Bible Matters #3 (Part 2) Being Perfect?

There are verses that may appear at first glance to justify the translation
"blameless" or "without blemish," as being the correct and appropriate
meaning of the word tah-meem. But a closer look at the context and
circumstances will reveal that the idea of coming to the end of flesh and
its power seems to always be the underlying meaning. For example, King David
seems to boast in his righteousness, cleanness, blamelessness and being void
of any iniquity before God in Psalms 18:20-24. David says he was "blameless"
before God in the King James Bible. But is that so? We know there is NONE
righteous, nay, not one according to Isaiah as well as other writers.

David was born under the Mosaic Law which was still in force. David
committed adultery with Bathsheba which, according to the Mosaic Law, was
punishable by death. Furthermore, to hide his adultery, he set up the
husband of Bathsheba who was one of David's generals to be purposely killed
in battle. Again, this was a sin worthy of death under the Mosaic Law.
Furthermore, he allowed many thousands of people to openly see the Ark of
the Covenant on Mount Zion even though David knew the Levitical Law stated
that anyone who saw the Ark of the Covenant other than the High Priest once
a year under very strict holy circumstances, must die. According to the Law,
David should have been killed many times over, yet he believed he was
tah-meem before Yahweh. Perhaps David had a better understanding of what
tah-meem meant than our modern translators. David was a man after God's own
heart - he TRUSTED God, he put his life into God's hands. We see this
typified in his battle with Goliath. It was not David's belief in his own
strength which brought the victory; it was David's belief that God would
bring the victory that brought down Goliath. We see this trust again when
God gave David a choice of being judged by men or by Yahweh. David chose
Yahweh. Wise move.

The word tah-meem is used to describe in Exodus and Leviticus the animal
sacrifices, that they must be without spot or blemish, again seeming to
point to perfection. But we must remember what happened to these beasts.
What happens to the Passover lamb? Was it not to be completely consumed?
"And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which
remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire." (Ex. 12:10) So
again, we see that the primary idea God wants to convey with this word seems
to be that of being completely empty of the powers of self, of flesh, of the
powers of this world and to have complete reliance and trust in the power of
God.

What Does This Mean To Christians?

It means true Christians, who are NOT filled with their own righteousness,
but trusting ONLY in the righteousness of the cross of Christ and His
ability to fulfill all promises on behalf of mankind, will have "God working
in them to will and to act according to HIS good purpose." (Phil. 2:13) For
many Christians, grace is merely something said before a meal. For others,
it describes a smooth way of carrying oneself. "She's so graceful."

Grace through faith as a theological concept is totally worthless except to
sell books with which to fill empty shelves.  Grace through faith if mixed
with the leaven of self-righteousness breeds an emphasis upon human effort,
and ultimately undermines the grace of God. But His grace through His faith
given to us as a free gift apart from our own works IS the very POWER of God
within a believer. The resurrection power of Jesus Christ is in this very
word GRACE!!! THIS IS THE ABUNDANT LIFE Jesus promised to bring to those who
abide in Him. It is His abundant life to those -- who trust Him -- who
abandon themselves to Him. God's grace plus nothing is Heaven's Bread for
those who empty themselves out that He may fill them with Himself Who is the
Bread of Life. This is the Christian way of life. This is being perfect.
This is taw-meem!

Why is there so little of the power that the early believers manifested
being experienced in the church today? Sadly, it is simply because we have
become SELF-righteous! SELF-filled and SELF-centered. Why did Jesus call the
works of the Pharisees "leaven"? Because it just takes a little bit of
works-yeast to contaminate a person's whole life! Yes, even just a little
reliance on ourselves, just a little law-keeping, just a few ordinances or
"traditions of men" will "MAKE THE WORD OF GOD OF NO EFFECT!" (Matt. 15:6-9)

The Church Has Been Leavened With SELF-righteousness - A Look At Its Fruit

Isaiah calls the righteousness of men, ALL men and women, "filthy menstrual
cloths." (Isaiah 64:6) If Isaiah were alive today and used modern English he
would call our righteousness based on our works "dirty Kotex"! Yes, I
realize your translation probably has "filthy rags," but the scribes and
translators cleaned it up. The Hebrew is usually MUCH more graphic than our
sanitized and politically correct translations.

The following words are those of a minister who lived under the weight of
this SELF-centered gospel for a number of years until it finally took him to
manic-depression: "And what is the practical problem with this self-focused
gospel?  Well, gospel means 'good news.' And this gospel can ONLY be good
news to those who imagine that their 'self' can meet all of its
requirements.  Those who labor under that silly illusion manifest the fruits
of conditional love, joylessness (except in their own accomplishments and
appearance) impatience with the frailties of others, judgmentalism,
self-righteousness, a critical spirit, and only the appearance of
self-control (in certain arenas, such as non-smoking, non-drinking,
non-movie attendance, etc.) and unfaithfulness in the arenas of humility,
forgiveness and mercy.

"However, this self-centered gospel is BAD news for those who DO NOT labor
under the illusion that they can fulfill its requirements.  These folks
manifest the fruits of: love of painkillers (both legitimate and not),
joylessness, depression, self-loathing, hero worship/dependence (idolatry of
people and their opinions), the appearance of gentleness instead of the real
thing, and lack of fidelity due to addiction to emotional, sexual and
chemical painkillers.

"And fairly often the person who has ingested the leavened gospel of
self-focus will fill both roles.  Have you noticed? Yes, on one day, he or
she will strut about as a holier than thou Pharisee, and on the next day,
that same person will be a suicidal basket case, filled with self-hatred and
suicidal despair and depression.

"And what is the root of the DESPAIR that works in the basketcase? It is the
LIE that he or she SHOULD be able to meet all of the requirements of this
self-focused gospel!

"And the root of the PRIDE that works in the arrogant Pharisee is THE SAME
LIE--coupled with the illusion that he or she CAN do it." Endquote.

What can we expect to see in God's own people when our eyes have been
seduced to center on self instead of the finished work of the Cross of
Christ?

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will
be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive,
disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God -- having a form of godliness but denying its power." (2 Tim. 3:1-5,
NIV)

Have you looked around lately? "Forms of godliness but denying its power."
That's what this whole article is all about - revealing how this error came
to be.

When Grace Is No Longer Grace

I wrote at the beginning of this article there would be a test to see
whether one had fallen from grace -- or to determine whether they had any in
the first place. Here it is:

Picture yourself in front of whatever you conceive in my mind is the
Judgment Seat of God. There are only two people left to be judged, you and
Hitler. And God tells you there is only room for one more in heaven. He also
tells each of you to state in writing why you believe you should be in
heaven as opposed to the other person.

If your mind and/or heart begins to dwell on the fact that you have lived a
much better life morally than Hitler did, you've already fallen from grace
or never had any.

If you think about all the horrible evil Hitler did and how such a person
should not be allowed into heaven, you have already fallen from grace or
never had any in the first place.

If you recall that you tried to keep the Two Big Commandments, or the Ten
Commandments as best as you could or that you didn't drink, cuss, or smoke
(too much), then you've fallen from grace or you've never had any.

If you look at Hitler and feel it would not be just if he were allowed in
with you, you have fallen from grace or never had any to begin with.

If you think you should be allowed in and Hitler excluded because you
 "chose" to follow Jesus, you've fallen from grace or you've never had any.

If you haven't exhibited the same supernatural power of the Almighty God
that caused the disciples to prophesy, to heal the sick, to have dreams and
visions directly from God, to possibly speak with new tongues, to raise the
dead spiritually or physically, to have signs and wonders following them,
then there is a good chance you've never experienced the grace of God or
have fallen from it.

Surely the fruit of the Spirit is equally important or perhaps even more
important. And there are some gifts of the Holy Spirit which perhaps are
more difficult to ascertain whether they come from the Holy Spirit or from
the flesh - gifts like teaching, exhorting, giving, ruling and showing mercy
as found in the list in Romans 12:4-8. But I'm afraid way too many of us
hide behind what we personally think as Holy Spirit fruit that others may
find as nothing but rotten flesh. It is easy for us to deceive ourselves
regarding the "fruit of the spirit" - it's a little harder to deceive
ourselves regarding the "gifts of the Spirit."

Grace is indeed fully unmerited favor. It is indeed fully all God and NONE
of man. Period. And anything that you add to your ledger apart from God's
choosing YOU is not grace through faith and will lead to boasting. And
boasting in one's own righteousness is plain old FLESH. "Flesh and blood
CANNOT inherit the kingdom of God" nor its power. (1 Cor. 15:50, KJV) So
THERE is the reason why there is so little of the power of God moving in the
church today, its trust is in flesh - THE CHURCH IS FLESHY!

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and NOT of yourselves; it
is the GIFT of God, NOT of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are HIS
workmanship, created in Jesus Christ for good WORKS, which GOD PREPARED
BEFOREHAND that we should walk in them." (Eph. 2:8-10, NKJV) (Do you see the
connection of good works and God, not our own works?) Christians are doing
their own good works thinking their frantic self-effort and nice-appearing
deeds will keep them saved. Yet it's these very works which are producing
SELF-righteousness which is voiding grace, thus preventing the good works of
God from manifesting! Because we are filled with our own works which produce
SELF-righteousness, we are not empty to receive the good works of God
prepared from the foundation of the world for us to walk in! It's a nasty
catch-22 situation from which we must be set free if the power of the
kingdom of God is going to manifest through us!

Paul, the apostle to the nations, warned with tears so many times of the
danger of mixing just a little bit of our own righteousness (according to
the Law of Moses, or our denomination, or our own sense of morality) with
the free gift of grace through faith. Even our faith is not of ourselves,
but originates from God. Hebrews 12:2 clearly reveals, "Jesus Christ, AUTHOR
AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH."

Just a little leaven, a tiny bit of our own righteousness, will rob us of
the very power of God. Adding even a little of our own righteousness puts us
in the flesh in which there is only corruption -- and no life. Yet we have
all done this at some point, so where is our hope? It MUST be solely in
Jesus Christ.

I think if Paul were alive today, he would write Gal. 3:1-3 this way:

"O foolish Christians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the
truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as
crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by
the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having
begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal.
3:1-3, NKJV)

Did you catch that? The Hitler test makes it quite obvious that almost ALL
Christians have either never tasted grace through faith or have begun in
grace through faith and have almost immediately reverted back to some form
of law-keeping. The law-keeping can be quite subtle; must go to church, don'
t cuss, obey the pastor, do the Ten Commandments, don't do drugs, don't
sleep around, etc. Please don't misunderstand me. Grace through faith is not
a license to sin. But if we trust in our rule-keeping for our standing
before God, for our righteousness, then we quench the very power of God --
we grieve the Holy Spirit -- we fall from grace.
(To be continued.)