingly hates Christians.

                The cross of Christ is just as much of a stumbling block today as it was in early Christian times. It is an offense to human senses. We can embrace any philosophy or convert to any ideology, or set of doctrines, but don’t enter into the death of Jesus through His cross, to be born again into His kingdom there to live by grace and truth. Such a thing makes you an immediate enemy of this world.

                There are people today who mistakenly think that we can supplement a somewhat weak New Covenant by also keeping the Old Covenant. But this in and of itself shows that they have no idea of the power and majesty and authority of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, for god was in Christ, to bring to us a complete and living covenant to which the Old Covenant can only point.

                Even as it has to do with rest, Jesus said: “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.” Mt. 11:23, 29.

                We can think that Jesus is simply being sentimental here, rather than making an earth changing statement; but we are wrong. Jesus is here saying, “I am your Sabbath. I am your rest. I can give you what the Law could never give you.” Jesus is here then making a bold statement concerning the New Covenant that He is bringing to replace the Old Covenant. So the Old covenant can serve as a sign pointing forward to what Jesus brought us, but it can never provide even one of the things that Jesus brought to us in the New Covenant and this is also the message of Hebrews 4. Neither can the Levitical priesthood bring to us what the Melchizedek Priesthood now brings to us.

                So Hebrews 4 says: They had the Sabbath but they never entered the “Rest.”  It is by faith in Jesus that we enter that rest and a new rest day has been established called “Today.” Today we can enter into a rest that Joshua could never bring them even in the Promised Land, for the one who has entered His (Jesus’) rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from His. So our rest in Christ is called “today” because today is ever present it is constant. When we enter into Christ we enter into that rest and we live in that rest and it is a rest that the Sabbath could only point forward to as a sign, but not the substance of our rest.

                This is how Paul could say in Romans 14:5: “One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.”

                So in other words it is fine to be convinced in your own mind concerning a day of rest, but don’t impose it on others… and if we combine this with the thought in Colossians 2: 16 we find that festivals, new moons and Sabbaths are mere shadows of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” The message is consistent here folks.

                Isn’t it interesting how we can gloss over earth shattering truths if they don’t fit our traditions? How big is your Jesus? Is He big enough to bring us a completely New Covenant or was this just an add- on to the Old Covenant? Did Jesus just add a few things to Moses, or did He come to be the living reality of everything that the Old covenant pointed forward to? Did He bring us a New Covenant and a new priesthood or not? Ask Jeremiah what Jesus brought to us. According to Jeremiah Jesus brought to us a New Covenant that is NOT LIKE the old one given at Mt. Sinai. Jer. 31:31-33. Read carefully.

                This issue is going to become increasingly intense as Noahide laws come into reality to become the laws of the coming global religion of the Beast. They are said to be universal laws for all of the children of Noah and since we are all descendants of Noah, we can all keep these seven basic laws. But there is a major problem. In the application of these laws, the worship of Jesus Christ as God in human flesh is considered to be idolatry and therefore subject to the death penalty.

                Speaking of Jesus Paul says in Colossians 2:9, 10: “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form and in Him you have been made complete and He is the head over ALL rule and authority.”

                Do you believe that? Is your Jesus that big? Do you believe that in Him you are made complete so that there is nothing you can add to it, or do you feel like you need to supplement the grace and truth of Jesus with Old Covenant laws?

                Isn’t it interesting that John pinpointed the very issues we would face under the rule of antichrist? Listen to this; “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” 1 John 2:22

                So now we have the world’s three main religions all in agreement. Muslims say that God has no son. Jews deny that Jesus was the Son of God and now, Christianity under our fine representative Pope Francis is announcing a New Theology of Salvation and he has publicly stated that the cross of Jesus was a failure and that Jesus is not returning so we might as well make the world the best we can… in other words a global religion and a global government and a global leader. And now they are all agreed on Noahide laws.

                And the one thing that the world increasingly hates is a Bible believing, born again, Spirit filled Christian that truly believes in Jesus and lives by His power and authority. And it is the New Covenant that will be denied and refuted, because in the New Covenant is the very life and power of the Holy Spirit of Christ. In the New Covenant alone is the New Birth that Jesus introduced to Nicodemus saying that no one could enter into the kingdom without it. We must be born again… and this is something that large portions of Christianity are beginning to deny.

                Now, don’t get me wrong. Our lives in Christ will perfectly fulfill the Law of Moses, not by keeping the letter of the Law, but by living by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Just as Romans 8:3 and 4 says:

                “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 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

                In other words if you try to please God by keeping the Law, you will die, but if you live by the Spirit you will live and the Law will be fulfilled in you because love fulfills the Law and the fruit of the Spirit fulfills the Law. The letter kills, but the Spirit brings life. And how deeply we need to learn how to live in and by the Spirit cannot be over-emphasized… and when we truly live by the Spirit of Christ, it will bring on persecution.

                Jesus said that if they persecuted Him, they will persecute us and I dare say that the closer we come to reflecting the very life of Christ, the more we will be hated by the world.

                So even the thought of these Noahide laws and what they may try to impose upon the world, causes us to review this covenant that Jesus brought to us. Is it worth dying for? When it comes right down to it, will we be willing to deny Jesus Christ and then justify it by rationalizing that well, the Old covenant is God’s Word too? Are the Old and New Covenants interchangeable? No, the cross and resurrection of Jesus changed everything and Jesus brought to us everything that the Old Covenant pointed forward to in signs. But the substance of all of those things is Christ and if we deny Jesus Christ, we have denied not only the Son, but the Father also. 1 John 2:23

                Now John also says in 1 John 2:3: “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”

                So immediately our minds go to the Law of Moses and yet Paul tells us that the Law was a tutor to lead us to Christ and that now we are no longer under a tutor. How are we to deal with this seeming argument between Law and Grace?

                What we really need to do is to reconsider the Commandments of Jesus. Was He telling us to keep the Law of Moses or was He offering us His New Covenant commandments that also fulfill the Law of Moses, but in a different way that far surpasses Old Covenant law and obedience?

                Jesus gave us many commandments during His life here on earth saying for instance: “A new commandment I give you that you love one another just as I have loved you. John 13:34 He commanded us saying that we must be born again John 3:3… that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him Mt. 16:24… that we must become fishers of men Mt. 4:19… that we must take the good news of the Gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and people Mt. 28:19, 20… to be faithful even unto death and He will give us the crown of life (Rev. 2:10) and so on. In other words the New Covenant is full of new commandments that far outshine and outstrip the Law of Moses even as they fulfill it and His last command to His disciples was to teach us to observe all that He commanded us and that He will be with us to the end of the age. Mt. 28:20. So how is it that Jesus has become so small and the New Covenant so weak that we automatically revert to the weak and worthless things of the Old Covenant? We should know better… and it is because we have not fully pursued the life of Jesus in His Holy Spirit that the church has become weak and almost powerless. We are relying on our own ability to keep the Law of Moses, rather than in His ability to empower us by His Holy Spirit.

                In other words, if our Jesus is big enough to bring us an entirely New Covenant, then He is also able to bring to us new commandments that do not break the law of Moses, but nevertheless operate on a plain that is far above the ability of flesh to fulfill unless the very Spirit of Christ abides in us and empowers us. When we operate in the Spirit rather than in the flesh we more than fulfill the Law of Moses, because the Law of Moses could neither produce love, nor the character of Christ in us. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. Nor could the Law bring us the kind of rest that Adam and Eve lost in the fall. So our true rest is in Christ alone.

                Like I said, the Noahide laws are going to bring us face to face with our own lack of confidence in the New testament that Jesus brought to us and we are going to be forced to either place all of our faith in Jesus and be willing to die for what we believe, or to deny Him so as to avoid the punishments and death that the Noahide laws will eventually bring.

                Now, Adventists teach that the last great test for mankind, the Mark of the Beast will be over the issue of the Sabbath verses Sunday and while I will not argue the point since none of us knows exactly what the Mark of the beast will be, it does nevertheless seem extremely inconsistent with all that is said concerning the Law and even the Sabbath in the New Covenant and I tend to believe that any final test including the Mark of the Beast is going to be based on the person of Jesus Christ and whether He is our Savior and Lord and King, or if we are willing to deny Him to save our own skin. Time will tell, won’t it? But now we must learn to live by His Spirit, for that is the only way that either the Law of Moses or the Commandments of Jesus will be fulfilled. Is it Law or grace and truth?