It's What God Requires

Mark 7:14-15 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’”
 
HOW do you like change? The truth is, we all like what we know. Many influences through years of our lives have formed our minds into particular beliefs and prejudices we tightly hold. Not even God’s power seems capable of prying loose those things that limit our lives!
   That’s why Jesus said, “Listen!” It was time for a change of mind in Israel. God’s power stood in the Galilean town that day to tell the Jews there was something more about God they needed to know.
   Jesus emphasized the food and drink we consume do not determine our relationship with God. We understand that, but this would have surprised and confused the Jews. In the law God often stipulated that many things would make a person unclean. For example he said in Leviticus 5:2 “Or if a person touches anything ceremonially unclean – whether the carcasses of unclean wild animals or of unclean livestock or of unclean creatures that move along the ground – even though he is unaware of it, he has become unclean and is guilty. Five times he spoke “unclean”. It seems that there are things from outside that can make the Jews unclean. But Jesus said, “Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him.”  Remember, Jesus was teaching Jews who have heard these laws their entire lives. Was Jesus changing the law?
   In truth, Jesus was fulfilling the law. In the Sermon on the Mount he stated one reason for his coming: Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” The LORD had established moral, worship and dietary laws to teach Israel how they are his people, unlike all other people in the world. God’s plan was to work his salvation for the world through stages of revelation. On that day Jesus revealed to the Jews that the food we eat will not affect our moral standing with God. The words you say, and the things you do against God’s law will make you unclean. He said it another way in Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 
   Jesus tried very hard to change the Jews’ minds about righteousness. And the Holy Spirit continues to work to help us understand this essential truth. It seems so simple to know the essence of our relationship with God is our heart’s faithfulness to his Word. But the sinful mind is difficult to change. The ongoing sin of mankind’s heart is to believe we must do something for our salvation. We can repeatedly hear and read the assurance of Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
   But there is often the nagging question, “Have I done enough? Am I clean before God?” All other religions stress the importance of one’s own effort to satisfy the deity or figure they worship. Our sinful mind is consumed with guilt.
   That’s why we must consume Jesus’ teaching and know his grace. The food we eat that makes us clean is God’s Word. We are not under dietary laws for holiness’ sake. Salvation comes to us because God has acted into the world to declare his salvation by grace through the faith he gives to us! And let’s consider these words from Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.