God is good, and His love endures forever. Don’t forget it.
Today I intended to do a bunch of work, but I only have one assignment done. Oh well. I won’t blog long. I’m going to finish a scholarship essay tonight. Hopefully on Monday I’ll receive my last letter of reference (thanks Pastor Jim!) needed for the Roothbert Fund Scholarship. I think I have everything together. I decided to revamp my autobiographical essay. I took a simple approach the first time, but now I’ve decided to write more as if I were writing a personal essay for myself instead of someone else. It doesn’t go through my life’s history chronologically. The line of the original line read, “I was born into a middle-class family in upstate New York,” and has been changed to “My life began when I was seventeen.” I think I’ll include poetry within the prose, too. If they want to know about Philip Mohr they’d best read the way I actually write.
Today I read John 5. Jesus’s boldness amazed me all over again. He goes through the testimony of John the Baptist, and that of His miracles and signs and wonders, and that of His Father. Most substantially, though, Jesus addressed the testimony of the Scriptures. He’s so bold! He challenged the very foundation of Jewish tradition, of all manmade tradition. The Scriptures contain the true words of the one and only God, but the Law is not God. The Jews wanted to claim that the way of life was in the Law, but Jesus said the way of life is in Him, and that the Law testifies about Him and points to Messiah.
I had a conversation with Ethan yesterday before I read that passage. I can’t remember the full extent of it, but I remember giving him these two facts alternative to each other: either (1) men can ascent to the throne of God by walking perfectly in His Law; or, (2) because men cannot do this, God must come down to us. Ultimately, the Law cannot make men holy. God makes men holy. The Jews delve into the Law and their tradition because they think in them they can seize God’s salvation and righteousness and holiness and eternal life by their own strength. Though the glory of God is revealed in these letters and words, the gift of God is not in the ministry of death of the old covenant (ref. II Corinthians 3:5-8). The gift of God is of Himself, because He brings the dead to life. The Law in its totality speaks of death as the just penalty for sin, as carried through the sacrifices of men to God. Christ, though He fulfilled the Law as a sacrifice to God, speaks of life as an offering from God to man. If anyone truly believes the words Moses prophesied, they will believe the words of Jesus, because Moses wrote about the Lamb of God and received the promise of the cleft in the Rock. Understand what the psalmist wrote:
Though it’s true that all God’s “commandments are righteousness” (119:172), this is true because God does things according to His word; and God’s doing is our definition of righteousness, not man’s doing. The gift found in Jesus is God’s righteousness, because He is God’s Word, who lived according to the word that was written, to show that righteousness is found not in the words but in the One who spoke them from the beginning, the One who Himself is the Word.
It’s not Jesus but Moses who testifies against the Jews in what he prophesied, because they claim to have received his words but have neither obeyed the Law nor understood the prophecies.
That’s what’s going through my head. I’m going to write that essay now. Toodles.
Today I intended to do a bunch of work, but I only have one assignment done. Oh well. I won’t blog long. I’m going to finish a scholarship essay tonight. Hopefully on Monday I’ll receive my last letter of reference (thanks Pastor Jim!) needed for the Roothbert Fund Scholarship. I think I have everything together. I decided to revamp my autobiographical essay. I took a simple approach the first time, but now I’ve decided to write more as if I were writing a personal essay for myself instead of someone else. It doesn’t go through my life’s history chronologically. The line of the original line read, “I was born into a middle-class family in upstate New York,” and has been changed to “My life began when I was seventeen.” I think I’ll include poetry within the prose, too. If they want to know about Philip Mohr they’d best read the way I actually write.
Today I read John 5. Jesus’s boldness amazed me all over again. He goes through the testimony of John the Baptist, and that of His miracles and signs and wonders, and that of His Father. Most substantially, though, Jesus addressed the testimony of the Scriptures. He’s so bold! He challenged the very foundation of Jewish tradition, of all manmade tradition. The Scriptures contain the true words of the one and only God, but the Law is not God. The Jews wanted to claim that the way of life was in the Law, but Jesus said the way of life is in Him, and that the Law testifies about Him and points to Messiah.
I had a conversation with Ethan yesterday before I read that passage. I can’t remember the full extent of it, but I remember giving him these two facts alternative to each other: either (1) men can ascent to the throne of God by walking perfectly in His Law; or, (2) because men cannot do this, God must come down to us. Ultimately, the Law cannot make men holy. God makes men holy. The Jews delve into the Law and their tradition because they think in them they can seize God’s salvation and righteousness and holiness and eternal life by their own strength. Though the glory of God is revealed in these letters and words, the gift of God is not in the ministry of death of the old covenant (ref. II Corinthians 3:5-8). The gift of God is of Himself, because He brings the dead to life. The Law in its totality speaks of death as the just penalty for sin, as carried through the sacrifices of men to God. Christ, though He fulfilled the Law as a sacrifice to God, speaks of life as an offering from God to man. If anyone truly believes the words Moses prophesied, they will believe the words of Jesus, because Moses wrote about the Lamb of God and received the promise of the cleft in the Rock. Understand what the psalmist wrote:
Your righteousness is everlasting righteousness
And Your law is truth. (Psalm 119:142 NASB)
May Your lovingkindness also come to me, O LORD,
Your salvation according to Your word. (119:41)
Though it’s true that all God’s “commandments are righteousness” (119:172), this is true because God does things according to His word; and God’s doing is our definition of righteousness, not man’s doing. The gift found in Jesus is God’s righteousness, because He is God’s Word, who lived according to the word that was written, to show that righteousness is found not in the words but in the One who spoke them from the beginning, the One who Himself is the Word.
It’s not Jesus but Moses who testifies against the Jews in what he prophesied, because they claim to have received his words but have neither obeyed the Law nor understood the prophecies.
That’s what’s going through my head. I’m going to write that essay now. Toodles.
1 comment:
People should read this.
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