False Confidence in Law....Romans 2

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. (Romans 2:28-29)

Paul has been discussing the righteous judgment of God, warning those who “rest in the Law” that knowing and even prizing the law does not exempt one from judgment according to truth. This could apply as well to those raised in the christian milieu.

Neither baptism, nor circumcision can save us from the wrath of God, in fact they are meaningless unless the spiritual reality they point to is evident in the lives of those who claim it.

Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.(Romans 2:17-20)

Paul examines the psychology of self-delusion by which the religionist imagines he will escape the judgment of God.

*“You rest in the Law”- means that just by virtue of the fact that being a Jew (or a ‘christian’) gives one a higher moral sense than the rest of the world, they ‘rest’, concerning judgment.

*“You make your boast of God”- is akin to Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the publican,

And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.(Luke 18:9-14)

Note the contrast between the boastful Pharisee, bearing the very false confidence Paul is warning about here, and the sinful publican smiting his breast(The heart is the very seat of sin) out of a bitter sense of distance from God.

*”You know His will”- The Law is a Revelation of God, it does teach the will of God. But rather than a source of self-confidence, the law should engender utter humility,and the fear of God. The Law should turn men to God,to seek cleansing and redemption.

*”You are confident that you are a guide…a light…an instructor…”- Those who have been given the Word of God should be teachers and guides, but not in false confidence and pride. The complacency he is warning the religious of, is utterly damning.

Who is it that really “gets ” the message of the Law of God? Knowledge of the Law and stewardship of it is an incredible privilege and enriching to any people. No wonder the psalmist burst out into exultation,“O how I Love thy Law, it is my meditation day and night!” (Psalm 119)

But the responsibility that comes with such privilege is sobering. Man will not be judged by what he doesn’t know, only by what he does know. To whom much is given much is required. Those who have been blessed by the Word of God, and access to it, have a heavy accounting coming.

For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;(Romans 2:12)

Paul is in continuity ,not only with Jesus but with the warnings of all of the prophets of God to the people of the Word. Isaiah prophesied the true response to the knowledge of the Word of God, as opposed to the busy, empty, self-confident religiousity of the Israel of His day. Note his description of true Piety,

Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me?… For all those things hath mine hand-made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.(Isaiah 66:1-4)

The real understanding of the Law, brings brokenness, self-doubt, utter filial fear of God, willingness to be humble, contrition( sorrow for sin), total love and devotion for forgiveness and redemption. This is saving Faith, approved of the Holy Spirit!

Busy, presumptuous religion, going about “building a house for God”(Look at what we are doing for God!), offering sacrifices as ritual, but with no real response to God, no listening and seeking to please God…”When I called no one answered”, this is religion which is rejected and disapproved.

Jesus Christ IS God in the flesh, God made human.

Get over it and accept it.
Even God foretold what was going to take place....

6. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon[d] his shoulder, and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
( actually, Government here means, that all authority was given unto Jesus Christ ) ....

Isaiah 9:6 .... read it for you self, check it out, it's there in your bible, unless you refuse to read this part.

Here is another one...
He shall offer himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of many..
Isaiah 53

1. Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2. He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression [a] and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
[b] 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes [c] his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life [d] and be satisfied [e] ; by his knowledge [f] my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

12. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, [g] and he will divide the spoils with the strong, [h] because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Okay I'll start here and work backwards to your other posts. I suppose this is a giant waste of time but oh well

Jesus Christ IS God in the flesh, God made human.

Deut 4:12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13 He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets. 14 And the LORD directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. 15 You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman

G-d has no form...whether formed like a man or whatever...

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, there is a sharp contrast made between God on one hand, and human beings on the other. First of all, there is always a reprimand against any human being who claims to be God, or Divine, as we read in Ezekiel 28:2:

Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Eternal God; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:

I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not a man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city. [Hosea 11:9]

And then there is another verse, in Numbers 23:19, where God specifically tells us that if God were a human being, then he would be a liar, as all human beings do lie on occasion. Furthermore, this verse tell us that if God were a human being, he would be in need of repentance because all human beings sin at some point in their lives. Finally, this verse also tells us that if God were a human being, then he would make promises, but not keep them:

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the Son of Man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? [Numbers 23:19]

6. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon[d] his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ( actually, Government here means, that all authority was given unto Jesus Christ ) ....

The ninth chapter in the Book of Isaiah deals with the crisis that existed in the Kingdom of Judah during a time when the Assyrian king Sannheriv wanted to destroy it. Isaiah responds to the messenger sent by Hezekiah with a message in which he reaffirms the promise that G-d made to David, namely, that the kingdom would be preserved (see 2 Sam 7:12-16). The army of Sannheriv, the king who previously exiled the tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, lays siege to Jerusalem seeking to capture and exile the people of the Kingdom of Judah. The nation turned to G-d and obeyed Hezekiah's order not to respond and, as noted (see 2 Chron 32:21, above), a miracle occurred. An angel came and slaughtered the Assyrian army, and the king, Sannheriv, was assassinated by members of his own family upon his return in defeat. Thus, the Jewish nation that was on the brink of destruction, standing in the shadow of death, suddenly and miraculously was redeemed, and it stood in a great light.

The tenth chapter in the Book of Isaiah provides the epilogue to the events described in Chapter 9. In these two chapters, the Prophet recounts how G-d saved King Hezekiah and his Kingdom of Judah from Sannheriv’s massive military attack. Prior to the siege on Jerusalem, the Assyrian army successfully captured and exiled most of the population of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Now Assyria was poised to exile the people of the Kingdom of Judah, the helpless remnant of the Jewish people who so desperately needed divine intervention. By way of leading into a description of the events that lifted a nation from a state of despair to the ecstasy of a miraculous redemption; Isaiah opens up his ninth chapter with the following declaration:

Isaiah 9:1 - The people who walked in darkness, have seen a great light; those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, light shone upon them.

When certain passages in Chapter 10 are superimposed on some passages in Chapter 9, it becomes even more evident that the passage Isaiah 9 5-6/[6-7] relates directly to G-d saving Hezekiah and his people from Sannheriv in the eighth century B.C.E

The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and Jewish rabbis and sages all agree that the original Hebrew reads: "For a child has been born to us, a son given to us, and the authority is upon his shoulder, and the wondrous adviser, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, called his name, "the prince of peace." (Isaiah 9:5). It is obvious that Isaiah, according to the original Hebrew is talking about a person in the past tense.

For example, the word which the Christian Bibles render as "his name shall be called" is the two words "vayikra shemo," which properly translated, should be "called his name" or "his name was called." The word "vayikra" is the first word to appear in the book of Leviticus, and a quick check will show that all Bibles render "vayikra" there properly, in the past tense.

Christians believe that Jesus is God incarnated in the flesh and they deliberately alter these verses from the Hebrew Bible to prove their claim. But to accomplish that, they had to change the tense from the present to the future, making it, "A child is born, a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall becalled etc., etc.”

When studying the Christian claims of Jesus in Isaiah 9:5-6, questions should be asked.

1. Which government ever rested on Jesus' shoulders?

2. How could Jesus have been a wonderful counselor when the Christian Bible (New Testament) makes it clear that Peter couldn't understand Jesus' mission and Judas frustrated his counsel?

3. Why would an Almighty God take orders and be subject to earthly mortals? Yet Jesus was in subjection to his parents (Luke 2:51) and had to learn obedience (Hebrews 5:8).

4. How could Jesus be called a Prince of Peace when there was never any peace in the land during Jesus' time and further more, he clearly said, "I came not to bring peace but a sword (Matthew 10:34)?

Most Bible commentators agree that this text written by Isaiah, was referring to King Hezekiah when he was a nine year old child. Later when he became king over the Jews Hezekiah established a reign of righteousness and peace and was actually called the "Almighty God." The Oxford Annotated Bible explains that the Hebrew word for “Almighty God” actually means "divine in might" and states that the passage originally celebrated the appointment of a Judean king.

Once again, these original Hebrew verses are not a prophecy of Jesus.

Isaiah 53 is a rather long explanation, so I will refer you here, so please read them thoroughly:

Please review all these sources....all of them.

Isaiah 53 is the nation of Israel, the Jewish people. His visage marred beyond that of any man, Jesus may have been scourged, but you could still tell it was Jesus on the cross. I saw the passion of the cross. Yes, he was bloodied, but he still looked like a man.

On the other hand, the Jewish people for 2000 years have been called, sons of pigs, apes, monkeys, viruses, rats, sub human, demons, vampires etc. The only way other human beings can stuff 6 million Jews into gas chambers and burn them in ovens is to see them as non-human beings. The Nazi's were on an extermination quest because the Jews were seen as not human.

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