Yeshua Explored
26th September 2022
God’s Laws vs Man’s laws
Which ones do we follow?
Previous articles are still available on the Premier Christian radio website – https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Blogs2/Yeshua-Explored – (until they finally pull the plug!)
And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:1-2)
A Law that has been initiated in the Mind of God is going to be a good one, undergirded by absolute truth and unsullied by the agendas of man. It can be trusted, even if it is not completely understood as in the case of some of the stranger statutes and regulations among the 613 given in Genesis to Deuteronomy, the five Books of Moses, the Torah.
A Law that has passed through Parliament onto our statute books, has passed through the mind of man and the various agendas of influential groups in our current society. It will be tainted by compromise and bartering between the relative truths of all the people who will be affected by the Law. It will be a Law that works according to the current climate and, if it doesn’t work so well as society changes, then it will go through further amendments and compromises. It is a fluid situation, there’s no more carving on tablets of stone for our lawgivers!
This is, after all, how the world works these days, or rather the kingdom of the World. The “Ten Commandments” came from a very different mindset, the kingdom of God. We need to understand the dynamic that exists between them. Although God is ultimately in control of all earthly powers …
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. (Romans 13:1)
… Satan has been currently given control of the Kingdom of the World.
I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, (John 14:30)
We have a foot in both camps, we live in the World’s kingdom but we are governed by the principles of God’s Kingdom, guided and empowered by God’s Spirit. When we provide a good witness of God, then we are demonstrating a flavour of God’s Kingdom to those living by a very different set of rules. In the matter of the same-sex Marriage Bill (see previous article) those Northern Irish politicians did that very thing and, by doing so, stood up for the truth and the principles that guide them as people of God.
I chose this example of a man-made Law because it is very relevant to those foundational verses I have been so fond of repeating:
And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:1-2)
God has chosen to deal with mankind through covenants, some made with individuals, such as Abraham, Moses and David, but others as general agreements to cement our relationship with Him. One such covenant regards marriage.
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” (Ephesians 5:31-33)
Here Paul tells us that something as sacred as Christ’s relationship with the Church is a mystery modelled in the flesh by man’s relationship with his wife within the marriage bond. If we meddle with the model, then we are mocking something sacred and dear to the Heart of God. To redefine marriage is to taint the Holy covenant that is at its heart. When God declares out loud that it is He who demonstrated His mighty powers to the Hebrews and that our side of the bargain is to keep the laws He has made for us for our own good, He is also declaring us as a people bound to Him by covenant. He reminds us exactly Who we are dealing with, even those of us reading these words thousands of years later and we meddle with His Words at our peril, particularly those of us in covenant with Him.
If the Kingdom of the World seeks to redefine marriage, it is their business because all they are doing is borrowing a technical term and tweaking it according to their own agenda. But on no account should they expect to have God’s seal of approval on what they are doing. The danger is when Christians are sucked into this, allowing the Kingdom of God to be tainted. Beware, Church, you really don’t understand Who you are dealing with. They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7)
One last time:
And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:1-2)
In the Jewish Haggadah (the guidebook for Passover Seder services) it declares that in each generation each person is obligated to see themselves as if they personally came forth from Egypt. That should be equally valid to those of you “grafted in” to the Jewish (Abrahamic) covenant. We should be owning these words.
It’s a declaration of His authority. It is laying the ground for those words that follow, etched on stone tablets and etched on the hearts of all who call themselves people of God. The Sinner’s Charter would seek to ignore this declaration, (as, sadly, do many in the Church too). Or, instead, it is substituting it with the following words:
And Parliament brought forth Laws. “Our authority is as elected politicians, who you must trust to guide you through our wisdom and desire for only the best outcomes.”
The story begins …
This is an extract from the book, Sinner’s Charter: Are the ten commandments for today?, available for £10 at https://www.sppublishing.com/the-sinners-charter-260-p.asp
