Contemporary Judaizers

Not that God would have it done any other way in which it has been done, but if all men in the OT were as Abraham and others who He used, there would have been no need of the Mosaic Law which came after them. When all of them were brought to, and convinced of their indwelling sin, they chose to remain in belief and in fellowship with God.

-NC

Contemporary Judaizers

“The law is good, if a man use it lawfully”; and its lawful application is expressly not to form, guide and govern the righteous, but to deal with the lawless and disobedient, ungodly and sinful, unholy and profane, and, in short, with whatever is contrary to sound doctrine (1 Tim 8, 9). Sin, we are told in Romans 6, shall not have dominion over Christians, “for you are not under the law, but under grace”; and this is a chapter where the question is the righteousness walk of the saint, not his justification.

Yet in the face of this clear and uniform teaching of the New Testament, the tendency of most Christians habitually is to go back to law, especially where there is feeble separation from the world. But it is easily understood, for the world does not receive or understand the grace of God, whereas it can appreciate in the letter, the righteous law of God. Hence, where the world and the Christians are mixed together, the will of man soon takes the upper hand. Then, as the Christian cannot elevate the world to his standing, he must inevitably sink to that which he holds in common with the world. Thus both meet once more on Jewish ground, as if the Cross of Christ had never been, and the Holy Spirit was not sent down from heaven to gather believers out of the mixed condition into the Body of Christ apart from the world.

Even for the individual Christian, as well as for the Church and most of all for God’s truth, grace and glory, the loss has been incalculable. For the ordinary walk has been reduced to a string of negatives, save in public acts of philanthropy, religious activity, or ritual observances, which the Christian shares with any and everybody that will join him—plain ecumenism. It is not occupation with good according to God’s will, still less is it suffering for the sake of the Lord Jesus and of righteousness from a world which knows them not. This is not Christianity, though it is the state and the system of most Christians.

Did the Lord Jesus ever obey from the fear of judgment (which the Law threatened due to inability to keep perfectly—NC)? Was not His life a surrender of Himself to the holy will and pleasure of His Father? So our souls are to be occupied with the Father’s grace in His Son, if we are to find strength in pleasing Him. The mere avoidance of evil, the not doing this or that, is below our calling. Do we indeed desire to know and to do the Father’s will as His children? Are we zealous in learning to do well, no less than careful to cease from each evil? If not, the day will come when we may begin to do evil again, and with a conscience the less sensitive, because we have learned truth which we do not carry out.

To talk about the Ten Commandments as the rule for the Christian’s walk now, is to go back from the sun which rules the day to the moon which rules the night; it is to eclipse the Lord Jesus by Moses, under the delusive profession of doing God service. In general, what the law exacted from those under the principle of right, the Christian is responsible on the principle of grace to exceed in every possible way (Mat 5:20—NC). The scope of obedience is immensely increased; the inward motives are searched out and laid bare. The tendency to violence, corruption and falsehood is judged in its roots (old man—NC), and suffering wrongfully and withal in love takes the place of earthly righteousness for the disciples. Such is the unquestionable teaching of our Lord and of His disciples; it is darkened, undermined and denied by those who insist on Judaizing the Church by putting the Christian under the law as his rule of life (which, due to misunderstanding is a recurrence of the past unlearned Jews practice—NC). Truly they “understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm” (1 Tim 1:7—NC).

Wm Kelly

http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/
 
Not that God would have it done any other way in which it has been done, but if all men in the OT were as Abraham and others who He used, there would have been no need of the Mosaic Law which came after them. When all of them were brought to, and convinced of their indwelling sin, they chose to remain in belief and in fellowship with God.

-NC

Contemporary Judaizers

“The law is good, if a man use it lawfully”; and its lawful application is expressly not to form, guide and govern the righteous, but to deal with the lawless and disobedient, ungodly and sinful, unholy and profane, and, in short, with whatever is contrary to sound doctrine (1 Tim 8, 9). Sin, we are told in Romans 6, shall not have dominion over Christians, “for you are not under the law, but under grace”; and this is a chapter where the question is the righteousness walk of the saint, not his justification.

Yet in the face of this clear and uniform teaching of the New Testament, the tendency of most Christians habitually is to go back to law, especially where there is feeble separation from the world. But it is easily understood, for the world does not receive or understand the grace of God, whereas it can appreciate in the letter, the righteous law of God. Hence, where the world and the Christians are mixed together, the will of man soon takes the upper hand. Then, as the Christian cannot elevate the world to his standing, he must inevitably sink to that which he holds in common with the world. Thus both meet once more on Jewish ground, as if the Cross of Christ had never been, and the Holy Spirit was not sent down from heaven to gather believers out of the mixed condition into the Body of Christ apart from the world.

Even for the individual Christian, as well as for the Church and most of all for God’s truth, grace and glory, the loss has been incalculable. For the ordinary walk has been reduced to a string of negatives, save in public acts of philanthropy, religious activity, or ritual observances, which the Christian shares with any and everybody that will join him—plain ecumenism. It is not occupation with good according to God’s will, still less is it suffering for the sake of the Lord Jesus and of righteousness from a world which knows them not. This is not Christianity, though it is the state and the system of most Christians.

Did the Lord Jesus ever obey from the fear of judgment (which the Law threatened due to inability to keep perfectly—NC)? Was not His life a surrender of Himself to the holy will and pleasure of His Father? So our souls are to be occupied with the Father’s grace in His Son, if we are to find strength in pleasing Him. The mere avoidance of evil, the not doing this or that, is below our calling. Do we indeed desire to know and to do the Father’s will as His children? Are we zealous in learning to do well, no less than careful to cease from each evil? If not, the day will come when we may begin to do evil again, and with a conscience the less sensitive, because we have learned truth which we do not carry out.

To talk about the Ten Commandments as the rule for the Christian’s walk now, is to go back from the sun which rules the day to the moon which rules the night; it is to eclipse the Lord Jesus by Moses, under the delusive profession of doing God service. In general, what the law exacted from those under the principle of right, the Christian is responsible on the principle of grace to exceed in every possible way (Mat 5:20—NC). The scope of obedience is immensely increased; the inward motives are searched out and laid bare. The tendency to violence, corruption and falsehood is judged in its roots (old man—NC), and suffering wrongfully and withal in love takes the place of earthly righteousness for the disciples. Such is the unquestionable teaching of our Lord and of His disciples; it is darkened, undermined and denied by those who insist on Judaizing the Church by putting the Christian under the law as his rule of life (which, due to misunderstanding is a recurrence of the past unlearned Jews practice—NC). Truly they “understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm” (1 Tim 1:7—NC).

Wm Kelly

http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/

You are so very right brother. I for one am amazed at the amount of intellegent people who are falling back into the arms of law keeping and legalists. It is almost as if they have totally rejected the truth of the epistle oto the Galatians!

I see them right here on this site quote verse after verse to support their thinking when the verses they use having absolutly nothing to do with keeping the law in order to be saved or to stay saved. I am amazed !!!

There were a group of Jews in Paul's time who believed that they could be saved by keeping the Law. This is abundantly clear from Romans 2:17..........
“Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God.”

Those Jews were resting, or relying upon the keeping of God's Law to save them. Paul then goes on to say from Rom. 2:18 to 3:19 to tell the Jews that they had not done a good job of keeping the Law and were hypocrites. He ends his charge against them with Romans 3:20..........
“THEREFORE by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

IMO.....The Law shows mankind his inability to please God in his own self-righteousness. No one can keep the whole Law of God, no one. We all fall short of pleasing God nence the Scripture of Romans 3:23..........
"For ALL have sinned and come short of the approval of God".

Humanity tried to keep God's Law and utterly failed. God's Law had served its purpose in showing men their sinful condition and; thus, need for a Savior. God DIDN'T give us the Law to merit or work our way into Heaven. This is what many people foolishly believe. That is self-righteousness. Persisting to do good is NOT a part of salvation simply because the Law was not given to save us in the 1st place neither was it given to keep us saved!!!!

Great post!
 
I think? I understand the heart of your posts and so I agree. But Christ understood and followed the heart of the law, as well. Some may say you are saying that the law should be put aside. I don't think you are saying that. Christ was born without original sin and did not further sin. WE are all still born in original sin but thru belief in Christ, we can overcome.
 
It is not understood by most yet concerning the differentiation between Law and Grace. All our lives we, and even good bible scholars, have missed comprehending the separation of these two systems, but understanding this slowly coming about.

It's similar to how the Jews could miss the point about Christ in the bible. Most of today's Christian miss in the bible the passing of an old dispensation, and by attempting an admixture of the two, they unknowingly detract from both.
 
It is not understood by most yet concerning the differentiation between Law and Grace. All our lives we, and even good bible scholars, have missed comprehending the separation of these two systems, but understanding this slowly coming about.

It's similar to how the Jews could miss the point about Christ in the bible. Most of today's Christian miss in the bible the passing of an old dispensation, and by attempting an admixture of the two, they unknowingly detract from both.

Yes, that is what I thought you were saying. And I agree, Grace is little understood/appreciated and it is so much easier to argue about Law. But it is thru Grace, that we can even hope to understand Law. Thanks for your reply
 
To me contemporary Judaizers would be those of a sacramental theology, for example, who make salvation contingent upon the observance of religious ceremonies and regulations. Catholicism clearly fits in that camp. Among Protestants are those who assert that water baptism is necessary for salvation - making salvation contingent upon a religious ceremony.

Which denominations are you talking about?
 
To me contemporary Judaizers would be those of a sacramental theology, for example, who make salvation contingent upon the observance of religious ceremonies and regulations. Catholicism clearly fits in that camp. Among Protestants are those who assert that water baptism is necessary for salvation - making salvation contingent upon a religious ceremony.

Agreed Steve! Judaizers are those who say that in addition to what Jesus did to save us........we must keep the commands or the Law to be or even stay saved. And YES, saying water baptism is needed to be saved is WORKS not GRACE.

Anything at all we say must be done by us to be saved or to stay saved is and act of WORKS and in effect is rejecting the gift of God's grace.
 
As always, I am on the side of grace for salvation. Meaning only accepting Grace as the true path to salvation. The rest is an attempt to try to steal salvation from others. It's like a carny barker, saying all you need to be saved is to believe in Jesus. And after you spend your twobits/denari, you get the fine print.
 
No one can keep the whole Law of God, no one.

Humanity tried to keep God's Law and utterly failed.

How's my Brother and Family? God bless ya's! When considering God's omniscience (which to me, answers more questions than any other attribute) His plan wasn't for Adam or anyone to accomplish fellowship on their own. If it were, we could not be as close to Him as Him being--not just with us, as a disciple--but closer, in us, as a Father.

As always, I appreciate your replies!!
 
How's my Brother and Family? God bless ya's! When considering God's omniscience (which to me, answers more questions than any other attribute) His plan wasn't for Adam or anyone to accomplish fellowship on their own. If it were, we could not be as close to Him as Him being--not just with us, as a disciple--but closer, in us, as a Father.

As always, I appreciate your replies!!

Doing about as well as we can. Thank you for asking and how in the world are you and yours?

And of course your thoughts and comments are spot on!
 
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