Just Do It

Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

Matthew 1:19 (KJV)

Just – We can really open up a can of worms with this one. So let’s start with this: do you believe that it’s impossible to keep the law of God? Is that what you’ve been taught? Well then you need to take a look at this word, dikaios, which means “keeping the commandments of God”. Joseph was a dikaios man. He kept the law of God. So rather than making excuses as to why you can’t, you need to take on the motto of Nike and… just do it.

But I find something else here that’s very interesting. We’re going to step into the theology of total depravity. Total depravity is the theology that we’re all born in sin. And the original sin of Adam passes to each of us through concupiscence, or sexual desire. So basically through the sexual act of our parents, sin has been imputed to us. Variations of this theology claim that just being born of a sinner passes that sin on to us. But what about Jesus? Wasn’t Jesus born of a woman? This is where it gets interesting.

So the argument to excuse Jesus from this total depravity is that Mary was sinless as well. So sin didn’t pass down from Mary to Jesus. And we begin to see the great lengths to which the Catholics justify the theology of Original Sin. So now Mary becomes something to be worshiped as well because she is the mother of Jesus, and also sinless. And theology becomes more distorted as we try to make the idea of Original Sin fit into Scripture.

The Bible never says anything about Mary being sinless, but rather that Joseph is – at least at this point in time. He was a just man. So while the Catholics endeavor to make their Gnostic theology work, they make Mary the saint instead of understanding the righteousness of Joseph and its influence on the Lord’s decision to choose this family. So even if Mary has sexual relations with Joseph at this time, Jesus would still have been born by two sinless and law abiding people. But of course that fact that he was born of a virgin is altogether beautiful and amazing – a miracle.

So I challenge you to rethink your theology. Read the Bible for what it says. Learn about the cultural understanding of these words at the time they were given. Don’t base your beliefs on the 2000+ years of Roman and Greek influence on Biblical interpretation. How funny that I chose the motto of a Greek-named company to shed light on a Hebraic understanding. Stop making excuses, stop building theologies upon theologies to justify misguided reasoning, and just do it.