A Yoke Unable To Bear

"Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" Acts 15:10

Have you ever heard of the word sophistry? If you haven't, don't worry. It is a word that over the last couple of centuries has diminished in its use. There are many similar definitions of sophistry, but the one I like is, "reasoning that seems plausible on a superficial level but is actually unsound, or reasoning that is used to deceive." Basically, it is something that appeals to the emotions but doesn't deliver on its promise. One of the areas of life where sophistry shows up is the spiritual world of religion. Recently, a friend of mine shared a quote with me that could appeal to a person's emotions, but would not deliver what it promises. "Every promise in the Word of God is for us. In your prayers, present the pledged word of Jehovah, and by faith claim His promises. His word is the assurance that if you ask in faith, you will receive all spiritual blessings. Continue to ask, and you will receive exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think. Educate yourself to have unlimited confidence in God. Cast all your care upon Him. Wait patiently for Him, and He will bring it to pass." My friend sent this to me because a red flag went up in their mind after reading it. After they sent it to me, they followed up with the rhetorical question, "Every promise?" I noticed that too. Furthermore, what caught my attention is when it says, "if you ask in faith, you will receive all spiritual blessings." On the surface, this quote sounds great, but in reality, it is vague and, ultimately, unattainable. First of all, it misses the fact that we have already been given everything we need for life and godliness and received every spiritual blessing in Christ. In 2 Peter 1:3, Peter writes, "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3)."If you already have everything you need for a godly life and have received every spiritual blessing through faith in Jesus Christ, what else do you need to ask for from God? Secondly, many of the promises of God are conditional on our perfect obedience. How many times do you read God say, "If" you fully obey, then I will bless you? In Exodus 19:5, God declares, "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession." Here we are thousands of years later and the nation of Israel is still not fully obeying God and keeping His covenant. The lesson is clear, we aren't fully obedient and never will be. So, these promises will never be received. Third, and what often goes unmentioned, is that the promises God makes aren't always beneficial to us. One only need to read Deuteronomy 28. The list of "promises" for disobedience, starting in verse 15, is nearly three times as long as the blessings for obedience. God promises a literal hell on earth for disobedience, but, this is never mentioned by those appealing to our emotional desire to be blessed. For example, God says, "The Lord himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me (Deuteronomy 28:20)." Do you really want every promise of God, especially when the chances are likely you will only receive His promised curses?

People are deceived into believing they can obtain the promised blessings of God if they are just obedient enough. And the Law of God is rarely the measuring stick, it is usually the "law" of some religious organization or church that a person is measured against. Regardless, that won't be perfectly obeyed either. The result is you are struggling for promises you will never receive, believing God is disgusted with you for your continued failure, and missing out on the promises you already have received through faith in Jesus Christ and the rest God has for you. There is also a difference in the promises you strive to achieve in the energy of your own flesh and those you have been given as a blessing of your faith in Jesus Christ. What does God promise for your obedience to His commands? He promises things like, ""Your towns and your fields will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed. Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed (Deuteronomy 28:3-6).""  These are wonderful blessings, but they are all blessings of the flesh that God will never have to deliver on. In contrast, what does it mean to have everything you need for a godly life and to have been given every spiritual blessing in Christ? 2 Peter 1:4 says, "Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." Did you notice that God has given us His "great and precious promises." He gave them to us as a gift of our faith in Jesus Christ, not as a reward for our fleshly obedience to His impossible commands. However, these promises we have been given aren't the blessings of the flesh as promised under the Old Covenant. Ephesians 1:4-5 says, " Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ." The promises God has given us in Christ are His love, holiness, forgiveness, and best of all, Himself. When we try to be obedient to the commands of God in order to receive the blessings of the flesh, it is because deep down we hope that in receiving them, we will meet the deep, spiritual desires of our heart for love, forgiveness, holiness and a relationship with our Heavenly Father. But, God didn't design us to receive those things through our obedience. He designed us so that through the pursuit of those things we would fail and realize that only through His grace and mercy would those things be received. That is why we so easily fall prey to those who offer us the promises of God as if they are something still to be obtained if only we obey Him. It is a yoke of slavery that the Jews couldn't overcome and neither can we. Yes, claim the promises of God. But, claim those spiritual promises He has freely given to you through faith and not the promises of the flesh you will never be obedient enough to claim and don't measure up to what you truly need from God. It is not an act of faith to ask God for what He has already given to you.