Wednesday, April 11, 2018
For verily
I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no
wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Matthew 5:18(KJV)
In our vernacular
to jot
something down is to make a quick little note of something you don’t want to
forget. In that same sense the language
of Scripture contains jots and tittles, among the
smallest of notations. Jesus was adding
commentary to his “Sermon on the Mount” cementing the importance of the entirety
of God’s Word. In short, you cannot pick
and choose what you care to obey, or attempt to change what Scripture
declares. In the final verses of Holy
Writ John makes that point with stark clarity:
And I
solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this
book: If anyone adds anything to what is
written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. And if anyone removes any of the words from
this book of prophecy, God will remove that person’s share in the tree of life
and in the holy city that are described in this book.
Revelation 22:18-19(NLT)
The jots
and tittles
are important in any communication.
Consider just how important the little comma is in English. In the hymn Jesus Loves Me[2]
note how the placement of the lowly comma in the verse about loving Jesus at
the point of death can reposition your theological stance from Calvinism (once
saved, always saved) to Arminianism:
Calvin:
If I love him,
when I die He will take me home on high.
Arminius:
If I love him when I die,
He will take me home on high.
It may be
straining at a gnat here, but changing the position of the comma makes a
difference in how you think about the way God treats us. Calvin would separate the fact of loving
Christ into a momentary change of heart with a life and eternity result all
settled (once saved, always in that condition).
Arminius would add perseverance to that, moving the comma further down
the line to include loving Jesus when I die. Calvin just wants to know IF
you love Jesus…Arminius thinks it’s important to know if you’ve kept
loving Jesus all the way home.
Again…straining
out a gnat while swallowing a camel? Is
it THAT
important? Well, it has been; the verse
quoted here appears in the Baptist Hymnal version (Calvinist theology), while
it is ommitted in the Methodist Hymnal (Arminianism). That one concept about walking away from the salvation
of God has caused quite a stir over the years.
But there is still
plenty of common ground Calvinist and Arminian bent thinkers share, despite the
difference stated; we both agree it is loving Jesus that is the
correct response to God’s love in Christ towards us. Neither Arminianists nor Calvinists want to
change Scripture, or omit what God has said.
There is another
contemporary controversy heralding a new split that may be far more pervasive
and damaging to the church than moving the jot or tittle a little farther down
the sentence…the legitimizing of homosexuality, bisexuality, trans-sexualism,
et al. The Biblical fact – no matter how
some may try to deflect or distort the meaning of what God said – is clear;
other than heterosexual relations within the bonds of marriage, the rest is
perversion. What do you do with a clear
prohibitive like Leviticus?
Do not
practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin. Leviticus 18:22(NLT)
There is too
little space in this devotional slot to effect a comprehensive look at how
doctrinally and Scripturally far off course we are taken with normalizing
sexual sin. So let me just put my cards
on the table, so to speak; the writer of Leviticus (Moses) did not stumble or
stutter when he wrote…or more accurately…when he wrote down what God said. The whole point would be that if Moses was
wrong about sexual activity between persons of the same gender being wrong, and
detestable to God, he was then also not to be trusted with those other ten
words he said were from God!
For You Today
You chew on that as you hit the
Rocky Road; have a blessed day.
Go to VIDEO
[2] Jesus Loves Me, Bradbury/Warner 1860/62, The Baptist Hymnal (Nashville, Convention
Press, 1991), p.344
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