Chapter # 7 Paragraph # 1 Study # 10
June 7, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis:   Jesus' "critical truth" is that man's "problem" in relating to God does not, ultimately, rest upon what he/she does, but upon the condition of the heart that sponsors the activities of his/her "heart".

Introduction:   In our study last week we considered the first half of Jesus' "critical truth": that the problem man has in properly relating to God is not in what he eats. The stated reason for this is given in Jesus' explanation to His disciples in 7:18-19: "foods" cannot enter into man's "heart"; they bypass this "heart" by traveling through the digestive tract and out into the toilet. This is the use of the physical reality of physical creation to illustrate the metaphysical reality of relational creation. Thus, Jesus suspended the dietary code of the traditional understanding of the Mosaic Law because the traditions of the elders had so thoroughly corrupted the divine intent for that code that it was of no use to attempt to re-install it as a part of how man was to relate to God. What God had given for physical health, men had twisted into a means to retain spiritual health. Jesus' dismissal of that aspect of the Mosaic Law signaled a massive Theological/theological shift. This "shift" was away from "Law" as a guide to Life (man's perversion) to "Grace" as the means to Life (God's solution). The reason for the shift is rooted in the loss of the intention of God for His words in the Mosaic Law that was so great that the essence of "Grace" in Jesus' message of "relationship through forgiveness through repentance" had been so totally eradicated over the course of centuries of practicing the perversion of "externalism" that those in the synagogue who first heard Jesus' teaching said that it was "unheard of" in Israel (1:27).

This evening, on the basis of the fact that you can't fix stupid, we are going to move on to the second part of Jesus' "critical truth".

• I. An Initial "Grammatical" Fact.
  • A. In 7:15, both the NASB and the KJV translate the second use of the present tense, singular voice, verb "is" as "are", the verbal form that typically goes with the plural voice.
  • B. In 7:23, though the translations do not reveal it, the same anomaly exists: the "subject" is "things" (in the phrase "all these things") and is plural, but the compound verbs "proceed" and "defile" are both singular.
  • B. There is, in these statements, a subtle indication that the plural ("things") which proceed out of a man are tied to a singular root.
• II. Jesus' Very Important Truth, Part II.
  • A. This aspect of the "critical truth" is given in the words that indicate that man is "defiled" by the things which proceed from his/her "heart".
    • 1. Thus, it is the "heart" (not the physical pump of the physical blood of the physical body) that is "critical" in understanding.
      • a. That it is the "heart" that is at the "heart" of the issue is clear in both Jesus' declaration that "food bypasses the heart" so that it cannot "defile", and His declaration that it is out of the "heart" that come the foundations of "defilement".
      • b. For this to come clear, we must understand the "relational reality" that is called "the heart" in Jesus' words.
        • 1) The "heart", in relational reality, is the "value system" that is the root and reservoir of all of man's "relationship-affecting" behavior.
        • 2) All of man's choices and actions come out of the heart: what he "values" (called "loves" in the Bible) [Proverbs 4:23].
        • 3) Thus, it is the condition of the "heart" (i.e., "the actual structure of man's values") that must be transformed if behavior is to be changed [Deuteronomy 29:4 and Ezekiel 36:24-27].
    • 2. Also, for clarity's sake, we must understand what Jesus meant when He spoke of "being defiled".
      • a. As we have already said, "to be defiled" is to be "disowned by God".
      • b. The reason for this terminology is found in Jewish theology.
        • 1) In Jewish theology the only "people" who are called "My people" are those whom God has "called 'My people'" (Romans 9:25-26).
        • 2) In Jewish theology, only the nation of the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were called "My people" by God (with the allowable exception that a member of a different nation could come to be a part of "My people" if that foreigner was willing to become a "Jew" by embracing the God of the Jews and His Laws).
        • 3) Thus, technically, no one could ever be "disowned" who was not first "owned".
        • 4) And, in Jewish theology, one could only become "disowned" if he/she "sinned his/her way out of that relationship".
      • c. Thus, Jesus' "list" of things for which a Jew could be banished from divine ownership is given.
        • 1) This "list" has a pattern in which sexual sins are the major issue.
          • a) Evil thoughts (oi dialogismoi oi kakoi): the reasonings which are evil. This is the initial point of "beginning"; all "sins" arise from this beginning point. Before any temptation can be effective, the "reasonings" must be twisted/corrupted.
        • b) Fornications. Sexual sin, followed by two further issues.
          • i) Thefts.
          • ii) Murders.
        • c) Adulteries. Sexual sin, followed by three further issues.
          • i) Deeds of coveting.
          • ii) Deeds of wickedness.
          • iii) Deceit.
        • d) Sensuality. Sexual sin, followed by four further issues.
          • i) Envy.
          • ii) Slander.
          • iii) Pride.
          • iv) Foolishness.
    • 2) But, the actual reality is this: it is the "heart" that generates all of this list so that it is not the listed things that generates "disowning"; it is the "disowned heart".
      • a) God's ultimate "disowning" is the casting of a person into the Lake of Fire.
      • b) That action of God is taken only after a person is judged by his/her works (Revelation 20:12).
      • c) But that judgment of "works" has the particular detail that it includes man's "secrets" (Romans 2:16) of the "heart" (Romans 8:27).

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This is article #314.
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