Building Faith

 I learned a money saving tip recently that I had to share with you... Most people have foundations for their homes - but no one actually lives in their foundation. So, you can just tear out the foundation and use all of that material to then build an addition onto your house for virtually 'free'! Pretty amazing, right? It makes perfect sense...

Of course that makes no sense at all. Most people understand that a foundation is essential to a home. Without it, anything you build has nothing to 'anchor' to - nothing supporting it. When a storm comes, it'll blow over or fall under its own weight.

Many people in the world live their lives like that. 'Live your truth', 'follow your heart', 'God just wants you to be happy'. They seem like positive affirmations of freedom and hope, but in reality they don't have any solid foundation outside of our own self interests. And many people even try to live out their faith in a similar way - as a faith without a supporting foundation. And when the 'winds of culture' come, when the storms blow - their faith isn't really secured to anything and it, too, can start to crumble under its own weight.

The foundation for our faith must be God's Word, in its entirety. Many in the world would like to tear down that foundation with accusations of Biblical inconsistencies. They claim, 'You believe the Bible is God's Word, but why do Christians only follow some of it?' 'The Bible says not to judge, but you certainly judge a lot!' But what needs to be understood is that the foundation of our New Testament faith has a foundation of its own... So, how do we address these questions? Is our...

I. Faith and foundation consistent?

Do we selectively apply some passages but ignore others? Yes, we are to completely follow God's Word - but there are those without an understanding of God's Word who try to use it to discredit Christianity. For instance - I had one friend, trying to defend his personal view of human sexuality, who accurately pointed out that Christians do not follow such passages as Leviticus 19:19 (NIV)...

Keep my decrees. Do not mate different kinds of animals. Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.

It says that in scripture. According to that passage, cotton poly blends would be prohibited. And there are also Old Testament prohibitions against eating shellfish and raw meat and pork. Some might ask, 'if you say you believe the Bible and the Bible is true, that it's all God's Word' - why do you...

A. Ignore some of God's commands?

Now, of course, we can't really expect those outside of the Church to fully understand the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament; the Old covenant and the New. We are a New Testament Church - but how do we answer them about which parts we follow and which we don't?

For instance, the Ten Commandments are in the Old Testament. - 'I am the Lord Your God, have no other false gods', 'Honor your father and mother', 'Do not murder', 'Do not commit adultery' - we still follow those commands from the Old Testament. But what do we say about "Honor the Sabbath"..? Why is it that we keep some of the 'ten commandments' but not others? Old testament people were commanded to be dragged out of the camp and stoned to death for breaking the Sabbath. I can't recall the last time I encouraged anyone to stone someone for working on the Sabbath... So are we inconsistent...?

The Old Testament contains entire books devoted to the various sacrifices and complex rules for ceremonial purity and cleanliness. God had commanded specific ways to atone for sin and specific rules you had to obey in order to approach Him in worship. You couldn't eat certain foods, you had to dress a certain way - you had to be ceremonially pure in order to enter into God's presence.

I've talked about this next part before, but it's important that we understand this concept. One thing that many people struggle with is the difference between...

B. Ceremonial and moral laws

And I don't mean them as just 'ceremony' as something solely ritualistic or unimportant by any means. God spelled out in the Old Testament all of these specific things for a reason. He doesn't always share the 'why' behind all of these rules - but then again, He doesn't have to - He's God and whatever He says goes.

But even in the Old Testament, many writers hinted that the 'ceremonial laws', the sacrifices, the temple worship regulations - they all pointed forward to something beyond just themselves. We see that foreshadowed in the Old Testament passage...

Jeremiah 31:31-33 (NIV)

"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. (32) It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD.

(33) "This is the covenant I will make with the house 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."

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, appointed by Jesus Himself, made it clear that the apostles understood the Old Testament moral laws were different from the ceremonial laws.

Romans 13:8-10 (NIV)

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. (9) The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (10) Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

So, yes, love is the fulfillment of the Old Testament law and we're not under the Old Law anymore as a Church established under the New covenant - BUT, we can't just pull out that passage out of context and throw out all of the Old Testament Law. Those Old Covenant moral laws are still binding because of God's character - His integrity, His love - His faithfulness. All the Old Testament says about loving our neighbor, caring for the poor, generosity with our possessions, social relationships, and commitment to our family is still in force. And the New Testament repeatedly reaffirms those 'moral laws' and prohibitions.

And we see that Jesus - who came to fulfill the law didn't abolish the Old covenant moral laws, but actually pushed them even further. The Old Law said, 'Do not commit adultery' - a strong moral law. Jesus said, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." - An even stronger moral law! Jesus didn't say that Old Testament prohibitions were now 'okay' because we're not under the law - but He essentially took them deeper...

And again, with this understanding that we are no longer under the Old law, Paul still wrote, in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (NIV)...

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders (10) nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And this is not meant as a weapon of condemnation of anyone outside of the Church, but Paul was specifically writing to those in the Church - to call them to obey the 'moral laws', to call them to repentance. Paul restates the 'moral laws' from the Old Testament but not the 'ceremonial laws'. Paul made a distinction between those different laws. Does that mean that Paul's teachings of Christianity are inconsistent? No, because when you read the whole story - the Bible tells us that...

II. Jesus changed everything!

When Jesus came, God in the flesh - He's allowed to change the rules. Jesus declared all foods clean - including pork and shellfish. Jesus even 'broke' the 'ceremonial laws' in other ways - He touched lepers and dead bodies, He healed on the Sabbath. Jesus changed the 'ceremonial laws' - how we approach God, how we worship - but not how we are to live and behave morally.

The writer of Hebrews explained it this way with Jesus' teachings about our relationship with God in Hebrews 10:8-10 (NIV)...

First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). (9) Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. (10) And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Old Testament Temple was torn in two symbolizing that the need for the entire sacrificial system with all its 'ceremonial laws' had been done away with. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for sin, and now Jesus makes His followers "clean" - not some set of rules. And the entire book of Hebrews explains that the Old Testament 'ceremonial laws' were not so much abolished but fulfilled by Jesus.

So our faith isn't inconsistent in accepting the Bible's teachings. Actually, going back and following all of those ceremonial laws would be the inconsistent thing to do as it would completely ignore Jesus' sacrifice. So Jesus changed everything about the ceremonial laws, but not the 'moral laws' as He took the 'Good News' of His coming from applying just to His chosen people, the nation of Israel...

A. To all nations

The Old Testament is a record of the history of the Nation of Israel; God's chosen people through whom the Messiah would come. But when that Messiah came, when Jesus came - the focus of the law went from guiding a nation state to leading anyone to follow Jesus.

In the Old Testament, things like adultery or incest were punishable with civil sanctions like execution - public stoning. That's because at that time God commanded for His people that all sins had civil, public penalties. But in the New Testament, the people of God are an assembly of churches all over the world, living under many different governments. Sin continues to be sin - but the way we are to deal with sin changes. The moral law remains for all believers - but Jesus changed how believers are to deal with those sins.

And again, the application of the 'ceremonial laws' changed with taking Jesus' message outside of the nation of Israel. In the New Testament, some well meaning Christians went around teaching that some of the ceremonial laws that applied to Jewish people under the old law should now also be applied to 'non-Jewish folk' who wanted to follow Jesus. The Apostles got together and prayed for insight as to how to handle this situation. James, the leader of this early Church, the brother of our Lord, stood up and said, in Acts 15:19 (NIV)...

It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

And after much study and prayer, they all concluded, in Acts 15:28-29 (NIV)...

It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: (29) You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

They were again making a separation between the old ceremonial laws and the moral laws for anyone who wanted to follow Jesus. In order to 'keep the peace' among the Jewish and non-Jewish Christians, they only included three of the hundreds of Old Testament ceremonial and civil laws. They understood that the 'moral law' remained but that Jesus changed everything else!

For those who claim the Bible is inconsistent between the Old and New Testaments, they need to understand the Bible as a whole. You can't fully understand the New Testament faith without the...

B. Old Testament foundation

There is an Old Testament and a New Testament, but the Bible is one long story composed of 66 different books all pointing in the exact same direction. The story develops more fully in each Book, but it starts with the history of God's people and the promise of the coming Messiah, peaks with Jesus and His life and sacrifice and resurrection, and then continues with the work of His Church and the promise of His return.

Without the Old Testament, we can't understand the depth of Jesus' sacrifice for all mankind. Without the Old Covenant, we miss the faithfulness and ages long anticipation of the fulfillment of a long awaited promise of deliverance. We are no longer under Old Testament law, but that doesn't mean it's not still essential to the story. And also, we can't ignore any of the Old Testament moral teachings as they are the foundation for Jesus' moral teachings.

Once you understand the entire story of the Bible, of how God created mankind, allowed us free will, how He pursued His chosen people and how He Himself came through them in the person of Jesus Christ - once you understand the unity of the story - once you understand that the entire Old Covenant was pointing to the New Covenant under Jesus Himself - then all the various parts of the Bible make sense.

Christianity is consistent - following Jesus is the continuation of the story of God's people.

So What?

At the beginning, I joked, 'no one actually lives in their foundation' - it's true, but it is still a vital part of the whole house. We don't live in the foundation of our faith - but that foundation is still essential. We don't live under the Old Covenant law, but it's essential to fully understanding our New covenant faith.

Because of what we celebrate at our communion time - you no longer have to make daily animal sacrifices to atone for your sin. You don't have to follow hundreds of dietary restrictions and difficult rules and laws to approach God. Because Jesus changed everything, we no longer have to go through a priest to talk to God. We can pray, through the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus, directly to our all powerful, almighty God. And He hears our prayers!

We need to remember that there are a lot of people who need hope - hope that we have - found in Jesus, and Him alone. We are free from the Old Law - free from our sins - but also freed to do something...! Honor Jesus' sacrifice by doing something - graciously share the message of Jesus with someone who doesn't know Him!