29 January 2011

29 January 2011

Psalm 55; Isa. 51:1-8; Gal. 3:23-29; Mark 7:1-23

The Lord pleads with the people to look to Him, look to Abraham, give attention to Him for their deliverance is drawing nigh. The promise is temporal and eternal all at once. He promises to bless the land, making the wilderness like Eden and the desert like the garden of the Lord. He also promises that His righteousness and salvation is near and therefore the blessing will be permanent, eternal. Where is our attention? Does the Lord have to plead with us to get us to hear and see or are our eyes and ears always attuned to Him? With so much going on in the world it is tough to sort out everything and to see any hope. As Christians we must fix our lives on Him and our hope in Him always.

Jesus gives a lecture on what is truly important. The Pharisees are primarily interested in jots and tittles while leaving off the main things. It is always a temptation to major in the minors in religious life. What are those things that Jesus focused on in His life and ministry? Were they ritualistic or were they relationship oriented. Here, he says that worship and righteousness are more a matter of the heart than of the small things. We can be good rule keepers and miss it all. Benjamin Franklin set himself to improve in ten ways and tracked his progress in them. They were admirable things and certainly made him a better man in the eyes of the world but as they weren’t done for the love and glory of God, they didn’t matter ultimately. Have we set our lives to primarily love God and love our neighbors or on rules?

The epistle to the Galatians is all about faith v the law. Paul says that the law has been done away with in the sense that it is anyone’s ticket to eternal life. Jesus has fulfilled the law and that means He is righteous in the eyes of the Lord. Through faith in His blood we receive His righteousness, it is accounted to us as if we had been righteous. Our faith in Him should be complete, recognizing His perfection and love we have no need of anything else. Nothing we do could add to His righteousness or our hope of salvation. In faith we can rest in certainty, we need add nothing to faith, in fact anything we try to add to it diminishes it.

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand