Mine After All
He who walks blamelessly will be delivered, but he who is crooked will fall all at once. Proverbs 28:18 NASB
Blamelessly – The Hebrew adjective is tamiym. In general, the meaning is “to be complete.” It is not restricted to spiritual contexts. It can mean a complete day, a complete (healthy) plant, a full amount or something that has no faults. But when it is used of God’s instructions, it means that His laws are perfect and fully sufficient.
Look closely at this verse. The context puts it in the present tense. The person who walks “perfectly and completely” will be delivered. This is an incredible promise. It tells us that our deliverance has nothing at all to do with the circumstances of our lives. God provides deliverance on the basis of our obedience.
I need to meditate on this thought today. So many times in the last few months I have struggled with one attempt after another to deliver myself from the haunting guilt of the past. I make plans. I take action. I regroup. But this verse tells me that my deliverance has nothing to do with my plans, my efforts or my reorganization. My deliverance is in God’s hands, not in some new strategy or a new list of action steps. And God looks for only one thing – obedience to Him. My deliverance is not about making money or finding a new job or moving to a new location or choosing a new set of friends. If you are in a fight for your life, your deliverance is not going to come because you work harder or find new options. Your deliverance depends entirely on your relationship to God.
For me, this is a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because it removes the trauma of worrying about my life. God is in charge. But it is a curse because I know that I can’t walk blamelessly. I constantly make mistakes. I am daily aware that my life is the life of a sinner under grace. Even if I only have one thing to do – to walk blamelessly – I know that I just can’t do it. This is even harder than coming up with new plans and strategies. This is about my deepest moral commitments and actions. If God’s blessing depends on my perfection, I am surely lost.
And then I remember the greatest fact of Scripture. I am blameless because Yeshua has removed my guilt. YHWH has given me a “not guilty” verdict because Yeshua took my blame. This promise is for me after all, not because of my strength but because of the life of Yeshua. I will be delivered! Amen!
Topical Index: Proverbs 28:18, blamelessly, delivered, tamiym
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for that post! AND ALSO, THANK YOU FOR YOUR TRANSPARENCY AND LACK OF PRETENSION, SKIP. IT IS so refreshing TO READ UNAPOLOGETIC HONESTY AND HUMANITY.
With Aloha,
Michaela in Bend, Oregon.
I was going to say the exact same thing as Michaela, so I’ll just say Amen and Amen to Michaela’s post. It is so helpful to get a glimpse into the life and reality of the teacher because I can relate. Remembering my past causes me to worship my savior like few other things do and makes me so deeply thankful for both His grace and truth in my life. The veil has been removed from my eyes and I can see more clearly now than ever how I live each day in desparate need of His love, grace and truth. Even though I have been a believer for almost 30 years I’ve lived most of those years in ignorance of Gods present presence in my life. There’s nothing like a good battle with addiction that will turn a self-righteous believer into a humble, dependent, obedient disciple of yeshua.
~ and *in Him* you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;in (blood-covenant) union *with Him* you were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without human hands..~ (Colossians 2.10,11)
~ The Law of the LORD (the Torah of YHWH) is perfect, reviving the soul ~ (from Psalm 19)
And if our deliverance depends entirely on our relationship to God, (sinful man to the thrice-holy God), If only there were a “mediator,” a daysman between us, someone to intercede on our behalf. ~ “If only” there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay His hand upon us both..~
~ and *in Him* you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;in (blood-covenant) union *with Him* you were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without human hands..~ (Colossians 2.10,11)
~ The Law of the LORD (the Torah of YHWH) is perfect, reviving the soul ~ (from Psalm 19)
And if our deliverance depends entirely on our relationship to God, (sinful man to the thrice-holy God),
If only there were a “mediator,” a daysman between us, someone to intercede on our behalf. ~ “If only” there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay His hand upon us both..~
~ For God is One, and The Mediator of God and the sons of men is One: The Son of Man, Yeshua The Messiah ~ (1 Timothy 2.5)
~ For He Himself is our shalom – He has made us both one and has broken down the m’chitzah which divided us.. ~ (Ephesians 2.14)
~ and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God-Everlasting Father-Prince of Peace ~ (Isaiah 9.6)
~ for through the Messiah, God was reconciling the world to Himself by not counting their sins against them and He has given tHis message of reconciliation to us ~ (2 Corinthians 5.19)
~ Therefore, we are the Messiah’s representatives, as though God were pleading through us. We plead on the Messiah’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God!” ~ (2 Corinthians 5.20)
~ For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, *how much more*, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ~ (Romans 5.10)
~ This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning Sacrifice for our sins ~ (1 John 4.10)
~ for Love covers a multitude of sins..~ (1 Peter 4.8) ~ and God is love ~
Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?
[originally, For such a worm as I?]
Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His Soul in anguish stood.
Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.
Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.
But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, LORD, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do.
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the Light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there -by faith- I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!
~ For God is One, and The Mediator of God and the sons of men is One: The Son of Man, Yeshua The Messiah ~ (1 Timothy 2.5)
~ For He Himself is our shalom – He has made us both one and has broken down the m’chitzah which divided us.. ~ (Ephesians 2.14)
~ and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God-Everlasting Father-Prince of Peace ~ (Isaiah 9.6)
~ for through the Messiah, God was reconciling the world to Himself by not counting their sins against them and He has given tHis message of reconciliation to us ~ (2 Corinthians 5.19)
~ Therefore, we are the Messiah’s representatives, as though God were pleading through us. We plead on the Messiah’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God!” ~ (2 Corinthians 5.20)
~ For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, *how much more*, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ~ (Romans 5.10)
~ This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning Sacrifice for our sins ~ (1 John 4.10)
~ for Love covers a multitude of sins..~ (1 Peter 4.8) ~ and God is love ~
Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?
[originally, For such a worm as I?]
Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His Soul in anguish stood.
Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.
Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.
But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, LORD, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do.
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the Light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there -by faith- I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!
Isaac Watts, (1707)
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. ~ Ephesians 2:8-10 (NKJV)
Thank you Abba for your gift of salvation. Thank you that there is nothing I can do to earn it!
Good word Skip! I so appreciate your transparency and willingness to share your journey, which I find an encouragement, as we attempt to do ‘life’ together as among those seeking to follow Yeshua …
Amen! All of my attempts at making myself acceptable are wood, hay and stubble. If I allow my shortcomings, or my human-ness to prevent fellowship with my King, then I deny myself the only joy in life – communion with my Creator. Why do I deny myself the fullness of joy found in His presence? My only delight? I’ve gotta get over myself for sure, life without Him is only despair. “He causes me to will and to do His perfect will.” It all comes from Him alone.
What could we, should we (all) be thankful for?
~ and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more ~ (Hebrews 10.17)
~ as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us ~ (Psalms 103.12)
~ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus ~ (Romans 8.1)
~ Therefore if “any man” be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new ~ (2 Corinthians 5.17)
I remember when I first really KNEW that truth – that Jesus
had paid the penalty for my sins and I was forgiven and free.
Those sins were so overt and obvious, and I still grieve at times over
who I was then and at the consequences of those actions that still
affect me and others. My sins these days are more of thought
and attitude; thank you all for the reminder that the only cure for these
is drawing closer to my God and Savior, and that I am not alone
in my struggles.
“I am blameless because Yeshua has removed my guilt. YHWH has given me a “not guilty” verdict because Yeshua took my blame.”
“But it is a curse because I know that I can’t walk blamelessly. I constantly make mistakes. I am daily aware that my life is the life of a sinner under grace.”
Hi Skip,
With all due respect, the statements above do not make sense to me
First of all, it seems to me that Jesus set a standard for us that is hard to follow (muy dificil 🙂
He would not compromise with the good or the true
And it seems to me that the game would be “follow the leader” (Jesus)
But if I’ve already been saved, I don’t really need Jesus, do I?
On the other hand, I don’t really think that “mistakes” are necessarily “sins”
They say virtue is its own reward, and maybe mistakes are too
The problem with mistakes is that they tend to bring us pain
In relatively “short order”
I feel like I have come so far, but it is frustrating when reality forces me to admit that I am not as far as into the “Torah boot-camp” as I thought it was. If I want to improve at basketball, I need to shoot more shots than ever, which means I will “miss the mark” more than I ever have before — all in the attempt to improve.
It also not unusual for the teacher, to need to relearn his own lessons.
Hi, yes…I liked very much when you said we can be delivered in spite of and not dependent on our circumstances. If it’s perfection that’s required, yes we’re all sunk, and everyone who has tried sincerely to live to God has like you experienced the limitation of our own ability and the accompanying doom we feel before God as a result. Christ has done it for me, it’s done, I am now to be in a relationship with him, not to perform for him, but to let him reveal himself to me and show off his strength to me, that thru that, not my efforts, I might live a different life than the one I tried so hard to make work, even as a believer, but always fell short. I never properly knew that God is not asking me to live my life out for him, he is asking and has always wanted it this way, that I let Christ reveal his life to me and that I then live out THAT life. Sounds complicated maybe to some, but it’s not, we just need to get practiced in it daily since most of us are so very used to to relying on our own self to live life rather than on understanding how to do the simple thing of letting him into all of our life and letting his Spirit lead us in everything. It seems strange even to myself now,but I never knew until recently that God wanted to be in all of my life, in every moment of it, every part of it, literally. His life is to lead me, his life is to be allowed to be part of my life, he is real, he communicates, we just need to start getting to know and understand him by approaching him in honesty and sincerity, that’s not very complicated but it does require everything we have to give if it’s going to be as beautiful as it could be and he meant it to be…which he always has. Life is about allowing Christ to be Christ, first to me , then through me….it’s not about me doing something for him, trying to be acceptable thru such things. That is the fatal mistake made by people, all of us, we get this wrong and then suffer inside and outside because of the wrong understanding and therefore wrong practice we have of how this thing works. The John 15 parable of vine and branches is the perfect, simplest picture of how it works…the life of the vine must first travel to the branch to give it life and health, only after that can fruit be produced. So we cannot do something for God, in this picture something must first be done for us before we can then ‘do’. And it’s not a onetime event at the beginning, it’s an ongoing flow of life that is required to sustain and grow the branch. The branch NEVER gets strong enough to become independent of the vine, no matter how strong and fruitful it gets. It remains dependent always. We should emblazon this picture and it’s truth upon our souls as deep as possible so that without a shadow of doubt we understand and never again forget the proper order of how life with God is structured and works. And doing it the right way really does work. Then comes the end of frustration and the beginning of building a life with God. We are in good hands if we dare trust him