Well, someone once asked me the same question. I thought it was a fair question and wanted to learn. His question to me was: "What do I think about when you read the word "commandments" in the Bible. I said, "the written commandments of the Bible" (of course)! This is the same mistake the Hebrew Roots Movement makes and why people can be so easily beguiled by them if the written word is more authoritative to them than Jesus Christ.
He continued, "what do you think about when you come across words in the Bible like "precepts, statutes, word" etc? I thought, well, the Bible of course!
Maybe these verses by Jesus can shed some light on what I am getting at.
Jesus said this:
John 10:32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
He did not say, "for what scriptures that I am not keeping, do you stone me." He healed the sick, raised the dead, spoke words of life to people, explained parables, spoke prophetically, etc, etc.
From John 10:32 we can assume that His Father was speaking to Him apart from the letter for there is no place in the letter that told Jesus to put mud on someone's eyes. He got that directly from His Father.
These good works came from His Father as Jesus indicated.
Notice, that Jesus is not pointing to the Bible, here.
John 10:37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
John 10:38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
"That the Father is in me, and I in Him".
John 16:3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor ME.
He did not say the "because they have not known the Bible" here. He said, "they will do these things unto you because they have not known the Father nor me".
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
As Jesus hears His Father, He acts.
Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Blessings to you, Pilgrim
"The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts." (A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God. Christian Publications. 1948. pg. 10). |