Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Look! I, Paul, tell you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing! And again I testify to every man who becomes circumcised, that he is under obligation to keep the whole law. You are estranged from Christ, you who are attempting to be justified by the law; you have fallen from grace. For through the Spirit by faith we eagerly await the hope of righteousness.

Galatians 5:1-5

This is not throwing shade on male circumcision (something with a LOT of health benefits – female circumcision has NO purpose WHATSOEVER and was NEVER called for by Adonai). This is not saying that Jews or anyone else that circumcises males is doing a bad thing. The question is one of HOPE. Are you leaning into religious rules and saying that only by circumcision do you have a hope of entering into the Kingdom (Genesis 17:1-14)? Or are you leaning into Adonai’s teaching and acknowledging that Jesus, the Son of Adonai, is the only way into the Kingdom (John 14)? Slavery to religious rules will bring nothing but a false hope. Submission to trust in Jesus brings the eager arrival of our salvation. Ruach HaKodesh is here in our lives – among other reasons – to magnify that hope to our understanding. He gives a better view of it as well as focusing it so that we gain real benefit from the revelation.

It’s the age-old question of whether JESUS did the full work or if WE need to work to keep it. I’m not talking about the debate about whether you can lose your salvation or not. This is a more insidious question. Religious thinking says that you can GAIN salvation, but you have to maintain a level of godliness. If you don’t keep yourself from breaking the ‘rules’, you’ll be in real trouble. It’s a maintaining of your relationship with Adonai, your presence in the Covenant, based on your performance. If you’re not godly, you won’t be worthy of healing. Worthy of peace. Worthy of joy. The lack of anything in the Kingdom in your life is always followed to your performance and a failure to maintain godliness. Which is ridiculous. On our own we are completely unable to be godly. We fail EVERY time. That’s why we needed a Saviour in the first place! Just because we are saved does not mean we are – in ourselves – totally different. We are told to seek Adonai because it is inside Jesus that we receive. It is through Jesus’ efforts, and not ours. We make the choice to obey, the rest is up to Him – as it should be.

People in Paul’s time were saying that salvation by trust in Jesus was all well and good, but if you didn’t follow the Jewish rules of Law (embodied in circumcision) you were not in the Covenant. But that is totally against Jesus’ teaching. It isn’t by US that we are saved, but through Him. Not smoking, not drinking, not watching dirty movies, not committing adultery, not swearing, etc are not what saves you or keeps you in a relationship with Adonai. You aren’t looked at with more love by Adonai if you do them or if you don’t do them. His love for us is not dependent on our actions. If it was, He never would have saved us. “For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, by much more, having been reconciled, we will be saved by his life” (Romans 5:10). More than that, He decided on it and spiritually accomplished it before He created the world (Ephesians 1:4; Revelation 13:8). Our performance has NEVER been an issue.

However, we cannot trust someone we don’t respect. We cannot truly love someone if our behaviour shows the opposite. We cannot have a true relationship with someone when we are in almost every way doing that which they find morally repugnant. Try having a marriage like that. It would be a disaster and fail – probably ending in divorce. If we want a relationship with Adonai, we need to focus on Him and His character. We need to learn about Him, reverence Him, worship Him, and fellowship with Him. That is a LOT easier when we are not condemning ourselves for every single time we don’t measure up to what we know we’re called to. When we love Him, we want to be like Him. We want to be like Him because life with Him and life the way He says it can be is better than life any other way. When we truly love Him, we keep His commandments (almost) automatically. It is the freedom of trusting in Jesus. It is the freedom from having to measure, count, and watch every single thing we do. It is the freedom of seeing and cooperating with the process of our character becoming more like His.

It is a truth of the human condition that if you change your behaviour, your attitude will follow. Ruach HaKodesh magnifies the message of the Word. He broadcasts it large and loud across our consciousness so that we can see the way we should go (Psalm 119:105). When we walk in His way, we start seeing the benefit of walking His way. We start desiring to walk His way. And everything starts to align with His will, His way, and in His timing. Everything opens up (John 10:10), instead of shackling us down (Acts 15:10). We can see clearer what Adonai has for us when we walk in the way He sets down for us. Which we do, by instinct, when we are focused on Him and His Way. Ruach HaKodesh is a magnifying glass to help us do just that.

When we listen to what Ruach HaKodesh is pointing out to us in every situation that we find ourselves in, we will see the hope of our salvation coming through for us again and again. We will naturally lean into the things of Adonai, instead of fighting our flesh to keep to a strict list of Do’s and Do Not’s. Rule-based living NEVER works. Organic living by LOVE through trust in Jesus ALWAYS works. We find escape from our tight places (1 Corinthians 10:13). We find that things which are meant to hurt us, in the end help us (Romans 8:28). We find that we choose to reject broken thinking, and learn to follow His lead. Not blindly, but in the light of His love and sacrifice for us. In the hope of His glory present now and ever after. It’s easy to see, when we focus on Him.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: Ephesians 1:18

“(the eyes of your hearts having been enlightened), so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance among the saints” There is a lot that we can do to help ourselves hang onto what Adonai has given us. It is better to live in His revelation so that it is obvious to us and not something that we have to hang onto. We’d have to fight to let it go. To be enlightened is to have greater knowledge and understanding about something. When you truly understand something and have amassed knowledge about it, you don’t forget it. It becomes a part of you that you can simply use. Being enlightened means that you have a rational, modern, and well-informed outlook. Meaning that we are informed in an advanced way. We’re using all the thinking we’re capable of instead of an older, less-informed, and partially understood viewpoint. We’re not being religious or old-fashioned, but have grasped and understood some of the fullness of the revelation that Jesus came and gave us. What’s great is that Ruach HaKodesh is with us to give us access to the very CUTTING EDGE of thought: the mind of Messiah Himself (1 Corinthians 2:16). Adonai isn’t leaving us in the dark. He’s worked things so that we have available to us the very LATEST of the DEEPEST of the BEST of Himself. What a GOOD God!

Your Daily Confession of Elohim’s Goodness:

I taste and see that Yahweh is good; I am blessed because I take refuge in Him.

Psalm 34:8