Temporal and Permanent

Youth is an age of polarization.

I remember as a teenager, being very zealous and legalistic in my Christianity. Whether or not I was "doing well" or "being a christian" was completely based on whether I was
1. Reading the Bible
2. Praying
3. Evangelizing
4. NOT sinning
5. etc etc.

It wasn't until much later that I realized that all these factors were based on me.
On what I was doing.
My eternal salvation, and my sanctification (looking less like the world and looking more like Jesus) was 100% dependent on my doing.
When God reveals to us He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, we need to throw our lives on those words. If I am only as good a christian as I am a well disciplined human being, then why would I need Christ other than to give me a little "boost"?

First, let me point out that religion is much more antagonized in our day than say, a cavalier spirit. Jesus himself was in direct opposition with the religious leaders of his day and spent His time with the sinners and tax collectors of His social group.* 

This morning,  I read a portion of Colossians 2.

"After all, the legal decrees against us and the passions of the flesh controlling us have been nailed to the cross along with us and Christ. He has disarmed the rulers and authorities that held us, therefore, Let no one pass judgement on you in food or drink or regarding the festivals or the Sabbath."

Why?
Why shouldn't we continue to keep the Sabbath as in the old law? Why shouldn't we abstain from certain foods or drink? If God gave it as Law to the Jews, isn't God's law permanent? They are shadows, but the substance is Christ.

Christ is the substance. The laws of food and drink and Sabbath are signals, pointing to a person - Christ. 

 Paul tells us, that the Law and customs of the Jewish people bring no salvation nor sanctification. If they did, God would be obligated to give us salvation and sanctification -


Romans 4: "4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness."



Our actions bear the fruit of our hearts, they do not bear fruit in and of themselves.

 The Pharisees did everything right, but "tax collectors and prostitutes entered the kingdom before they (Matthew 21:31). They are part of the kingdom because they "repented and believed". Both of which are heart issues.

Paul says those who continue and hope in these traditions puff up their self-made religion, and belittling Christ. They are futile in controlling our eager indulgence in the flesh. It must be through Christ and not external regulations that we are sanctified. 

20 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”?22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.


So then how are we made pure?

That will be another post.

*We should, however, recognize the obvious motivation to extinguish religion and spirituality comes from our culture. Since the modern(1900+) and postmodern(1945+) world, Western society has latched on to numerous "cavalier" ideas, from a French/Neo Enlightenment Romanticism to Nietzsche. These values and ideals, as all worldly inclinations, makes their way into the Church. So I encourage you to read this post out of a desire to love Christ and serve the body (and also putting to death the world within you-Colossians 3). Also, I encourage your position as, "Better to err on this side of the pendulum than that." Remember, we are not called to be relevant to this culture.