Friday, 31 October 2008
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It's Impossible to Follow the Bible...
Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 2 Peter 6-7, NIV
When I read these scriptures, they made me stutter a bit in my walk. I'm dealing with thoughts of worthiness in my journey with God, and Peter's advice seems so impossible to attain. Odd, because these are some of my favorite verses...or were at least a year ago; I have them highlighted in every Bible I own. Yet, this month I'm not too fond of them.
I wrote in my journal-to-God that there are just so many strictures in the Bible. We have the Ten Commandments, the six hundred-odd Old Testament laws, the Seven Things God Hates, constant admonitions against idolatry and greed, then Jesus' Two Commandments and his further narrowing of the Ten in Matthew 5. This life is hard. Philip Yancey once wrote that it's easier to do nothing than to actively try changing for the better; it's easier to not murder than to love your enemy, to not commit adultery than to work at bettering your marriage.
Thank goodness for Jesus, because without him I would have no hope. Going beyond the fact that he took our sins, made us righteous, and then enabled us to have a relationship with him, he also extends enough grace for when I'm not the perfect Christian. If my friendship with him depended on me gaining all the attributes Peter listed above, well, Jesus would never call me back.
We can so easily make this life too hard, and also unfortunately too easy. Which perhaps I'll speak about tomorrow, but I have better things to do right now...namely following Jesus's advice:
"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me, and [yet] you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life." John 5:39-40, NASB
Do you think the Bible is hard to follow?
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Comments (22)
"Do you think the Bible is hard to follow?"
Anything that's WORTH following, is going to be hard to follow at times. Just my two cents on the issue.
Today is Reformation Day. Martin Luther was a German monk whose whole life was spent in terror because he couldn't do enough to earn God's favor. Then, he realized the truth of this:
Galatians 3:11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith."
We are justified, saved, because of faith in Christ, not because of anything we did.
And, after we are saved, you know what? We're not going to be able to do good then either. The point is that we can't. Period. The only One who is truly good is God. Jesus didn't just come to save us initially. He came to live His life through us forever.
Worry is not something God wants us to have. He wants us to feel safe and free as His children, knowing that we are already justified and that He is working in us to make us like His Son.
What He wants is for us to be totally in love with Him, and He will take care of the rest. If our life focus is following the law, we're living under a burden God did not intend us to have.
So, back to Reformation Day. Martin Luther famously said, "Love God and sin freely."
I believe that works. Why? Because if we make loving God our sole focus in life, we cannot help but become like Him in the process. Is it easy? No, it's the hardest thing in the world to do, but it's eternally rewarding. It's also temporally rewarding because of the indescribable delight of feeling ourselves in God's hands and experiencing His presence, peace, and wonderful companionship.
We're never going to get there by works, either before or after salvation. What will get us there is Christ's life lived through us as we pursue Him.
Thank you for bringing this up. It's something I often struggle with as well.
It's hard. But if your motive is love and not fear, it is not unimaginable. And the Holy Spirit helps.
It's definitely not difficult to follow. It's not that the bible teaches us bad stuffs. It's all for good, to nurture a good humanity. People tend to think that it is difficult to follow because we are still humans no matter what and all we need to do is to reflect Jesus in us. And by doing that, it'll be easier to follow the Bible =)
May God bless the reading of His words.
Oh, brother. Martin Luther.
To obey the Word is to die. I'd say that's pretty tough. To live the Word is to live. That's pretty tough too. In the verse from Peter mentioned above, I take heart in the first few words, "Make every effort." God wants our heart and our effort. He meets us where we are at, when we are humbly submitted to His will. Thanks be to God. The impossibility of salvation through works makes the atoning work of Christ all the more sweeter.
Impossible with men, possible with God. Philippians 2:12-13. John 15. Truly without Him we can do nothing, but through Christ we can do all things (Phil. 4:13).
No person can perfectly keep the Commandments - that is why the Bible says we are saved by grace and not by works. If being perfect is what required us to get to Heaven - we'd all be in Hell. Jesus is the only One who was and ever will be perfect - that's why He was worthy to take our sins on the cross.
It's not always easy to be a Christian - we are expected to try to follow the commandments and not just say "well nobody's perfect" or abuse the scripture reference of being saved by grace and not by works by using it as an excuse to do as we please. It's not always easy - but if we are intentional in following Christ daily (In Matthew 16:24 Jesus says "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.") God will pave the way for us.
When we say the Bible is too hard or impossible to follow - we are making excuses to follow the flesh instead of the Spirit. We are not trusting in the God we claim to love to sustain us to the end.
Galations 3 tells us why there is a Law to begin with.
It's so that we will realize that we, as sinful creatures, are unable to keep the law; that we are depraved. If you want to prove the existance of depravity, try to follow the whole Law for a day. The Law is there so that we will realize that we need something that's not of man-- we need grace. That's what Christ died for; God saves sinners.
It's actually meant to be hard to follow (if not impossible), but isn't it a good thing that none of the 5 "solas" are "works".
@hubbaduh@xanga - dead on!
Of course I think it's hard. Not impossible though. We forget the well known verse- Matthew 19:26 "With man, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible." We like to say it, but we tend not to belive it...
our flesh will constantly be at war with our spirit (romans 7), so in that sense it will be hard to follow. but the beautiful thing about living the Christian life is found at the end of romans 7. it's not about us living it out or trying to obey all the commandments. it's about Christ in us, Christ living out His life in us. Galatians 2:20 sums it up pretty nicely, "I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
key words: yet not I, but Christ.
amen to that! =)
@Pickwick12@xanga - @chiltons99@xanga - @metal_core1@xanga - excellent excellent points!!!!!! I'm so glad that Pickwick12 brought up Reformation Day today. (there's only 5 minutes left in Oct 31st though PST! )
........I wrote a blog today on what Reformation Day means to Protestants. (sorry@MysteriumFidei@xanga - but Martin Luther was a very legitimate part of the Christian Reformation!) ............ The Reformation was exactly that .......to reform the church, to remind mankind of the truth of Gods Word - that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone! Our works cannot earn us anything because of the total depravity that metal_core1 speaks of. Indeed - I'm thankful to hear the 10 commandments every Sunday morning, because it's a reminder of how much I need Jesus.
Yes, following the Bible and its teachings - indeed, following Jesus and His teachings is hard hard work. But thankfully, the good we do is all because of God. It's not ours anyways. Even our best works are tainted with sin.
AMEN to the fact the 5 "sola's" are not even works that must measure up!
AMEN to the fact that with God everything is possible! And only with God is everything possible. I concur with @joyNkisses@xanga - - yet not I, but Christ. Reminds me of the hymn "nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling".
Ah - the beautiful, saving truth of the Word of God. What a great way to end this Reformation Day! Happy Reformation Day everyone!
@MysteriumFidei@xanga - AMEN!!
Sin freely... OY VAY!
Peter is speaking ancient wisdom: that the pursuit of happiness and the ultimate final end entail the development of virtue. If the whole thing were easy we wouldn't be called disciples. Being given direction is not a call to feel guilty or inadequate. It's something to be thankful for.
It is truly strange when people say, "Thank gwad for JEEESus!" And then feel guilty for not measuring up.
This blog entry is truly strange.
I think the famous expression from Martin Luther, more exactly translated is "Love God then do what you want". The point that he was trying to make was that in the process of loving God your wants will become conformed to His will. Expressions like this can be helpful if not relied upon as universal truths. Clearly, Jesus didn't "want" to go to the cross, and part of His character and nature was putting off His will (His "wants") in the interest of Another. So He become not only the means for our forgiveness, but a tangible example of a living love - so if we want to know what God is like, we need only look to His Son.
considering how bigoted Martin Luther was (his followers persecuted more Anabaptists than the Catholic Church could ever hope to get its hands on), i giggle when i see his name in conjunction with the word "love."
anyway, if you need a book to tell you how to be a good person, i think you're already lost.
@nicolevw@xanga - You too! I hope you had a lovely day yesterday.
I agree: It's impossible to follow the Bible if you try to do it alone without God's help
Man, that Martin Luther was pretty awesome. Â
Good thing I don't have to live by a bunch of rituals to get to God...
I recommend the book Messy Spirituality: God's Annoying Love for Imperfect People, by Michael Yaconelli.
Yes, we should try to follow God's commands; he knows what is best for us and his rules reflect that. Yet, we are human and we are never going to have our acts together all the way.
The thing is, God sees our actions and our identity as two separate things. I am a saint in God's eyes (see Ephesians), yet I mess up sometimes.
Thank goodness for Jesus. :)
Who said something WORTH having would be easy? If anyone told you that, they lied to you and you should confront them about it. =]