Fathers ruled during the Patriarchal Age. With Gentile Job as an example, 1:4-5, he protected his children's religious life by sacrificing animals in case they sinned. Which was likely, given the time they spent feasting and partying with their closed family. They could always say, when doing something wrong, "Don't worry. Dad will cover us."
With Hebrew Abraham as an example, all his descendants depended on his worth before God to save them. While failing personally as God's people, they could always say, "Abraham has enough merit to cover our shortcomings." John the Baptist punctured both assumptions. "I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham" Matthew 3:9. An indictment, by the way, of the pleasure-driven life of Job's children and the stony hearts and closed minds of Abraham's descendants. Jesus reinforced John's teaching. Matthew 10:34 records his detonation of corporate religion. Faith in God would no longer be by Group, but always of the Person encountering God in Christ. Cancelling that centuries-old belief constituted one of Christ's most unsettling teachings in that generation. The nature of the spiritual life accounts for the dramatic change. Communal religious life could meet the ceremonial needs of Jewish people Hebrews 9:10, 13, 23. When Jesus outlined his world conquest, Matthew 28:16-20, he demanded nothing less than spiritual warfare against satan's entrenched religious bureaucracy in the entire Gentile world. Promised in Jeremiah 31:31ff, that Spirit-filled life could be realized only in Christ's incarnation as God-in-the Flesh, his universal personality and his once-for-all sacrifice as Savior of the world Hebrews 10:5-25. One further thought. Nothing but personal faith in Christ now suffices as fruitful discipleship in a diverse world. False belief, with all its lies, exists. True belief, leading to Christ-likeness, also exists. While satan can counterfeit religious observances, he has no answer for Jesus Christ's Powerhouse Personal victory over him, death, sin, Hell, accompanied by the original, new, stalwart converted Christian life he inspired. That also is the secret of a CHURCH of strong CHRISTIANS. As each specifically and deeply committed disciple adds himself to others, a BODY of people LIKE the INDIVIDUALS in it emerges. The question each disciple must ask himself is: if each member reflected my example of Christ, would the BODY of Christ be more ANVIL or HAMMER? Would it be changing life or being altered by culture? Would our CHURCH be more or less capable of contesting and conquering satanic influence? Would the CHURCH be an undeniable witness of the Risen Christ or another shabby example of a mere religious life?
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