Where We've Been, Before We Move On

We've been on an interesting little rabbit trail for the last few weeks, and I hope it helped to resolve some issues.  I have to admit, there was a day when I would have enjoyed the spirited banter we've been having, but it carries with it a grave danger for offense, and the breaking of unity. There is also the danger of what we say being misunderstood by the young among us, and the spiritually weak.  I hope by now, that those who are among us understand that being in unity doesn't mean we all agree.  It means we are unified in heart even if we disagree.  It’s probably become clear to many of you, that our ideas of what we believe are shaped by man’s traditions as much as by the Word of God. It is important to discern the difference between the two.  Much of that has to do with the translation problem.  

THE PROBLEM:  We are taking another language and trying to translate it into our own.  I am not talking about taking the Greek or Hebrew, and translating it into English, I am talking about taking the language of heaven, and translating it into the tongue of man.

Spiritual truth doesn't translate well into man’s reality.  As the body of Christ, we have to be able to see things from the Kingdom perspective, not the carnal.  The Kingdom perspective isn't loftier because it comes from an elevated point of view, rather the carnal mind can’t comprehend it because it sees things from a ‘fallen’ point of view.  For most of us, even when we were in our ‘fallen’ state, there was a ‘gut’ feeling that Kingdom truths are ‘true,’ but. . . .they don’t jive with what our eyes see, our ears hear, and our ‘mind’ thinks.  This uncomfortable feeling forces us to confront the Kingdom principals from a MORAL point of view.  One of the greatest lies of the enemy of our souls is that ‘morals’ come from God. That is why the ‘carnal’ man enjoys WORKS centered religions.  Believe it, or not, Satan is a moral creature.  Like us, He knows he fails at living up to the morals he espouses, so he points his accusations at us.  His accusations against us are based on his perception of Kingdom principals.  His accusations are simple:  “You said-but they . . . .”   That is why none of us like a tattle-tale.  The carnal mind can’t comprehend ‘justice’ because it always confuses it with morality. Laws and morality are the carnal response to God’s nature. Our nation’s laws, are actually moral statements that define our social behavior.  If we don’t like a law, we change it or abolish it. 

GOD ISN'T MORAL, HE IS JUST. 

Morality by its very definition demands an alternative behavior.  Morality is a fruit of the ‘Tree of Knowledge.’  That is why the issue of ‘innocence’ is a carnal argument, and we can’t allow ourselves to be trapped into an argument about it.  I’ll say it again, God is not moral, He is JUST.   God is not ‘fair’, He is JUST.  The carnal mind can’t fathom this.  God never commanded us to be ‘moral.’  He simply instructed us to ‘live His way.’  There are no arguments, no debate, no moral dilemmas.  His laws were never about us being ‘moral,’  as much as they were about us seeing His manifold wisdom.  God will never use the term ‘innocent’ in reference to moral issues, but in terms of JUSTICE.  HIS commandments are not MORAL, they are absolutes.  When God looks at an individual, they fall into one of two categories; accountable or innocent.  The issue for God isn't what we abstain from, but what we do with HIS truth.  Babies, children, adolescents, and the mentally deficient, are innocent because they are unable to do anything with His truth, not because they abstained from doing wrong. 

Last week, we left our conversation with the resolution that babies, and children would not be judged.  Which brings us back to how we deal with the knowledge that all men will, and have sinned.  (Romans 3:23)  The issue is never what we have abstained from, but what we ‘fail’ to do.  Man wants praise for what he avoids, or the evil he doesn't do, and God wants praise for what you do.  (Let that work in you for a while.)  If we know to do good, and don’t do it, it is sin.  Our inaction makes us fall short of the Glory of God.  It isn't a moral issue.  Good people are moral.  Hell will be filled with ‘good’ people.  It’s like a child who tells you they didn't go to a drug party with their friends, but failed to clean the car as you asked them to.  While they did ‘good’ in not hurting themselves, they failed to do the one thing you asked them to do. Not doing drugs was a moral issue, and failing to wash the car was an obedience issue.

The Lord Jesus tells us we will be held accountable for what we did with what he gave us.  He gave us life, what did we do with it? 

The position of man before God is never one of innocence, unless they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.  Let me rephrase our Romans verse a little differently.  All men have fallen short of the Glory of God, and that, is their sin. 

Sinman will never be 'just'' before God, because Sinman is carnally minded.  The wage of sin is death, you earn death by failing to do what the Father wants, which is Justice.  The carnal man must always live by the rules of man, while the ‘Christ-man’ lives by the Spirit.  Rules, and laws are open to debate.  Being led by the Spirit is never an exercise in morality, and is never open for debate. It is always an expression of the Christ within us.  (James 4:1-17) That is why Christ came!  He came that we might do God’s stuff on this earth, and he gave us the authority through His redemptive work on the Cross.  Now we KNOW what to do, and He gives us the POWER, (grace) to do it.