Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:07 Hello, and welcome to the unveiling with your hosts. AJ mark, and Tim three guys discussing the one true gospel. We hope you enjoy today's discussion. Let's dive right in.
Speaker 1 00:00:23 Hello and welcome to the unveiling with your hosts. AJ, mark, and Tim, this is episode 37 in the title of our episode today is Jesus elevated the law. Let me give you a quick summary of what that means, and then we'll dive into it. Uh, take, for instance, you see in the law that it says Dous out, not steal. If you've ever walked out of your office with a company pen in your pocket, you would be guilty of stealing. That's the kind of thing we're saying. Jesus points out in some of his moral teachings that the law is even stronger and has a higher standard than you might think. Therefore, make it even tougher to follow, uh, as a human being. So today that's what we're gonna talk about. And mark, why don't you give us, uh, give us a start.
Speaker 2 00:01:19 Sure. Hope you guys are all doing well tonight. Um, this one's kind of an interesting one because it's kind of a one off. We tend to have been doing some series, but just through some of our own conversations, we've been talking a lot about just, uh, the law and Jesus teachings. And we've talked a lot in the past on the purpose of the law, and this is kind of going a little deeper, uh, into that. And it kind of spurred my thinking, oh, probably about four or five months ago. I was driving through my town and not once, but twice I saw a giant billboard and the billboard said, genuine Christians obey Jesus teaching. Now, when that hit me something on my spirit said that does not have a good ring to it. <laugh> you know? And, and so that started a conversation between the three of us on, is that true?
Speaker 2 00:02:18 Is it not true? And you know, what do they mean by that? So we're gonna kinda, um, first off, start out with the law and then work our way up to Jesus teachings. Uh, but so the first, first thing that kind of came up when we talked together on that point is what do they mean by that to say genuine Christians, obey Jesus teachings. I believe what they mean is I think we're pretty much in, in a court on that, that they're trying to say that it is obeying his teachings that make you a genuine Christian, that that's not only the litmus test, but that shows whether you're a, a real Christian or not. Are you obeying Jesus teachings? Um, and that I would absolutely, I think all three of us would say that is not correct. Now. There's another sense that that statement could mean that genuine Christians will end up obeying Jesus teachings because they have the spirit. We have the spirit now it's not, it doesn't make us a genuine Christian to obey his teachings, but because we are a genuine Christian, we're going to end up obeying Jesus' teachings, not by our own flesh, by our own power, but by his spirit in us.
Speaker 1 00:03:40 So it seems on the surface to be a really fine sentiment to real Christians obey Jesus teachings. But I think what we have to understand, and I think you touched on this mark, is that the motivation of those things that we do aren't our own anymore. They're Jesus, there's they're gods and what comes out of us isn't of us anymore. So if we, I, I hearken back to the fruit inspectors who say that, uh, if you're a real Christian, these, you will have fruit and you will do this and you will do that. But the, the fact of the matter is, is if I produce fruit, I'm part of the vine, I'm just a branch in the vine. I don't make fruit. I don't produce fruit. The fruit is made through me from the main vine, which is Christ. And it's while I may evidence Jesus as fruit, you know, Jesus in my life as fruit. That's not, that's not a, it's not a criteria for someone to use to judge you and where your walk is with Christ.
Speaker 2 00:04:39 Yeah. And I think at the core of this, it gets back to the fact that we are not able to keep the law. Scripture tells us that over and over the law has been weakened by our flesh. Scripture tells us the apostle Paul told is over and over. The law is good. The problem with the law is us. We can't do it because our flesh has weakened it. And so the, the fact that we can't keep the regular law from the old covenant Jesus, his teachings elevated that law. He and AJ, you pointed this out a couple weeks ago that it's harder to keep Jesus' moral teachings than it is to keep the law, the old covenant old Testament law. That's easy compared to this. And I guess the main place, I mean, he teach Jesus had moral teachings throughout the gospels, but his most famous was the sermon on the Mount, which was a long discourse that many people from all different world religions and even secular people agree that it is the final word and the greatest moral teachings that mankind has ever produced.
Speaker 3 00:05:54 Yeah. In fact, that, uh, to your point, mark, you know, I think, uh, yeah, before getting into the sermon on the Mount, I think you already mentioned that, but, uh, I think it might help if we qualify, you know, when we say Jesus teaching here, we are referring to the moral teachings. And of course in the Lord, Jesus Christ taught believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, right. Or, you know, believe on me. We are not talking about that. Right? So that is our NCE of faith. In fact, everybody requires to become a Christian, but what we are referring to is, uh, moral teachings of the Lord, Jesus Christed. And you know, back to your point, mark, on, um, that Jesus keeping Jesus' moral teachings is much harder than keeping the law. If we look at Matthew chapter five, verse 20, the law is saying here far, I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will, by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 3 00:06:54 So in those days, these scribes and Pharisees are supposed to be the law keepers and average you an average Israel, you know, they do not fully obey the law, but there are this class of people called Pharisees and, and, uh, outwardly speaking, right? They are supposed to be keeping the law to the T, right. You know, everyone looks up to them as a law keepers. For example, Paul also said when he is, uh, kind of, uh, bragging about his credentials in the only to say that they're nothing he says, you know, I am born of, uh, you know, the tribe of Benjamin. And then he says, I'm the pharacy of Pharisees. And when it comes to law, keeping I'm blameless. In other words, externally speaking, right? You could find many Pharisees who did not commit adult in their life, who did not steal in their life and who regularly gave TIS, never missed it tight in their life.
Speaker 3 00:07:51 And those are the kind of Pharisees that we are talking about here. And then the largest Christ says, you know, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will, by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. So what it means is the righteousness that is required by the kingdom of heaven is much higher, much higher than the righteousness of the guy who is keeping the law. Uh, you know, the, you find a guy who is keeping the law to the T and you could not find anyone better than him, according to the law of Moses, right? According to the law, keeping of the Moses, even that is not enough. That's what, uh, the Bible is saying, right? Then he goes on to say, in verse 21, you have heard it said that you shall not murder, but you know, I say unto you, if you get angry with your brother, for no reason, you already committed mother, right? And you heard that do not commit a L three. But I say to you, if you look at a woman with lush, you've already committed a three. So the point I think, uh, uh, what we are saying is the moral teachings, the teachings on the sermon on the Mount, that law, Jesus Christ gave are much, much harder than keeping the law of Moses. Even if you find someone who kept the law of Moses and is totally blameless, you still, that is not enough to enter the kingdom of God.
Speaker 2 00:09:14 And I, I really love the way that the, well, the first point is that Jesus elevated that. Okay. Because many of us have not committed adultery. And we think we're doing pretty well at that law. Right? Most of us, hopefully haven't <laugh>. And, uh, but then Jesus said, yeah, I say to you, if you look on a woman with lust, you've committed it in your heart. That's just taken that standard of the law and shot it through the rough, you know,
Speaker 1 00:09:45 Mark, what, you know, we've said many, many times we understood that we can't keep the law as it is. And then here comes Jesus, elevating it, even further, making that standard even higher. Right. It's just like, it seems to me like, why is he adding fuel to the fire? We already, we already can't keep the law. So why is he, why is he adding to
Speaker 2 00:10:05 It? That's an excellent question. And I'm going to answer it momentarily here, but now I wanna say you brought out a good point. We couldn't keep the regular law as it was given. And now Jesus is raising it even higher by saying, you need to be keeping it in your heart too, for that law to been qu, been qualified as being kept. Okay. And now he's adding his own teachings, which are even higher. I'm telling you, you need to love your enemies. How many of us are good at that in this day and age of such political divide in the con in the, in the country, how many Christians of one party are like loving the Christians of the, you know, it's just, it's hard. It's almost impossible. So then to answer your question, why does Jesus keep raising seemingly raising the standard? And I think the answer to that is the fact that most of us, and I think even nowadays still have an incorrect understanding about why the law was given in the first place and a very wise man, who's one of the three of us on this podcast once said that the people think the law was given to show us how to do it.
Speaker 2 00:11:24 Right. But it wasn't. It was given to show us that we are unable to do it right. And therefore we are in desperate need of a savior. Jesus did the same thing, but now he's making it even clear and clear. First he's elevating the law. Then he's putting his sermon on the Mount, out on there, which is even harder to keep. And then get this. He summarizes the sermon on the Mount. The last teaching was therefore be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Let me ask you out there listening. How many of the, uh, you think you can be perfect if a few of you raised your hands, let me ask you this then how many can be as perfect as God is? Perfect. Impossible, isn't it? But I think the key is here. Jesus said, as he was raising the law higher and higher, he said to them, don't think that I came to abolish the law, rather I came to fulfill it. And that is so key in scripture talks about that in many places first off and Romans eight, that Jesus met the righteous requirement of the law on our behalf, so that he fully met it in us, which is the only way we're ever gonna be, uh, judged righteous. Is that by our faith in Christ and what he did for us.
Speaker 3 00:12:47 Yeah, exactly. Mark, I think just to add to it, you know, Tim, to, uh, also add a little more to your question, one of the reasons, you know, why law, Jesus Christ had to elevate the law or say that the righteousness that is required by heaven is much higher than the law is what happens is, you know, when you give the law to a human being, any kind of law, right. You know, we actually water it down. We find loopholes and one way or other, you know, we, we bring the level of the law so low that we almost think that, you know, we are actually keeping it. It's not that we are keeping the law, but it actually, we brought down the standard so much that, you know, most of us think we are keeping the law even in the right now. Right. You know, not only in those days, but even now, many of us think, you know, somehow we can obey God's loss.
Speaker 3 00:13:40 And that's why, you know, this whole salvation and blessings based on works is taught by many because you know, most of us believe we can actually keep the law. So what they're talking about is not just the perfect standard of the law. They're basically saying, you know, do your best, whatever you can do, do it. Then God will still accept it as keeping the law. So bottom line is they actually water down the law. Now Jesus had to point that out and bring the law to its pristine level. And not only that, right? He also went beyond the perfect keeping of the law. He's saying that even if you keep the entire law, you know, that is still in one way, you know, that is still not enough for you to enter the, uh, kingdom of heaven because law doesn't say that, you know, if you, uh, someone slaps you on one chick, turn the other cheek law, doesn't say that if actually someone slaps you and you slap them back, you're good.
Speaker 3 00:14:39 You still kept the law. But the largest Christ is saying that, you know, you have to do more than that. Yeah. You know, I think, uh, the reason why the largest Christ, you know, brought this up right, elevated the law. And he also showed the requirement of heaven. The righteousness that is required of heaven is we have a tendency as humans. When we get laws, we take the law and water down to that level where everybody can keep it. So that's what, you know, it's not that we are keeping the law. It's just that, you know, we have watered down the law so much. So law, Jesus Christ has taken the law and first put it back where it belongs. And not only that, he said, you know, actually the righteousness required by heaven is actually much higher than the law of Moses. For example, the law of Moses, doesn't say under law of Moses, it's okay.
Speaker 3 00:15:31 If someone slaps you, you slap them back. It's fine because I ride tooth for tooth. If someone comes and punches you, and then your teeth comes out, you can turn right back and punch them. You're still keeping the law of Moses. But what lodges Christ is saying is no, if someone slaps you, you turn the cheek. Right. And that's what it is. Uh, the righteousness required by heaven. The only person who actually kept that is our largest crush. We can see that right during his crucifixion, they, uh, they hit him for no reason. They spit on him. He did not turn back and spit on them. If he is keeping the law of Moses, he could turn back and spit on them and he would still have kept the law. But he's keeping the righteousness of heaven, the perfect law.
Speaker 1 00:16:19 And I'm gonna throw in my 2 cents here on why he did this. And I think some of it was because, like you said, we grow comfortable with certain things. And if it says don't commit adultery, we, we assume adultery means, you know, as a man, for me, it would be going and sleeping with a woman who wasn't my wife, or getting involved in some physical way. That's a very narrow definition. And, you know, we get hung up on definitions. The three of us all the time, this was telling people, no, your definition is short. It includes even thinking about it. That's I mean, uh, again, I can keep the law in the way I see it, but I can't, you know, and for that particular instance, but I can't keep the law as Jesus sees
Speaker 3 00:17:05 It. I think one of the reasons why we are even talking about this is what we see again, you know, going back to that billboard, what we see is, you know, some, uh, teachers in Christianity, they say, Hey, yeah, you know, we are not under the law anymore. You don't have to keep the law of Moses anymore. But you know, now you are under a new law. You are under the law of the moral teachings of, uh, law, Jesus Christ. And they actually make this a condition, uh, for two things for unbelievers, they make it a condition to keep the sermon on the Mount and then be saved by it. Right? You have to keep these teachings of Jesus. And then you will, in order to be saved, you have to keep the teachings of Jesus. And then to the safe they say, in order to be blessed, you have to keep the teachings of Jesus. In both cases, it is much harder to keep than the law of Moses. They may not realize it, but it's actually foolishness, right? If someone cannot keep the law of Moses telling them to keep the sermon on the Mount, which is much harder, it is foolishness for lack of better words.
Speaker 2 00:18:11 Sure. And I, I, for me, what just struck me as you were talking, AJ, is that Christianity is not the law. It's not keeping the 10 commandments and all the old covenant laws throughout the old Testament. Christianity is not keeping Jesus teachings. Christianity is the gospel. It's the cross. It's what Jesus did for us because we couldn't keep those teachings. And the remember the standard for those teachings is perfection. If we're gonna earn our own righteousness and try to earn our own way into heaven or earn our own way into greater blessing, well, you can't earn your way in unless you can do it. Perfect. And nobody ever has, except for Jesus that's Christianity. That's the gospel message that God loves you so much that he sent Christ not to give you moral teachings and to say, Hey, you better do this. No, he came to die for you.
Speaker 2 00:19:10 And that's, you know, AJ gave us a little disclaimer at the beginning that when we're talking about Jesus teachings, we're not talking about him, preaching the gospel, which was himself. Come to me, all you who are weary and burden, and I will give you rest. What are people wearing burden from many things. But especially at that time, they were wearying burden from trying to keep that law. They were wearying burden from being on that geal wheel running harder and faster, trying to get somewhere and yet always crashing, you know, because we just keep failing over and over. And I think all three of us many times have given testimonies on how we live that life for years, you know, trying so hard, so diligently using every strategy, reading every Christian book out there, every 10 part series on how to do this, to do that. And yet boom, in the ditch again, boom, in the ditch again, until Jesus says, you know what, whom the son has set free is free. Indeed. We have been set free from the law and that sets us free from the dominion of sin. So yes, as genuine Christians who are genuine because they're putting their faith in Christ alone, by his grace alone for our righteousness, we will end up obeying those teachings more than if we kept trying to obey those teachings because the spirit is transforming us into the image of Christ
Speaker 3 00:20:47 Mark, you know, while we are at, you know, we might as well talk about this. This is actually one of your favorite subjects. Uh, you know, there are so many subtle things in Christianity, right? In our beliefs and in our teachings. Now it's easy to get sidetracked with that. And one of the teachings is we are saved so that we may be able to keep the law. So the end goal of our salvation is just keeping the law, right? So that is also incorrect because the Bible clearly says that we are delivered from the law so that we may be married to Christ. See our end goal of, uh, our Christian life is union with Christ. It's not keeping the law. You know, sometimes people think it's a holy thing. Okay. You cannot keep the law. Okay. Jesus died. The law to Jesus died for you on the cross, right?
Speaker 3 00:21:37 To enable you to keep the law. But again, I think if you think about it, right, the moment you go under the law before salvation or after salvation, who is the focus, the focus is you, right? The law makes you self-conscious. The whole focus is everybody who is under the law, right. You know, they become they're the most self-centered people because the whole, their whole life is about keeping the law. Right? If I don't keep it, oh my God, then something bad will happen. Or if I'm created to keep the law, then the focus is always on me. But the only, but law did not create us, you know, to be self-centered beings, always thinking about ourselves, always thinking whether I'm keeping the law or not. But you know, if you really think about it, right, the only way you can be Christ centered or Christ is you should not be under the law anymore.
Speaker 3 00:22:30 The only time you will not be self-centered is if the law is totally removed and there are no conditions. If you do this, you will get this. Unless the conditions are removed, you cannot really focus on Christ. And that is a reason. Lodge is Christ. You know, it says, you know, through death, through he, he delivered us from the law so that we can marry, we can be married to Christ. Now that the law is behind us. And the focus now shifts from me to Christ. You know, that's what happens in our, uh, podcast, right? We never talk about ourselves. Why? Because we're not under the law. We are always talking about law, Jesus Christ, and is in the cross because we are freed from being focused on us because we are no longer under the law. So under grace, the focus is shifted to Christ and under the law, the focus is always on you. So I think this kind of teaching, you know, Christ saved me so that I can keep the law what's happening is, you know, still if under the theology, right? The focus is still on you. It's not on Christ. So the only way you can take your eyes off of yourself and put your eyes on Jesus is if you're delivered from the law.
Speaker 2 00:23:42 Yeah. You know, as you're talking, AJ, and as I think back on, we've been, uh, having this podcast now for boy getting close to a year and a half, I believe there's a big question that just pops at me. And that question is why, why is the, are the majority of Christians and churches out there? Why are they just bent on keeping themselves under the law? And I think that's probably a very complex answer. I think one is because we let's just talk about this a little, but one that pops to me is they think that is the gospel. They think that is Christianity. It's a lack of knowledge. And I think we've also talked in the past. Uh, second one would be, that's what we see everywhere in the world. From the time we're little kids be a good boy, you'll get a cookie, be a bad boy. You'll get a time out, you know, work hard and get good grades. You're going, your parents are gonna be pre it's always work. Merit earn, deserve where we don't comprehend the kind of love that is unconditional.
Speaker 3 00:24:51 Yeah. Mark, I think to your point, I, I think, uh, yeah, I totally agree with you, right? It's some of them, and most of them are because of lack of knowledge are pure ignorance, but the other people, right. Especially believers who came to Christ through faith. Right. And who fall back to the law. I think, you know, they trust the law more than grace. They think law will keep them on track. Law will keep them from sinning and they are almost scared. Right. You know, if you, if I come out from under the law, I'll just go and live my life like a devil. So it's coming down to, they're actually trusting the law more than the grace of God, or in other words, they're trusting whose responsibility is to keep the light's mind. Right. So in other words, I'm trusting in my ability to keep the law more than trusting in Christ and the power of the spirit to keep me.
Speaker 2 00:25:47 Yeah, I think you're right. AJ I, and another thought that's very related to that, that I've had recently is that we understand the law. It's very natural to us. Uh, as I mentioned, because of the way we're raised, look at every other world, religion, look at all the churches you've gone to. It's what we know. It's very quantifiable where true Christianity is much more mysterious and miraculous. We're saying, put your focus on Christ. And we can't see Christ. We can see the law. We can see our deeds. We can see us giving money to the church. We can see us serving. We can see other people falling short. We can see all these things, but we don't see the spirit living us. And the true Christian life is life in the spirit that we are in Christ that he's in us. That's a miracle, a new creation becoming a new creation, being made a new creation more correctly, uh, put is something we can't see. It's miraculous, it's supernatural. And I think we're afraid of the supernatural little. And we prefer that very quantifiable visual set of, uh, what's the word, uh, litness test. Look, am I doing this? I'm like, let's check this box. Let's check, check this box. Very logical easy. And I just think there's a lot. I think there's pride involved in it too, to some extent, you know?
Speaker 3 00:27:17 Yeah. That is true, mark. I, I think it is easy for the natural man to understand the law, but, uh, they cannot understand grace. The Bible says, you know, the natural man cannot understand spiritual things. So unless the law, Jesus Christ enlightens us. And, uh, before we could be enlightened, right? Like we always discussed, um, law has to deal with people who think they can keep the law. So like, you know, the sermon on the mountain, you know, one of the reasons the law gave the sermon on the Mount is, you know, we talked about God elevated the law, but also, you know, people are thinking that they can keep the law and law. Jesus says, okay, you think you can keep the law, okay. Give a shot at it. Right. Then, you know, they'll come to realize, okay, I cannot do it. For example, even with the rich young ruler, uh, I believe it's in, uh, Matthew 18.
Speaker 3 00:28:08 I'll just read this real quick. Now a certain ruler asked him saying, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit an eternal life? You know, the standard answer, uh, would be believe on me, right? Believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ. But he does not give that answer to him. He said, you know, why do you call me good? No one is good. But one that is God, you know, the commandments do not commit adultery, do not. Mother do not steal, do not bear false witness honor, or father and mother. And he said, all these things I have kept from my youth. You know, there are people who are thinking they're keeping the love from their youth. And then lodge said, told him, you know, you still lack one thing. He said, you know, sell everything you have. And, uh, you'll have treasure in heaven and come follow me. So basically here, the point is, you know, if you're really keeping the law, you wouldn't have a problem selling everything you have. Right. And following me because I'm God. So, um, what lodge Jesus Christ did is, you know, for those who think they're too good, who are able to keep the law, he gave them the law. So a law does its work and then law will bring them to an end of themselves when they realize, oh my God, I can't keep the law. That's when you know, gospel and grace makes more sense.
Speaker 2 00:29:19 You know, AJ, as you, as you started talking about that rich UN ruler, this happens all the time, but it was already loaded up in my brain here. <laugh> too, is that? And I think what you, Desto, what you just told is another perfect example of the elevation of the law. The rich young rulers said, what must I do? First of all, it's a, a blatant misunderstanding of what it takes for eternal life. It's not what much you do. It's follow me. And, but what he does is, you know, cuz that doesn't, uh, he lists out the individual ones doesn't need the, the ruler. He says, you know, do not steal, do not doesn't Jesus list them. And then he says, all these I have kept, well then what does Jesus do? He elevates it, give away everything you own. What's harder to do, uh, not commit adultery, not murder or give away everything you own.
Speaker 2 00:30:16 That's by far in elevation of the law. So this is for those, that might be a little doubtful. That that that's what Jesus was trying to do with his teaching and with his interaction, with the Pharisees, he was always elevating it to them to show them you can't do it, not to get them to try harder to do it better. I've heard that taught so many times that Jesus problem with the Pharisees is they weren't doing it well enough, their motives weren't right. They weren't succeeding. They were creating loopholes. No, no, that's not the problem. The problem is you can't do it. Right. And even with this rich young ruler, when he said I've kept all these, then Jesus elevated again and said, give away everything you own. Then you just see it over and over through scripture, you gotta kind of have, you know, start looking for that is the way I'd put it to people out there as you're reading Jesus' words and especially his interactions with the Pharisees.
Speaker 3 00:31:13 Yeah. It's interesting mark. You said that, uh, you know, try harder. It's uh, it's not too hard to imagine this interpretation of Jesus commandments, right. You know, elevating the R you know, if someone, you raise a bar, right? If you raise a bar on somebody, you know, they will try harder, right. So they may not actually reach that level, but at least they're better off than what they would've been. If you didn't raise the bar. So some people might misinterpret Jesus teaching us, you know, he's just raising the bar so that at least, you know, you will do better than what you could have been otherwise. But that is a, uh, totally, you know, wrong way of looking at this.
Speaker 2 00:31:54 Sure. And you know what, the key is, he took the bar and he threw it away. He threw it into the deepest ocean after he first cleared it himself on our behalf. Yep.
Speaker 1 00:32:04 Well guys, this has been an exciting and interesting discussion going back and forth. Uh, but the clock on wall says we're about, about at our time, normal time limit. So as is my usual custom, I'm gonna give it to each of you to do a summary or final comment for this episode. Uh, Jay alpha alphabetical order today.
Speaker 3 00:32:25 Yeah. Thanks Tim. I think I would say, right. You know, we always talk about this because as human beings, right? It's always like the rich young ruler. Our question always is what much I do. That is a question, right? That is a wrong question. You know, you don't do anything for your salvation. You simply believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ and you don't do anything to grow in grace or get his blessings and walk as a Christian or be filled with the spirit of the Lord. Just like you are saved by faith. You also walk by faith, trusting in his grace and relying on the finish work of Lord Jesus Christ. So it's by faith from first to last. So the question is not just not asking, what much should I do? I think that's not the thing. That's the wrong question. What we do is we simply trust in the finish for of Christ and, uh, simply rushed to him and receive from him and, uh, continually, you know, continually receive. And that's the only way to grow in grace.
Speaker 2 00:33:34 So what the, the thought that comes to my mind is that we don't want anybody out there who has been, who loves the Lord, but has been adding the law. We're not trying to make you feel bad. In fact, we, I personally did that for 25 years until I finally had a revelation and an understanding of the one true gospel, a message of God's grace. And it's a very easy thing to do because when you look at the Bible and you go through Genesis and Leviticus all the way through Jesus teachings, there's a lot of moral teaching in there. And so I, I understand that. And I got caught up in that as well, especially when the whole world is pushing that forward. But what it comes down to is why is that in there? Why is there, why was the law given? Why were Jesus teachings given?
Speaker 2 00:34:34 Why did he elevate the law? And the apostle Paul dealt with this over and over again, and GA gives us the answer. There's the least, oh, probably a dozen scriptures where Paul tells us that the law was given to show us that sin is utterly sinful. It's given to show us that we can't do it. It's given to lead us to the savior. That's why the Bible is so filled with these moral teachings and why Jesus was the hardest on the Pharisees who were supposed to be the experts at keeping those moral teachings. He wasn't hard on them because they weren't trying hard enough. He was hard on them trying to show them unless you're born. Again. He said to Nicodemus, who was one of the Pharisees? You will not enter the kingdom of heaven. He didn't say, unless you try harder Nicodemus. So I, you know, I just wanted to say that it's, I can see why so many people are caught up in this. And there's a lot of different reasons, but we've all been inundated with us pretty much with this, uh, that type of teaching our whole lives.
Speaker 1 00:35:45 And finally, I'm gonna take my turn and add, Paul says that the law is good and Justin holy, and why is that? It's because it shows us our need, it points us to the gospel. And let's think about this for a minute. Even if you could keep the law perfectly, which it's meant to show you, you can't, but even if you could, what would you be missing out on? You'd be missing out on the indwelling of Jesus, of the holy spirit in your life of the teacher, the guide, the counselor, walking with you day to day to day, you'd be missing out on some really great stuff because you wouldn't have that. So, um, so while the law is good and holy injustice, because of what it does for us actually, which is point us, point out our imperfection and point us to Jesus.
Speaker 3 00:36:43 Like I said, God create did not create us for the law. He created us for union with him.
Speaker 2 00:36:49 Amen. A and the key is the gospel is not the law. It's not religion. Christianity is not a list of rules and regulations do this. Don't do that. The gospel Christianity is Christ. It's Jesus, and that's who you are meant for, to live in him. And he, and you, it's supernatural. It's miraculous, it's mysterious, but it's joy and it's freedom.
Speaker 3 00:37:19 Amen.
Speaker 1 00:37:19 Well, that's gonna wrap us for this episode. We appreciate everybody. Who's listening as always. We encourage you. If you enjoyed this episode to share it with your friends, subscribe through whatever method you use for podcast listening, and we will talk to you the next time we would like to thank you for listening to the unveiling. We hope you have enjoyed it enough to consider subscribing and sharing with others. We welcome your questions, comments, and feedback. You can reach us via email at the unveiled gospel@yahoo.com or find our Facebook page at the unveiling podcast for IJ, mark and myself. God bless. And we will talk with you next time.
