Category: Devotional Grist

I John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

The role of the law has been debated vigorously throughout Church history. As far back as the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) there has been tension and conflict regarding the place of the law. That tension and conflict continues today.

In the passages above we find Paul making the law the minister of death. The apostle teaches elsewhere that the law is a minister of death and brings on us the wrath of God. Paul teaches that the law was given to increase sin, and that it lives in order to kill us. King David though can say of the Law that it is “sweeter than the honeycomb, and more desirable than gold” and John says that God’s commandments are not burdensome.

How do we reconcile these different statements regarding God’s law?

We must realize that St. Paul, King David, and St. John are looking at the law from different standpoints. St. Paul looks at the law as it comes to the man in Adam, speaking of the law as it condemns who we are as we lie in Adam. St. John and David look at the law as it is considered as who we are in Christ. As we struggle against the old Adamic nature we understand that the Law stands against us and convicts us and is impossible to satisfy. As we put off that old man and put on the new man created in Christ Jesus we understand that the law is to us a gracious guide to life that we esteem and desire and do not find burdensome.

The problem is that even in Christ we remain both men. Yes, we are in Christ and have died to sin and have been resurrected with Christ so that we delight in God’s commands and do not find them burdensome, and yet we continue to contend against the previous self and so we need to have God’s law come to us to remind us of our need for Christ.

Our theologies run into trouble when we fail to speak the truth about each side of the equation. When we fail emphasize to believers that God’s commands are not burdensome we take away motivation from God’s people to walk in God’s revelation. When we fail to emphasize to believers that God’s law never justified anybody we create the possibility of self-righteousness. Thus we must speak in both ways. We must continue to use the law as a means whereby we see that our only hope is found in Christ and His righteousness and we must continue to use the law as a means whereby we reveal or love to God.

We must remember that the law is said to be not burdensome by St. John as far as we are filled with the Spirit and so endued with heavenly power. For the believer, however much who we are in Adam may resist, it is the case that there is no real enjoyment except in following God.

22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24When Noah awoke from his wine(A) and knew what his youngest son had done to him,

According to one understanding, we see here the first mention of homosexuality. Here Ham “saw [or uncovered] the nakedness of his Father,” and was then cursed by his Father when “Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done to him.” To uncover nakedness is a Hebrew idiom meaning to have “sexual relations (see Leviticus chapters 18-20). In Call of the Torah, Rabbi Elie Munk cites Hebrew scholars who also interpret Ham’s violation as “an act of pederasty” (p. 220). Thus Ham becomes “Canaan,” for whom the land of Canaan is named.

One school of Jewish tradition holds that the “last straw” of human wickedness which precipitated God’s action of bringing flood upon the earth, was the advent of “homosexual marriage (ibid.), implying that Ham had been corrupted by homosexual sin in the pre-flood society, and carried the vice like a virus into the new world. Significantly, it was Ham’s near descendants who founded and populated the Canaanite cites of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Redeeming the Rainbow
Dr. Scott Lively

In the pages of Scripture we see a connection between God’s creative and redemptive work and the establishing of meaning. The drama of God’s divine work in the Old Testament moves through the creation of the world, the redemption out of Egypt, and the conquest of Canaan. Each of these three acts wrests meaning from meaninglessness: the world emerges from nothing, Israel from the grave of Egypt, and the promised land from the desert. In the New Testament the drama moves through the resurrection in the Gospels, and the need of the Gospel for the nations in Acts. Each of these acts likewise wrest meaning from meaninglessness: the seeming meaninglessness of the Cross is given meaning by the resurrection, and the nations find meaning only as they submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

All these acts thus interpret one another as works of divine power where the coming of salvation means the dissolution of meaninglessness. We see here that the progress of redemption is closely tied up with the progress of meaning. In these historical stages the realm of meaning grows.

What is true in the progress of redemption is true for the individual who is caught up in God’s redemption. The individual outside of Christ is without form and void — he finds no basis for meaning — but when the Spirit of God hovers over the individual in order to recreate by way of regeneration the individual, by way of salvation, is for the first time given meaningful meaning.

It is then, not only the soul that is saved in salvation, but also the mind, for in salvation the mind can find objective meaning and be delivered from the subjectivism that is so characteristic of those who are without God and without hope.

“I AM from above … I AM He” (John 8:23-24) — words very harmonious to the “I AM who I AM” of Exodus 3:14. “I that speak unto thee AM he” (John 4:26) — words similar to how God identifies Himself to Moses. “I AM the bread of life” (John 6:35) — the God given manna without which man dies of spiritual famine. “I AM the Light of the World” (John 8:12, cf. 9:5, 12:35, 46) — words that point to Christ as the I AM who is the divine pillar of fire supplying guidance and illumination to the Gentiles (Is. 49:6) for their exodus. “I AM the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25, cf. 5:26, 17:2) — words that echo the work of the I AM of the Old Covenant promising to bring resurrected life to a valley of dry bones. “I AM the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6, cf. John 5:26, 17:2) — words that every God fearing Hebrew would have ascribed as coming from Yahweh-Elohim. “I AM the Good Shepherd” (John 10:7, 11) — words that Yahweh-Elohim ascribed to Himself in Ezekiel 34:11f. “I AM the true vine” (John 15:1, cf. 15:5) — in contradistinction to the false son of God that faithless Israel was supposed to be but never was.

How many ways does Jesus the Messiah have to proclaim His Deity and consubstantiality w/ the Father?