Enjoyment of the covenant blessings by the nation were
predicated on obeying the voice of the Lord.
Hearing the words, knowing them, isn’t enough, obedience is
demanded. Hearing and knowing can mean
nothing more than making the right sacrifices for sin rather than doing
righteousness. In our context, it can
mean praying for forgiveness, presuming on grace rather than living a life in
keeping with His sacrifice on our behalf.
Here, the Lord says that they have not obeyed and sacrificial flesh
isn’t what He wants. A consistent theme
through the prophets was the idea of obedience.
The first sin was actually not eating the fruit of the tree, the Lord
said to Adam, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have
eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you…”
Whose voice is obeyed is the critical factor. If you aren’t obeying the voice of the Lord,
what voice are you obeying? Repentance
is then demanded, not just confession.
How can Jesus say that they are first, not of Abraham. His proof is that they do not do the works
Abraham did, acts of faith. Rather, they
are acting as those under slavery, the slavery of sin. They are secondly, not of God and the proof
of that is that they do not love Him who does the works of God and makes Him
known. Their rejection of Jesus is
tantamount to a rejection of God the Father.
That is a powerful claim, one I would certainly never be comfortable
making because I am not perfectly righteous.
Finally, He says that they are the children of the devil, the father of
lies. Can you imagine someone coming
into our church or small group and saying that?
Is there any possible way you could react well? Jesus bases His claim on a sound premise, “Which
one of you convicts me of sin?” If they
are unable to convict Him of sin, should they not then listen to His
words? In fact, He is calling them to
reconsider their own notions of righteousness and sin, calling them as a
prophet to see what God sees.
We have died to sin and been raised to newness of life. Paul says that is the meaning of
baptism. We are then to live as new
creations, not like the old man, living according to the devices and desires of
the sin nature but by the new nature, the Spirit. The proof of belief is found in the new way
of life that finds sin repugnant and righteousness attractive. Have we died?
That is the central question around which all this turns. Are our desires changed from before we knew
Christ? We should have a new outlook on
all things once we have put on Christ, the old things that allured us should
have been exposed as unworthy. Our lives
should look different.
No comments:
Post a Comment