The ever changing God

jcha · Aug 31, 2016

Does God Change?

Malachi 3:5"Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me," says the LORD of hosts. 6"For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. 7"From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?'…

Is Jesus the arm of God?

Isaiah 53:The Suffering Servant
1Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.…

John 12:Belief and Unbelief
37Although Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still did not believe in Him. 38This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39For this reason they were unable to believe.

Is Jesus "God with us"?

Matthew 1:23“Behold! The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means, “God with us”).

Hebrews 13:Christ's Unchanging Nature
…7Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Who was Jesus yesterday?

John 1:The Beginning(Genesis 1:1-2)1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. 4In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcomea it.

Has the Word changed God's Laws?

Deuteronomy 12:Warning against Idolatry…31"You shall not behave thus toward the LORD your God, for every abominable act which the LORD hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.32"Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.

Deuteronomy 4:An Exhortation to Obedience
1"Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.2"You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Jesus would be a sinner if He changed the law. Paul is a saved sinner who appears to change the law.

He isn't God if His commands changed.

FreeNChrist · Aug 31, 2016

That God does not change refers to His character, to who He is in Himself. Being perfect He has no need to change in who He is. But God can, will, and does change how He does things, His modus operandi. He is in no way limited to acting only as He has acted in the past.

LaurenTM · Aug 31, 2016

what does change, is the ability of people to understand that Jesus is THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE

no effort of our own can add to anything Christ has accomplished on our behalf

6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.7If you really know me, you will know[SUP]b[/SUP] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14

LaurenTM · Aug 31, 2016

they have not changed...which is why you and me and Joe Blow cannot be saved by trying to keep them

May I suggest you try the New Testament to help your understanding?

jcha · Aug 31, 2016

The definition of what sin is has changed in the minds of many Christians. But did God Change the definition of what sin is?

Grace777x70 · Aug 31, 2016

NO, the Law is still the power or strength of sin.

1 Corinthians 15:56 (NASB)
[SUP]56 [/SUP] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;

The Law came so that sin would increase but Jesus brought grace so that we are no longer under the Law ( any part of it ). Romans 6:14

Romans 5:20-21 (NASB)
[SUP]20 [/SUP] The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

The gospel of the grace of Christ and NOT the law is the answer to sin.

[SUP]21 [/SUP] so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

jcha · Aug 31, 2016

The dispensation of Law is over so the dispensationists say.

Overcoming the World1Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 4For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.5Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 6This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

Grace777x70 · Aug 31, 2016

jcha said:

Yes ...the Fathers' commandments in the New Covenant are not grievous. John tells us in this very same letter exactly what the commandments of God are in the New Covenant. They are NOT the law of Moses.

1 John 3:23 (NASB)
[SUP]23 [/SUP] This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

Come into the New Covenant with the Christians who believe in what Christ has done. Jesus is the real substance of which the law was a mere shadow. Going back to live from the law is anti-Christ that denies the Lord Jesus Christ despite the appearance of good.

Remember Paul said in the last days people would be anti-Christ - NOT anti-God.

God does not change - it has always been about revealing His Son to us. The Law did it's purpose and the true Christian is now dead to the law SO TAHT we could be joined to Another - Christ Himself. (Romans 7:1-6) Don't commit spiritual adultery by deserting Christ ( Gal 1:6 ) for the Law of Moses.

FreeNChrist · Aug 31, 2016

jcha said:

Nonsense. Sin is and always has been anything contrary to the perfect holy character of God.

jcha · Aug 31, 2016

Law of God? How does He write it on our hearts?

This is the part that many miss because they do not understand the whole point of the New Covenant. The New Covenant is not a new law replacing an abolished law, but instead a new heart to replace a stony heart that rejects the Law of God.

In order for the New Covenant to be successful, God must do something to give us the desire to observe Gods law. We need to determine what God did that changed everything.

The letter of the law is designed to kill us by exposing our sin. The law must kill us so that we may be born again. Once we are found dead in Christ and we become the “new man” and we are “born again” in the faith, we then begin to love God. Loving God is defined by keeping His commandments.

1 John 5:3
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

If the purpose of New Covenant is to give us the desire to keep the Law of God, what that really means is that the New Covenant is intended to give us the desire to love God.

How does God create that desire for us to love Him back?
How does God fix the problem of His people not wanting to love Him (keep His commandments)? How did He remove the stony heart in His people? Why do we now want to love God?
Here is the answer:

1 John 4:19
We love him (obedience), because he first loved (grace) us.

Grace777x70 · Aug 31, 2016

The Law Written on Our Hearts is not the Ten Commandments

This is the covenant I will make with them after that time,” says the Lord. “I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” (Heb 10:16)
“This is obviously a reference to the law of Moses,” says the law-preacher. “The Ten Commandments were written in stone, now they’re written in the hearts and minds of God’s people.”

Not true. Here are seventeen reasons why God has not written the Ten Commandments on your heart:

1. The law inflames sin (Rom 5:20) and the strength of sin is the law (1 Cor 15:56). Why would God want to stir up sin in your life?

2. The law condemns (2 Cor 3:9), yet there is no condemnation to those in Christ.

3. The law ministers death (2 Cor 3:7), but God wants you to enjoy abundant life.

4. Law and grace don’t mix. You are under grace, not law (Rom 6:14).

5. Living by the law will alienate you from Christ (Gal 5:4).

6. Living by the law is cheating on Jesus (Rom 7:1-6). Why would God do anything to encourage spiritual adultery?

7. We’re to live by faith but the law is not of faith (Gal 3:12). The law encourages us to depend on ourselves instead of Jesus.

8. Those who live under the law are under a curse (Gal 3:10). Why would God curse those he has blessed?

9. The law binds and enslaves (Rom 7:6), but Jesus wants you free.

10. The law keeps you immature for it makes nothing perfect or complete (Heb 7:19).

11. We have died to the law so that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and “not in the old way of the written code” (Rom 7:6).

12. When there has been a change of priesthood, the law must be changed also (Heb 7:12). For God to write the old law on our hearts would be like saying Aaron is greater than Jesus.

13. God found fault with the law-keeping covenant and made it obsolete (Heb 8:7,13). Why would God insult his Son’s sacrifice by giving you the very thing his sacrifice rendered obsolete?

14. The law is a shadow of the good things to come and not the reality (Heb 10:1). Why would God give you the shadow instead of “the good thing”?

15. The Jews considered the law to be ordained by angels (Heb 2:2). If so, says the author of Hebrews, then it is inferior to the gospel of Jesus (Heb 1:4). Why would God give you an inferior gift?

16. Some Christians think that God gives them the law as a guide to live by, but why would God want you to repeat the mistake of the Galatians (Gal 3:2)? Why would God do anything to make you fall from grace?

17. The old law-keeping covenant required an accounting or remembering of sin, but the new covenant is characterized by God forgiving and forgetting on account of Jesus (Heb 10:17). If the law that God writes in our hearts is the law of Moses, then Jesus died for nothing.

If God has written the Ten Commandments on your heart and mind, you should be able to list all ten with no trouble. Can you? What’s the seventh commandment? You can’t do it because it’s not there, and a very good thing that is too! If the law that God writes in our hearts is the law of Moses, you’re in big trouble.

The good news is that God has written in us a far better law. What is this new and better law?

https://escapetoreality.org/2015/04/...-commandments/

FreeNChrist · Aug 31, 2016

jcha said:

The dispensation of Law is over so the dispensationists say.

Overcoming the World1Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 4For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.5Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 6This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

God has done a New thing and it has made the Old obsolete. And if you knew any better you would be thanking Him instead of working against Him. The new has come, and it is better in every way….because it is centered on Jesus Christ, and He is better in every way.

Grace777x70 · Aug 31, 2016

AMEN! FreeNChrist

What is this new law that is written on our hearts seeing as we know it's not the ten commandments in the form given in the Law.

What is this New Covenant that Ezekiel is prophesying about that was to come and now is here manifested in Christ's finished work on the cross and resurrection?

What is the Law Written on Our Hearts?

Six-hundred years before Jesus came, the prophet Jeremiah spoke of a new covenant that God would make with his people:

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” (Jer 31:33-34)

What is the law that God writes on our hearts and minds? Here are three things it is not:

It is not the law of Moses. As we saw in the last post, if God wrote the Ten Commandments on our hearts then Jesus died for nothing.

It is not a new and improved version of the law. It is not the new commands of Jesus or the New Testament. We cannot please God by keeping a new law any more than we could please him by keeping an old one.

It is not the knowledge of right and wrong that was bestowed upon us – against the Lord’s wishes – by Adam.

So what is this law that the Lord writes on our hearts and minds and embeds in our very being?

It is Christ Himself.

Let’s look at three things the New Testament says about the new law in our hearts.

1. The law of love

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)

Under the old law covenant, love was demanded from you. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.”

But under the new covenant of grace, love is given to you – “As I have loved you” – and out of the overflow of Christ’s measureless love we are able to love others.

How does it happen?

God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Rom 5:5)

God abundantly pours his love into our hearts by giving us the Holy Spirit, a.k.a. the Spirit of Christ. Do you see the difference between the old and new?

Under the old, the law was a rule for weak men to obey. Under the new, the Law is the Spirit of Christ given to us, loving us, and loving others through us.

Under the old, you loved others because you feared punishment. But under the new, you love because a Lover lives in you and it is his nature to love.

Under the old, you had to make an effort to obey. But under the new you have to make an effort to disobey. It’s a whole new way of life.

2. The law of the Spirit of life

It’s important that you understand the difference between the old law (a written code you can’t keep) and the new Law (Christ himself, living in you). Try and live by the old laws, as Paul did, and it make you miserable:

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? (Rom 7:24)

Paul couldn’t keep the old law no matter how hard he tried. He needed a new law and that new law is a Who:

Who will rescue me…? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom 7:24-25a)

Do you see? The old law is a what; the new law is a Who. The old law ministers condemnation and death (2 Cor 3:7-9), but the new “law of the Spirit gives life” (Rom 8:2).

For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor 3:6)

Who gives life? Not a set of rules, but the Spirit of Christ within you. The new law is a Who.

3. The perfect law of liberty

James wrote of “the perfect law that gives freedom” (Jas 1:25), which can be contrasted with the law of Moses that binds (Rom 7:6). What is the perfect law that gives freedom?

Well, what is the implanted word that can save you (Jas 1:21)? It’s not the Ten Commandments or the Bible. It’s Jesus, the living Word who sets us free.

The perfect law of liberty describes what Jesus has done (perfectly fulfilled or completed the law) and the fruit he will bear in our lives (liberty) if we trust him.

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do. (Jas 1:25)

Look into the mirror of Moses’ law and you will be miserable, for it exposes all your faults. But look into the perfect law which is Jesus and you will be blessed, for it reveals his righteousness.

“Don’t just listen but do what it (the perfect law of liberty) says” (Jas 1:22). In other words, allow the Spirit of Christ to convince you that in him you are righteous and holy.

Don’t walk away from the perfect law and forget who you are in Christ. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Look intently with an unveiled face and be transformed into his likeness.

The Law written in our hearts is Jesus

Jeremiah said those who had the new law written on their hearts would know the Lord and would no longer need others to teach them. This is describing your union with Christ. One with the Lord you have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16). His Spirit dwells in you and teaches you all things (John 14:26).

The law of the Lord written into your members is your Father’s spiritual DNA. It is the seed of God birthed in you by the Holy Spirit. It’s Jesus Himself.

How do you know He’s there? Because you are a new creation with new hopes and desires. You no longer want to sin. Your desire is to love God and others and that desire has nothing to do with old rules written in stone.

Christian, you are who you are because Christ lives in you. He is the new law written, by God, in your heart and mind.

https://escapetoreality.org/2015/04/...on-our-hearts/

disciplemike · Aug 31, 2016

Grace777x70 said:

The law of YHVH [is] perfect,
converting the soul: the testimony of YHVH [is] sure, making wise the simple.
The statutes of YHVH [are] right, rejoicing the heart:
the commandment of YHVH [is] pure, enlightening the eyes.
Psalms 19:7-8 (KJV, MBM)

Grace777x70 · Aug 31, 2016

disciplemike said:

The whole Law speaks of what Christ has done. When you read the law in the old covenant - you should be looking to see Jesus in it as fulfilling it.

You continually leave out Christ for the law of Moses.

Christ is our perfect sacrifice and life and He is the real substance of the law. For we have died to the law of Moses SO THAT we can be joined to Another - Christ Himself. Christ fulfilled the whole law.

Colossians 3:3 (NASB)
[SUP]3 [/SUP] For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your life is NOT hidden in the law - it is in Christ.

No one is going to fall for your anti-Christ religion. Christians should be on Hebrew forums telling them about the Messiah but you are in a Christian forum trying to get Christians to desert Christ for the law. Gal. 1:6

disciplemike · Aug 31, 2016

Grace777x70 said:

Great peace have those who love your law;
nothing can make them stumble.
I hope for your salvation, [Yeshuah], O YHVH,
and I do your commandments.
Psalms 119:165-166 (ESV2011, MBM)

Grace777x70 · Aug 31, 2016

disciplemike said:

Come to Christ in the New Covenant. The Father's commandments in the New Covenant are these - and they are NOT the adherence of the law of Moses.

1 John 3:23 (NASB)
[SUP]23 [/SUP] This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

The whole Law speaks of what Christ has done. When you read the law in the old covenant - you should be looking to see Jesus in it as fulfilling it.

You continually leave out Christ for the law of Moses.

Christ is our perfect sacrifice and life and He is the real substance of the law. For we have died to the law of Moses SO THAT we can be joined to Another - Christ Himself. Christ fulfilled the whole law.

Colossians 3:3 (NASB)
[SUP]3 [/SUP] For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

( Your life is NOT hidden in the law - it is in Christ.)

No one is going to fall for your anti-Christ religion. Christians should be on Hebrew forums telling them about the Messiah but you are in a Christian forum trying to get Christians to desert Christ for the law. Gal. 1:6

disciplemike · Aug 31, 2016

Grace777x70 said:

With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Psalms 119:10-11 (ESV2011, MBM)

Grace777x70 · Aug 31, 2016

disciplemike said:

Christ is the Word that is in our hearts now - if you are in Christ. Eph. 4:17

And yes..do not wander from believing in what Christ has done and that we live by Him inside us now. We do NOT live by the law of Moses.

disciplemike · Aug 31, 2016

Grace777x70 said:

Because Ephraim [fullness of the gentiles] has made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.
I have written to him the great things of my law [Torah], [but] they were counted as a strange thing.
Hosea 8:11-12 (KJV, MBM)

The ever changing God

jcha

Guest

FreeNChrist

Guest

LaurenTM

Guest

LaurenTM

Guest

jcha

Guest

Banned

jcha

Guest

Banned

FreeNChrist

Guest

jcha

Guest

Banned

FreeNChrist

Guest

Banned

Banned

Banned

Banned

Banned

Banned

Banned

Banned