2. If you obey the commandments means you love God: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength"
you cannot obey this commandment without a willing heart.
3. God is legalistic when it is written "And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him."Acts 5:32
So God said Holy Spirit is given to people who obey him.
Abraham is legalistic because he obeyed God "Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."Genesis 26:5
Peter is legalistic when he said "We ought to obey God rather than men."Acts 5:29b
No where in the bible it support your assumption that it is obey=obligation. Sometimes it is (such as casting of out of devil) but not always.
3. Obey can be from heart:
"But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. "Romans 6:17
4. "But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?" Romans 10:16
How can one obey the gospel by force? or leashed ?
5. Not obeying commandments is equivalent to rebel against commandment, therefore, keeping commandments means obeying them "But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers."1 Samuel 12:15 Rebel in heart or in action is rebellion.
"Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him." Deuteronomy 13:4
"A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:"Deuteronomy 11:27
Hmm... i did not change the word in the scripture. In Deuteronomy, God commanded us to obey the commandments and keep the commandments. So you obey the commandments or you keep the commandments? I would say it is the same.
Yes I knew and agree that the word is "keep" and if you look back, i did not change the word when quoting from the bible. But i use the word obey in my own writing.
Looking back into Deuteronomy, it is hard to argue that the difference between obey and keep is the outside and the inside.
Interesting analogy. But i don't think is appropriate. Grace is given to everyone, but not everyone can be engaged to daughter. It also implies that our friend earned the promotion (salvation), by engagement, which is not true.
Good question. What is legalism? Obeying commandments? If obeying commandments is legalistic, then Jesus is legalistic, for he said " If ye love me, keep my commandments." Therefore it is very clear that keeping the commandments is an act of love. In fact this is the teaching of the OT: the reason for keeping the commandments is love (Exodus 20:6, Deuteronomy 5:10, Nehemiah 1:5, etc.) If obeying commandments is legalism, then Christianity is legalism driven by the love of God. Why should we be afraid of the word "legalism" when it is taught by Jesus. There is nothing wrong with legalism when define in such sense.
Here come the Pharisees. People always accused of Pharisee of legalism. But legalism against what? the law of man or commandments of God? what is the sin of Pharisees? Pharisees is accused of twisting the commandments of God (therefore it become commandments of man) and making a lot of new rules (Luke 11:37-53) (such as hand washing, Sabbath, etc.). What is the sin of Pharisees? Not obeying God's commandments. Therefore Pharisee is not legalistic enough. (when i am saying legalistic, i am using the Law as the standard, unless specified). Why therefore afraid of legalistic when not legalistic enough is sin?
Then there is the question of grace and faith. Grace and Law is not mutually exclusive so does faith. "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Romans 3:31
"What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid."Romans 6:15
Therefore obeying commandments does not mean that one is not living under grace.
Led by the Holy Spirit. How do you know it is the Holy Spirit not the Devil or your weak body? The only way to find out is to refer back to the bible, the Law.
I do agree it is not what we eat that save us. Sin of eating unclean food is not the food itself but the sin of disobeying.
While circumcision and sacrificial law are noted in OT that circumcision of the heart is what is matter and God do not need you to sacrifice in order for forgiveness of sin, no where in the OT that said eating unclean food is something representative.
I believe that eating in the Colossians refer to the food eat in the festive. Remember Jesus did not come to give us a law and He said that the law is forever.
Hi, Just one question. "16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ." Colossians 2.
2. sin is the absence of God's glory(Romans 3:23). So there is sin, sin is the absence of God's righteousness. Sin is the result of man not doing God's instruction (Romans 8:7)
3. Sin is something to be created or is a creation, other verses in the Bible, said God hates sins sin, and in the account of creation, sin enter the world through Adam, not through creation. But God allowed sin to stay temporary.
1. God did not create evil, sin is the absence of God's glory (Rom: 3:23). Therefore it is not doing what is supposed that sin enter the world. Therefore it is not a creation.
2. Why man got sick? Because of our sin.
3. Why good man got sick? There is no good person in this world.
4. Why some have serious sickness, some don't? This is the authority of God as He said: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
