Gnosis, Moses, or Gospel? – Part 3
If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees?...These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence [Colossians 2:20, 23].
Listen to how Paul in our text for this study depicted the world religious systems known as Gnosticism.
1. self-made religion
2. self-abasement
3. severe treatment of the body
I ask you, does that not sound like monks in a monastery? Indeed it does! Once man rejects God’s Word, all he has left vis-à-vis spiritual understanding is “religion”. Religion is any collection of beliefs about how to know God and relate to Him.
By definition any religion is “self-made”, aka man-made. Only God knows God. Man can only know and relate to God based on God’s Word. In His Word God instructs man about Himself and eternity and His requirements. Once man rejects this instruction, all he has left is his own imagination. Religion by definition is “self-made” or “man-made”.
In order to feel that he is basically “good”, man via his religion abases himself. The monks in a monastery hide from the wicked world behind walls of seclusion. They flagellate themselves to beat the wicked flesh into submission and make themselves behave according to the rules and regulations of their man-made religion. As Paul noted, this is “self-abasement” and “severe treatment of the body”.
Trouble is, it is nothing more than “will worship”. Man of his own will determined these rules and regulations. God didn’t. Ergo, by means of religion man worships his own will, not God. Man’s rgood works don’t satisfy God in any way. They only serve to convince man that he really isn’t so bad after all, and so God must be pleased with him.
The result of religion is that man becomes convinced God is pleased with him, while all along God most definitely is not! Hence religion serves to stupefy man, so that he never goes to God to get right with Him. Getting right with God requires the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not religion. It requires God’s grace, not man’s good works.
Listen to Paul’s summation of Gnosticism specifically, and of religious good works in general:
• have…the appearance of wisdom
• are of no value against fleshly indulgence
See, the trouble with monkery in a monastery is that the evils of the world stem from the sin in man. Hide as we might behind monastery walls, we cannot escape ourselves. We might keep the rest of the world out, but we are still inside and sin in us is present.
Sin inside man is his natural condition, his nature. Flogging the outer body does nothing to the inner man…except stupefy him into thinking he is now okay with God since he whipped his poor aching flesh! Such self-styled good works “have the appearance of wisdom”, you see, but they “are of no value against fleshly indulgence”.
Do you get it? How much gnostic blood runs through our veins today? How much of church attendance is composed of “the appearance of wisdom”, while the sin nature (“fleshly indulgence”) runs amuck in our lives. Not to worry though, since we have been stupefied by our self-made religious rites into thinking all is well with God!
Nay, nay, kind Christians. Let us flee religion and betake ourselves to the true City of Refuge, aka the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only way to the Father. Religion is always a false route to take to God.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Listen to how Paul in our text for this study depicted the world religious systems known as Gnosticism.
1. self-made religion
2. self-abasement
3. severe treatment of the body
I ask you, does that not sound like monks in a monastery? Indeed it does! Once man rejects God’s Word, all he has left vis-à-vis spiritual understanding is “religion”. Religion is any collection of beliefs about how to know God and relate to Him.
By definition any religion is “self-made”, aka man-made. Only God knows God. Man can only know and relate to God based on God’s Word. In His Word God instructs man about Himself and eternity and His requirements. Once man rejects this instruction, all he has left is his own imagination. Religion by definition is “self-made” or “man-made”.
In order to feel that he is basically “good”, man via his religion abases himself. The monks in a monastery hide from the wicked world behind walls of seclusion. They flagellate themselves to beat the wicked flesh into submission and make themselves behave according to the rules and regulations of their man-made religion. As Paul noted, this is “self-abasement” and “severe treatment of the body”.
Trouble is, it is nothing more than “will worship”. Man of his own will determined these rules and regulations. God didn’t. Ergo, by means of religion man worships his own will, not God. Man’s rgood works don’t satisfy God in any way. They only serve to convince man that he really isn’t so bad after all, and so God must be pleased with him.
The result of religion is that man becomes convinced God is pleased with him, while all along God most definitely is not! Hence religion serves to stupefy man, so that he never goes to God to get right with Him. Getting right with God requires the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not religion. It requires God’s grace, not man’s good works.
Listen to Paul’s summation of Gnosticism specifically, and of religious good works in general:
• have…the appearance of wisdom
• are of no value against fleshly indulgence
See, the trouble with monkery in a monastery is that the evils of the world stem from the sin in man. Hide as we might behind monastery walls, we cannot escape ourselves. We might keep the rest of the world out, but we are still inside and sin in us is present.
Sin inside man is his natural condition, his nature. Flogging the outer body does nothing to the inner man…except stupefy him into thinking he is now okay with God since he whipped his poor aching flesh! Such self-styled good works “have the appearance of wisdom”, you see, but they “are of no value against fleshly indulgence”.
Do you get it? How much gnostic blood runs through our veins today? How much of church attendance is composed of “the appearance of wisdom”, while the sin nature (“fleshly indulgence”) runs amuck in our lives. Not to worry though, since we have been stupefied by our self-made religious rites into thinking all is well with God!
Nay, nay, kind Christians. Let us flee religion and betake ourselves to the true City of Refuge, aka the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only way to the Father. Religion is always a false route to take to God.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
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