Christ versus Religious Traditions
Some tried to follow Jesus and the Pharisees...
Jesus compared trying to follow him and religious traditions with sewing new
cloth on an old garment, or putting fresh wine in an old container.1 Subduing our
judgmental attitudes to become a completely new person is what following Christ is all
about. No one realized this more than Paul. He continually struggled against his old
nature as a Pharisee, which he called the flesh.2 The way he dealt with a church
member’s fornication, for example, clearly contrasted with Christ’s treatment of
women accused of adultery.3
Paul feared that his work was being destroyed by those who followed
afterwards, teaching Christians to submit to Jewish laws and ordinances. He asked the
Galatians: You who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? The difference
between Paul and those who destroyed the churches was that Paul understood that the
Law of Moses was given so that the Jews would have a clear choice between life and death. They
could judge one another with the law, which God based on the reigious traditions of mankind, or they could set
these things aside to demonstrate compassion and mercy, which comes from the heart of God.
Ezekiel wrote concerning God’s purpose in giving the commandments of the
law: Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby
they should not live … that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know
that I am the Lord.4 Paul described carrying out the requirements of the law as the motions
of sins that brought forth fruit unto death. Through them, we came to understand what
sin is.5 In God’s eyes, the religious leaders who used the law to judge others without
love were sinners, while those whom they judged, who loved the Lord, were guiltless.6
References
1 Mk 2:18-22; Rom Chapter 14; Gal Chapters 3-5
2 Rom Chapter 7; Gal 3:3; Compare Rom 7:18-25 with Phil 3:12-13, 21
3 Compare Lu 7:36-50; Jn 8:2-11 with 1Cor 5:1-9; 2Cor 2:5-11
4 Eze 20:25
5 Rom 7:5, 7
6 Lu 7:44-47.
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