HOW TO KNOW THE LORD?

Hebrews 8:10-12, quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34   -  "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother , saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."

So from Hebrews, here are two signs of a legalistic, Old Covenant mindset:
1. A need for "Know the Lord" type teaching with only human effort.

God says, “I Will Cause him to know Me effortlessly”  – “all shall know Me”- from the least to the greatest of them.  The Greek  for “know” here is “oido”.  It means to know God without effort.  Whereas the other “know” “ginosko”  (Know the Lord) is to know God by self effort – through seminars and head knowledge. Sometimes bible study can be head knowledge only.  Believers would not know God by “ginosko”.  It is the Spirit of God that teaches you all things – especially grace teaches us from inside out not outside in.  The bible says the anointing will teach you all things.

2. Having a consciousness of sin more than the consciousness of grace, righteousness and forgiveness.  When we are “sin conscious” rather than “righteousness conscious” we live in the flesh and not the Spirit.  The Kingdom of God is “righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.

Many Christians trying to know God by trying to overcome sin and trying to be forgiven by doing good work.  They try to resist sin and usually focused on their sin in order to be right with God.  Paul says the more we think and dwell upon our sin, the more it consumes us. The more consumed we are by our sin, the more we struggle to be free from it, the more we struggle the more we will be discouraged.

God chooses not to remember our sins. God does not forget our sins but God chooses not to remember them. God is in the business of forgetting them and some believer today are in the business of digging them up more to confess. To choose not to remember your sins is an act of faith in God’s Word.

 

The Hebrew writer wrote to the believers at that time.  It’s time to move out of a consciousness of sin and instead move into a consciousness of forgiveness, righteousness and grace.  This will set them free from all kinds of legalism and old covenant thinking.

The Lord declares, “I will put my laws into their mind”  Of course, this is not the Mosaic laws which had no substance to transform us. The Law convicts us of sin and could not deliver us.

I believe this is the “Law of Liberty”.  The new law of liberty is also the law of faith and the law of love.  These are laws that bring life and relationships with God. These are laws not to bind us and not to bring us more burden. 

Jesus came to this world to proclaim liberty and set people at liberty.  (Luke 4:18)  These laws are more than freedom from guilt and condemnation or punishment of our sin. It gives us total freedom from the roots of sin and all its effects. It gives us a closer relationship to draw near to God and come to His holy presence daily.

Look at what Galatians 5:13 says Galatians 5:13

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹³ For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Life by the Spirit

¹³ You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Galatians 5:13 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit; also in verses 16, 17, 19 and 24; and in 6:8.

Galatians 5:22-23

New International Version (NIV)

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Grace has its own law, a higher, liberating law: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2; cf. James 1:25). Note that this new law emancipates us from sin as well as death. Paul was explicit about this: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:1-2). Grace reigns through righteousness (Romans 5:21).

Paul believes that under this new law of love, law of faith and law of liberty that “all things were now lawful for him.”  Even though all things are now lawful but all things are not helpful (I Corinthians 6:12)  And I will not be brought under the power of any (I Cor. 6:12b) because not all things edify” – I Cor. 10:23b)  You are totally free but not free to do anything you wanted especially in the area of the flesh.

Paul told Timothy a young leader saying “Be strong in the grace of God (not be strong in the law of God) so that this GRACIOUS LIVING GRACE   will be imparted to faithful man and woman in his time.