God's Word Is.....

Psalm 19:7-10, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgements of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether; More to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb."

I had a wonderful witnessing opportunity yesterday with a young lady who had serious misconceptions of God's word. She was insistent that in addition to being saved by grace, through faith, that we as Christians must also keep the whole law of Moses to be saved and live the Christian life. This is exactly the same false teaching Paul encountered when he wrote his letter to the Galatians, as a group known as Judaizers were teaching this same thing; That salvation=grace+faith+keeping the law. Paul forcefully rebuked this teaching, proclaiming the keeping of the law is works, and works cannot save us.

What this young lady could not grasp is that God Himself had changed portions of the law, the old covenant, when Jesus, the New Covenant(Heb 8), came to earth. The dietary portion of the law was changed. Jesus Himself said, "It's not what goes into a man's mouth that condemns him, but rather, what comes out of it." In Acts 9 Peter receives a vision from God 3 times declaring all things clean regarding food, saying, 'what God has made clean, let no man make unclean." Jesus, the New Covenant, the "sacrifice once and for all," also changed the ceremonial religious law with His appearing. We no longer have need to offer animal sacrifices for forgiveness of sin, and we now worship on Sundays(Acts 20:7), the first day of the week to remember the resurrection, instead of Saturday, the Sabbath. While we no longer are bound by the 4th commandment to "keep the Sabbath," which is still Saturday, the principle of a day consecrated to God still applies, and that day for the church is Sunday.

It brought forth a debate about the word of God. An apologetics witness so to speak. And the debate over God's word is central to truly following Jesus as He intends. While all of the bible is true, "God breathed(2 Tim 3:16)," written through men as "given by the Holy Spirit(2 Pet 1:20-21)." God has worked in different ways over time to the same end. We call this theologically dispensationism. We must look at God's word as a whole, not just focusing on a single verse or part, to gain full understanding of His work on earth today. But in all cases, God's word is absolute. Whatever we may think or believe here on earth, the debate over God's word is already settled in heaven, and nothing is going to change it.

These verses in Psalm 19 are a brief snippet of what God's word is. Notice the words given to God's word here: law, testimony, statutes, commandment, fear, judgments. A law is not to be broken. A testimony means it's God's word. Statutes communicate directions to be kept. Commandments are to be obeyed. And we should most definitely have a healthy fear of the Lord and the judgments that will come if we do not follow His word.

Now notice the adjectives used to describe God's word. It is: perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, and true. Perfect means it is complete, there is nothing that needs to be added for us to have an understanding enough to be converted to the faith. It is sure, we can trust it. It is right, and in it's ways are the path to righteousness. It is pure and clean, meaning holy, as we serve a holy God. It is true, as God is incapable of lying.

Verse 10 poses an interesting statement, and a question to be asked; How do we view God's word? Is it more valuable than gold, and sweet as honey to us? Do we see it as His testimony giving us the guidelines on how to live a godly life? Do we believe it is perfect? Sure? Right? Pure? Clean? True? Or, is it an inconvenience? Does it cramp our style? Is it burdensome? To demanding? Do we take it out of context to fit our beliefs, applying our lives and the world to the bible? Or, do we take what God has said and correctly apply it to the world?

How we answer these questions will tell us how well we are living for God. An old preacher once said; "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." Well, that's almost right. In actuality, God said it, that settles it. What I believe really doesn't matter. If what I believe does not correspond with God's word, it is me who is wrong, not God. So what is God's word to you?