“Liberty and the Standards of Jesus” “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free…” Galatians 5:1 A spiritually-minded person will never come to you with the demand – “Believe this and that “; a spiritually-minded person will demand that you alien your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One whom the bible reveals (see John 5:39-40). We are called to present liberty for the conscience of others, not to bring them liberty for their thoughts and opinions. And if we ourselves are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty – the liberty that comes from realizing the absolute control and authority of Jesus Christ. Always measure your life solely by the standards of Jesus. Submit yourself to His yoke, and His alone; and always be careful to never place a yoke on others that is not of Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone see things exactly the way we do, they must be wrong. That is never God’s view. There is only one true liberty – the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right. Don’t get impatient with others. Remember How God dealt with you – with patients and with gentleness. But never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, “ Go ….. and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19), not, “Make converts to your own thoughts and opinions.”” - Oswald Chambers The more I pray for knowledge and understanding in God’s word, the more I find myself ill equipped to many of today’s challenges that stand before me. The more spiritual I become or believe I have become the more I find a vast awakening still remains in my life and mind. Thus I find more questions than answers to the many challenges before me. Regardless my faith allows me the comfort and peace of knowing when I am ready God will reveal the answers I seek. Galatians 5:1 reminded me of something I learned as a child and have long forgotten many times over only to learn them again and again…. Thus is the question our Nations citizens and leaders earnestly need to be reminded: The question arises, what are The Standards of Jesus? “Jesus Christ is the revelation of right in life. Whatever he approves is right. Whatever he condemns is wrong. But what would He approve if He were here to-day, and what would He condemn? It is possible to err in either of two ways in answering this question. (1) Some attempt to apply with rigid literalness the exact sayings of Christ to present conditions. “Sell all that you have.” “Lay not up treasure on the earth.”. . . But this view is impossible. None of its advocates sells all that he has. . . . It is un-Christlike. . . . He came to displace legalism by the spirit of a true life, to supplant prescription by principle. . . . “The Spirit will come,” He said. “He will guide you.” (2) On the other side men err in so refining away the teaching of Jesus in ethical sublimates that nothing sold and stable is left. Jesus established no organization, they say. He laid no hard constraints upon men. He broke up the enslavements of the past whether of opinion or ritual. . . . But Jesus was not just this. He came to give men power to live a new and eternal life, it is true. But the new life was to be eternal life lived in time before entering upon eternity. And He revealed in Himself the objective standards and principles of the eternal life thus abiding in time. Following in Jesus’ steps accordingly is not wearing the sort of clothes which He wore. Neither is it merely the possession of sweet feeling towards all men irrespective of the moral life. It is the application of conduct to-day under its changed conditions of the principles which establish and organize expression in the life and teachings of Jesus nineteen hundred years ago, but which, because they are principles, are not local, transient, and personal, but universal and abiding. The purpose of the question is to seek in the life of Christ for some of those principles which should guide our lives. These principles found one application in His life. He lived in His own age and country, and He fitted Himself to His time and the people among whom He moved. We live in another age, and the methods and problems of our life are different; but the same principles which guided Him are to guide us. “That study is most directly helpful which leads us to look straight at Him whom Luther called “the Proper Man,” who was the revelation of the Father’s will for every man. What Jesus was, the Father would have each of us be. What Jesus did, the Father would have each of us do”. Speer’s writing makes me think a good deal about the United Christian Endeavor Society, in which Dr. Bob participated so actively as a youngster. That Society asked so many times, “What would Jesus do?” And a good deal of its inspiration came from the famous book by United Christian Endeavor writer and leader (Charles M. Sheldon. In His Steps. Nashville, Broadman Press, 1935). This book was owned and circulated by Dr. Bob! In Chapter III, after writing about “Jesus and the Father” (Chapter I) and “Jesus and Prayer” (Chapter II), Speer wrote about “Jesus and the Will of God.” He began: “The ruling principle in the life of Jesus, both in its prayer and in its service, was the will of God. He conditioned His prayers upon the Father’s will (Luke 22:42), and He declared that He never did anything but the will of His Father (John 5:30). He found the truest relationships in life, not in the mere ties of flesh and blood, but in common devotion to God’s will (Mark 3:35). In doing that will was His meat and drink, so that He could even forego other nourishment while some noble ministry sustained Him (John 4:34). He taught His disciples to love it. They were to pray not so much for a million details, as simply that the will of God might be done on earth as in heaven (Matt. 6:10). Those were to enter into His kingdom who did the will of His Father (Matt. 7:21). “Whoever wills to do God’s will, he shall be able to understand Jesus’ teaching, to “behold” Him as the open way to the Father, and the peace and strength of His noble will (John 7:17). This was the preaching and practice of Jesus about the will of God. 1. It delivered Him from all fear. Nothing can intimidate God’s will of the man who is set in it. “Fear not,” said Jesus (Luke 12:7, 32). 2. It brought Him perfect steadiness of life and composure of heart. There is no fitfulness or vacillation in God’s will. . . . 3. It gave Him the power of God. God does His will through the man who does God’s will . . . . As Jesus did the will of God, we are to do it. 1. And it is to be with us, not only submission to power above our own, but also partnership in power greater than our own. . . . 2. It will be with us a deliverance from sin. . . . 3. It will glorify life into personal partnership with the living God. . . . 4. It will open to us the secret of accomplishing prayer (1 John 5:24). 5. And make us sharers in the abiding eternity of God (1 John 2:17)”. Let’s put the magnifying glass on the principles of the Bible: 1. Jesus did not attempt to issue a code of laws to guide human conduct. He put men in possession of great moral principles which they would have to apply themselves. . . . 2. It might seem from Jesus’ teaching that He was not doing this, but rather dealing with points of application of principle to practice, He was so practical and illustrative (Matt. 5:39-42), But he taught in this way in order to make people understand, and the illustrations He used were themselves such as to make some principle perfectly clear. They set up standards. . . . 3. And those standards were absolute, the more boldly absolute because Jesus intentionally framed His teaching in direct opposition to the casuistically method of the scribes. . . . He cut off escapes and pretexts, and taught that standards were standards. 4. Men say: “I think this course is right. My conscience does not reprove me. Therefore it is right for me.” Nonsense. Jesus told His disciples that some day men would kill them conscientiously and for God’s sake (John 16:2). He pointed out that there is such a thing as moral color-blindness (Matt. 6:23). 5. Jesus was, then, the teacher of absolute principles. He made no comparisons, no abatements for human lust or weakness. Perfection was His standard (Matt. 5:48). He had attained it (John 8:29). He demanded it. We are to be His disciples in this. Right is to be right. Thinking it right or thinking it wrong does not make a thing right or wrong. It is right or wrong irrespective of our thought about it. To know whether it is right or wrong, drag it into Jesus’ presence, and see how He looks at it and how it looks before Him. . . .” The 4 Standards! [Truth – the standard of Absolute Honesty] “1. Jesus set up an absolute standard of truth. Find all His allusions to lies. If Satan is the father of lies, how can any lie be justifiable? Jesus did not make truthfulness depend upon its profitableness or its loss. Men must be true and speak the truth regardless of consequences.” [Unselfishness – the standard of Absolute Unselfishness] “2. Jesus set up an absolute standard of unselfishness. This was His own spirit. . . . The kingdom with its service of God and man was to be above home, friends, comfort, life (Matt. 19:29).” [Purity – the standard of Absolute Purity] “3. Jesus set up an absolute standard of purity. He tolerated no uncleanness whatsoever. The inner chambers of imagery and desire must be pure (Mark 7:15). A hand or an eye, outer or inner sin, must be sacrificed to the claims of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:29, 30).” [Love – the standard of Absolute Love] “4. Jesus set up an absolute standard of love (John 23:34). Neither dirt (Luke 16:20), nor poverty (Luke 14:13), nor social inferiority (Luke 7:39) were annulments of the law of love. He Himself loved to the limit (John 13:1), and with no abatements. The law of love makes it impossible to say: “I don’t like those people. I can’t love them.” Jesus Himself Was the Standard “Jesus Himself was the standard He set up. He was unchangeable. He had been before Abraham (John 8:58). He would be forever (Heb. 13:8). The absolute Teacher was the absolute lesson. It is a great thing in this day of wavering, of quibbling by moral evasions and straddles, to have a faith and a faithful Master who cannot be moved”. References – A Journey with Jesus, Dr. Robert E. Speer and the Four Absolutes King James Liberty Annotated Study Bible © 1988
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 18:15:38 +0000
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