glorydaz,
Please read this whole post before responding to any of it. You've taken offense where none is/was intended....
I've read it several times, hoping I don't miss any point.
Do yourself a favor and use Saturdays to mow your lawn from now on.
Mowing the lawn is not my job. Besides which, and most importantly, when I did work, my body did better when I took at least a day of rest. It always has. Just as farmers give their working animals a day of rest. Just as the slaves in Egypt needed a day of rest. To me this is simple common sense built right into us as human beings. Of course, the older I get, the more rest I need and the less work I do. :idunno:
That isn't a joke and I'm not kidding.
I know. I realize that.
Every time you do this "resting at the end of the week" business, you revive your flesh and tacitly obligate yourself to follow the whole law. Your every success in such an endeavor is injurious to your relationship with Him who has done all this work for you and is your righteousness. Please, please find something strenuous to do on Saturday's and do it twice before climbing up on that cross to rescue the law!
You have the wrong idea, Clete. None of what you just wrote applies to me, nor do I look at it that way at all. Maybe this is why I see The Ten Commandments as distinct from the Law of Moses. All the added on requirements, ceremonies, and offerings are apart from the Ten themselves.
And, by the way, why did you say "at the end of the week"? I asked specifically about Saturday and quoted the passage from the Ten Commandments but you respond with "at the end of the week". And you may well have used that wording to refer to Saturday, which is totally fine. I just ask because some people have somehow convinced themselves that the Sabbath got changed to Sunday.
I say end of the week, as in end of the work week. It has nothing to do with my trying to rescue the law. I'm just taking what Jesus said seriously. He was the Creator who rested after working for six days straight, and He blessed the seventh day for man's benefit. He isn't referring to all the added restrictions and commands that certainly were not for man's benefit. The Ten doesn't mention not cooking or going out after sundown. Those things were added because of Israel's transgressions.
Mark 2:27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
Intuitively, yes. Someone presents an argument that you don't know how to deal with and so your brain figures out a way to deal with it. Everyone does it to one degree or another.
Well, I've had these same beliefs for quite some time simply from walking down the Romans Rd. (mainly).
Let's take a moment to dispassionately look at what actually happened...
You're here defending the Ten Commandments as having not been nailed to the cross and said, in so many words, that the Law, which applied only to Israel is what was nailed to the cross, not the Ten Commandments.
In response to that I point out Romans 1 where Paul talks about the condemnation of "all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" and talks about homosexuality and other things that are not listed in the Ten commandments.
In response to the unassailable point, you said that all that Romans 1 stuff was included in the Ten Commandments, effectively turning the Ten Commandments into the WHOLE LAW!!!
And you did so with no biblical support or any other rational explanation.
That is TEXTBOOK rationalizing. (That's not intended as a personal slight, just an observation.)
The Ten Commandments have TEN commands and not a one of them says a word about homosexuality.
Ah, but I believe the Ten DOES include every single thing
our conscience tells us is right and wrong. It's the Ten themselves that are written on the conscience of men. As you said yourself, the homosexuals know it's wrong, and they know that deep inside their own being. The Ten say Do Not Covet what doesn't belong to you. They know in themselves that their desire is wrong. They know lusting after other men is coveting what does not belong to them. Man was created with that knowledge, which is why they have NO EXCUSE.
Look at Romans 1 again. The truth in God's Law (The Ten) is manifest IN men...indelibly written in our conscience. We know what's right and what's wrong. God just finally wrote it down in tablets of stone...same law from the beginning.
Romans 1:18-20 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
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Look, I'm not questioning your sincerity, I'm questioning whether you've thought this through properly. I'm only reacting to what you write on this forum. There was no offense intended.
It wasn't because of the Ten Commandments!
Don't you see that that's the whole point! That is just exactly the whole point! You're just so agonizingly close to the full answer!
I am not here advocating for sin. I am not saying that its alright to slap your mother or worship other gods or to steal or to murder. Nor am I saying that we shouldn't spend time focusing on God and on Spiritual things. What I'm telling you is that if you do or don't do things because there is a list of rules on the wall, then Christ will profit you nothing and you are a debtor to obey the whole law. For the very same God that said, though shalt not murder, also said to pay the tithe and to not eat animals with their blood and 600+ other things.
I'm sure we're on the same page here, Clete. For some reason, I'm not able to make myself clear.
Romans chapter 2 is on the very next page from a passage where Paul talks about sins that are not included in the Ten Commandments...
Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
Notice that the standard Paul used in Romans 1 was NOT the Ten Commandments but rather natural law!
YOU DO NOT NEED THE TEN COMMANDMENTS! (Capital letters should not be taken as me "yelling" - it's just for emphasis.)
What you call the natural law, I see more. There is the conscience on which the moral law (Ten) were written.
Romans 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; )
Romans 9:1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
The parallels between the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and The Law are many and undeniable.....
I'll need to finish answering on a different post. I'm not good at long ones.