There are many things and people in the Old Testament that are types and shadows of things in the New Testament. For example, the Tabernacle in the Old is shown in the Letter to the Hebrews to be a type of Christ. An interesting parallel can also be found between Genesis 1 and John 1 when it comes to new creations.

Interestingly, both books begin with the same phrase — “In the beginning”. With Genesis it is “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and in John we start out with “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God”. John continues on with

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (John 1:3 NKJV)

So, through the fuller revelation of the New Testament, we see the Jesus was the one who is the Creator.

Later in Genesis 1, the inspired narrative continues with the creation of light.

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1:3-5)

In the same way, John continues with he’s description of Jesus Christ.
I

n Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it… That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. (John 1:4, 5, 9 NKJV)

In His earthly ministry, Jesus even describes Himself as “the light of the World”

In Genesis, we see the Spirit hovering over the waters of creation (Genesis 1:2) and in John we see the Spirit hovering over the waters of baptism, where a new creation now takes place.

And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:32-34)

The apostle Paul draws a further parallel between Genesis and the Gospel by comparing Jesus and Adam.

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. (Romans 5:14, 15 NKJV)

Paul goes further and calls Jesus the Second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 45-49). Both were tempted in a garden (Eden and Gethsemane). Through the failure of the first Adam sin and death entered the world. Through the obedience of the second Adam life and redemption have come to the world. Adam sinned at a tree, realized he was naked, and brought sin and its shame. Jesus was stripped naked, crucified on a tree, and paid the penalty for our sin, bearing our shame. The early Christians called the creation account the “protoevangellium” or first gospel for that very reason.

The Old Testament becomes so rich when we read it while asking what it is telling us about Jesus. It also illustrates how Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of the Law. It also shows how the Bible fits so well as a revelation. Only God could orchestrate a collection of 66 books with 47 authors and have it fit so well together!

When I was online (okay, Facebook) the other day, we were discussing methods of Bible study. The person said that they just pray, read the verse, and God tells them what it means. My response was tentative, because she was wrong on so many levels that I didn’t know where to start without offending her with my reaction. Is “read once and pray” your method of studying the Word? Let me encourage you to reconsider.
To be clear, I have no objection whatsoever to praying before Bible study. In fact, you can and should pray before just about everything! Where the problem arises is when we pray and expect to have the interpretation supernaturally handed to us on a silver platter. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when I have been reading and a verse seems to jump off of the page, or suddenly becomes clear. But those times are more a product of study and the pieces finally coming together than an epiphany of some sort. The Word of God is not a pond where the truth rises to the top and is effortlessly scooped off the surface. It is a rich gold mine that has priceless riches that we are to dig deeply into to discover what God has placed there for us.
God has promised to “reward those who diligently seek Him”, and we aren’t doing that when we refuse to put in the work to dig in and discover the depths of the truth. Failure to do the necessary work involved in mining the Word will lead to a life of milk diets at best, and deception at worst. Not every voice you think you hear is from God, but you will never be able to recognize truth without doing the work to let the Word transform and renew your mind. Jesus said to “keep on seeking, keep on knocking, and keep on asking” and that is not a one time experience.
There is also a misperception that it is more spiritual to just pray and ask for illumination than it is to do the work of studying in-depth for yourself. In fact it is less spiritual, because the read and wait method means disobedience to the command of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount to keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking. It also means that we don’t believe that God rewards those who “diligently seek Him.” What are you expecting Him to reveal that is not already there? Have you exhausted the text and discovered everything it has to offer? Then why do we go to it and expect new revelation when we have not mastered the truth that He has already revealed?
So do the work and dig into the Word. There is only one way to God, but there are also no shortcuts to studying His revealed will in the Word. Don’t be lazy about your studies. The gold and gems are there, but we must dig them out if we are to appreciate the treasure for what it is. God has promised that you will not come up empty! Doing otherwise doesn’t mean you won’t have any opinions about what the Bible says; it just means you will have a lot of wrong ones.

What happens if they don’t know? You know who I mean. The people all over the world, possibly billions, who now exist and will never once hear about Jesus Christ, much less get an accurate presentation of the Gospel. Are they going to be lost forever and spend an eternity in torment? Will the just die and cease to exist? These are sobering questions, but I think there are some things we, as those who are saved, need to address as well.

Take a look at what Jehovah God said to the prophet Ezekiel because I believe there is a principle here that applies to us now.

When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life. (Ezekiel 33:8, 9 NASB)

A more pertinent question to ask ourselves is this: what will happen to the church as a whole, and to us individually, if those who have never heard are not reached with the Gospel? It’s not like we haven’t been given a command to each them. As we used to say in the military, we have been given a direct order!

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19, 20 NASB)

But are we sitting back and hoping, maybe even praying, that someone else will reach them? Or do we let ourselves off the hook by saying we are not missionaries, so it’s not our job? Just put a little money in the offering plate and send support if we have a personal acquaintance or family member overseas and we are covered, right? No!

It is an indictment of the Church that Jesus gave the Great Commission nearly 2,000 years ago and we have yet to obey it.

Oh, we have partially obeyed it to be sure. There have been great mission successes in the past and many are presently happening. And those individuals will receive their heavenly reward. But by and large the work remains to be completed. The Bible has a term for partial obedience — “disobedience”!

So what is the solution?

Actively pray
There is no surer way to be praying within the will of God than to be praying for what He has already said He desires. When the prayer of our heart lines up with God’s heart then we can pray in confidence. Many foreign and indigenous Christians are spreading the Gospel in hostile areas and need our prayers. They are also in areas of danger medically. We can water the seeds of the Word with our prayers.

Actively give
Have you ever noticed that missionaries always seem to need funding? While the Gospel is free, sending workers to preach and teach it is not. In addition, there are those who would be able to preach full time who are local if only they had additional support. Back when more people used them, it was said that your checkbook reflects your priorities. Perhaps it is time to put our wallets where our hearts are.

Actually go
The Great Commission is very plain. If we stay home, it should be because of a specific reason. The default position for the Great Commission is to go! And even if we cannot go around the world, we can go to those around us. While it is true that we are to set a good example, it is not a means of evangelism! Our behavior adorns the Gospel and makes it credible. Unless we are talking about a believing wife reaching her husband, we are to be actively evangelizing. Jesus is our example, and He came to SEEK and save the lost. The is no room there for a “let them come to us” strategy with God.

This is serious business, and we need to stop focusing on peripheral issues and get about the mission. While hands in the past may have been bloody, ours need not be so. Lets make it our goal to have it not even occur to our children to ask about those who have never heard, because there aren’t any. Love demands that we give everyone a chance to hear the Message at least once. Many, if not most, may reject it, but God will not require their blood from our hands.

I heard an illustration the other day, and was so impressed by it that I thought I would put it here and maybe expand on it a bit. Perhaps it was because the illustration was from something that was so familiar. In fact, it was more familiar than I wanted it to be. So thanks, Landon, for the powerful (in many ways) word picture.

Have you ever had one of those diaper machines? I remember having one called a Diaper Genie, and it was a very useful little invention. When a diaper became “soiled” I would lift up the lid, place the offensive object inside, twist, and close it again. The diaper was surrounded by a plastic bag, and was safely inside. Eventually, though, I would be accosted by an ever increasing odor when I would open the lid. Thankfully, I could take it outside and empty what looked like a chain of sausage, into the trash to be left at the curb. Early in the morning the garbage truck would come by and take it away forever, and it would be buried.

What that illustrates very powerfully is the difference between our sins under the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant. Under the former system of sacrifices of animals, our sins were covered over, kind of like a diaper inside a diaper pail. Every year the sins of the people were covered.

Under the New Covenant, it is different. We now have the remission of sins. Just like when we take the sausage chain of corruption to the curb, we bring our sin to Jesus and forsake them. We leave them there and don’t come back to them, just like we would never think of reusing a diaper pail roll. Jesus has promised to take them away and remember them no more. He takes them away instead of covering them up. He is able to do this because He has entered into the heavenly temple and offered His own blood once and for all and sat down at the Father’s right hand.

And every priest stands day after day serving and offering the same sacrifices again and again – sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet . For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are made holy. (Hebrews 10:11-14 NET)

So remember, those of you with diaper genie machines, our sins are no longer covered and wrapped up, have have been taken away by Jesus. And then hurry out and empty that thing!

It is perhaps the best known verse in the New Testament, if not in the entire Bible. It is the most commonly memorized, the one most frequently on signs at football games. It is John 3:16. And it should be that way, for there despite its milky appearance, this verse is loaded with meaning and significance. So lets take it apart and see what we can find in there.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 NKJV)

“For God so loved”
First and foremost, this verse is not telling us about a ourselves. This verse gives us a look at the character of God. God is the initiator in this relationship. He was not responding to mankind’s collective plea for help, for at the time we were not just ignorant of God, we were His enemies. Romans 5:8 says that “God demonstrates His love for us in this”. As the apostle John later writes in his first letter, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (I John 4:10).

“…the world”
God did not pick out just a few elect persons to save. He did not come and make provision for the salvation of one man. No, Jesus was sent to “seek and save the lost”. To do that, a sacrifice was needed that was sufficient for everyone.

And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (I John 2:2)

“that He gave”
The God who is love personified, became a person to show us His love. Love does that. It gives. God wasn’t sitting up in heaven having feelings for us. He acted and demonstrated His love.

“His only begotten Son”
When infinite love gives, the gift is of infinite value. God did not create an angel and send him down to be our sacrifice. He is so in love with us that He gave that which is dearest of all to His heart — His Son. I have three sons, and I cannot imagine willingly sending one to be tortured and killed for my enemies. But the infinite love of God did just that.

“that whoever believes in Him”
While the gift is sufficiently valuable for all, it is only efficacious for those who accept it. It is just like when a doctor writes you a prescription so you can recover. You can leave the bottle on your nightstand for months and years, and it will do you no good whatsoever. You have to take it for it to work. In the same way, if we don’t believe in Him, we will not be saved. And thankfully the invitation is to “whoever” which is a group that includes each of us!

“should not perish but have everlasting life.”
We were all condemned to die. We were without God and dead in transgressions and sins. But Jesus came to give us life (John 10:10). We, who were His enemies, now will live with Him forever. The next verse, john3:17, says it this way.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:17)

We were already condemned. His mission was to save us. God loves us and did everything to provide us a way back to Himself. And that is what the Lords Supper is about.

As we look at the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine, we are reminded not only of His broken body and His blood that was shed for our redemption. We also recall the love that motivated such a sacrifice for ones as undeserving as us. Yes, it is love that causes grace, that saved a wretch like you, and you, and me!

I remember the date, time, and place that I was born again. If I had a 1977 calendar, I could mark it down for all to see. That is because salvation is something that is experienced. We don’t get it by inheritance because our parents had it. God doesn’t have grandchildren. We have to have our own faith. No matter how much you admire someone, their salvation is just that — theirs.

Nor can you be saved and not know it. God does not regenerate you without your consent. We do not suddenly come to the realization that somehow, in some way, you have become a Christian. There is no surprise salvation. Yes, salvation is an intentional and individual experience.

But at the same time, what do some folks mean by “a salvation experience”? Is there some common emotional experience that every new believer has? Do we need a special tingle in our toes, or a quiver in our liver before we can be sure of our salvation? Are we required to “pray through” at a mourners bench to beg and plead for God to save us? No, not at all.

We need faith, and that comes by hearing the Word of God. It is available to anyone who hears that word and has a willing heart. That is something that we experience.
We need to repent, and that is a natural next step when someone believes the message of the Gospel. And it is a decision that is intentionally made, so it is also an experience.
That faith and repentance will manifest itself in obedience and a changed life. Those are all things that are experienced.

Where we need to tread with care is in taking the feelings, circumstances and emotions that we had when we were saved and conclude that if someone else did not have those same emotions and feelings then they are not saved. The Holy Spirit works through the Word in the same way toward everyone, but each of us is different so our reaction to that work will be different in every case. And that is okay. It is a sad sight to see someone who would stand up and say with great conviction that baptism is not required for salvation because it is a work, turn around and have someone pray and weep and beg and plead at a mourners bench for hours to be saved. I ask you, “how is that less of a work than baptism?” I know which one is a lot easier to do.

So lets take the Bible, see what it says is necessary for salvation, keep it simple by not adding to it, and let our individual “salvation experience” be as unique as each of us. We can only trust what the Word says about salvation, and not our emotions or an experience. Because if it does not line up with Scripture, then our emotions about an experience can leave us deceived and lost. Let’s obey Jesus instead of seeking a spiritual high, because the proof of salvation is the fruit of obedience it produces, not the feelings it stirs.

And having been made perfect, He [Jesus] became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, (Hebrews 5:9 NASB)

There is nothing like a good fish story, especially when you hear it the second time and remember how big the fish was the first time you heard it. There is a fish story in the Bible that happens to be true! And I believe it has some application to those of us today as well. You will see what I mean in a minute.

I am sure that most of us have had the misfortune of working with someone who had a bad attitude. They hate what they are doing and make sure everyone else regrets being there as well. It is a mystery of the universe how such folks ever accomplish anything at all in life. But, as with all things, what is impossible with man is possible with God.

The prophet Jonah was just such a man. He was a prophet of God, and he received a commission to go and preach. Seems like that would be a simple task. But Jonah was blinded by his racism, hatred and overall meanness to the point of direct disobedience to the command of God. Here was his simple job description:

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of A-mittaī, saying, “Arise, go to Nine-veh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” (Jonah 1:1, 2 NKJV)

Sounds pretty simple, right? But from the beginning, you can almost hear the wheels turning in Jonah’s mind. He hated the people of Nineveh with a passion. The last thing he wanted was for them to repent. “If I flee in the other direction, then the will not get the message, will not repent, and will be destroyed!”
So Jonah heads to the sea port of Joppa and gets passage clear to the other side of the Mediterranean at Tarshish, which was around Gibraltar.

Well, to make a long story short, the people of Nineveh end up being preached at by the worst possible candidate for a preacher. He is racist and hates them, he doesn’t want to be there, he doesn’t want them to accept his message, and he makes the message as short and blunt as he can. Sounds like a recipe for a failure. But God uses the message to turn the hearts if the people and they repent. The city is spared, and Jonah does not get to watch them being judged with fire from heaven.

Jesus, when talking to the Pharisees, alludes to the people of Nineveh.

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 12:41 NIV)

The hardness of their hearts caused them to reject the message from the perfect messenger, the One who is the very Word of God. They will stand condemned by those who repented at the preaching of the most flawed of prophets. But what does that have to do with us today?

There has never been more access to the Bible in our language as there is today. Free resources abound with access to multiple translations of the text. In addition, study helps are easier than ever to obtain that can aid us in understanding what we are reading. We have access to audio, video and printed teaching (paper and electronic) that our forefathers could not even dream about. But can we truly say we know our Bibles as well as those of a generation ago? Many of them grew up in homes with one family Bible and didn’t get their own copy until they were grown. But they studied it and committed it to memory. We, on the other hand, are so distracted by what the world flashes in front of us that we have little time for plumbing the depths of the Word of God.

Those who struggled to obtain the Scriptures in the past, along with those in countries where the Bible is forbidden and must be read in secret, will rise to condemn those of us in countries where most Christians have multiple Bibles and study helps galore, yet do not take full advantage of such. We would be foolish to assume that our access to the Word will always be unfettered.

When I was headed over for Desert Storm, we stopped in the Philippines. I spoke to some missionaries there who spoke of soldiers who would memorize sections of the Bible, just in case they were ever captured. What would happen to us if the Bible was suddenly classified as “hate speech” and banned? What if we were imprisoned for our faith? Would we know enough Bible to live on spiritually?

May the ease with which we can become familiar with the Bible never become a cause for contempt, or a reason to take His Word for granted.

Ever since the days of the Reformation, there has been a strong emphasis on teaching that salvation is by faith. Given the unhealthy stress placed on works at the time, this was a normal reaction. What is needed is a healthy, and accurate, view of the relationship between faith and works if we are to be spiritually healthy and balanced. When James, the Lord’s brother, wrote his letter, the Spirit inspired him to address the subject this way:

Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? (James 2:17-20 NASB)

There is no contradiction here with the message the apostle Paul would later give to the church at Ephesus. Read carefully what Paul wrote:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8, 9)

He is saying, correctly, that our salvation does not come from our performance, or from working our way to God. No one can will ever be able to say that God owes them salvation. But also notice what Paul goes on to say in verse 10.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

We were created in Christ when we are born again, for the uprise of good works. Do you see the order here? The works don’t cause faith and salvation; the faith and salvation produce the works! Furthermore, God has it planned that way.

God always connects a truth to believe with a command to obey. While “faith” and “obedience” can be defined as separate terms, they are inseparable as realities. To put it succinctly, real faith, works!
That being said, faith has to come first. We can have works without having faith (i.e. dead works), but we cannot have faith without works. Build your faith and the works will follow. It is a trap to suppose that we can reverse the polarity of our spiritual power by putting works as a higher priority than cultivating intimacy with God and strengthening our faith.

For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. (Galatians 5:5, 6)

God likes altars. All through the Old Testament, altars are frequently mentioned as being something God commands for His people to build when there has been a spiritual victory. These altars serve as constant reminders, sometimes long after the original builders has passed on, of what God has done for His people. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and David all built altars as reminders of what God had done.

But does at carry over in any way to the New Covenant? Are we supposed to go outside and pile up some rocks and burn animals in sacrifice? No, in spite of what my barbecue may look like, burnt offerings are not for today. But I believe there is an “Altar Principle” in place that we would do well to remember. We already practice the Altar Principle when couples marry. The wedding rings serve as visual reminders of a spiritual covenant that was entered into, and in that way function as a kind of altar. The brides ring may even include a rock!

I’m not sure of the precise accuracy of these numbers but they are at least directionally correct. It has been said that students remember 25% of what they hear, 50% of what they hear and see, and 75% of what they hear, see, and participate in. This is especially true when repetition is added into the equation. I that way, the Lords Supper, or Communion Feast, exemplifies that principle. On a weekly basis we hear about what Jesus did, see the elements that represent the body and blood of Christ, and eat and drink together, the salvation message is reinforced in the hearts of believers. That is how the altar principle works.

When a married couple is being counseled, they can be told to look at their rings and remember the promises they once made to each other and to God. They serve as a point of reference for them and help them to focus on what is important. One huge danger sign is when either partner removes their wedding ring in public, so as not to be noticed. They are attempting to hide the sign of their covenant from sight so they will not be reminded that they are bound to another.

Baptism also has a altar principle attached to it. Paul would refer to the fact that believers had been baptized and remind them of what that meant.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:1-4 NASB)

Paul is saying that when Christians are tempted to willfully sin, that baptism serves as a reminder that they have a new life in Christ and have been freed from sin, so with that in mind, how can we walk anymore in it? For that reason, we need to think back and remember our baptism and what it symbolized. We need to remember that we, too, have died, been buried, and risen with Christ.

I would recommend to anyone that they think back often of their conversion experience, and specifically their baptism. Use it as an altar, or a reference point in your life that you can point back to and remember what great things The Lord has done for you when He saved you from darkness and translated you into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.

What is a paradigm? Is it a geometric shape? Is it 20 cents? No, none of those are correct. What makes a paradigm important is that, whether you know it or not, everyone has one. Websites Dictionary defines a paradigm this way:
“: a philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated; broadly : a philosophical or theoretical framework of any kind”
In basic terms, our paradigm is the framework our minds use to interpret what we see and how we think about a subject.

All religious organizations, including churches have a shared paradigm among their members. In fact, many Christian churches began as a group of people who held to a common paradigm that differed from the groups they were formerly members of. When Martin Luther introduced the concepts of sola fide and sola scriptura (faith alone for salvation and scripture alone for authority) it was such a huge paradigm shift that it birthed the Reformation!

One paradigm that became prominent in the early 19th Century during the Restoration Movement was the view that we should “speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent.” That is a very worthy and useful paradigm to have. What it eventually grew into was a view that we should view as divine commandments the things that the New Testament commands (good so far). But it also grew to say that all New Testament examples were reflective of the only way something was to be done (getting legalistic here) and that the silence of the New Testament was no longer a place for silence, but of commands given by omission (hazardous). No longer were we to be silent about things not mentioned, as if examples would be found for every single thing the believers were to do, but whole books would be written about things being sinful if not Divinely authorized. This was a misunderstanding of what it meant to “do all things in the name of The Lord” in Colossians 3:17. By superimposing the word “authority” for “name” the argument is made that only those things specifically authorized may be done. The problem with this is that there is a Greek word for authority, and it is not the word Paul was inspired to use in this verse! To change it to authority is to alter the scriptures, and you don’t want to go there! What is meant by “in the name” in this verse is explained by the verse itself (ah, context).

And whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17 NET)

In its proper context, the verse is saying that when we do good and righteous works, we are to give thanks and praise to God the Father through Jesus Christ. That is what is meant by doing it “in His name”!

The “authorized” interpretation is not in context, but is a pretext. Such a view presupposes that God replaced a fully detailed code of law with another fully detailed code of law. Such is not the case. (Inaccurate paradigm) The New Covenant was one that has overarching principles in it, and that would be written upon our hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:3) The principle here is that the way we live out the New Covenant individually and corporately is that all doctrine is derived from Scripture, and is practiced in love in any way we can do so without violating those doctrines, as the culture and situation warrant.

The concept of binding, exclusive examples also unwittingly makes us followers of the First Century Christians instead of followers of Christ. Never does the New Testament say that everything the Apostles and the First Century Church did was recorded for us. They were, in all likelihood, practicing the Apostle’s doctrine in ways appropriate to their time and situation that we will never know about. In fact, according to John, we don’t know every single thing that Jesus did! (John 21:25) But we DO know that whatever He did was never in violation to what He had taught!

We are living a double standard when we call sinners to come to the freedom we have in Christ and then subject them to a lifetime of combing through the New Testament to make sure every single thing they do is specifically authorized by a New Testament prooftext. Jesus didn’t come down and die so that He could subject us again to a new legal code and turn us into lawyers. On the contrary, our walk should be one that sets us free to follow ever more intimately that One who is the Truth, Jesus Christ.

You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (II Corinthians 3:2-6 NKJV)

So let us follow the Spirit of the law, instead of placing a restriction that God has not placed upon us. Practice our faith in love, and in whatever way is necessary that does not violate the doctrines of Christ and the apostles he taught, giving thanks to God the Father through Him!