Thou Doest Protest Too Much

The High Cost of Legalism: Many Christians insist on putting themselves under the Law. Bob shows us the devastating consequences that often follow when they don't choose to live in God's grace.

Today's Resource: Gospel of Mark Bible Study DVD set or HD Video Download.

We Christians might assume that the Lord's favorite title for Himself, being God the Son, would be, the Son of God. Indeed, the Gospel of Mark begins by identifying Jesus in that way. However, five times more frequently, Mark uses Jesus own favorite title for Himself, the Son of Man. Throughout all of eternity past, He had always been the Son of God. However, to become the Son of Man, He would need to lower Himself. Indeed, the Lord lowered Himself in so many ways, as He would need to do even to have the evangelist Mark write this amazing account of His life, death and resurrection.


* Lying and Legalism: This seems like as good a place as any to list the places in the Bible where, with God's approval, the righteous lied to the wicked. In the process, they received God's blessing. This is a legalism issue. Legalists tend to struggle with the Lord's teaching that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man. Thus, even though God prohibited Israel from doing work on the Sabbath, because of the nature of the Sabbath law, of course there would be exceptions. For example, even though the prohibition extended even to the gathering of sticks, if an Israelite came upon a child freezing in the wilderness, if lighting a fire to save the boy required the man to pick up sticks, of course he should do so even if it were the Sabbath. The actual sin against God would be in letting the child die to avoid working on Saturday. Using actual historical examples, legalistic Christians get confused about the morality of lying to a German Gestapo agent who asked whether or not you were hiding Jews. Lying to the wicked to save the innocent does not violate God's prohibition against bearing false witness against your neighbor. As a general rule, of course, it is a sin to tell countless kinds of lies. But there are plenty of examples in the Bible of God's servants, and even of God Himself, deceiving the wicked by lying to them. For example, when the Syrian army came to arrest Elisha, by the power of God the prophet blinded them and told them that they had arrived at the wrong house, and that he would lead them to the man they were searching for, yet instead, he led them into a trap, at which time at the request of Elisha God restored their sight, and then they saw that they had been deceived. The Hebrew midwives not only disobeyed the government's command that they kill the male infants, but they also lied to the king, and God blessed them by giving them children of their own. Rahab lied to the government to protect the Jews who were hiding nearby, and God then included her in the geneaology of Jesus Christ. God deceives the wicked in the Scriptures, and instructs His people on how to decieve them, for example, by laying a trap in the ambush of Ai. In World War II the allies created a fake cardboard army to deceive the Germans regarding the location of the invasion at Normandy. Praise God!

* Biblical Civil Disobedience: Half of those listed in Hebrews Hall of Faith were arrested for disobeying the government, and the New Testament tells us that, "We must obey God rather than men." For a discussion of the scriptural material on this, and how it justifies those who lied to and even disobeyed the governing authorities, like Rahab, Corrie Ten Boom, the Hebrew midwives, etc., listen to Bob's God's Criminal Justice System seminar!

* Brady Campaign Marching in the Memorial Day Parade: Come on out and march in the Memorial Day Parade with Bob & the Brady Campaign! If you are in Colorado, then Bob invites you to march with us on Monday, and it's only about a mile. So come on out! See more at ColoradoRTL.org... UPDATE: Brady's mom Heather and grandmother Terri carried the a huge banner to lead the way! We had about 50 people marching in campaign t-shirts, and we handed out thousands of Brady post cards to introduce the Brady Amendment 67 to the crowds lining the parade route! 

Post-show note: If you stay alert, you'll notice that Christians who have bad theology will tend to put Old Testament Israel under grace, and New Testament believers under law. Ironic!