The Madness of the Motions
The Madness of the Motions
"I Don't Want to Go Through The Motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything?
Instead of going through the motions" Matthew West
"The Motions" by Matthew West is one of my favorite songs, and the painting you see is one of my favorite paintings, it is from a Romantic Era painter named Casper David Friedrich. The title of the painting is "The Abbey" and you will notice that the Abbey is in a ruin, a graveyard in fact, but it has a few curious visitors. Yes there is a place where religion finally dies, and I shall rejoice when it does. Religion is going through the motions of knowing G-d, its like shaking hands and hugging a complete stranger on the street with a huge welcoming grin on your face and acting like you have known him since birth.
Spirituality is the quiet comfort of not having to say a word the whole car ride to a funeral or the knowing grin on your bestfriend's face as he stands beside you at your wedding that says it all.
The Bible warns us alot of just "going through the motions", and I have been through plenty of empty motions myself. This is what many fear about keeping G-d's Law, that it will become simply an empty ritual that has the appearance of righteousness without the substance of a changed heart. This does occur in the immature believers who don't know any better, and mature believers given to pride. Legalism is trying to replace relationship with obedience.
The other side is Lawlessness, where there is no change of heart, and there are no motions gone through either. Lawlessness is trying to have a relationship without obedience.
The problem is that G-d tells us that relationship leads to obedience, or the relationship never existed, and that obedience without relationship is still disobedience because the very 1st Commandment has been broken.
Matthew 5:20
20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
How would one's righteousness surpass that of the Pharisees? They had a 2 year initiation just to become a Pharisee!, instead of simply trying to not break the 7 commands about the Sabbath, they created 32 traditions around the Sabbath, in order to keep them from breaking one of 7 Commands about it by accident!
The answer is simple and two-fold.
As far as Salvation is concerned, your righteousness would have to exceed that of every human being on the planet, pharisees included, therefore you accept the Righteousness of Christ, OR endure in Hell all the while kicking yourself for the weakness of your own efforts.
The 2nd part, the part for this life is this:
The Pharisees only kept the Letter of the Law, but not the Spirit. The Believer should live by both, and repent when you fall so it can be covered by Grace.
Jesus came to fulfill the Law, this is a Rabbinic term which means to PROPERLY EXPLAIN HOW to carry out a Command of G-d-to complete or fill up the understanding of it, so someone will be compleltely instead of just partially, obedient. They will obey in every way that G-d intended, not just one or the other. He not only explaing how to keep the Letter AND the Spirit of the Law, He also gave the Spirit to empower us to do so, His example to follow, and the Written Commands to test the Spirits with.
Abolishing a Command was to incorrectly explain how to keep it.
In Matthew chapter 5, the same chapter where He says we must be more righteous than the Pharisees, Jesus Fulfills the Command to not murder by teaching that Murder is something done in body with the heart, or the heart alone not just the body. Adultery is done in body with the heart, or the heart alone not just the body.
The Pharisees may have bragged about not murdering in the body, but they had done so with their indignant hatred of all non-Pharisees. They may not have committed physical adultery, but thier hearts were still of lust after women (adultery) and things (coveting).
The Pharisees kept the Letter alone, but not the Spirit. They had the Shabbat, but never experienced the Shabbat Shalom. Their bodies rested, as G-d commanded and Jesus practiced. On the outside, both Jesus and the Pharisees were keeping Sabbath, but while the Pharisees rested on physically (Shabbat), Jesus gave physical and Spiritual Rest (Shabbat Shalom).
Matthew 5:17-19, the preceding verse, tells us that "He who keeps and teaches the least of the Commands will be called Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who relaxes the least of the Commands and teaches others to do likewise will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven".
So Jesus commands His followers to Keep and Teach G-d's Commands, but then He adds this warning "
20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Salvation is through Christ alone, His blood atonement. But we must ensure that we surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees. We cannot simply go through the motions of obedience to G-d with our bodies, our words, our clothes with fish and crosses and witty sayings or half of Bible verses used as slogans or punchlines, our rituals, we must have also obedient hearts.
Matthew 23:23"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
The Pharisees were ordered to keep even the least of the Commands, like tithing from a vegetable garden, but to also ensure they do not neglect the greater things of G-d's Law. Justice, mercy, faithfulness, things that cannot be expressed by ritual but must be lived through the Spirit of G-d and a circumcised heart. Any uncircumcised fellow could run through a ritual, but only the circumcised in heart (the true circumcision) can carry out the Command.
1 Corinthians 5:8
Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven (not simply by removing physical leaven in the old ritual fashion), nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
In Matthew we find Jesus (Rabbi Yeshua) fulfilling the Law for other Jewish Rabbi's by telling them that even if its not done in the body, one can still commit murder. Even if its not done in the body, one can still commit adultery in the heart.
In 1st Corinthians 5:8 we find Paul, (Rabbi Sha'ul) fulfilling the Law to Gentile believers. He is explaining to them that we all are to keep the Passover and Unleavened Bread as G-d Commanded. However, if we simply remove the leaven (yeast) from our homes, but don't remove the leaven from our hearts, then we have still not kept the Commands of G-d in Leviticus 23. We have failed to keep the Feast (a Sabbath) and thereby broken the 4th Commandment.
Isaiah 1:12-17
2"When you come to appear before Me,
Who requires of you this trampling of My courts?
13"Bring your worthless offerings no longer,
Incense is an abomination to Me
New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies--
I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.
14"I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts,
They have become a burden to Me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15"So when you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Yes, even though you multiply prayers,
I will not listen
Your hands are covered with blood.
16"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight
Cease to do evil,
17Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.
Here we have the Prophet Isaiah warning the people that since the people keep the Feasts of the Lord without repentant hearts, their ritual observance/empty religion has become an abomination to Him. Reading the whole chapter will reveal that their hands were covered in innocent blood, but they still dared to pretend their heart was in the Feast. It was a custom and on some feasts, a command to send portions to the poor so they could celebrate, but the Feasts had become about self-indulgence.
In Isaiah 56 and 58, the same Book of the Bible, G-d declares a blessing FOREVER on ALL GENTILES that keep His Sabbaths. Therefore it isn't the Sabbaths (Feasts) that He hates, but the empty ritualistic way the people celebrated them. This made them not feasts of the Lord, but simply Feasts of the people. A tradition that replaced His Command. Thier tradition was based on a Command, but was lacking. G-d's Command was that the Feast be kept in Body and Spirit. Not one or the other. Isaiah 56 promises the blessing on Gentiles who keep the Sabbath, and Isaiah 58 tells the heart with which it should be kept.
1st Corinthians 11:20
20Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper,
21for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk.
22What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.
The Lord's Supper
23For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;
24and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
25In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
26For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
27Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
28But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
Finally, we have Paul disgusted with those who use the Passover/Lord's Supper as a ritual of eating unleavened bread and drinking wine instead of experiencing the Grace of Atonement.
"The Motions" by Matthew West
Listen and Watch here, Powerful Song!:
http://www.youtube.com/
Lyrics
This might hurt
It’s not safe
But I know that I’ve gotta make a change
I don’t care
If I break
At least I’ll be feeling something
‘Cause just ok
Is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life
I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything?
Instead of going through the motions
No regrets
Not this time
I’m gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love
Make me whole
I think I’m finally feeling something
Take me all the way
Take me all the way
‘Cause just ok
Is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life
I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything?
Instead of going through the motions
Take me all the way
Comments
Post a Comment