Posted on 02/12/2015 2:34:57 PM PST by pastorbillrandles
For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.(Romans 10:3-4)
What did Israel stumble over? What exactly was this lack of knowledge that has left her lost and estranged from God? It was no small detail that Israel got wrong, they literally lacked the only Knowledge that would save them!
Paul says that Israel was ignorant of God’s Righteousness. This means Israel was ignorant of what the Law of God truly demanded. He was not saying that Israel knew nothing about the Law, in fact she knew very much of the Law and by the Law. The word translated ignorant, means devoid of exact and precise knowledge.
Isaiah 53 says, “…By His knowledge, my Righteous servant shall Justify the many”.
But gradually Israel combined her incomplete knowledge of Righteousness, with a mixture of false teaching on the subject. Thus her “knowledge ” of righteousness
Israel stumbled over nothing less than the way of Righteousness, as revealed in the Law, prophets and in the Gospel. In spite of centuries of Divine teaching, dealings, temple instruction, ritual, prophecy and miracles and the entire experience of her history, Israel has failed to attain that which she strove for, God’s Righteousness.
What were the specific points that Israel stumbled over so fatally ?
* Israel underestimated the standards of true Righteousness-
Jesus warned us in the Sermon on the Mount that “Unless your Righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of God”.(Matthew 5:20)
God can only demand perfection! The Righteousness that He requires, is the Righteousness that His Righteousness requires Him to require.
What does God really demand of man? Behold the Pharisee’s boast, in the parable told by Jesus,
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.(Luke 18:10-12)
The Apostle calls this ‘ confidence in the flesh’. The emphasis is on self effort, external observation of rites, and pride by comparison with others. This is not true Righteousness, and it literally stands in the way of salvation.
True Righteousness is absolute conformity to all of God’s Law, not just external observance in comparison with others. The Law of God is internal as well as external, and can only be fulfilled by those who Love God with all their being.It is none less than Loving the Lord our God, with all of our heart, Soul,mind and strength. Can anyone says that they do this at all times?
* Israel didn’t Know the difference between Self Righteousness and the Righteousness of God – Israel wasn’t indifferent to Righteousness. The pious Jew made much strenuous effort to attain Righteousness, especially the Pharisees. They made it their life’s goal to fulfill all of the 614 commandments of God. A Tzadik, would make all of the pilgrimages, fast, tithe down to the anise seed, and pay any price to be separate, in order to amass a treasury of Righteousness.
Righteousness before God, to these disciples was a matter of self effort.This Self Righteousness is based on the false premise that Man in and of himself can satisfy the demands of God. One of the problems of Rabbinic Judaism is that she understates the doctrine of original sin.An has been ruined and can not by himself ever please God to satisfaction.
* Israel didn’t realize that God himself would be their righteousness Time and again the teaching of Law and prophets assured Israel that the Lord Himself would be their Righteousness.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness.(Jeremiah 23:5-6)
God himself would be the Righteousness of Israel, He would impute to them His own Righteousness. Knowing what He (Jesus) would do for them, would become a “justifying knowledge” to the Believer.
* Israel didn’t understand that true Righteousness could only be attained as a gift of Love- But this kind of Righteousness can induce no pride, for it is not attained by self effort. All this Righteousness can ever engender would be humility.
This is the gospel, that what the Righteous God demands of us, He himself provides for us- His Righteousness.
We who believe and love Jesus ,sing with uplifted arms and trembling lips,”He is all my Righteousness, We stand complete in Him, and Worship Him”.
* Israel didn’t know that Righteousness was something we are to submit to- What a difference there is between “Attaining” and “Submission”!
The one who Attains, is the champion, and to be lauded and admired for by his striving he has conquered! No wonder proud people seek to attain their own righteousness by various religious efforts. “We Thank you Lord, we are not like these others…”.
But the one who Submits has been conquered, and humbly accepts from his conqueror what it pleases him to give him. How amazing that the one who confesses his own deep sinfulness, and submits to God, receives a gift from his conqueror, the LORD from Heaven…Right Standing with God.
Righteousness from God can never be attained by men, but only submitted to.
* They didn’t know the goal of the Law – What is the goal of the Law of God?
The goal is not Righteousness, but the Messiah. The Law cannot bring Righteousness, it can only reveal that humanly speaking, the demand of Righteousness is reasonable but unattainable to us sinners. The law shows us that we are unrighteous and deserving of death, under the condemnation of God.
The law is designed to drive us out of ourselves unto the Messiah himself, for He alone can give us Righteousness.
[[and going about to establish their own righteousness,]]
Much the way the left are doing today- perverting God’s word to form their own brand of ‘righteousness’
[[Righteousness before God, to these disciples was a matter of self effort.]]
And thus self-salvation- no need of a Savior because they were (or thought they were) ;Righteous enough’ for God to allow them into the kingdome
[[The law is designed to drive us out of ourselves unto the Messiah himself,]]
Yup- out of our self-Salvation into the TRUE salvation of Christ- Christ aloen saves, because HE alone fulfilled the law perfectly- and it is htrough His perfection and conquering of the law and death that we can be saved-
Givign up the ‘kingdom of self’ is a very hard thing to do- We have a sinful desire to ‘be good enough’ that God wil laccept us- our pride wants for US to achieve our own salvation- to accomplish forgiveness by our own efforts- Our pride prevents us from admitting that we can NEVER be ‘good enough’ and that we must htrow ourselves o nthe ‘mercy of the court’ so to speak- our pride in essence says “If my efforts aren’t good enough for you God, then I guess I’ll never be saved because I’m not going to bow my knee and allow someone else to save me’ ‘If I can’t do it myself, then I don’t want it done because then it would admit defeat, and I’m not capable of that kind of surrender- my pride is too strong for that”
Anyway- good breakdown of the passage
"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."
- Luke 6:37
“The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.” (1 Corinthians 2:15)
16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.
26 You are a sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3 - says it all!
The Law is for ETERNITY. E-TER-NI-TY.
Why is it that Jesus said “fulfill (the law)”, and Paul writes, “end (the law)”?
Do you take for certainty the writing in red, or the writing in black, or not at all, since they contradict each other?
Yes I agree with that. The Word “End” in the phrase “End of the Law” means goal. The aw of God is forever, heaven and earth shall pass away but not one jot or tittle shall in any wise pass...But for us sinners, Jesus fulfilled all of the demands of the law, in our place, then died for us, under the law, that we might be born again.
There is no contradiction between Jesus and Paul. Jesus said that He came to fulfill the Law, Paul said the same thing when He said Messiah is the “End of the Law”
What did he fulfill? Also, did he end it or did he fulfill it? He could not have done both.
There are many requirements that the messiah must fulfill and if he does not then he is not the messiah. Even one that hasn’t been fulfilled negates any claim of being the messiah.
Man dies for his own sin. No one can die in our place and the very idea that a person dies in our place as a human sacrifice is abhorrent to God.
Christ fulfilled all of the requirements of the Law, the moral, sacrificial and ceremonial aspects of the Law of God all find their fulfillment in Him.
As for human sacrifice- why does the Law say that when a man hangs on a tree he is accursed of God, and that in his death the curse on the land is removed, provided they take him down before sundown? Why did Abraham sacrifice Isaac to God? The only problem with Human sacrifice, is that other than Christ, there are no human beings without Spot and blemish. Read Isaiah 53 and then tell ne there is no human sacrifice. Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows,...he has borne our transgressions and iniquity, and the chastisement that brought our peace fell upon Him...
Isaiah 53 refers to Israel, not Jesus.
Again, what did Jesus fulfill? Did he bring peace on Earth? Hardly. If anything his name was used by medieval Christians to justify the brutal treatment of the Jews. After all, the Christian Bible is full of Jew-hatred. Did he not call the Jews the “Spawn of Satan” and that they were “Children of the Devil”?
He also told his followers to violate the Sabbath among other things. He discouraged marriage. He told his followers to eat whatever they wanted which is in direct violation of Jewish Law. He himself was a sinner.
Isaiah 53 could not possibly refer to Israel. Are you telling me Israel vicariously “bore ur grief and carried our sorrows”? Was Israels stricken for our transgressions? I thought you didn’t believe in human sacrifice?
"Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”—John 7:19-24
Believe!
This verse was an interesting one when I studied the biblical calendar and saw how scripture, with study, confirms the savior was circumcised on a weekly Sabbath as an 8 day old baby..
Just as Torah commanded..
That isnt the only appointed time He fulfilled with His major life events..
Sadly, Christendom does a poor job of seeing the importance of those days and maybe if they could see the Messiah in them, we could get rid of Christmas, good Friday and easter..
All of which do no good for people who understand the holy days found in what we call the old testament..
We should expect the Word become flesh to mean something.. and with study, boy it does.. something Christians and jews would benefit from..
The Messiah Boo, is the Life Giver.. and the Law Giver,,
And broke no Sabbath.. what He did was ‘loosen’ the Sabbath from the men who would lord over them man made restrictions..
And He didn’t just loosen the Sabbath while here..He ‘bound’ the Laws of adultery and murder to include not just the literal act but also the adultery and murder we commit in our hearts.
He laid His life down for the sins of the world on the 14th day of the 1st month, Feast of Passover- The Lamb ...He was buried and His body rested on the weekly/annual Sabbath (15th day of 1st month- feast of uneavened bread)
and was raised on Feast of First Fruits , the first day of the week (16th day of His 1st month)
And He lives forever more!
HalleluYah!
Even in death, He obeyed and ‘rested’ on the 15th day, a Sabbath according to Torah..
Now I don’t use the roman name jesus anymore, but it doesn’t mean the words and deeds recorded in the new testament are faulty..
The name Jesus seems to marred to things like Christmas, good Friday and Easter- none of which can be confirmed in scripture..
Interesting, thanks.
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