Title: God Doesn't Condemn Weakness (3)
Series: Weakness Is Your Greatest Strength
Author: Eddie Snipes
Text: 1 John 4:16-19
The commonly held belief is that God becomes angry when we sin, and demands more holiness than is humanly possible. Recently, I listened to a television preacher, who stated that the bar is set higher for the Christian than it was during the Old Testament days. He said, "The Law says, 'You shall not commit adultery,' but Jesus said, 'If you even look at a woman and lust, you have committed adultery in your heart.' Jesus took the bar of the law, and set it higher. We as Christians are held to a higher standard than the law."1
Thank God that isn't true. The Apostle Peter said, "Why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?"
Peter was speaking to religious leaders who wanted the non-Jewish believers to keep the Old Testament law. When the church was born, it was hard for those who were raised under the law to accept that Jesus fulfilled the law, and called us out of that system. The Bible says, "Those who are led by the Spirit are not under the law."2 And the Bible also promises that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death,3 which is the Old Testament Law.
Jesus did not raise the bar of the demands of the law. He was showing that even the religious elite of that day were nowhere near keeping the law. They were just as enslaved by sin as those they were condemning. He showed that the law was unattainable, which is what Peter was also saying. If the most godly among the culture built around the law could not keep it, why would God raise the bar even higher?
The purpose of the law was to show us that we can never make ourselves equal to God's standard of righteousness, so that we stopped looking at ourselves, and start looking at the cross, where Jesus destroyed sin and gave us the gift of God's righteousne ...
Series: Weakness Is Your Greatest Strength
Author: Eddie Snipes
Text: 1 John 4:16-19
The commonly held belief is that God becomes angry when we sin, and demands more holiness than is humanly possible. Recently, I listened to a television preacher, who stated that the bar is set higher for the Christian than it was during the Old Testament days. He said, "The Law says, 'You shall not commit adultery,' but Jesus said, 'If you even look at a woman and lust, you have committed adultery in your heart.' Jesus took the bar of the law, and set it higher. We as Christians are held to a higher standard than the law."1
Thank God that isn't true. The Apostle Peter said, "Why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?"
Peter was speaking to religious leaders who wanted the non-Jewish believers to keep the Old Testament law. When the church was born, it was hard for those who were raised under the law to accept that Jesus fulfilled the law, and called us out of that system. The Bible says, "Those who are led by the Spirit are not under the law."2 And the Bible also promises that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death,3 which is the Old Testament Law.
Jesus did not raise the bar of the demands of the law. He was showing that even the religious elite of that day were nowhere near keeping the law. They were just as enslaved by sin as those they were condemning. He showed that the law was unattainable, which is what Peter was also saying. If the most godly among the culture built around the law could not keep it, why would God raise the bar even higher?
The purpose of the law was to show us that we can never make ourselves equal to God's standard of righteousness, so that we stopped looking at ourselves, and start looking at the cross, where Jesus destroyed sin and gave us the gift of God's righteousne ...
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