PROVISION versus PROHIBITION

SUPPLY versus SCARCITY
SUCCESS versus SPARCITY
GRACE versus LAW etc

I can hardly believe it ….... !
This old servant of the Most High God ….
Having studied the Word for over half a century …...
Still “seeing through a glass darkly … knowing in part only ” 1 Corinthians 13:12
Suddenly another light has gone on, another “penny has dropped”
(With thanks again to Joseph Prince for a timely message)

To look again at The 10 Commandments ….. Exodus 20
Number 1 begins Thou shalt or rather YOU SHALL ...
Number 2 begins Thou shalt NOT or rather YOU SHALL NOT ...
Number 3 begins Thou shalt NOT or rather YOU SHALL NOT ...
Number 4 begins Remember …. to keep
Number 5 begins Honour …... then a promise
Number 6 begins Thou shalt NOT or rather YOU SHALL NOT …
Number 7 begins Thou shalt NOT or rather YOU SHALL NOT …
Number 8 begins Thou shalt NOT or rather YOU SHALL NOT …
Number 9 begins Thou shalt NOT or rather YOU SHALL NOT …
Number 10 begins Thou shalt NOT or rather YOU SHALL NOT …

Out of the 10 …. 7 begin with …. YOU SHALL NOT

YOU SHALL NOT is P R O H I B I T I O N

The LAW and Legalism is mostly all about ….. PROHIBITION
DONT do this and DONT do that

whereas GRACE is all about SUPPLY and PROVISION
from the GOODNESS of GOD

One of the most well known Bible verses John 10:10 KJV …. Jesus … I am come that you might have LIFE and have it MORE ABUNDANTLY
or as the Amplified version says …. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance … to the full, till it overflows.

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Phillipians 4 : 19

The Lord Is my Shepherd I SHALL NOT WANT Psalm 23 : 1

GRACE is all about SUPPLY and PROVISION from a bountiful good God
LAW is all about PROHIBITION , and that what the Legalists major on …. the things we should NOT do

And this is the big thing in bringing up and raising children … emphasising the things they should NOT do, instead of showing them the goodness and the supply of GRACE and ABUNDANCE, and encouraging them …. Oh Lord forgive me for times past !

Remember where it all started ..… in the Garden of Eden ?
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:9

The God of supply and Grace had provided trees for our food, and had planted the TREE OF LIFE in the very MIDDLE of the garden
Yet, when tested by the serpent, in answer to his first question
Now the serpent ….. said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” Genesis 3 : 1-3

Notice the essential difference ?
She saw the tree of knowledge as being at the middle, the very centre of the garden …. not the tree of life that God had placed in the middle previously !

SHE HAD BECOME PROHIBITION minded
we must not touch it, or we will die.
She had already overlooked or forgotten about GRACE, and the God of SUPPLY

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree (of knowledge) was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Genesis 3:6

She got her supply in disobedience from the wrong tree …. from the tree that she had centred on, that she had now focussed on ….. the tree of knowledge instead of the tree of LIFE
And so …. the roots of Legalism were shown here …. in the very Garden of Eden

And the rest we know only too well …. the fall of mankind … a fallen planet ….
then a mighty Redeemer, sent from the heart of the God of Grace to reverse the curse.

I count 160 references to GRACE within Scripture

GRACE that is defined in my Crudens Concordance first published in 1735 – some 275 years ago, as … the free mercy of God, and the enjoyment of his favour
WOW

Not the God of Prohibition that the Legalists even unwittingly promote

Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1 : 16, 17

Paul - I consider my lif e worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. Acts 20:24

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. …..
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
2 Corinthians 9 : 8, 10, 11 NIV

Then theres another problem that arises ..
Legalism can descend further down into Ascetism - the propensity for religious people to deny and deprive themselves unduly for supposed favour with God

PROHIBITION carried to an extreme !

Paul warns against this ascetism ….
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:
“Do not handle ! Do not taste ! Do not touch ! ”
These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.
Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Colossians 2:20-23

There is no limit to PROHIBITION if we start to follow that course
The spiral only leads downwards
Legalism is a hard Master!

Unlike Jesus whose yoke is easy and His burden is light!