Lawfully poor interpretations of the gospel not only effect believers, but nonbelievers as well !
So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come saying,’ What is this ? ‘ that you shall say to him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ( Exodus 13:14 NKJV ) The true legacy of any christian is not only the internalization of Christs victory and favor ( as well as the good works that result ) but also the furtherance of such a mindset that the gospel could then be understood, and thus spiritually propigated; though interestingly the gospel even in a diminished interpretive form is still capable of impacting peoples lives.
In Romans 2:14-15 the apostle Paul speaking of unenlightened Gentiles mentions that even in their unsaved state a knowledge and or awareness of right and wrong is nonetheless written upon their hearts ( conscience ), though their power to do anything about such a condition is futile because of their unwillingness to accept Jesus Christs redemptive victory. And ironically that moral knowledge of right and wrong without a belief in Christ has the potential to be the greatest distraction from one establishing an essential eternal relationship with God through Christ as such ones opt instead to believe in their own selfrighteousness.
Within this premise of thought are parameters by which a believer ( like a nonbeliever ) can mistake the natural, even emotional sense of right and wrong within ( apart from positional truth) as the voice of the holy spirit in this case, and therefore consider such an influence a llegitimate guide as to ones walk in Christ. And though such thinking for the most part could be harmless and possibly even helpful the subtle snare of it all is how it so easily can replace the spiritual power and absoluteness of Christs victory, with the fleshly presumptuousness of the Adamic life and its powerless limitations. Such are the reasons that religion can be a fixture in society though lacking the genuine unction to change the world.
As an unsaved religious person or saved religionist for that matter ones spiritual definition of divinity and its presence can be much along the lines of the powerless religion as previously mentioned. And therefore like a hypnotic spell one is led to believe in an Adamic cosmic version of God and his son Jesus Christ. Such a version you can be assured is for the most part crossless, and thus missing, though not neccessarily the story of Christs ressurrection, but the practical experience. Interestingly, ones soulish emotional high can at times be wrongfully perceived as the quickening of the holy spirit. Actually such experience would unfortunately be associated with an individuals subjective processing of right and wrong ( religious morality ? ), rather than from the victorious absolutes of scripture and the holy spirit.
Hearkening back to the opening verse the writer is addressing the day when a child questions their parent about their belief in God. Obviously, such an answer can be complicated if viewed in its totality yet no answer is best to begin with than that Christ came from his father to defeat his enemy, as well as ours, Satan. For it is healthy to build a llegitimate awe in any child or, in any adult for that matter, as to Christs eternal achievement. Moral right and wrong are obviously a part of the totality of such an answer yet in reality are a hopeful result as opposed to being ‘ the gospel ‘, and therefore true. As preachers, teachers, parents, friends, even disciples, our hope is that people live honest moral lives but ultimately it is through their own free will whether they do so or not. On the other hand the good news of the gospel is not so happenstance. Christ has defeated Satan and that is a historical fact as well as a healthy motivational tool.
Consequently, we must be most discerning concerning those things we pass on about our christian faith. For are such things merely the moral and lawful expectations of a house of bondage, or are they about a hstorical moment in time, yes, in time, when as a result we were allowed to become one with the master, and therefore capable of understanding just what it means to overcome !
O.N.RIDER is seminary educated and living in Baltimore MD
Personal encouragement: Read more books rather than watching to much television !
All devotionals of The Hour Glass by O.N.Rider can be found at http://bc3f86.wordpress.com/
