Doing God's Will ... Joyfully
Ephesians 2:8-10
In the Steps of the Rabbi # 12

     Human natures seems to have a hard time with rules and regulations. It seems like the regulations are endless - there to take all the fun out of life. This same allergic reaction to rules and regulations can carry over to our attitude towards the Bible and God.

I. A New Attitude towards God's Law

A. Judaism sometimes appears hopelessly legalistic, bound to hundreds of nonsensical laws and regulations.
B. In Jewish Bibles, torah is almost always translated "instruction" or "teaching" rather than "law," as in Christian translations.

1. "The teaching [Torah] of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death." (Proverbs 13:14).
2. In the NIV, Psalm 1:2 reads: "whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night."
3. In a Jewish translation it reads: "The teaching of t he Lord is his delight, and he studies that teaching day and night."

C. Doing what God asks is a joy and a spiritual opportunity, not a burden.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Eph. 2:8-10).

D. While salvation comes only by faith in Christ, and not our own righteousness, we should take joy in doing the good that God has planned for us to do.

II. Remembering God's Instructions

A. Obeying God's commands, even when we don't understand the "why," demonstrates our love and trust for God.

"Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.... These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken," (John 19-33, 36).

B. We are to remind ourselves, every day, to remain obedient to God's instructions.

"Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. 39 You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD," (Numbers 15:38-39).

C. Taking the risk of identifying our faith in public is a little reminder for us to act like Jesus.

III. A Call to Holiness

A. The woman with the chronic bleeding touched the place that signified Jesus identity and authority.  Jesus' purity was so great that it healed her impurity.
B. Physical transformation is often seen in Scripture, but character transformation is God's goal.
C. The laws of God reveal our sinfulness; the Holy Spirit enables us to live in the way of righteousness.

"For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God." (Romans 8:3-14)