This Week Tyler Jones continues the study of the Sermon on the Mount.
Indicatives & Imperatives
- Indicative: indicate facts about a situation or a person
- Imperative: actions essential to accomplish in light of the indicative
Matthew 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
Genesis 17:7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
1 Samuel 2:2 There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no rock like our God.
Nehemiah 9:6 You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.
Types of Hebraic Law
- Ten Commandments
- Torah
- Whole of Scripture
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Scribal Law
No work on the Sabbath: To carry is a burden; a burden is work: you must not carry:
Food - equal in weight to a dried fig
Enough - wine for mixing in a goblet
Milk - enough for one swallow
Honey - enough to put upon a wound
Water - enough to moisten an eye-salve
Paper - enough to write a customs house notice upon
Reed - enough to make a pen
Philippians 3:4-6 I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless.
1 Sa 16:7b The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
Genesis 8:21 Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.
Phil 3:7-9 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
Reflection Questions
What is the law? What does the law do? Why is God able to dictate law? How do indicatives and imperatives help us understand the freedom that the law brings?
Law, all laws, depend on a standard and or an ideal. The power of biblical law is the fact that God is the standard and the ideal. Spend some time praying and asking God to help you understand how He is the standard of beauty, the ideal of justice, and the perfection of goodness. Allow God's presence to change you.
Righteousness, being right with God, comes for Christ and Christ alone. So, what are you pursuing with your life? Will it bring you more of Christ or less of Christ?