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TWO
PROPt:aS
(Continued from page 27)
in the "administration of death"
(2 Cor. 3:7). Moses was a reluctant
prophet. Fa ithful and obedient and
hard working, granted, but reluc–
tant. Moses
did
the job God wanted
done - but it wasn't Moses' idea -
it was God's!
"For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth carne by Jesus
Chris t" (John l: 17, KJV). This
scripture is misquoted and certainly
misapplied by most.
It
makes it ap–
pear tha t Moses was the giver of the
law - tha t harsh, unbending, unfor–
giving, deadly set of rules that con–
demn and kili - while Jesus
substituted
grace and truth in the
stead oflaw.
Nothing could be further from
the truth!
In the first place. the translation
in the King James Bible is in–
accura te.
lt
should read : " For the
law was given
THROUGH
Moses,
whil e g race and truth c a rn e
THROUGH
Jesus Christ." This Moses
and this Jesus are very much two of
a kind.
Law is not opposed to truth. Law
IS
truth . Granted, law is not grace.
lt
was never intended to be. The pur–
pose of law is to show the
NEED
for
grace. Grace in no way does away
with law - grace forgi ves the trans–
gression of law.
Without law there co uld be no
grace.
Without grace there could be no
life.
Thank God for law - and grace
- and life!
Law and Grace and Truth
Moses, the man, or any other man,
could not produce or provide grace.
Only Jesus, by His perfect life and
His pe rfect sacrifice can grant grace.
Hence, the law could be given
through
Moses, the man - but it
was. and is, and always will be
God's
law
- while grace could
only
come
through
Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, and grace was, is, and always
will be
God 's grace!
Moses was thoroughly familia r
with God 's grace, and he wrote
five
books
of G od 's truth. Jesus thor–
oughly believed in and knew a ll
about law, for it was His voice tha t
The
PLAIN TRUTH March 1977
W
....:;._::........:;.._H..:_:_Y_..:;_N--=-...;;;
0=-...;;~_..:_?
___
----.:...:::..by
Jon
Hill
The
Age
of
Blah!
W
e live in an age
ot
Blah - despite space travel, potential ther–
monuclear extinction, increase in major earthquakes, unprece–
dented population-explosion/famine bomb about to explode, runaway
inflation (with world depression on its heels), a plethora
ot
crises trom
ecology to education .
We live in an age of Blah because original thinking is at its nadir.
Despite the fact that there are nearly as many lite styles as there are
people, and many brag about " doing their
own
thing " but hardly any–
one does. We are assaulted on every side by politicians on the one
hand and the press on the other, with advertising hitting us head on!
We are told what, when and how to think, act, buy, do- and most
ot
us do as we are told!
We are all torced ínto a dry, dull mold. We're the Pepsi genera–
tion, pop-bottle babies. We allevíate the pain at one end with aspirin
and at the other with Preparatíon
H.
We smother the rest with roll-ons,
spray and aerosol unguents, powders and oils. Time , required tor
proper enjoyment
ot
the quality lite, is just not available (though we
have the same 24 hours a day all our torefathers did since Adam and
Eve in the Garden) - so we substituta protit-making (tor someone
else) " instants" tor as many tacets
ot
lite as possible: instant cotfee,
instant tea, instant you and me! lnstant
TV
meals(?). lnstant Cup-A–
Soup. lnstant divorce. lnstant potatoes, tomatoes and puddings.
Paper diapers clog our toilets or are a potential cause of disease
at the dump.
Beige is our favoríte color. Bland is our tavorite brand .
Easy credit, no-pain payments: buy now, pay ... later ...
Smooth.
Soft.
BLAH!
Why not get out of the rut? And live, justa little.
Why not go to the grocery store, get sorne good meat and sorne
fresh
(not frozen or instant) vegetables, sorne spices of
your own
choosing and come home and make a good lrísh stew, that takes two
days betore it really tastes good?
Why not turn the
TV
off tora week and read a good book instead,
or build a cabinet, or sew a new dress, or attend a lecture with the
whole tamily, go to the zoo, have a picnic (weather permitting), take a
walk?
Why not take sorne
time
to
THINK -
about why you do the things
you do, or don ' t do?
Why not?
thundered God's law to millions of
Israelites from the heights of the
holy mountain of God, Sinai in Ho–
reb - where Moses reluctantly ac–
cepted the job God had for him!
In the next installment , we'll see
many of the trials and tribulations
Moses went through in doing the
job the God who became Jesus de–
manded of him. We' ll hear more of
his pleadings, his arguments, his
boldness
before the throne of
grace.
We' ll see how thoroughly familiar
Moses was with
grace and truth
-
and how completely the law belongs
lo God, comes from God, and was
only given
through
Moses, the reluc–
tant prophet.
Don' t miss it!
o
(
To Be Continued)