Page 578 … a Knowledge of sin
“Without the law given by God there is no knowledge of sin.” … Well, that is not exactly true, now is it, Dan! Would you have us believe that before Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the “Tablets of the Ten” that no one knew that it was wrong to murder? – or that it was wrong to steal? – or that it was wrong to rape? – or that it was wrong to bear false witness? – or that it was wrong to commit adultery? … Really?!?!? … Of course they did! Indeed, there is quit a bit of evidence that humankind was well aware of these fundamental moral precepts long before the days of Moses (specifically in ancient China, and ancient Sumeria, and ancient Egypt as well). Yes, it possibly was humankind (meaning the writers of the Pentateuch/the Torah) who provided the megaphone through which God attempted to make these moral understandings binding law, and yet that attempt has obviously proven to have been originally penned by a flawed, savage and relatively ignorant collection of men – hence, the need for the New Covenant of Jesus Christ! Please consider:
“This is the [new] covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach one another or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.’ In speaking of ‘a New Covenant’, He has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.” ~ Hebrews 8:8-13
And besides, it is most important of all for us to know not what the law was before Jesus’ ministry, but rather what it is for us today … And Jesus, at least for those of us in the West, is still the primary relayer thereof; having taken the outdated, primitive, ineffective and often bigoted laws of the Old Testament and brought them into harmony with the Will of his all-Loving Father (please refer to pages 534-539 previously) …
“But the hour is coming, and indeed is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth [Greek = aletheia (Strong’s #225) = Truth not merely spoken, but actively enlivened], for the Father seeks such as these.” ~ Jesus Christ (John 4:23)
“For I have set you an example, that you also should DO as I have done for you … If you understand these things, you are blessed while you DO them.” ~ Jesus Christ (John 13:15-17)
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