May 05, 2009
It's Our Law
Even though Pilate found no basis for a charge against Jesus, the Jews continued to lobby, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” (John 19:7 NIV) Although today we no longer live under the Old Testament law, some of our thought processes may be similar to that of the Jews. It’s no wonder the world is resistant to our message. Some of us have taken the New Testament and turned it into a New Law…and then we insist, ‘We have a law, and according to that law…’
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Gail;
-----The Old Testament Law was a work of intellectual intricacy, emotional beauty, and spiritual integrity. It defined a relational process between individuals that interlaced the self-actualization of individual sovereignty with respect, honor, and care for others. Having thus bound individuals into a productive community, the community’s welfare was linked to its realization of God as He defined Himself. So the very character of God became encoded in the Law of behaviors He expected from man. Man’s emotional substance which flowed from practicing them would be akin to His. Community-wide, unabridged agreement with the reality of God and the goodness of His Law was the pathway for spiritual truths to come to life in the people’s practice of righteousness.
-----The Jewish lobby was absolutely correct about the Law they served up to Pilate. But it was an abridged edition. It was only the part useful to their own interests, yet sounding wholly complete in itself. The Jew’s self-actualization overran the counterbalancing respect, honor, and care for the rights of Jesus the Law expected them to maintain. Without that respect they failed to present the Law to Pilate in its relationship to the truth. God can claim to be God without breaking the Law. And the Son of God can claim to be the Son of God. The Jew’s failure to experience the proofs Jesus had been doing, saying, and living among them was the outgrowth of the minimal respect, honor, and care they had been practicing toward others. Therefore, the emotional fortitude and spiritual integrity necessary for self-control were not learned elements of their character. When they were put to this test at Jesus‘ trial, they did not use the Law, but abused it.
-----The Law in the Old Testament still stands as a valid representation of God’s character, and the law of the New Testament is the means for actualizing it in our lives. The love we are called to is the mindset of respect, honor, and carefulness described by the law. Joy is the emotional fortitude generated by His mercy for our failure to fully actualize these in us. And confessing our failure while acknowledging the truth of the whole Word of God brings to life the spiritual integrity of humility.
-----Seeking to live the whole Word is a process that chokes only upon abridgment of the Word. But its abridgment is natural, because our minds are just not big and efficient enough to deal with the whole Word immediately. Choking, unfortunately, is a common function of this broken life. So the abridged Word is what gets passed around; we indeed use thought processes similar to the Jewish lobby at Jesus’ trial. Unity, then, has failed to emerge among us, and the World has not known that Christ was sent by the Father. All we have left to glory in is Christ’s victory over death and mercy for us. We have indeed actualized what Paul wrote to the Romans, “…Let God be true, though every man be false…” (Rom 3:4 RSV)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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