The Law as Preparation

Hello, everyone. Today is Wednesday, December the 21st. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for future topics, you can send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. That's right. And you can help us keep this conversation in the airwaves by supporting the podcast, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes, Spotify. That's just a great way for us to be able to keep the name of Jesus Christ in people's ears, in people's minds. That's really our goal. That's right. Here at Clearview Today, we just want to keep the conversation of Jesus alive.

Yeah. And one of our listeners, Mike, let us know that you can actually leave reviews on Spotify. Mike, appreciate you. Appreciate it, Mike. Is that big Mike S? That is big Mike S. Big time supporter, Mike S. Big time supporter. Appreciate it, Mike S. We love you, Mike. Thank you so much.

We love you so much. In fact, I'm going to give Ryan express permission to give you the verse of the day. Oh my. Yes, you have my blessing.

Christmas came early for me. It comes from Romans chapter 15, verse 13. It says, Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I like that. And those are two things that I think we sorely need this Christmas season, joy and peace. And it's, it's free. You know, it comes with believing. It's not that I've got to purchase my joy and my peace. I've got to do something to earn it.

I've got to make sure that I'm good enough or that I mean this, this prayer harder. It's just that I believe. That's right.

I believe God, I trust in you. And that's where the joy, the peace come from. That's right. Yeah. I have a confession to make.

This early? Yep. Wow. Something way on your conscience?

Yes. So I have, you have talked before on the show how about how much you love hummus? I'm a very lovely Mediterranean olive. And I am, I am from the Greek people and we do love our hummus.

And I am from the mountains of Caucasus and we like white bread and milk. So my confession is this though. So disgusting.

And I do mean together. You dip it in the milk. Yes. So my confession is this. I have heard it said that every, about every seven years, your taste buds will change that that's probably an old wives tale, but you know, every seven years you may want to try foods that you have previously not liked previously. I have not liked hummus. Hummus. Hummus. There you go. You got to say it right.

It's all about the phlegm in the back of the throat. So I tried some hummus earlier this week. From where?

It's just the Sabra. From the grocery store. Yeah. From the grocery store. From the grocery store.

Stowe. From the grocery store. From the grocery store. There you go.

Some hummus from the grocery store. There you go. That's a very confusing pronunciation.

It's Mediterranean South. Long story short, I loved it. You loved it. It was delicious. I tried two different kinds.

Okay. One was jalapeno and hot honey and it was very good. Yeah, that does sound good. And the other one was, it was like a dessert hummus.

It was like pumpkin pie. Yeah. I think David brought some of that to the last cookout we went to at Dr. Shah's place. Yeah.

Yeah. And I had not liked hummus up to this point. I was like, do I like hummus now? It's the perfect treat. It's literally the perfect treat.

It's not too many calories. It's high in protein. It's just chickpeas ground up into a paste with some tahini and some olive oil and some paprika. Or as we say, paprika. Paprika. But it is, I'm not really, I mean, I'm Greek, but I'm not really like foreign exotic.

I'm just kind of playing silly for those of you who are listening for the first time. But hummus is one of my absolute favorite snacks. It's just so simple and it tastes so good. I can't get my wife to like it and I can't get my like family, like my mom and my sister, they will not eat the stuff.

I do want to correct you on air though. It is not like a low calorie treat. It's fairly low calorie. It's fairly low calorie.

Look, when I eat hummus, I can like eat the whole thing in one sitting. That's bad. That's like 600 calories. Yeah, no, that's bad. That's like 600 calories. That's not bad.

Yeah. A whole tub of stuff is 600 calories. It's bad if you eat, of course it's high calories if you eat the whole thing.

Also. That's like saying I eat 40 apples, so apples are bad for you. I was full and I ate too many calories because I ate 40 of them. I ate 40 apples and now I'm diabetic.

Yeah, but it's hard to eat 40 apples. It's easy to eat a tub of hummus. No, it is not easy to eat a tub of hummus. One of those little bitty tubs.

Because you're not just eating the hummus, you're eating a bunch of bread with it. No, just one of those little bitty tubs. Do you eat it with a spoon? No.

Unbelievable. I don't know. This is a sidebar, but in addition to hummus, I tried another food that I have not previously liked. Honeydew melon. What is that?

You know how you get the fruit cups and they have the candle open there? No. Okay. I just eat hummus. I just eat hummus. No, go ahead.

It's the green melon that they serve. I do now. I have not liked it in the past. Wow.

I do like it now. As a pro tip, for anybody who wants to up their hummus game, just go to Israel and eat the hummus there. I would 100%... If you want good hummus, go to the grocery store, get some hummus, throw it away, and go to Israel. Get a Chihuahua plane ticket and go to Israel. David and I have been twice. My wife has been once. Dr. Shah has been four times. I think he keeps going back for the hummus. It's the hummus. It's the hummus. It's so good. It's so good.

The biblical significance. It's the hummus. They serve it with every meal. I mean, every meal. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Oh my goodness. I could talk about just Israeli food and Mediterranean food.

Just the entire podcast. But well, I'm glad. I'm glad you've come around on the hummus. Get you some nice, warm... Here's the thing.

We had this at a gas station one time, I think in 2019 in Israel. You take you a pita, get it nice and warm. I mean, toasty. Cut it open. Pull that thing apart. Very liberal with the hummus inside. Get you some falafel, which is also just fried chickpeas.

Put it in there. Take you some nice, spicy harissa. I think it's called harissa. What else did you say it was called, David? There was something else. You said it goes by another name.

I don't actually remember. See, they don't know. I've only known it as harissa. Every time I asked when we were in Israel, they were like, yeah, it's like a spicy red sauce. Like SH something.

I'm like, yeah, but what is it called when I go... I can't just go home to the United States and ask for spicy red sauce. And they're like, yeah, it's like a spicy... It's like a hot spicy sauce.

I'm like, okay, thanks. So we called it harissa, but I don't think it's actually harissa. But anyway, put that on top of the falafel and hummus, close the pita up, and just cram it into your face. That does sound very good. Delicious. I know. I'm getting kind of hungry.

Well, on today's episode of the show, we're talking about, in this theme of Christmas, we're talking about how the law was given as preparation for Jesus's coming. That was in the Middle East Mediterranean area, baby. I bet Jesus ate hummus. Is that safe to say? I don't know.

Is that safe to say? I'm not sure. Maybe we'll ask Dr. Shaw.

How far back hummus dates? I don't either. I don't know. Wow. Maybe we'll ask Dr. Shaw. Yeah, sure. The Old Testament law, as we're talking about this, the Old Testament law isn't something that we typically think about when it comes to Christmas.

But everything that God did in the Old Testament was pointing toward Jesus's birth in the New Testament. That's true. We're going to get Dr. Shaw, but if you guys have any questions for new topics or suggestions, reach us at 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. We'll see you in just a minute. Hey there, listeners. My name is Kelsey. And I'm John. And we want to pause the show for just a second to talk to you guys about Clearview Church's original EP, Together Forward. Yeah, these are five songs, five original songs that we wrote right here at Clearview Church. Myself, Dr. Shaw, David Williamson, our engineer on the Clearview Today show, some of the other guys on the worship team. But sometime during all the shutdowns of 2020, we noticed this really horrible isolationism setting in all over the world.

It was like nothing we've ever seen before. That's right. And one of the things that we've always been about here at Clearview is forward motion and community. Those are both very important. So the whole heart behind the EP was, hey, let's just take these two things and let's put them together because we truly feel like that's the antidote to what's happening in the world today. We're right in the middle of writing a whole bunch of new material as a church. But while all of those projects are still in the works, we want to help point you guys towards these songs that God has given us. You can listen to all of them right now on Spotify, just look up Clearview Worship, or if you want to support what we're doing here at Clearview Church, you can buy it on iTunes right now. And always remember you can support us directly at the Clearview Today show by visiting us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. Thanks for listening. We hope these songs are as much a blessing to you as they were for us. Amen. Let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or you can send us a text at 252-582-5028. We love hearing from you guys. Keep those texts coming in. Dr. Shaw is with us in the studio today. Dr. Shaw, how are you doing today? It's hump day. It is hump day. Right in the middle.

That's right. It's coming. It's incoming. I really wanted a way for just a tiny little cartoon camel. I knew you were going to... Something told me... Something told me you were going for the camel.

I saw it in my mind's eye. I'm just asking you guys to imagine that. Do they even have commercials on TV anymore? Is that still a thing that they do?

Yeah. I haven't watched cable TV. I haven't either. I've watched streaming services. Three years. But some streaming services have them, and most of them are not worth watching.

Fair enough. Well, if you guys out there have never seen the camel commercial before, number one, you're living under our rock. That's one of the greatest commercials ever. Number two, if you've never heard of Dr. Shaw before, if you're not familiar with his work, if this is your first time ever tuning into the show, we want to let you know that Dr. Shaw is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

You can follow his work on abidonshaw.com. Just in case, like John said, you have been living under a rock, it is Christmas time, in case you missed that memo. Are you dead serious? Not only is it Christmas time, it's like Christmas week. I got a good call. Oh, no, it's not.

No, I did my math wrong. No. It's Christmas week for me. Next week.

Every week is Christmas week for me. Okay. I got excited. Calm down. Sorry, I got excited. Calm down. You're upsetting Dr. Shaw. I'm so sorry.

Calm down. I got Christmas carried away. That was funny. Yeah, that was good.

I got carried away on Santa's sleigh. Today at our Christmas series, we are talking about how we typically have this distinction between the Old Testament and New Testament in our minds. We break that up into two separate things like volume one, volume two. But today we're looking at how God gave the Old Testament law in preparation for Jesus coming. Sometimes we separate those two things, but in reality, they were meant to be linked together.

What is this link? What is this set up with the Old Testament law and the birth of Jesus? How did it point to Jesus' arrival?

Well, going back to John chapter one, John's the only book, maybe Mark as well, the gospel more specifically, that does not have the nativity story. Matthew and Luke do, in some form, they talk about the birth of Jesus. Mark sort of rolls right into John the Baptist. John, on the other hand, the gospel writer, the disciple as well, he gets very theological. And so if I can read a passage from John chapter one, it'll make more sense what we're talking about here. John one, verse 14 through 17, it says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of him, talking about John the baptizer, and cried out saying, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness, we have all received grace for grace, for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came to Jesus Christ.

So law came through Moses, grace and truth came to Jesus Christ. In Christmas time, we don't think about that. We think about the baby Jesus. We think about the shepherds, the Magi, Herod the king, Mary and Joseph, the trip to Egypt and back. We think about Moses and the law and grace and truth through Jesus.

And that's what we're discussing today. And I can see kind of what you're saying, because that it seems sets up a dichotomy, because he says that, you know, the word came from God and it was full of grace and truth. And then he says, again, the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So there's that separation, that distinction, but the truth is the law was meant to point us toward Jesus. It wasn't meant like to be separated from, it was meant to usher us into this reality of Jesus' arrival.

Right. I mean, there were several reasons for the giving of the law. One reason, we sort of looked at it last weekend at Clearview Church, that it was given in a sense to protect God's people. If you read Genesis 15, where Abram has this vision, remember the vision where he was sort of discouraged and didn't really know for sure if, you know, he will have any descendants and he is frustrated when God comes to him and says, you know, I'm your shield. I'm your exceedingly great reward. What is Abram's response? Uh, yeah, Lord, what are you going to give me? Right. I mean, literally he says that.

What are you going to give me? Yes, I go childless and the possessor of my house or my heir is Eleazar of Damascus. What he's really doing at that point is he's being a little sarcastic. In the Hebrew, uh, the phrase is Ben Mesek Demesek. Ben Mesek means the possessor or the heir. Demesek is the son of Damascus. So he is in English loses that emphasis, but the Hebrew catches it very well.

He's being like, what will be will be is what he's saying, right? Ben Mesek Demesek kind of like very flippant, very cynical, but God tells him, wait, your children are going to suffer in a land that is not theirs. They will, they will be slaves for a while for 400 years, but then I will bring them out, then I'm going to judge Egypt, but I'm going to bring them out with great possessions into the land of Canaan, the land of promise for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. What is the iniquity of the Amorites? Well, if you think about it for a moment, um, it was the overwhelming sense of sin and depravity. I mean, the land was covered in blood and these were not some ancient tribal, you know, barbarians. These were very advanced group of people, right? I mean, our alphabets that we know today, even in Hebrew, sort of connected to the Amorites, um, building cities coming from the Amorites, uh, some were very good semen. I mean, they, they, they, you know, knew how to travel out in the waters, but they had, they were very, very, um, how do I say this, depraved when it come to came to sin and God gave them 400 years to repent, but they didn't.

So the law in a sense, um, you know, God gave them the law when they came into the land or were headed towards the land, God gave them a law of everything the Amorites were doing wrong. Wow. Don't copy them.

Hence do this. Yeah. It was so that Israel wouldn't become like the people around him. He was protecting them. He was protecting them from, from the Amorites 400 years of rebellion. It's so interesting because we always hear that the old Testament law was, uh, almost like a stumbling block for them. It was something just to stir up sin or just to not even stir up sin, but just to make them realize they couldn't get to God.

We don't see it as protection. Right. And it's true that there is a place and we're going to see that in a few moments, uh, through, uh, you know, the book of Romans. So that is a second, uh, purpose for the law is to see their inability to save themselves.

Okay. But the first purpose was really to protect them, protect them from becoming the Amorites, protect them from getting to the place where the iniquity of the Israelites was not incomplete. God didn't want them to do that. Hence he protected them.

Wow. And the reason God gave them the law is to keep them from becoming like the Amorites, the people who had been evicted or who were in the process of being evicted. So the one reason for the law is that, but, but isn't that gracious of God to do that in that kind of God do that. And the second reason for the law of course is Romans five 20 moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound Romans seven, eight, but sin taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of evil desire. First Corinthians 15 56 a sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. So of course it's the law was a temporary protector, so they wouldn't go to the same place or to the same place that the Amorites did, the Canaanites did, but it also was a measuring stick. Um, it was also in a sense an instigator to sin.

Is it kind of like a, um, like a wet paint sign almost? Yeah. Like, like cause, cause that's, that's interesting. But sin taking opportunity produced in me all manner of evil desire, right?

It's there. Yeah. But it's like, it's like taking a glass filled with dirty water, a lot of dirt, but it's sitting there for hours or days and it seems like, Oh, it's fine and clean. Take a spoon, stir it up and you'll be like, Whoa, there it is again. This is nasty. Yeah. You don't, just because I don't see it all at first sight doesn't mean it's not there.

It's all in there, all that dirt and all that gunk is in. Right. So law was sort of a stir stick, you know, and don't misunderstand me. Laws are good for society.

They are good. We need the laws. We need certain laws, but they cannot change people. They can only keep people in line. Wow.

That is, that, that in and of itself is profound. Laws can't change people. They just keep people in line. That's something I think our culture needs to hear today is that just making a rule or making a law or making something, just establishing that, Hey, we all think this is wrong and you're not allowed to do it. It's not going to change anybody's heart.

No, actually, if you're really honest, it stirs it up. Yeah. Does that mean we shouldn't have laws? Does that mean the bill that our Senate passed a couple of weeks ago, does that mean that we don't need bills?

Of course we do. We need those bills to protect our society, but at the same time, just know it's just going to stir things up. And I think just to kind of add onto that, this is why our churches are essential. This is why it's essential that we get the word of God into people's heart because legislation and laws are not going to change.

Just like you said, it's not going to change people, but the word of God will. That's right. And so I think the more that we try to silence that the bigger of a hole we're digging ourselves as a culture into. Yeah.

And since law was a good thing, right, protecting people, keeping them in line, sort of a kind of a house arrest situation, a nice prison. Okay. But it was also a constant reminder of their inability to reach God. Now don't misunderstand me. I am, when I say these things, there are a lot of people who believe the way I believe it, like Martin Luther, John Calvin, all of them. But since the 70s, the research done by E.P. Sanders, right, Paul in Palestinian Judaism, according to their research, the law was not a negative thing. The law was a very positive thing. So I just want to make that, make sure people know that, that there are some other views on this subject. Well, that's what actually what I was going to ask you was, because we just talked in the last episode yesterday, we talked about having, we talked about the Pharisees, the Pharisees describe all these religious elites. Would they have seen the law this way or would they have seen it like, no guys, this is good.

As long as we keep it, the law is good for us. E.P. Sanders, who by the way just passed away, E.P.

Sanders would say no for the Pharisees, the scribes, the law was a wonderful thing. But then my question to E.P. Sanders is, what in the world is Paul talking about then? Why is he talking about it as a burden? Why is he talking about it like this?

And what E.P. Sanders would say is, well, that's just Paul. Or you have misunderstood Paul, more than likely he would say that's just Paul.

But the rest of the people, that's why it's Palestinian Judaism. He would say Paul is an outlier. Outlier. Yes. Yes.

He was just a Christian lashing back, sort of lashing back at his old religion. Yeah. So, and I disagree with him on that.

I believe Paul captured the essence of Judaism very well. Because he says he was the Pharisee of Pharisees, right? Right. Right. Yeah.

He wasn't just some nobody in Judaism. He was like. Yeah. He was the expert. Right. Yeah. That just kind of came on the scene. He was wholeheartedly passionate about it.

And went out there and just tried to, you know, launch and, you know, put out a blog of his just venting. You know, he is, he's Paul's angry ramblings. He sat under Gamaliel. And by the way, Gamaliel is not just mentioned in the Bible, Rabbi Gamaliel was known in rabbinic Judaism.

Wow. I would say, you know, Paul captured Judaism correctly, which is on one hand, we're grateful for the law. It protects us. It keeps us in line. It's God's grace to us. But on the other hand, yeah, we know it cannot save us.

Something is missing. Yeah. And I can also see that their failure to understand the law from what it was kind of led to that self-righteousness. Yeah.

Like, like if they really understood it for what it was, I don't think they would have had so much pride in trying to keep it and trying to adhere to it so strictly. Yeah. Right.

Right. I mean, and just, just to clarify very quickly, you know, for the Jewish people, the law for the Gentiles, what Romans two 12 for when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature, do the things in the law, although not having the law or a law to themselves. So here we're talking about, you know, kind of like the conscience, you know, it's, it's, it's serving as a law for them. But nonetheless, the whole point is this law was good and bad.

Okay. Good and bad, but grace and truth through Jesus Christ is good all around. Amen.

Amen. Cause even when I have my own conscience, even when I set my own arbitrary standards of behavior or value or whatever, I ended up feeling guilty. I ended up feeling burdened. I always ended up feeling down or frustrated or like I'm a hypocrite or I'm setting arbitrary goals for myself based on what I think is good.

And when I failed to live up to them, it doesn't break. But grace and truth of Jesus never, I've never felt like right. It's no longer look at, look at how good we're trying to be. It's look at how good Jesus is. Right.

Right. And to walk in grace and truth is not easy because you have to literally put to rest your old mindset, whether Jews or Gentiles, Jews in the sense of an established code of law. The Old Testament, the Genesis Exodus, Leviticus Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Gentiles, the conscience or the traditions, how you grew up.

It doesn't matter either way. That is a burden, but we like that burden. But to move from that burden to reality, to move from that burden to freedom is not easy because you have to walk by faith.

You have to humble yourself. You have to receive the grace and truth that comes through Jesus Christ. When you do receive it, there's so much joy there.

There's so much peace there. You know, grace. What is grace? You know, we talk about God's unmerited favor, but it's just God's goodness in your life. Grace is just dependence upon God. Knowing that you cannot do it, God has to step in for you. Knowing that you need Him and knowing that when you're weak, that that's when He is just loving you and holding you and caring you. When you are hurt that He doesn't sit back and say, well, I hope you get up soon.

He actually loves on us and pours His love upon us. And of course, truth, you know, without truth, we cannot survive, right? We need truth every single day.

How do you assess the situation that you're in? The law is simply do what you're told is good for you or do as you're told. And you'll never reach the standard, but that's OK. Just keep doing as you're told. But truth is so much better. Truth tells us what is happening is not the end. What is happening is not the final end.

God is doing something greater and better in your life. So I mean, you know, when you see the Bible and really get into it, you realize this is the answer to life. Yeah. And I know that there's I mean, this is just kind of a peek behind the screen as far as this show goes. But I mean, about two months ago, when we were when we were wrapping up the final details of what this show was going to be, those were the two things that I know you Dr. Shah landed on was grace and truth or truth and mercy. Those are the two things. Those are the two tenets that every episode of the show has to have some it has to have one of both. You know, we have to tell the truth.

We have to tell people the truth. And yet also there's mercy. Right.

You know, Jesus showed us mercy. And truth doesn't mean always something negative. Right. Right.

You just you know, you need to hear the truth and it's going to be painful. Sometimes truth is liberating. Yeah.

I would say many times truth is liberating. Yeah. There's truth in saying that God loves you.

Yeah. God has a plan for you. And you should know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Set you free. Amen. And then I will receive grace on top of that God's love and God's comfort and joy in our hearts. I mean, that's a Christmas message I can get behind Christianity not only makes sense, but it is, this is what the world needs. Amen. Absolutely. You know, and it goes on and says in John 1 16 and off his fullness, we have all received and grace for grace.

You know, Karen anti Karen, which means it just, you know, people don't know what that really means. It just means like you've been overloaded with, with the grace of God. Beautiful. Beautiful grace of God.

I love it. Such, such a great reminder for us. If you enjoyed today's topic or if you have suggestions for future topics, make sure you send us a text at two five two five eight two five zero two eight. Just a reminder that we are collecting all of those questions. We read every one that comes in and we're sorting them into different categories. So you'll see those come up on our lightning round questions with, with dr shot, not doctor questions.

Not doctor questions. We're doing lightning crown. We're doing lightning questions this week, right? Yes. Yes. Yes.

So that'll be a Friday's episode. Nice. You can also visit us over on clear view. today show.com. Visit us online and there just reminded there's a link there so that you can support us financially.

Every gift that you give goes to not only funding this radio show, but countless other ministries for the building up of the kingdom of God. That's right. I have a quote for you guys today. If that's okay. Yeah, I do. I actually don't know who this quote is by.

I've been trying to figure it out and it's, well, from what I can tell in Dutch draw, you may be able to answer this. It's either in the front cover of John Bunyan's Bible or it's a quote by Dwight L. Moody. Okay.

And I'm not positive which one. But I came across across this quote years ago and wrote it in front of my Bible because I love it so much. It says, this book will either keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book. Wow. Talking about the Bible.

Oh wow. I would say probably DL Moody. That's kind of what I was thinking. But I saw like, legend has it that this was written in the front cover of John Bunyan's Bible.

I'm not sure. I didn't have a person to attribute to, but I heard that quote years ago and I loved it. And I've read it in the front of every Bible that I have, just as a reminder, make sure that your life is maybe it's a tinkerer. Yeah. If, if, if a listener or maybe even someone at this table might not know who John Bunyan is, just why don't you give them a quick, quick, tell them who John Bunyan is.

Unfortunately, we are out of time. Unbelievable. You tell me off. He's a tinkerer. I'll tell you later. Pilgrim's progress. All right. Sounds good. We love you guys. We'll see you in the next one.