Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Mark 7:13
We started this series of posts discussing traditions which make the Word of God ineffectual in our lives. Religious traditions are snares that prohibit us from fully experiencing the goodness of God.
As an example, many people will say that God is good. They then turn around and say He controls everything and is using sickness to “teach” them a lesson. This viewpoint invariably places blame of God for all of the bad things happening on this planet.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
John 10:10
God is not responsible for all of the rapes, murders, and wars. He is good and only has good plans for us. It is the twisted view built by religious tradition that is keeping us from receiving what His grace has provided.
We have also seen that there was judgment in the Old Testament. God’s wrath was poured out but this was before Jesus went to the cross and bore the penalty for every sin that will ever be committed.
The wrath and judgment depicted in the Old Testament is not reflective of God’s true nature. We’ve seen that God waited for more than two thousand years before giving the Law. He tried to deal with mankind from a position of mercy only to have us slip further into depravity and sin.
Humanity was becoming so corrupt that God had to give the Law to restrain sin. If He had not society would have become so corrupt that He would not have had a righteous bloodline for the Messiah to come.
God limited sin by releasing His wrath and punishment. This was not reflective of His true nature.
Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
Galatians 3:19
Let’s take a look at this verse in the Young’s Literal Translation:
Why, then, the law? on account of the transgressions it was added, till the seed might come to which the promise hath been made, having been set in order through messengers in the hand of a mediator —
We see here that the Law was given because of man’s “transgressions”. It was only meant to kept mankind in check until Jesus could come.
The Law was meant to be temporary. Christians have tried to live with one foot in the Law and the other in grace. This has resulted in some twisted doctrines holding many in bondages Jesus died to set them free from.
In the most recent posts we’ve seen that God has provided everything for us through His grace.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8
Faith is not based on our performance. It enables us to reach out and appropriate what God has already provided by grace.
Faith is not something we do to get God to move. It is a response to what He has already done and provided through grace.
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
Song of Solomon 2:15
Religious tradition voids the power of God from working in many people’s lives. It is cloaked as biblical teaching that in essence has become like the little foxes Solomon wrote about.
In the next several posts we are going to talk about what God has done with our sin. Many Christians talk about the forgiveness of sins but many never enjoy the blessings made available as a result.
Religious traditions often lead to an impression that our sins are only forgiven until the next time we sin. Most Christians live under a sin consciousness as a result which are not consistent with what the Bible actually teaches. Our goal moving forward will be to address this and to discover what Scripture actually tells us about the forgiveness of our sins.
Thank you for stopping by today. If this post has been a blessing please share our blog with your friends and family.
You can be a vital part in helping MB Media by making a contribution to help support our operation and social media outreaches. Thank you in advance for your support and God bless you!
We use the secure services of PayPal for credit card transactions. When you click the button below, you will be taken to the PayPal secure web sever to enter your credit card information.
If you would like to partner with us on a monthly basis, please enter the monthly amount you would like to donate and click “Make this a monthly donation”. Your monthly support will be automatically sent to us each month when you complete the Subscription Form on PayPay’s site.
MBDevotional 