All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16,17 NIV)
Early each morning I send out a Bible verse and prayer over the internet to anyone who is interested in starting their day with a fresh message from God. Over the past four years my list of readers has grown to include people from several foreign countries and many states in America. I call this simply WORD OF THE DAY. You may subscribe by sending me an e-mail message.
Recently one of the readers of this morning devotional wrote to me asking that I do not send her any messages from the Old Testament. She explained that she was a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ because of his attitude of love and tolerance toward all people. I agreed to send her only verses from the New Testament, and would exclude on the days when I sent out passages from the Old Testament.
It is not possible to separate any part of the Bible from God. God is the author of the Bible because the writers were all inspired by the Holy Spirit of God to write as they were moved by God. Yes, we can correctly conclude that some parts of the Bible do not pertain exactly to us today. For example, we are not under the Jewish ceremonial law that required people to offer animal sacrifices because of sins against God's perfect law.
We no longer have the office of priest or high priest because of Jesus Christ becoming our faithful High Priest. The New Testament book of Hebrews contains much information about the priesthood of Jesus. We also know that all believers in Jesus Christ are now priests. You also like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5 NIV)
Jesus Christ founded the Church of Christ with the obedient assistance of a small group of disciples who were Jews by birth, but Christians by faith in Christ. The writings of the New Testament contain numerous verses from the Old Testament. In fact, the division into Old and New Testament was done by scholars for our convenience in studying. The Bible should be correctly studied as one book of books. The entire Bible is about God's dealing with his human creation and how we can have eternal life through obedient faith in Jesus Christ.
Some Jewish leaders once tried to kill Jesus because he was doing things and saying things that showed his equality with God. He answered them this way: "You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." (John 5:39, 40 NIV) We can take a lesson from this that it is possible for us to know the words of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, but fail to come to know Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Many today are claiming that the New Testament is more loving and tolerant than the message of the Old Testament. They almost go so far as to say that there is a God of the Old Testament and a different God of the New Testament. This is especially true in this age when many people are challenging believers to be more tolerant toward people who are deliberately engaged in sexual sins and have no intention to repent. In fact, they want us to come up with a new Bible that will not have any references to such deviant behavior as homosexual sins, incest, sexual relations with animals, and all types of adultery as are outlined in the Book of Leviticus chapter 18. So, the legalist argues today - since these things are not spelled out specifically in the New Testament, then they do not apply to us today. Do they think that the New Testament should contain a new and revised list of sins?
We know what God considers to be sin because of the ancient written law which is found in what we Christians commonly call the Pentateuch, and Jewish people call the Torah. The apostle Paul argues strongly that all humans have a responsibility to live before God according to their conscience which comes from God. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20 NIV)
Furthermore, we know that we can never please God by keeping all points of the law with perfection. The law is there to teach us about sin, and we know by experience that we all sin. We now have the wonderful grace of God to declare us righteous even in unrighteousness because of faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20 NIV) Just because we are now justified by grace through faith in Christ, this justification does not give us a license to live as heathens. "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:1,2 NIV)
You are invited to all services of the Cedar Key Church of Christ. Write me with any comments or questions at PO Box 186, Cedar Key, FL 32625 or binkley@bellsouth.net. | 