One Kingdom Hope
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There is only one Kingdom Hope, not 10!
How do we live in a nation that has been turned upside down today? Where things once were black and white, the milew of grey now rules. What is the realm of biology, is now ruled by “feelings”. Things that once were ruled by objectivity, now live in submission to subjectivity. What once was a nation with morals, ethics and rule of law based upon deeply ingrained biblical principles and culture; is now a boat tossed to and fro on an open sea with no anchor. The fact of the matter is that our nation has been adrift on the sea of secular liberalism for at least 45-50 years.
Once the Lord’s Day Act of 1906 was declared unconstitutional in 1985, banning Sunday shopping, moviegoing, horse racing, concerts and even tobogganing (enacted in Toronto in 1912), the fetters of our religious traditions, morals and ethics were completely thrown off. The truth is the heart of the Canadian people and God grew apart a long time before the Lord’s Day Act was ever challanged and removed from our rule of law. The Age of Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, that had gripped the imaginations of the people in Europe from 1685 to 1815 had finally achieved a stranglehold on the North American mindset. Questioning traditional authority and embracing the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change.
German philosopher Immanuel Kant summed up the Enlightenment in these terms:
‘Dare to know! Have courage to use your own reason!’ -Immanuel Kant (Enlightenment; History.com; Feb. 21, 2020)
Jown Locke, an English philosopher and political theorist (1632-1704), who laid much of the groundwork for the Enlightenment, or Illumination, or Liberalism, advanced the theory of “the self as a blank page, with knowledge and identity arising only from accumulated experiences” (History.com; Sept. 20, 2019). For Locke, knowledge was not the discovery of anything either innate or outside of the individual, but simply the accumulation of “facts” derived from sensory experience. In other words, life should be lived through sensory experiences, much like experimental science - test things out, see what happens and apply. There is no need to access some “outside truth” (Enlightenment; History.com; Feb. 21, 2020). Throw off the fetters, boundaries are to be pushed and broken, let the person decide for himself what is right and wrong for themselves. Each person has three natural rights: life, liberty and property, which the governments function is to protect, except for religious dissenting beliefs which are a threat to public order and should be excluded (John Locke; History.com; Sept. 20, 2019).
Well look where our own reasoning has taken us. Men changing to women and women changing into men. Just because I do not “feel” like I identify as a certain biological gender, we now need to address one another not as men or women but as “hey you, whatcha-ma-call-it, or ask how the person would like to be addressed”. Male and female are binary and every gender inbetween is Non-binary - neither strictly male or female, “genderqueer” or genderfluid. We even have people who identify as “Agender” they do not identify with any gender; they are genderless or gendervoid; even though you may have the equipment that identifies you so.
I am sure our number one import/export in Canada is now marajuana. Why? Probably to distract ourselves from the ramifications and consequences we are experiencing because of the choices being made by ourselves and our government apart and contrary to God’s design and will. Marajuana stores are as numereous as hair and nail salons, pizza parlors and dentists offices in Leduc! [BudaBoom - Nyomie - her favorite store! Name, not store!)
How do we live in a society, whose foundations and culture is being destroyed and transformed at breakneck speed, overnight? How do we stay pure, holy…perfect as Christ desires us to? Well, the reminder we do need is “we are to be in the world, but not of the world” (1 John 2:15).
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees of Jesus’ Time
The Pharisees and Scribes, as well as the Sadducees, were concerned with keeping the purity of the Law that God has given to them. This transformed into the “Jewish faith”, as the Jewish people lived under and against Hellenistic and Roman rule and culture. A worldview promotes a way of living, right and wrong and law. The Jewish worldview was Yahweh is ruler, He is God and His rule and laws are to be followed and obeyed strictly. Why? So that they, the Jewish people, would experience the blessings of Yahweh, as they lived in covenant with Him. The Jewish people lived in fear of suffering the same consequences as their forefathers did, when they forsook God and went their own way. Therefore, God gave them His Law as a way to please Him and stay in covenant with Him. The Law and specifically, the 10 commandments, were/are God’s expectation of how one was to act and behave as God’s people, toward Him and one another, including the foreigner.
Paul in Galatians answers the question as to why the ten commandments were given to the Jewish people, being pursued by Jews, who are trying to convert Gentiles, to their Jewish practice of following God:
Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise was made would come. The law was put into effect through angels by means of a mediator.
The Jewish people were wayward, and susceptible to becoming twisted, just as we are today. We were all born into a fallen world of brokenness, under the curse of sin and death. As a result, waywardness is a natural tendency, sinfulness, because we are unable to handle the choice between right and wrong, that we figured we needed to take a bit out of to feel fulfilled. The Law was given to the Jewish people because of their transgressions. The Law was given so that Israel would be restrained from destroying themselves, just as our laws were put in place originally to do. God gave law to protect Israel from themselves.
The problem is, just as it was then, just as it is today, man becomes a law unto himself. Man becomes corrupt, law becomes corrupt and molded to benefit those corrupting it. The Jewish lawmakers came up with 613 other “fence laws”, on top of the 10 commandments God gave, to ensure they would not violate God’s ten. The problem was not that more laws needed to be installed, but that man’s heart was corrupt and far from God, just as we are today.
You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
The issue was and is today still: righteousness - how does one live right in a world gone wrong. The myth we believe is that more law equals more right living. But this is false because more law does not equal a changed heart, but only enforced behavior.
Inmates understand this. Our jails today are called “Correctional Facilities”. The title gives off a positive vibe of correcting behavior, one is only behaving incorrect. Most jails have programs developed to modify or change the way one behaves, not processes to change a persons heart. Why not? Because only God can change a heart, through conditions, situations and circumstances which he uses, allows and guides people in and out of regardless of our decision or His. Jails use fear of punishment to enforce the change society or government desires to see.
When I have had to address a situation or issue with my children, I have had to ask myself am I merely interested in addressing the behavior or the heart? Most of the time, our reaction, to the situation, is the behavior, because that is the pressing need that needs to be addressed “now”. But do I follow up on the heart?
The truth about law, any law, is this: Law can only produce outward righteousness, not inner righteousness, because law is not about the heart, but does reveal the heart. Law reveals mens hearts.
How is my heart?
Jesus Did not Come to Destroy the Law
Well if the Law can only produce an outward rightness, what is the use. The use is, it shows our reveals our shortcomings, but was also used, is also used, to restrain behavior.
The whole sacrificial system was put in place by God so that man might do, in order to be right. God provided a do system, which served the relationship, as long as man kept sacrificing and doing as God perscribed. Without the shedding of blood, there is/would be no forgiveness of sin. Thus, the temple sacrifices provided limited atonement for man, a covering of sin, that had to be repeated time and time again, week in week out, day by day.
But the Law and limited sacrificial system was fulfilled, completed, by Jesus when He died on the cross for us and was resurrected from the dead and accepted by His Father. Jesus said,
“Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus fulfilled the sacrificial system by:
Practicing unswerving obedience to it.
He was the promised Messiah to come (the Seed)
Enlarging and expanding it’s teachings to a higher and purer level, thus bringing all teaching under His law of love and liberty through the Holy Spirit, perfectly.
Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler
Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
What is the one thing I lack? What was the one thing the rich young ruler lacked?
Take everything away what do you have? What do you have when everything is/has been taken away from you?
Whom am I when I have nothing?
Why was the rich young ruler ‘stunned’?
The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
If you walk in the Spirit, walking in God’s love, you will fulfill the requirements of the law. You will naturally fulfill the requirements of the law.
I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
How are you walking in the world? How are you and I living? By law or love?