Faith and law --Romans 9

Rom9:30-32 "That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works."

There is a big difference between following the Spirit and following the law. If we follow the law, even with all diligence, we will fail, as the law's set as our stumbling stone. But if we follow the Spirit, even if it contradicts with the law sometimes, we will not be condemned(Rom8:1-2,33), but will attain righteousness."And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed."

To me the law and faith seems to work this way. The law is like the rules the parents set for a child:"go to bed at 8pm, no dessert before dinner, clean up your room....etc." They're for the benefit and protection of the child. The rules help the child to form his inner conscience and good habits.But then when the child grows up, and his conscience is strong, he should not be bound by these rules any more. If he needs to stay up after 8pm, as long as he understands how his body works, that he doesn't stay up all night just for play, he understands that he'll get tired the next day, he can stretch that rule. He should decide what time he goes to bed by his inner judgement and discernment, and not by his parent's rules any more. Sometimes I think the old testament is like God talking to a child, but then in the new testament, the child as grown up to an adult who has a Spirit within him. And God is telling the adult to learn to live by the Spirit, not like a child, only knows how to follow the rules(laws) without making judgement and decisions for himself.

Stepping into the Glory -Romans 8

Romans 8:26 "but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;"
Looked up a few words in dictionery:
Groan:
"1 : to utter a deep moan indicative of pain, grief, or annoyance
2 : to make a harsh sound (as of creaking) under sudden or prolonged strain"

Intercede:"to intervene between parties with a view to reconciling differences"

Intervene: "Latin intervenire to come between, from inter- + venire to come -- more at COME
1 : to occur, fall, or come between points of time or events
2 : to enter or appear as an irrelevant or extraneous feature or circumstance
3 : to come in or between by way of hindrance or modification
4 : to occur or lie between two things
5 a : to become a third party to a legal proceeding begun by others for the protection of an alleged interest b : to interfere usually by force or threat of force in another nation's internal affairs especially to compel or prevent an action"

At the end of ourselves is the beginning of God. At the end of ourselves, there's moaning and groaning, frustrated by our incompetence and failure. But at the end of ourselves comes the intervention of the Spirit, who understands our frustrations, but intervened to take us into a whole new realm-- the glory of God.

The Chinese written character "enter" draws this picture perfectly:at the end of one track, it leads to another track.

Two different laws -Romans 7 and 8

Rom8:1-2"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." It seems to me that there are two different laws. The law of sin and of death is the law that we commonly accept -- Moses' laws, universal ethics,etc. But the law of the Spirit transends and goes beyond the law of sin and death, and if we do things according to the Spirit, we'll live, but if we do things according to the law, we'll die. If we do things according to the spirit, even if this thing contradicts the common law, and is condemned by the law, there is no condemnation from God. verse 10 "If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin,yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness(faith). 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." In other words, Jesus was condemned to death by the law. He broke the Pharasee's understanding of law. He healed on the Sabath...etc. And the law condemned him death. But Jesus was not bound by the law, He was living according to the law of the Spirit, which means, He did everything according to what the Spirit wanted, not what the law wanted. So even though he was condemned by the "church" of His time(the pharasees,etc) and was crucified according to the law of His time, there was no condemnation from God and therefore God raised Him from the dead. And if we are to join Christ, we are to join in the same law, that is to live according to the will of the Spirit, abide in the Spirit, and not be bound by the law of letters any more. Rom 7:4"you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God." v6"But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter."

Faith and law -- Romans 4

I have lots of trouble understanding Romans 4. (Please help!) V13-14"For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but throught the rithgeousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified." Does this mean that faith contradicts law sometimes? For example, the Law says, do not kill. But faith told Abraham to kill Isaac on the Altar. I wonder if Abraham went for counselling at that time, what kind of answer he could get? The natural law says, women cannot have children at 90 years old, but faith says that doesn't matter. Verse 3 "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." does this mean that the righteousness of Abraham has nothing to do with obeying the law? plus he wasn't even circumcised, that was totally against the Law? God loved the world so that He allowed Jesus His only son to be killed. Does that mean it's ok for Him to break the Law of do not kill? Jesus violated a lot of Pharasee's understanding of laws. Like healing on Sabath days. Does that mean that when faith's present, it's not bound or limited by Law? in other words, is it ok to break the Law when God gives a faith that has a higher purpose than keeping the law? Does God contradicts Law Himself?David had a child by the result of sinful lust. but after verse7,8"blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. blessed is the man whose sin the Lord ill not take into account." then this child carried the bloodline blessings of Jeus. The prodigal son deliberately broke the Law, but when he came back, he got greater blessings than the older son. Does these mean that faith and promises run on the boarder of breaking the law? If we keep the law with all our deligence, we might be called the pharasees? Does God work outside of the box of the Law?


And this is Craig's answer to the questions above:
Susan.... You are moving into some deep philosophical waters here (and waters that perhaps a lot [if not] most Christians would not even go into). I will attempt to speak very simply (most of the time... until.... I get carried away) so that you may understand. There was a philosopher by the name of 'Soren Kierkegaard.' He said that there is a person called the 'Knight of Faith'. This particular person 'suspends' the 'general ethical rule' which is 'universal for everyone'.... he climbs up above it to fulfill the will and plan of God. Kierkegaard tells us.... that Abraham 'suspended' the general and universal ethic of 'not killing' to sacrifice Isaac. In so doing, Abraham was fulfilling the Will of God for his life. So what can we gather from this ? There is in 'the history of mankind' certain individuals (a 'Knight of Faith' if you will) who has been 'called of God' to do something particular. And there is no 'ultimate way' to 'prove' to anyone else that it is the will of God and the call of God ,to perform, that which God has commanded. Moreover, Abram was called of God to leave 'Ur of the Chaldees' and to go out not knowing where he was going.... Hebrews Chapter 11. He had no written text (such as the bible) to prove to anyone that God had spoken to him. He went out in faith. That is just one illustration. The bible has many illustrations like this. So faith and what God asks an individual to do can go above and over any 'universal law' that everyone else lives by. To get back to Kierkegaard... he calls it the 'Teleological Suspension of the Ethical'.... For other people, reading this particular post, you will find this in Kierkegaard's book called 'Fear and Trembling'. This book looks at Abraham 'fulfilling the Will of God' by offering up Isaacc... Kierkeggard is seen as the father of 'modern Existentialism'. However, in the end... Faith may not only CONTRADICT the law but faith can totally GO ABOVE and TRANSCEND the law.... in fulfilling the will of God. A much greater law has been put into place which is the law of Faith. Thus... the 'Knight of Faith' lives by this law.

Directing and Planning --Proverb 16:9

Prov16:9 "The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps." I have been thinking this morning about the difference of planning and directing. Direct his steps means to me to set the directions where the steps should be going. Directing is like knowing where you're going, it's like say you want to have a trip, "direct" means to know whether you want to go to Brisbane or Perth, then "plan" means how to get there: make up the time, organise the trip, find out the best way to get there. It's no point that if you want to go to Brisbane and come up with the cheapest deal to travel to Perth. Bobbie Houston brought out a fantastic message this Sunday about creativity. This creativity to me fits into the planning. It's like when the children are hungry, they come to you crying out, "I'm hungry!" well we can't just say, "now you go to the freezer and find something to eat. there're frozen chicken and raw rice out there somewhere and you just help yourself." for the children, the food on the kitchen shelf and freezer are not tangible, accessable for them, and we need to add our creativity to make up a meal that's suitable for them to meet their need. There're lots of hungry and needy people out there in the world, well all their needs can be met by the good news in the gospel, but somehow the good news is not tangible, accessible for them, they don't know how to apply them and use them to meet their need. Then we need to add our creativity to make the gospel acceptable to them in a way that they can identify and understand. So I think directing says to know what we want to achieve specifically, then planning says to come up with creative ideas with giftings and talents, and organise everything that's needed to get to that goal.

Reproof --Proverb 15"31-33

Proverb 15:31-33 "He whose ear listens to the life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. He who neglects discipline despises himself, but he who listens to reproof acquires understanding. The fear of the Lord is the instruction for wisdom, And before honor comes humility."

A dead plant doesn't need pruning. A good plant needs lots of pruning, constant pruning to stay healthy and flourishing. Often when we receive something from the Lord, over the time the thoughts can be contaminated, and the Lord will send reproof along our way to help us stay on the track.

Like Abraham, before he received the full blessing of the promise(honor), he had to put Isaac on the altar and be willing to kill him as a sacrifice(humility). To me that's not a test to see if he's good enough, the Lord already knew if he's good enough. It's a reproof, so that Abraham's own selfish thoughts toward Isaac could be pruned, and once his thoughts were cleaned and pruned, the Lord could release the full honor to him.