THE TRADITION OF MEN

THE TRADITION OF MEN

At any time, during the history of the church, when the traditions of men have reared their ugly heads, seeking to substitute as the doctrines of God, there have been those who have fought against such.

The first and foremost examples we have is from the record of the New Testament itself:

It is here we find those who sought to reintroduce the Law of Moses and circumcision as necessary to salvation, which prompted the apostle Paul to write Galatians, and the writer of the Hebrews to mention the true purpose of those things of the Old Covenant, which was a foreshadowing of the actuality of the New.

It is also in the New Testament that we find Paul writing against the heresy of the proto-Gnostics in Colossians, as well as the apostle John in his letters.

However, man is hard pressed to let go of that which identifies him, and quick to pervert it.

What identifies man is a simple two-part equation, one part of which was lost when the first man God made, Adam, gave into the temptation to be more than what he was; that is,  God’s Creation.

What was lost was the ability to be in communion with God – to walk in the light, as He is in the light. This is the true meaning of fellowship; a joining with one’s Creator that is perfect.

In order to make Adam capable of such fellowship, God created him with the capacity to choose, and placed him in the circumstances that led to the death of faith; that is, the other, necessary capacity of being in perfect harmony with his Creator.

No man could ever be like God, yet that is the greatest temptation of all men, and that was the greatest temptation that faced Adam, which he failed to conquer.

The fact of the matter is this: no man can conquer this temptation; he cannot conquer it because it is at the root of his very being. Man was created to be like God; not in infinite essence, but as representative of the perfections of his Creator. Every temptation that takes a man has this at its core, for every temptation is a lust to be one’s own creator, king, and emperor.

No matter how impossible such is, that is what drives men, from the meanest to those who appear most noble; from the most vile of sins to the one which appears to be good, which seems altruistic and philanthropic to others; however, the very terms define that rebellion to be servants of the only good and perfect Creator, for they mean humane and humanitarian, with the reward of hiding the inherent corruption of the creature.

After all, if something seems good, it must be good, man reasons. If a series of actions result in the well-being of others by one or more individuals, acting alone or in concert, the creature’s rationale, given by God, yet separated by the first effort of the first man to be equal to his Creator, is that it is good, though no thanks is directed towards the One who made him, or them, capable of such things, and the satisfaction is, at its very center, rotten, for man was created to serve and worship God in a harmony that is unknown in this fallen world, even among the church (and here, I mean the true, catholic church, not the various visible representations of that church that have lost and saved people within their various walls).

That which is corrupt by the desire to be equal to the only infinite, perfect, God, can never hope to represent Him in true fellowship, a service of love by the creation to its Creator, for without knowing God for what and who He IS, one can never adequately represent, in even the finite form (which note, God created to continue forever, in one state or another) of man, the flawless perfection that God always IS.

God knew this; He foreknew, actively, exactly that which He created, and how, making man is His image, man, by the very capacity He gave him to choose good or evil, when confronted with that choice, would choose evil; even the best motives of man, which result from the providence of God (often called “common grace”), hold this concept inherent: I can be like God.

In this way, even the worship of God has been perverted throughout the history of the church, as we said: It is true evil when men think that something they observe and enable from their own selfish power and desires is good, without crediting and thanking the God who made them, and sustains them, and when those who have been born again of God’s mercy do such, it is only that grace that can forgive them of their folly, for that grace is given by virtue of the unique God-Man, Jesus Christ, Himself very God of very God, consubstantial with the Father.

Unsaved man foolishly thinks himself capable of good without crediting it to his Creator: how much more heinous is it, in God’s sight, that those saved by His Son’s sacrifice think that they are keeping themselves in observance of righteousness – a righteousness that Luther rightly called “a foreign righteousness,” for it is the very righteousness of Christ our Lord – by thinking that duty-faith somehow obtains that which it can only receive, mirror, and emanate by that new nature in union with God’s Spirit, and so their Lord and Father, and this, without giving of thanks; without any recognition of the One who brought their very essence into being by His unlimited, perfect, infinitely good power.

This is not to say that duty-faith is not required; the very fundamental nature of man, regenerated, is made to be in fellowship with the One True God. This fellowship can only be partially realized while the regenerate spirit is yet housed in the carnal flesh we yet live in, for the reason of testing: obedience that is true partakes of abiding in Christ our Lord; partakes of the very grace He gave us, to perform its works – works hidden in Him and prepared in Him from beforehand (Ephesians 2:8-10; Colossians 3:1-3).

That which was born of Adam dead is brought to life in Christ, yet these bodies – and by this I mean the carnal flesh, in which the deadness of that which was has yet to be regenerated – cannot partake of that regenerated life, except by obedience from a pure heart of loving thankfulness to the Creator, who made such possible; not only that, but in a manner where the life to come will always be obedient, truly worshipping God, who created us, in the perfection He intended, by the only Person who could ever fulfill that obedience; His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

This has not happened yet, but it is in the process of happening (Colossians 3:4-17).

However, we fail – which is to say sin – often, and this is why it is all of grace that we even have the faith to obey, for without abiding in Christ, duty-faith becomes carnal duty only, and we again are guilty of trying to be like God by our works, which could not save us, and most definitively cannot sanctify us, for as faith without works is dead, so works without faith partake of the same death that we were saved from.

Faith is defined as that which is unseen and yet true, partaking of the very righteousness of Christ our Lord by that faith which His Spirit engendered in us when He regenerated us; this is the solid foundation on which the apostles rested, and upon which we must rest (Ephesians 2:20-22; Hebrews 11:1); this is the faith that is of our Lord Jesus Christ, that sees those things of God that are beyond the sight of carnal flesh (Colossians 3:1-3), the faith that counts that flesh as crucified, and our Lord as living – this is the vital union which could not be provided by the most perfect man, but only the Perfect God-Man (Galatians 2:20-21).

When believers think that anything that they do – anything – has any power outside of Christ, at that point, they are living according to the old nature, even though it exists only in the flesh, for that nature which was carnal through spiritual inheritance from Adam was made alive in Christ, having also died with Him, by God’s working, not man’s (Romans 6; Ephesians 2:1-10).

Yet notice: The faculty of choice was not eliminated by this divine union with our God and Creator, and it is exactly at this point where the desire to be like God again rears it’s ugly head, seeking to live to be justified, instead of living by faith granted of God because we are declared to be justified (Romans 5:1); and at this point, peace flees, carnality reigns over our members, and we fail to realize the fellowship, or union, with our Creator that He alone has placed us into. Knowledge of the things of God is divorced from the faith that such knowledge must be combined with, and we literally commit acts of treason against our King, who redeemed us from such a curse. There is no wisdom great enough to be counted as more than mere information imparted, much as a computer stores information, without faith, for the knowledge of God is only wisdom when trusting in Him by that power He gave us to do so, and that type of trust is faith, which, when combined with the knowledge of the things of God, will fear a wrong representation of Him to any others, saved or unsaved (Proverbs 3:5-7).

Honoring God on the Lord’s Day become a duty, an obligation, and so an abomination, for we do so in the way of those God abhorred for doing so (Isaiah 1:10-21); we make His commandments burdensome, instead of entering into that Sabbath rest which is not static (as He is not static in maintaining His creation), but lives by the very faith He gave to us, that we might truly honor Him (and it must be observed that some believers seem to think one day more holy than another, when the fact of entering His Sabbath rest is to not only observe the Sabbath, but to observe every day to proclaim and promote His glory).

If we add our own works, instead of ceasing from them, we behave in the abominable manner of those whom the Lord rebuked for performing the very sacrifices and convening the very assemblies that He Himself has commanded, because, like them, we are “working out our own salvation,” yet not with that fear and trembling that knows we do so by a faith given of God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, not our own sense of obligation and the power of our flesh, by which that grace of God is nullified. We therefore not only do not enter into His Sabbath rest on the Sabbath; we profane the Sabbath, and all other days in which we are to remain in that rest, and we are the reason the nations and their peoples speak ill of our God – these things ought not to be!

Notice, then, that duty-faith follows out of entering into that Sabbath rest, not secures it (Hebrews 4:9-16).

Let us not fall into the same trap as Adam, the fathers, and so many others have fallen into, which lead to sectarianism, despising one another, lack of peace, hate in place of love, esteeming ourselves better than others instead of the reverse, and all manner of the works of the flesh.

It is an abomination to God to see those whom He has redeemed so at war with one another, and I do not speak of apostates and heretics here, but those whom He has truly redeemed, by His promise, which He is faithful and just to carry out; therefore, let us walk in love that issues from a pure heart, which love is concurrent with loving the brethren, and manifests, by His power, that form of doctrine that is of true and sincere faith; let us regard the traditions of men that seek to replace the doctrines of God as what they are – abominations in His sight, for they deny both Him and the love He gives us to have towards one another (John 13:34-35; 1 Timothy 1:5-11).

To God's glory alone - Bill Hier