- May 15, 2011
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first of all, keep in mind that the goal is to know God - this is 'life eternal'. in order to truly know Him, you must believe Him. belief in God (belief that His promises to you are true) is faith. whatsoever is not of faith (not of believing God) is sin. so sin is merely not believing God. all the things we call 'sins' are actually the result of the one sin of not believing God in one or more ways.
Jesus, as our substitute, fulfilled ALL the requirements of the 'law' for us, on our behalf; it's not what you do plus what Jesus did, it's what you do or what Jesus did - and if you choose to justify yourself with God (to know Him) based on what you do (such as keeping whatever your understanding of the Old Testament sabbath is, one day per week), then you must keep all other points of the 'law' perfectly - without a single exception in order to know Him - this is not possible - only Jesus (God with us) was, is or ever will be able to do this while in a flesh body. once reborn, your 'sins' (results of your not believing God in some way or ways) do not separate God from you (because He sees that Jesus, your substitute, has already paid the price for the 'sins' of the WHOLE world - past, present and future), but they can separate you from God (i'm not talking about going to hell, i'm talking about temporarily loosing fellowship with Him) only because condemnation over failing to keep the whole 'law' will cause you to withdraw from God IF you base your relationship with Him on what YOU do instead of or even in addition to what JESUS did on your behalf.
as you fellowship with God, He will lead you to fulfill the law as Jesus defined it (to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself). - the obedience that we (as reborn believers) are to keep is the obedience of fellowship with God based on our substitute's (Jesus') fulfillment of the whole law on our behalf. this fellowship must be based on belief in God's integrity, and in His unconditional love for us - faith. when we doubt His Living Word to us (His revelation to us of the meaning that the written word represents gained through fellowship with Him based on His Love for us ), this is sin - and it's already 'paid for' by Jesus from God's perspective.
'sabbath' means rest - we are to rest from our independent efforts to fulfill the 'law' and focus on thought-by-thought fellowship with God. When we mess up (and we all do) we are to immediately claim the righteousness of our substitute (Jesus) when the devil attempts to condemn us to cause us to withdraw from God.
This is what Jesus meant when He said that He was 'Lord of the sabbath' - that we are to cease from our own efforts (outside of fellowship with God) to justify ourselves to God, and focus on fellowship with God based on Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf. in this way, every day is our 'sabbath'.
hope that helps! if it rings true wih the Spirit of God in you, i'll be glad to add scriptre references.
GLY!!!
THank you, that hit my heart instantly, I asked god, and in my heart you responded in a way that I could uderstand.... I'm sure others were saying what u laid out so easily for my understanding. Thanks to everyone that shared there opinion and scriptural reference, god bless you all. With love and his will, forever.