The Law
I'm still collecting stories and interesting facts about Seminary life, and that series will be starting soon. However, I still will be doing devotional thoughts interspersed between Seminary life posts. I find commenting on Scripture a good exercise for my spiritual life. The next series that we'll be doing is the 10 commandments.
In my devotions I have just started reading the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a cup bearer for King Artaxerxes of Persia. If you want more of the backstory go check out the book of Nehemiah. The backstory story is not really important for this post, but it got me thinking.
The rebuilding of Jerusalem was happening during this period. The children of Israel had "learned" their lesson. When they didn't obey God they got scattered throughout all the other nations. The land was given a time of rest, and time to recuperate from all that had happened.
As they started to rebuild Jerusalem I believe that they understood a little bit as to why this had happened to them. However, I believe that they decided to take things a little far. They began to hold the law above God. What was important to them was to keep the law and forget about a relationship with God. So they started to create rules and regulations to protect the law, they built a hedge around the law.
Many times we do the same thing. We think that if we keep the commandments, go to church, and live a good life that we will be saved. Moralism does not give us salvation. Atheists and those who deny God can live a moral life, be good people, but just because we are good people does not mean that God will save us. There is more to it.
We must have a relationship with Him. And through that relationship we become more like God. It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that we become a good person. That is the effect of the Holy Spirit working in us. So being good is not enough. Keeping the law is not enough to save us. Believing in Christ and accepting His offer of salvation is enough. And once we do that, and start becoming more like Him, we will start keeping the law without even realizing it.
August 29th, 2009 - 10:38
Good post Nick. I am going through Nehemiah too! It’s interesting though, as I look at the story the importance of the Law comes in as part of their devotion to God. There seems to be a subtle shift that happens over time as the means to their devotion becomes the end. If I look closely at my own life, I can recognize seasons where going through the motions or even the practice of legalism has brought a spiritual drought in my life. Nothing compares to knowing Jesus Christ personally and intimately. As feeble as I am when it comes to prayer, I am still a big fan of it. Both speaking and listening, conversing with God in order to know His will or even simply to recognize his presence in my life. When we lose the supernatural element in our spiritual life, all it that it becomes is dry religion.
Nick, I think that you should talk about the attempt to stay balanced while at Seminary.
August 29th, 2009 - 15:59
Nathan that’s a good thought. It’s usually at first when a great idea hits, everyone follows it for the right reasons. However, as humans, we lost track of the right reasons and start doing things because that’s what our parents did. Frequently we shift our reasons for believing because of that. Instead of teaching their children why they kept the law, they taught there children just to keep the law, and therefore legalism crept in.
As Christians we need to be aware of our reasons for doing things. We must always search and question. Otherwise we risk going through the motions all the time.
Staying balanced at Seminary added to the list.
September 26th, 2009 - 10:03
It’s been 10 years since I’ve been at the seminary. In addition to a full class load, I was working 20 hours a week, doing my ministry internship, serving as Seminary Student Forum president, and, and, and…
The seminary building was being remodeled and we were meeting at PMC – it was a hectic time.
The one thing I heard most often was the struggle to maintain a walk with Christ. In fact, in my role, I knew of several seminarians who wrestled with personal issues (two were sleeping together, another smoked, many wrestled with alcohol and porn – and that was just the tip of the iceberg.
There was a petition being circulated, begging the administration to require spiritual formations every semester. There was a petition begging to reinstate Jon Paulien’s Salvation>/i> class.
I chose a different route – once I discovered that I was putting in 110 hour weeks, I just scaled back.
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but lose his soul?”
Good post – thanks for sharing!
September 28th, 2009 - 10:52
Gary,
Thanks for commenting. The Seminary has a spiritual formation class for all incoming seminary students now. I both enjoyed and was frustrated with the class, but overall it helped my spiritual devotional life and I am very grateful for it.