The People Lacked Faith Toward God

[mikesw]

This passage got me thinking about the situation Jesus faced:
John 24
22 The Jews therefore said, “Will he kill himself, because he says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come’?” 23 He said to them, “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. 24 I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am‡ he, you will die in your sins.” 25 They said therefore to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. 26 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However, he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world.”

Maybe that passage alone is not what made me realize that the essential problem of the Israel people is that they were shown who God is and they saw miracles across the history of Israel yet they, in this scene, did not know God or have faith toward him. We see that in John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. "

The people did not have hope that God would come on their behalf. Thus also they did not have faith toward the Father or Christ. (There were exceptions noted such as those mentioned before the birth of Christ into the people praying and anticipating his arrival in the early chapters of the gospels.) The works of the law were more of a cultural obligation for them with the sense of a task-master god over them. Even the Pharisees who studied scripture had adapted to the place in the empire that they did not seek God for all that was prophesied.

It seems that even people who go to church gatherings can fall into that same concept of just doing the tasks that seem obligatory while following what seems like a maintenance mode -- just gain through the "sacraments." That is all they expect. I suspect that limited ritual is why many people find more in evangelical Christianity than they experienced in Roman Catholicism.

Effectively the problems in Jesus's day were a lack of awareness of the true God and consequently a lack of faith.

 

[mikesw]

I would not claim to generally know when a person is following out of true faith and knowledge of God. Some people have known much about God and have served long within the church but still not been a true believer. I think it was a good source where I heard of a longtime deacon who finally realized he had not come to Christ until awhile after being a deacon.

Alternatively there are people who follow in faith and trust toward God where their faithfulness is expressed through private prayer. Some people are outward about sharing Jesus while others are faithful in quietness. One possible indication of a true believer is when finding excitement when hearing about other people coming to Christ, especially friends and family. Perhaps if this conversion is just seen as a person just having a transition in knowledge, that might not be a good mindset of the older Christian. I may share part of my story of coming to Christ later on.

I think the challenge remains -- are you following from a true heart or do you need to come to Christ in fullness of life?

 

[jeremiah1five]

I would not claim to generally know when a person is following out of true faith and knowledge of God. Some people have known much about God and have served long within the church but still not been a true believer. I think it was a good source where I heard of a longtime deacon who finally realized he had not come to Christ until awhile after being a deacon.

That's what happens when you invite the unsaved to church.

The true evangelistic plan was for Jewish Christians in the first century inviting their unsaved Jewish brethren into their homes to hear about Jesus and hope they would accept their testimony since in the beginning Jewish Christians were at first allowed into the synagogues where they shared Jesus and the prophecies about him, etc., but once the Jews of the synagogues had great difficulty understanding how someone who 'hung on a tree' could also be the king of Israel and persecution broke out, Jewish Christians gathered in their homes instead - or in caves.

Alternatively there are people who follow in faith and trust toward God where their faithfulness is expressed through private prayer. Some people are outward about sharing Jesus while others are faithful in quietness. One possible indication of a true believer is when finding excitement when hearing about other people coming to Christ, especially friends and family. Perhaps if this conversion is just seen as a person just having a transition in knowledge, that might not be a good mindset of the older Christian. I may share part of my story of coming to Christ later on.

I think the challenge remains -- are you following from a true heart or do you need to come to Christ in fullness of life?

The Scripture does give clues of evidence to discern if a person is a born-again believer so that we are careful who we let into our meetings. In the beginning Gentiles were not allowed into Jewish fellowships because Gentiles were not interested in Jewish culture or their religion - the Law.
True, Biblical Christianity was a strictly Jewish phenomenon that excluded Gentiles for the whole story that Israel's Redeemer had come in the person of Yeshua bar Yosef was Hebrew through and through. The Saviors' story was tied to their Passover and other religious expressions in the Hebrew culture. None of the Jews were concerned with the day of the Savior's birth (Christmas), or that His message of salvation was "to the world" (it wasn't), they were more concerned with their Scripture and the many ways Jesus had fulfilled prophecy. They knew Moses prophesied God would send to Israel a "prophet like unto Moses" and that all prophecies were located written in their Hebrew Bible and were prophecies God gave to the Hebrew people Israel. In the beginning Gentiles were never part of true, Biblical Christianity and that until Rome invaded and destroyed their Temple along with their country, Christianity was a Jewish phenomenon that took some time for the people to understand what God's Spirit was doing in the people before they understood the New Covenant Era was upon them and a new era had begun. There was Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila, Saul of Tarsus, Barnabas, Epaphroditus (who was an apostle to the apostles), and others who could explain through the Scripture all the things going on in Israel with regard to this man many saw as a rightful heir of Abraham as well as the king of Israel.

 

[jeremiah1five]

This passage got me thinking about the situation Jesus faced:
John 24
22 The Jews therefore said, “Will he kill himself, because he says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come’?” 23 He said to them, “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. 24 I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am‡ he, you will die in your sins.” 25 They said therefore to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. 26 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However, he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world.”

Maybe that passage alone is not what made me realize that the essential problem of the Israel people is that they were shown who God is and they saw miracles across the history of Israel yet they, in this scene, did not know God or have faith toward him. We see that in John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. "

The people did not have hope that God would come on their behalf. Thus also they did not have faith toward the Father or Christ. (There were exceptions noted such as those mentioned before the birth of Christ into the people praying and anticipating his arrival in the early chapters of the gospels.) The works of the law were more of a cultural obligation for them with the sense of a task-master god over them. Even the Pharisees who studied scripture had adapted to the place in the empire that they did not seek God for all that was prophesied.

It seems that even people who go to church gatherings can fall into that same concept of just doing the tasks that seem obligatory while following what seems like a maintenance mode -- just gain through the "sacraments." That is all they expect. I suspect that limited ritual is why many people find more in evangelical Christianity than they experienced in Roman Catholicism.

Effectively the problems in Jesus's day were a lack of awareness of the true God and consequently a lack of faith.

"Faith" is not of consequence when the people are in covenant. Faith will come but it does not determine anything except this one thing. Faith, who is the Holy Spirit, is He who will be given to a people in covenant with God, that is, the Hebrew children of Israel.

23 But before faith came, we [JEWS] were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
24 Wherefore the law was our [JEWS] schoolmaster to bring us [JEWS] unto Christ, that we [JEWS] might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we [JEWS] are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Galatians 3:23–25.

WHO was kept "under the Law"?
The Jews.
WHO Authored "the Law"?
The Holy Spirit of Promise.
WHO is the Holy Spirit of Promise?
The Third Person of the Trinity of God.
WHO was the Holy Spirit of Promise promised to?
Israel ("the Jews.)

The Law of Moses is type and shadow of the Holy Spirit.
The Law was given to the children of Israel and the Law, which is type and shadow of the Holy Spirit means that the Law is Spiritual (Rom. 7:14), and the Law which was to some degree if not all, was written on tablets of stone, later to be written on "tables (tablets) of our hearts." As living epistles God wrote the Law on our hearts to lead and guide us from within who once lead and guided us [the Jews] on stone.
Faith is not a requirement of covenant but a gift of covenant. And covenant is that which the Hebrew people have with God.

Additionally, the clause "but after faith is come, we [Jews] are no longer under the Law" does not mean the Law is abolished or obsolete. It merely means we are not under the letter of the Law but the Spirit of the Law, which and Who now lives dwelling in us.

Get it?
Got it?
Good.