Creflo Dollar - The Living Revelation of God vs. Written Law
Tonight, I want to talk to you about something that's pretty fascinating. I call this, "A Living Revelation of God Versus A Letter Written In Stone," "A Living Revelation of God Versus A Letter Written In Stone". And I wanna start off in Saint John, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, and then, verse, verse 14. And this is, this is pretty, pretty amazing. So, you know, I've never even dug this deep to even take the time to look at what I'm about to show you tonight, but there is a huge, huge difference and a gigantic insult when somebody works real hard to go back to the letter after we have a living revelation that has been given to us.
Verse 1, Saint John 1, verse 1, he says, "In the beginning was the Word," very familiar. But then, he says, "and the Word was with God". But then, he said, "and the Word was God". So, we are talking about God. The Word was God. We're not talking about, you know, something that is expressing an idea or a thought between human beings, we're talking about God. And then, in verse 2, he says, "The same was in the beginning with God". So, the Word, which is God, was in the beginning with God. But then, in verse 14, he spells it out a little bit more in 14, John 1:14, he says, "And the Word was made flesh". "The Word was made flesh," we call him Jesus, right?
"The word was made flesh, and the Word that was made flesh dwelt amongst us. The word that was made flesh dwelt amongst us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) And the Word that was made flesh was full of grace and truth. The word that was made flesh, we we call him Jesus, was full of grace and truth". If you understand that, say, "amen". So, grace and truth came by the Word made flesh, grace and truth came by the Word made flesh and it was dwelling amongst men. It was that word, "that was made flesh," it was a living revelation of God.
Now listen to that, The Word that was made flesh and the Word that was God. When Jesus showed up, they beheld a living revelation, or revealing, or unfolding of God. In other words, when the Word that was made flesh showed up, it's the first time man had ever gained an idea of what God was like. Let me show you something here. Go to the 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 6 and 7, so, it was a living revelation of God, now, we are comparing this living revelation of God to a letter written in stone. We're comparing grace and law. The law is but the letter written and engraven in stone. The law was a letter, letter, letters written and engraven in stone. I'll say that again, the law was a letter, letters written and engraven in stone.
2 Corinthians, chapter 3:6 says, "Who also have made us able ministers of the new testament; and not ministers of the letter, [written, engraved in stone,] but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, the letter killeth," and then, it goes on to say, "but the spirit gives life," right? Alright, now, listen to me carefully, now. Now, here, here's what I'm, here's what I'm trying to demonstrate here. Let's look at this, let's define a word, so you can see literally what it is, and we compare it to what we just read here. A word, like I said, it is an expression of an idea or it's an expression of a thought. I have a thought. I use words to express it. I have an idea. I use words to express it. It conveys a complete idea from one person to another. I'm I'm saying words to you right now. I am conveying an idea. I am conveying a thought from me to you. If you understand that I say, "Amen".
So, "the Word that was with God, and the Word that was God" conveys a full and adequate idea of God. "The Word," just like words that I'm speaking or I write in a letter, those words convey an idea or a thought, "the Word that was made flesh, the Word that was God," has given to us the idea of God. Oh, my God. Do you see what I'm saying? It gives us the idea of God. It gives us and it conveys a full and adequate idea of God because "the Word was made flesh, it dwelt amongst us," this idea of God was manifested to man in human terms, understandable to a man. This "Word that was made flesh," given to a man so they could behold it and see it. The scripture says, in 1 John that "We heard it, we held it, we beheld it".
Now, please put yourself in a situation: before Jesus, what is God like? Are you seeing what I'm saying? Before Jesus, what is, how do you, how do you describe God? You ever had writings, but you're gonna see the love of God. He says, "What I wanna do is the idea of God, I'm going to allow it to become flesh". The idea of God has now become flesh and you can behold him. Glory to God. So, that what you beheld was God and is God. So, if you want to talk, and we beheld his glory. So, if you wanna talk about God and you wanna know what he's like, Jesus said, "The father and I are one". What else did he say? He said, When you see him, see we need to quit this man. This thing is already, alright, so, if you understand all that say, "Amen".
If you understand all that, let me let me set this up, alright, 1 John, 1:1, I was just reading King James, he says, "That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes," ain't nobody saw God, but now we heard him, we saw him with our eyes, "which we have looked upon, our hands have handled the Word of life". They said our hands have handled the Word of life. So, truly the word dwelt amongst us, that man may know God, and knowing him, have life. So, he dwelt amongst us so we can know him, but not only so we can know him, so we can have something that only comes from him. Life. I know him, I have beheld him, and I have from him, life.
Now, let's compare that to the law because everything I just said is not so with the law. The law can convey no adequate idea of God. Think about it for a moment, the law conveys no idea, no adequate idea of God. Think for a moment, like I'm getting ready to say something, I'm gonna show you that you are not ever, even ever, even ever, be tempted to go back to the law. It offers shame and guilt and condemnation and death; the law cannot give you life. Okay, being the letter, it is but elemental and it is incomplete. It does not reveal God to man. You can study all that may pertain to the law without ever coming to an understanding of God. Read it. Read it.
All you gonna hear, all you gonna read is the condemnation that comes, the judgment that comes, the shame that comes; it is not going to give you anything that reveals God. If it was left up to the law, the law could have never revealed God to man. My gosh. So, in it is found and no revelation of his love. The law has no revelation of his love. None. It was engraven, now, here's a, here's a clue. It was engraven and written upon stones which symbolically is its inability to give life. Stones is like you can't, it's dead, it's stone. You know, it's Medusa stones. You remember that in school? The lady with the snakes in the hair, you hold it up, you turn in the stone? There's no life there. You can't touch the hearts of men, nor can it be touched by the feelings of the infirmities of a man. The law can't touch your heart.
The Bible says, in Hebrews 4:15, that Jesus is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He says, "For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin". Jesus, he he feels us, we feel his love, but not the law. The letter does not dwell among men. The letter can't do that. The letter is not wrapped up in flesh. It stands off, yet men try to find God, and they try to find life in the law. Reject Jesus, reject grace, go to the law, and they're trying to find life in the law. You can't. That's why if you miss, if you dismiss Jesus and try to live your life by the law, there is no life in the law.
Now, please don't misunderstand me, the law is not bad, it's just perfect. The better part is the Word wrapped up in flesh coming down and showing you who he is. Yet, men try. Romans, chapter 1, and 18. I wanna read this, what you find in the law. Romans 1:18, he says, "For the wrath of God," that's what's revealed in the law, "is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness". So, you find the demand for righteousness in the law. You find judgment because they failed to measure up to the righteousness and all that's all been demanded. So, in 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, and 6, where it says, "the letter killeth," that's what he's talking аbout: the letter killeth, but the Spirit brings life.
Now, just for a moment, I wanna just take just a little rabbit trail and talk about how we should not desire to be under the law, as many people do. Galatians, chapter 4:19, I wanna read it in the King James and the NLT. Galatians 4:9, King James, NLT. So, it's not, it's not strange that Paul is writing to the Galatians who desired to be under the law. Here's what he said to the Galatians who wanted to be under the law. There are people, today, that want to be under the law and as long as you're under the law, you can't see grace, you can't see life. Now, look what he says here, "But now, after that you have known God, [or rather, are known of God,] how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements, where unto you desire again to be in bondage"?
Now, look at this in the NLT. There, he's saying a guy that desires to go back to living your life under religious law, you just went back to bondage. I like what he says in the NLT. He says, "So now that you know God (or should) I say, now that God knows you," huh, "why do you wanna go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world"? Why? I mean, every pastor we have in our church is just preaching out of his guts, the grace of God, and we are very blessed to have a church that farms grace, so you can harvest it. You know what I mean? But it's not so, and no matter how we preach it, man, we just preach it, we preach it, we preach it, we preach it, and there's somebody out there saying, "Well, I don't see it".
That's because you're trying to get life from something that's dead to you. And that's what the law is. The Word was full of grace and truth. Now, there's a very weird teaching, that I'm sure you're familiar with, where it associates grace with license and you hear things like grace is not a license to sin. I mean, that's a lot of, a lot of things wrong with that, but a whole lot of people seem to be afraid of grace because they think it's gonna teach and lead people into careless living because it's too good to be true news. I mean, you know, people already say about me Creflo Dollar be telling people it's all right to say it. Ain't nobody said it's all right to sin. I'm just saying your way to try to get out of sin is not gonna work because if you could have did it, Jesus didn't need to come and die on the cross. No, no, no, you're never gonna be free from the behavior of sin until you recognize you no longer have the sin nature.
Victory over sinful behavior comes when you start realizing that you have been set free and totally delivered from the sin man and that's not your nature no more. And every time after you get born again that you find yourself in bad behavior, you continue to remind yourself, "What I just did is not my nature anymore," and you renew your mind with the Word of God, so it can line up with your new nature, and you're gonna find that you're gonna start sending less and less behavior starts lining up, and the day you believe your identity in Christ, that you are now the righteousness of God, and you have a new nature that desires to live right, a new nature that desires to live holy, then the behavior is gonna have to line up with your new nature and you look up one day and say, "Well, what happened to the behavior"?
It wasn't because you continue to insist on trying to handle your bad behavior through your self effort, your self discipline, and all that other kind of stuff. That's not how that's gonna happen. It's gonna happen when you believe that life comes from the Word that was made flesh, and the idea of God is that, "I love you so much that nobody else could deliver grace and truth. So, I had to wrap myself up in flesh and bring to you this awesome grace and mercy and truth and get it to you and say 'Here, let it serve you,' because that which you were in bondage to cannot give you what you're looking for".
Let that settle for a moment. Let that settle for a moment. Let that settle for a moment. Ooh, Jesus. Y'all getting this? Other people would emphasize the fact that when grace is taught, I don't know if you've heard this, so, people are afraid that, you know, that grace teaching, you know, it's too much liberty; you need to preach sin. I don't know what, I don't know, I don't even what I'm a say, "You need to preach sin, Christian". "Well, why didn't you, why couldn't Jesus heal everybody in the village"? "Sin, sin". No, it wasn't. It's because their performance was, they thought that they could do it through their own self-performance and stuff like that. It's, and I have to believe the scriptures.
The scripture says, "Those who are in the law can't see grace". I was meditating on the scripture, I showed up Sunday, and I kept saying, "Behold the lamb, behold the lamb," and it hit me: "Not until you stop beholding yourself". You can't behold the lamb if you got yourself in view. You gotta get yourself out of the way. He said, "Behold the lamb". What he's saying is, "Would you please get all your effort and all of your stuff out the way, and behold the lamb"? He is enough. Why? Because He is God. You have beheld him, you have heard him, you have you, oh God, your eyes have beheld him. That's the idea of God, not the one in Mount Sinai that said, "Don't touch the bottom of the mountain or you will fall dead". Behold the lamb. Somebody asked me one time, "What's the first thing I need to do after I get born again"? Get to know Jesus. "No, what do I need to read first"?
Okay, now let's get to know Jesus. "How"? I want you to spend time with him. I want you to start off reading, reading this book. We're teaching on tonight, book of John, and I want you to get to know, I want you to see John, the Revelator. John, the one who said he was, he was highly loved of God. I want you to get, I want you to get to know him. I want you to see him. I want you to behold him. I want you to handle him. I want you to see his glory manifested in your life. Get to know Him. So then, when you run across a doctrine that tells you you're gonna go to hell because you missed it somewhere, then you'll know, "That ain't God".
How many of you knew before you heard this gospel of grace, certain things happen in your life, and you said to yourself, "That can't be God. That can't be God. I just, I just," you just know. And then, when you heard grace and you were able to see it, and you're like, "That's the God I always knew he was". When you heard about, "he was rich in mercy," that's the God you always knew he was. I mean, under that religion, we were under, it was quick to send us to hell on a daily basis. You're going to hell for that, you're going to hell for that, you're going to hell for that. Do you agree? Well, you're going to hell for not agreeing with me. And I'm like, where, where is this God? And every time I looked at Jesus and studied Jesus and saw what Jesus was doing. I saw the father who was rich in mercy.