Itching ears

[francisdesales]

Now here comes the surprise. Notice Christs answer.

Luk 10:28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

Christ agrees with the lawyer :crazyeyes: !!! If you never sin against the law, what need have you of a savior. This is again the hypothetically perfect person. If one is without sin, and perfect in works, he has no need of Christ.

I've been reading a book called the "Spirituality of Perfection", a book on James. The first several chapters of this book makes a convincing case that the Jewish idea of "perfection" is NOT YOUR our idea of perfection. In a nutshell, "perfection" to the Jews and the writers of the NT was when a person unreservedly dedicated themselves to God. They were not "two-sided", as James wrote (and Jesus said when He told us man cannot serve two masters). It has NOTHING to do with absolute perfection and never sinning. God doesn't expect us to be absolutely perfect in that way. That is the Greek philosophical notion that points to a future, while the Jewish notion points to the now. Naturally, to the Jew, the following of the Torah (which is the expression of God's will) will bring life, so Jesus' answer is not unusual, NOR is it hypothetical. Jesus wasn't giving hypothetical teachings, or teachings meant for another dispensation. They were meant for the here and now, and they CAN be obeyed, as Deuteronomy notes, and the prophets note, and Jesus Himself states...

The idea that Jesus is giving hypothetical teachings is merely reading "saved by faith alone" into the text. It is not there when read within the context of what Jesus says without considering a twisted version of Paul and realizing what "perfection" means to the Jew.

Now the rest of the scripture makes it clear that the nature of man is only evil.

Scriptures have much to say about men. They also note that He is God's greatest creation, made in the image and likeness of God.

Man's righteousness is as filthy rags. We are sinners by nature and choice.

Man ALONE without God. But even the Jews of the OT realized that wisdom comes from God, and that only with God can a man be just and righteous. IF we are sinners by nature, then Jesus never became one of us, but only pretended to be. That would be against the entire tradition of Christianity.

But that answer would not do for the self-righteous lawyer. Notice the lawyers next question.
Luk 10:29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?

But what does Jesus say to the rich young man? Jesus tells the man to give up his wealth - God desires man to be perfect - to have a single-minded approach to Him, to not be "two-sided", to follow ONE master. Thus, in the OT, God was "jealous" when the Jews worshipped other gods. Jesus LOVED the man because he was STRIVING, but had one more thing to do. To set his sight on God, and not money. Again, not hypothetical, but something that man DOES have the ability to do, with the aid of the Spirit.

Who can righteously do good works? Who can righteously keep the law?

Rom 3:10 as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one;
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God;
Rom 3:12 They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; There is none that doeth good, no, not, so much as one:

I suggest you read the context of WHERE Paul got those quotes from... In those very same Psalms, it says that there are also righteous men... Most certainly, Paul was NOT saying that all men were evil, but that those Jews who pridefully thought because they had the Law, they would be given extra credit by God were wrong, because it is not the possessor of the Law who will be justified, by the keeper of the Law - even if it was merely written in their hearts. Read the context of Paul surrounding Romans 3:10-15.

Regards

 

[tim-from-pa]

Well, in all this debate, and the starter of the thread makes her usual exit after it's been going awhile, I would just recommend reading the book of Jashar instead of being critical of something that one does not know anything about.

I have enough faith that God puts the books He felt that were the ones for the edification we needed making it the authoritative presentation of God in one nice package to us, aka the bible. That does not mean there are not other good books to read and consider. Enoch is another good one. I don't know what folks are afraid of reading them for, especially when the bible makes mention of them.