Page 8 - In Defense of the Gospel PUB

serve in some way, attend small group, and give lots of money.”
Or his message might be:

“DON’T lie, cuss, cheat, steal, commit adultery,

yell at your spouse, kick the cat, or be a brat.”

These things are not bad in and of themselves. In fact they are

good and noble to live by. The law is a good revelation of the char-

acter of God, and the way we should be if we want to be perfect.
But none of us can live by it. As I said, everyone who tried failed. So

if we think we can live by it, we are actually living in PRIDE, which

is one of the seven deadly sins.

But if we live by the Old Testament law, this keeps us trapped
in a regimented lifestyle of living by rote. Again, it robs us from liv-

ing in God (Gal 2:19 revisited). Doing GOOD can rob us from

knowing GOD because our focus is on something outside of God,

and not on God himself.

This is the same problem that Adam and Eve had in the Gar-

den of Eden. They were told to eat from every other tree in the
Garden, and to live by The Tree of Life. They were told The Tree of

the Knowledge of Good and Evil was forbidden (and it is still for-

bidden today). Because they chose to engage the forbidden Tree of

Knowledge, their focus was ‘good v. bad’ or on the Do’s and Don’ts

mentioned above. Living in this mindset, they lost connection with
God.

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