One thing I have always struggled to get my mind around is the difference (at least in description) between God in the OT and God in the NT.
1) If God knows everything, He should have known that the Law would not cleanse us, in general due to our inability to keep it. So why did He bother with the Law at all, instead skipping right to Grace?
2) The God in the OT seems so violent and angry. The God of the NT seems so peaceful and gentle? What gives? What are we supposed to learn from that?
I certainly have studied these two questions and I have asked every leader I have been in close contact with. I have not ever really received a clear and sensible answer. I mean, God if does not change - why does He seem so different at different times? Short of believing in two distinctly different Gods (as in here or here), how can I reconcile these things?
I clarify by saying this is an instance of my asking questions in order to further my faith, it's not about questioning God. In the big picture I have accepted that I will probably never fully understand these things this side of heaven, and it's not even necessary that I understand. God is God and I am not. I'm OK with that.
But today, in conversation with a friend, I did draw one conclusion that helped me. Now I don't claim to know much about these things, but I will share what I learned today.
When looking back at the OT, I have always seen the obvious: external cleanliness (i.e. obeying rules and laws) do not automatically create internal cleanliness (i.e. having right thoughts and knowing right from wrong). Since it has always been God's goal to create internal cleanliness in us, I think the one of the OT's purposes is to give us NT folk a great example of what NOT to do. Focus on external cleanliness defeats God's purposes.
This is where I think we Christians can get tripped up. We lose the difference between the Old Covenant and the New. We tend to see the New as an addendum to the Old, rather than as supplanting it. Since I am a Christian and therefore a New Covenant believer, it seems to me that Grace is just that: Grace. It is a gift or righteousness and forgiveness, freely given, neither earned nor deserved by any external actions or observances. Grace is not Law with a gentler exterior. Grace is Love personified. And because I am under Grace I am not under Law.
Romans 2: 13-15 [emphasis mine] "For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)"
And 28-29: "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God."
So as a NT believer, one thing I see when looking back at the historical nation of Israel and their relationship with God is a warning for me. It is important for me to understand that rules and rituals alone will not ever succeed at making me clean in God's eyes. If they did, I would be strongly inclined to apply those same external cleanliness standards to those around me. But since they do not make me clean, and in fact the only thing that makes me clean is grace, I am strongly inclined to apply grace to those around me. Also, since I know rules do not create cleanliness in me, I hesitate to apply rules to others.
We clearly see how God's plan in the Law failed to create cleanliness - not because of anything He did but because of what we DID NOT do. Or more accurately, what we were unable to do. We therefore should heed that as a caveat to not place too much stake in law.
I'm sure I've not really done my thought process justice.
I guess what I'm saying is that the example in the OT of how the Law did not work to produce cleanliness in the people has recently awakened me to the realization that the Law STILL will not work to produce cleanliness in the people. But now, under the NT covenant, we have a Sacrifice born of Grace Who covers us, and we now instead have a Spirit living in us that is able to produce inward cleanliness.
So whether this lesson was God's intent or is simply a by-product of history is a mystery. But either way I think I have learned something
Does that make any sense?
1) If God knows everything, He should have known that the Law would not cleanse us, in general due to our inability to keep it. So why did He bother with the Law at all, instead skipping right to Grace?
2) The God in the OT seems so violent and angry. The God of the NT seems so peaceful and gentle? What gives? What are we supposed to learn from that?
I certainly have studied these two questions and I have asked every leader I have been in close contact with. I have not ever really received a clear and sensible answer. I mean, God if does not change - why does He seem so different at different times? Short of believing in two distinctly different Gods (as in here or here), how can I reconcile these things?
I clarify by saying this is an instance of my asking questions in order to further my faith, it's not about questioning God. In the big picture I have accepted that I will probably never fully understand these things this side of heaven, and it's not even necessary that I understand. God is God and I am not. I'm OK with that.
But today, in conversation with a friend, I did draw one conclusion that helped me. Now I don't claim to know much about these things, but I will share what I learned today.
When looking back at the OT, I have always seen the obvious: external cleanliness (i.e. obeying rules and laws) do not automatically create internal cleanliness (i.e. having right thoughts and knowing right from wrong). Since it has always been God's goal to create internal cleanliness in us, I think the one of the OT's purposes is to give us NT folk a great example of what NOT to do. Focus on external cleanliness defeats God's purposes.
This is where I think we Christians can get tripped up. We lose the difference between the Old Covenant and the New. We tend to see the New as an addendum to the Old, rather than as supplanting it. Since I am a Christian and therefore a New Covenant believer, it seems to me that Grace is just that: Grace. It is a gift or righteousness and forgiveness, freely given, neither earned nor deserved by any external actions or observances. Grace is not Law with a gentler exterior. Grace is Love personified. And because I am under Grace I am not under Law.
Romans 2: 13-15 [emphasis mine] "For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)"
And 28-29: "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God."
So as a NT believer, one thing I see when looking back at the historical nation of Israel and their relationship with God is a warning for me. It is important for me to understand that rules and rituals alone will not ever succeed at making me clean in God's eyes. If they did, I would be strongly inclined to apply those same external cleanliness standards to those around me. But since they do not make me clean, and in fact the only thing that makes me clean is grace, I am strongly inclined to apply grace to those around me. Also, since I know rules do not create cleanliness in me, I hesitate to apply rules to others.
We clearly see how God's plan in the Law failed to create cleanliness - not because of anything He did but because of what we DID NOT do. Or more accurately, what we were unable to do. We therefore should heed that as a caveat to not place too much stake in law.
I'm sure I've not really done my thought process justice.
I guess what I'm saying is that the example in the OT of how the Law did not work to produce cleanliness in the people has recently awakened me to the realization that the Law STILL will not work to produce cleanliness in the people. But now, under the NT covenant, we have a Sacrifice born of Grace Who covers us, and we now instead have a Spirit living in us that is able to produce inward cleanliness.
So whether this lesson was God's intent or is simply a by-product of history is a mystery. But either way I think I have learned something
Does that make any sense?
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