What are you aiming for?

The divine influence upon your heart and its resulting outworking in your life. (See the last part of the entry for Jan. 27 below.) That is truly what grace is. That is a rightly understood definition of the Greek word used for "grace" in the Bible.

"No," you may say. "It means 'unmerited favour'." Well, that may be what you were taught that it means. But look it up in a classical Greek lexicon and rightly apply it to all the biblical references - and you will see that it has to mean much more than simply "unmerited favour".

We are going to look at one verse that oh so many traditional legalistic Christians use to try to make people believe they are less than they really are - that they are "sinners in the hands of an angry God". Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Let's break this down some. What is "sin"? It seems easy for some people to categorize everyone as "sinners" - but they don't really know what they are saying. Are they saying that everyone is evil? Well, intentionally or not, that is the connotation which people derive from it. But, you see, it really is not that bad of a thing.

"Sin" simply means "to miss the mark". That's it. It comes from a Greek word that is actually more of an archery term. It is referring to shooting an arrow and missing the bull's eye - missing the mark. So a "sinner" would simply be someone who missed the mark. Thus "sinners", plural, is just a bunch of people who what? Missed the mark. Simple. Not evil.

So let's look at this over-used verse again - replacing "sinned" with its meaning: "For all have 'missed the mark' and come short of the glory of God." By replacing a word which has, for generations, brought feelings of shame and guilt - we can begin to actually see some light and understanding. But - what of this bull's eye - this mark - which we have all missed?

According to this verse, we have missed the mark and "come short of the glory of God". So, the mark - the bull's eye - is "the glory of God". See, the bull's eye we were supposed to have been shooting for has never been a set of rules and regulations set forth by whatever religious system in which we find ourselves encompassed - it has never been that which Paul often referred to as "the law" - which not only included the "ten commandments" but also the hundreds of other religious rules and implications that were written in the "old testament" and which the scribes and Pharisees added to and enforced.

See, the "law of Moses" was never intended to be the bull's eye for people to shoot for. God never intended nor expected man to try to gain acceptance nor justification by the things we do or don't do.

Then what is/was the point of the "law of Moses"? What is this "glory of God" which is to be our bull's eye? Where does grace fit in this?

"You search the scriptures because in them you THINK you have life."

No one during Jesus' day knew the Jewish scriptures better than the Pharisees and the scribes. They knew their scripture word for word. They could quote it, teach it, preach it better than anyone. But they were the very ones Jesus pronounced several "woes" unto in Matthew chpt 23 - and he even referred to them as serpents and vipers.

I have thought often over the last few years of what would happen if I went around to some of the churches around here and, after the pastor or priest finished his message, I were to get up and say "Woe to you. You serpent! You Viper!" LOL I do not doubt I would quickly be ushered out the door and told never to return.

The fact is, the religious leaders of today are no different than they were in Jesus' day. They use the scriptures to control people - some more subtly than others. And they themselves know and worship those scriptures, and their belief systems, more than they do God.

Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees to "search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life." (Jn 5:39)
They didn't know the real purpose nor the real meaning of the scriptures, even though they could quote them word for word and preach and teach them. They were so engrossed in the scriptures and what they believed and thought the scriptures meant that they thought that was where their very life came from.

I guarantee you - there are some of you reading this right now who think your life, your eternal life, comes from what you believe and what you think you know about your religion's scriptures. Let me assure you - the ONLY difference your beliefs make is in how what-you-believe affects your living now - not your "after-life".

During a time of fasting, it is said that Jesus was tempted to turn stones into bread. There is so much symbolism here - if you can see it. The stones can actually symbolize a couple of things in the scriptures. They can symbolize all of the scriptures themselves. They can symbolize the tablets of stone that Moses is said to have received the laws of God upon. The stones can also symbolize things we believe or experiences and encounters with God we had in the past. (Take the story of Jacob and his dream of the ladder to heaven - after the dream he took the stone he had used for a pillow and made a monument out of it.) And bread - well it can symbolize many things - the words spoken by teachers and prophets given to sustain the people, the bread of communion, the fellowship of believers (aka church), etc. Bread gives us sustenance.

So basically, this temptation of Jesus to take the stones and turn them into bread, was really a temptation to try to find his life in the scriptures. But Jesus countered that by saying that we should not find our true life and spiritual nourishment from that - "but by every word that proceeds(continually flows) from the mouth of God."

Jesus was, in essence, being tempted to live by the "letter - which kills" (which is what the Pharisees lived by) rather than by the "Spirit - which gives life."

Do you realize, Spirit lives in you? Not in a book.
This is grace. The divine influence in your heart.