yoke of bondage

In Mark 7 Christ condemns the Church leaders of the ONE TRUE nation Church started by God at Sinai because He said they substituted MAN MADE TRADITION for God's Commandments.

How instructive for us today!

In Christ,

Bob

 

How true Bob, how true.

I was noticing that when Jesus spoke, He was most likely always talking to Scribes or pharisees. By that criteria, when someone quotes something, the common comeback is "you're out of context" If one takes that kind of thinking further, you couldn't use much of the NT, especially the 4 gospels, because whatever it says was being used to correct Jews, or Greeks, or some other specific group.

There is so much of the Bible that we could not use for today, so I wonder why it is there at all.

Now, I myself do believe in context, and I know I can't just take scripture and put it together willy nilly!!

However, I do believe that the Holy Ghost will show us things with scripture IF we will allow Him to. Therefore that is why we have the whole bible. It is ALL to be used for instruction and reproof.

But a yoke of bondage is being used by a lot of people to keep others from learning.

I was told on another thread that I was out of context because Jesus was talking to the Scribes and the Pharisees, not us!!

Jesus called a lot of people hypocrits and vipers!

Wonder if we have any of those around these days??




Yes Wopik, the yoke of bondage is alive and well today. Thats why it's hard to get to the truth sometimes. The Holy Ghost doesn't have free reign.

God Bless one and all,

Tam

 

The Mosiac Covenant contained (approx)613 positive and negative statements. see www.jewfaq.org/613htm

Which of the list are "moral" and which are "ceremonial?"

Why do practicing Orthodox Jews claim to love to observe the Mosiac Laws?

 

It sounds as if you are saying the Ten commandments are the spiritual law, when in fact, the Ten commandments were part of THE law that was added 430 years after Abraham by Moses.

The Bible speaks of but one Law. I find no Scriptural passages that separate it into spiritual, moral, ceremonial etc.

With this I agree, THE law was a shadow of what was to come, when Christ came the law ended.

~Lorelei

 

"By fulfilling the demands of the Law, Christ disarmed the demonic powers and authorities, triumphing over them. As a result believers are delivered from these evil powers which inspire legalistic rules about foods and festivals. Christians who are saved by the grace of God are free from the Law's legalistic requirements such as those in Lev. 11; 17; Deut. 14. This liberation of believers pertains also to festivals such as a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath Day. Those who would bring Christians under the bondage of the Law make artificial distinctions between the 'ceremonial' and 'moral' law, and so they say the Sabbath has not passed away. That this is false can be seen from the following:

1. The Sabbath command is the only one of the Ten Commandments not repeated in the New Testament.
["Where oh where is the Sabbath"]

2. The early believers, following Christ's resurrection and appearance on Sunday, met on Sundays.

3. The Bible nowhere distinguishes between the so-called 'moral' and 'ceremonial' laws.

4. Colossians 2:15-17 explicitly condemns those who command Sabbath obedience.

5 As Paul put it, the Old Testament Law (including the Sabbath) was only a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality or substance, however, is to be found in Christ. What the Old Testament foreshadowed, Christ fulfilled. Once one finds Christ, he no longer needs to follow the old shadow."

Bible Knowledge commentary; Valvoord, Zuck

You got GRACE ? If not you have nothing.

 

Greetings,

However, in the process of Sanctification our goal is to conform our will to the will of God. We pray "Thy Will be done" in the Lord's prayer constantly. Paul says it is not me, but Christ in me. Or how we need to Clothe ourselves in Christ. We need to Put on the mind of Christ. If part of sanctification is to learn to obey God's will as Jesus did for his entire life, then we need to learn to be able to set aside our own will, desires, wants for others.

I encourage children to Obey their parents quickly(no complaining, no arguing, no ignoring) as a spiritual exercise. And do act cheerfully. If a 13 year old can set aside his desire to watch TV, leap up and clean the garage when he is told, THEN this same teen would be able to set aside his own will to do the will of God.

If we teach our child to be selfish and always get what they want, then when it is time to do the will of God it will be harder. OR EVEN worse: They will see their own desires as God's will: ex: I love my boyfriend, so it is god's will for me to sleep with him before marriage.

There is an element of 'yoke' in obedience that needs to be avoided. However, from the first centuries practicing obedience in ordinary things was seen as a spiritual exercise preparing us to be obedient to God.

peace

 

"My yoke is easy"

Jesus said that.

IMO: they who complain that obedience is a yoke of bondage don't really understand Jesus at all. I'm not saying they aren't saved, just that they do not understand.

A Father expects His children to obey Him. Not to prove they are His children, but because He KNOWS BEST.

Do you want best or "good enough"?

In HIS service;
Jim

 

>>"My yoke is easy"

>Jesus said that.

Moses said the same thing.

 

Tam -

That comment against your position is a red herring. IT is a fallacy often resorted to when all other arguments against the Law of God written on the heart (New Covenant) have failed.

The fact is that EVERY book - EVERY letter - EVERY statement made in scripture is made directly TO someone that is typically NOT 21st century mankind.

Paul was always writing TO a specific church. John wrote TO the 7 churches even Luke is writing his gospel TO Theophilus.

If we were to take out our scissors and snip out all books/letter/dialog directed TO someone rather than "directed out at all mankind" we would have a very very short Bible indeed!

Context is key to exegesis - but the idea of ignoring the Words of Christ since they are ALL spoken TO someone in His day - is simply a desperate ploy to avoid the convicting truths spoken by our Savior - Christ the Creator of all.

(Of course having said that - I fully understand the "need" of some to ignore His teaching at times.)

In Christ,

Bob

 

Abraham was given spiritual and temporal promises. Abraham's spiritual line is a sub set of his temporal line. The Mosiac Covenant was a social contract for people living in Nation Israel.

 

The annual feast days of Lev 23 STARTED at Sinai and BASED in animal sacrifices are all "predictive" shadows of the work of Chirst in salvation. They were ONLY given during the time of the fall of mankind.

As 1Cor 5 states "Christ our Passover" has been slain. Christ's first coming fulfilled the types pointing to that event. Those annual feasts are "predictive" in nature.

So far - it is pretty easy to see.

The fact that the Orthodox Jews do not accept the MEssianic event that those Lev 23 annual ceremonies POINT TO - does not change their purpose.

In Christ,

Bob

 

The Law GOD SPOKE in Exodus 20 is the moral code binding on all mankind.

It was sin FOR ANY OF MANKIND to take =God's name in vain".

It was sin for ALL mankind -- "to murder"...

The Sabbath of Christ the Creator made Holy for mankind in Gen 2:3 was given before sin and was "made FOR MANKIND" Mark 2:27 -- hence it is to be that "From Sabbath to Sabbath ALL mankind" will come before God to "worship" in the New Earth of Rev 21.

You are right about the civil laws identified in Lev being applicable to the "nation" of Israel as a Theocracy. Once that Theocracy ceased - the civil laws governing it ceased.

In Christ,

Bob

 

>The Law GOD SPOKE in Exodus 20 is the moral code binding on all mankind.

Facts not in evidence. Verse in the Mosiac Covenant, please?


>it was sin for ALL mankind -- "to murder"...

That was covered under the Noahic Covenant.


Still waiting for a list of the "moral" laws.

 

The Moral law is the ONLY Law placed INSIDE the Ark. It is the ONLY LAW written by the hand of God it is the ONLY LAW spoken directly by God to the people of God in a group setting.

That SAME Moral law is quoted from - by James and James states "HE who is guilty of ONE is guilty of ALL".

The UNIT of that LAW is "written on tablets of stone" as Paul said in 2Cor 3.

That UNIT of LAW is so specific so precise that as God's Word says when God WROTE IT on tablets of stone -- "AND HE added NO MORE" Deut 5.

The UNIT of LAW - the MORAL law is so specific that Paul says of its fifth commandment "IT is the FIRST commandment (in the unit) with a promise" Eph 6.

That UNIT of law is quoted in Romans 7 when Paul gives examples of what "THE LAW" says.

And as Isaiah 66 and Mark 2:27 shows the SCOPE for that law is "ALL MANKIND".

And of course - D.L. Moody agrees -- as the quote shows.

In Christ,

Bob

 

Interesting take that Christianity Today has on this --

Particularly regarding Christ the Creator's Sabbath commandment and a book that tends to "spiritualize it away".

In Christ,

Bob

 

bmerr here.

Someone already mentioned that the keeping of the sabbath was the only one of the Ten Commandments not carried over into the NT. That is correct.

All of the other nine commandments are moral obligations that Man was to be observing since the Creation. When Cain killed Abel, it was already sinful to murder. When Abraham lied to Abimelech about Sarai, it was already sinful to lie.

It took me a long time to understand the fact that the people we read about in the Bible were people just like us today. Look at Abraham, for example. Apart from Divine revelation, he was as self-serving as anyone else. The thing that distinguished Abraham was that when God told him to do something, he did it.

The Mosaic Law was given to the nation of Israel, and has been done away in Christ (Col 2:14, etc).

The principles worded in the Mosaic Law are eternal, and summed up in Mark 12:28-31. But the Law of Moses (including sabbath observance) ended with John the baptist (Luke 16:16).

A great help in clearing the fog concerning our Christian obligations is understanding when the OT came to and end, and the NT was established.

In Christ,

bmerr

 

bmerr

thanks for the Luke 16:16 reference, I just underlined it.

"The ministry of John the Baptist, which prepared the way for Jesus the Messiah, was the divining line between the OT and the NT (see Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:6-12)." "Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached."

Would there be a divining line between the NT and the Church? The good news was first preached to the nation of Israel for their rejection and then the Gentiles.

 

P-Nut,

bmerr here. I think you might be bringing in the NT a bit too soon. Heb 9:16, 17 tell us that where a testament is, there must of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of no force at all while the testator liveth. (Please pardon paraphrases: I don't have my Bible handy at the moment.)

Hebrews also tells us that Jesus was the mediator of the NT. It's the New Testament in Jesus' Name, or authority. "All power (authority) is given me in heaven and in earth...(Matt 28:19).

In Matt 5, Jesus said that He had not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill. He also said that not one jot or tittle would pass from the law until all was fulfilled.

Jesus Christ lived and died under the OT. It was in His death that He fulfilled the Law. Now how that all ties in with Luke 16:16, I'm not quite clear on yet, but they work together somehow.

Getting on to the church, we find it's beginning in Acts 2. Up to that point, the chuch, or kingdoom is always spoken of in the future tense. After Acts 2, the church, or kingdom is always spoken of as being present.

The idea that the church is the kingdom is difficult for some. If I may, let me try to clear up the issue.

The kingdom of God, or Christ, or heaven, encompasses innocents, the saints on earth, (the church) as well as those gone on to paradise. To keep ourselves clear on which is being spoken of, we just have to pay attention to context.

For example, (and I'm sorry I can't give book chapter and verse for these right now), Paul speaks of our having been translated into the kingdom of his dear Son. In this instance, he is speaking of the kingdom, or church, of (belonging to, owned by) Christ.

On the other hand, in 1 Cor 6, Paul gives a list of people (such as fornicators and adulterers) that shall not inherit the kingdom of God. At least one of the members of the church (kingdom) at Corinth was on this list. In this case, the kingdom refers to heaven.

To try and bring it on home, the NT could not be brought in until the death of Christ, which also fulfilled the law, thus enabling it to pass away. The church began in Acts 2, when the apostles, under the authority of Christ, and by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, first preached the gospel of Christ. Those who recieved the message inquired, and were told how to respond to the gospel. When they did as instructed, they were added to the church, or kingdom of Christ.

In the church, we live by the perfect law of liberty in Christ. We are no longer under the yoke of the Mosaic law, with it's priests and sacrifices, it's special feasts and gatherings.

Under Christ, we are all priests serving under one High Priest (Christ), bought with one Sacrifice (Christ), observing one feast (the Lord's Supper), when we meet on the Lord's day (the first day of the week, Sunday).

Under the NT, there is no more distinction between Jew and Gentile. All are subject to the same law of pardon, and are made one body in Christ.

There is no more weekly sabbath day, (though we are not to forsake the assembly), but we look forward to the time when we will enjoy an eternal rest from our labors in Heaven.

Hope to see you there.

In Christ,

bmerr

 

"Do we then ABOLISH the LAW of GOD by our faith?? God forbid! In fact we ESTABLISH the LAW of GOD" Rom 3:31.

Many today will reject this scripture and claim that the law of God was abolished in the NT.

IN Heb 8 we see that the NEW COVENANT is composed of the promise that God's LAW is WRITTEN on the HEART!

But some argue that they would like to find some way to "edit" that Law - to either ABOLISH it or to DOWNSIZE it.

D. L. Moody makes a good argument about why that is pretty silly.

In Christ,

Bob