Last week, in our Facebook Watch Tower Wednesday, we looked at this film from jw.org. It’s very short, only 2.14 long. and it would be well worth your looking at it before reading on.
In the film a young Jehovah’s Witness is teaching her contact, another young woman, who says, ‘I’ve got it. I found the answers are all there.’ When she is challenged, ‘It’s more than just the answers.’ she responds, ‘I’m with it, I’m all about study.’
The Witness asks, ‘Which do you remember more from our studies, the answers, or the things that touch your heart?’
I found it interesting that an organisation that lays such great store by book studies, getting the answers right, should appeal to the heart. The question challenging the young woman involves sexual immorality and she struggles with it, but if we thought this was going in the direction of grace we would be mistaken. In another film, Reaching the Heart, we find where this is going.
Where is her 'Repurchaser'?
Here, the young woman’s confusion over the ‘archaic’ rules Jehovah insists we keep is met, not with grace, but with ‘Jehovah knows what’s best for us’ taken from Isaiah:
‘I, Jehovah, am your God, the One teaching you you to benefit yourself, the One guiding you in the way you should walk.’ ( Isaiah 48:17, NWT, 2013)
Of course, this is true, God teaches us to walk in his ways and we benefit from our obedience, but this is only part of the verse. It begins:
‘This is what Jehovah says, your Repurchaser, the Holy One of Israel.’
Repurchaser? This is what the ESV Bible says:
‘Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.’ (ESV)
The speaker is the redeemer of Israel speaking to Israel, a redeemed people. The film says nothing about redemption. It simply says Jehovah knows best so, like a little child, trust him and obey the ‘rules and regulations.’ This was always going to move away from the cross and end up in legalism. So, where is Jade, the girl in the film, going to end up?
Who Will Deliver Her?
Jade is going to join Paul in Romans 7:
‘For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I (Jade) am fleshly sold under sin. For I do not understand what I am doing. For I do not practice what I wish, but I do what I hate. However, if I do what what I do not wish, I agree that the Law is fine. But now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that resides in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells nothing good; for I have the desire to do what is fine but not the ability to carry it out.’ (Ro.7:14-18, NWT, 2013)
She will, like all Jehovah’s Witnesses, agree that ‘the Law is fine’ but, with Paul, she is going to find she cannot live the thing she agrees with. This is because she is ‘fleshly and sold under sin.’ She will agree with the Law, but will find, with Paul, ‘I do not practice what I wish, but I do what I hate… ’ Why!
I Agree With God But...
Because, I’ know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells nothing good; for I have the desire to do what is fine but not the ability to carry it out.’
This is where you end when you think you must agree with and keep the Law. Of course, the question any unregenerate person would ask is, ‘what, then, is the point of the Law?’ Paul answers this in his letter to the saints in Galatia:
‘Why then the Law? It was added to make transgressions manifest (see Ro.3:20), until the offspring should arrive to whom the promise had been made…’ (Gal.3:19)
When Jade arrives at that point in Romans 7 and cries with Paul, ‘Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ it is this ‘offspring’ to whom she needs cry out, but…
Go to jw.org and enter ‘grace’ into the search box. It may surprise you...or not.
jw.org teaches that this servant, Jesus, is not enough:
‘Is belief in Jesus all that we need to be saved?
No. Although we must believe in Jesus to gain salvation, more is required. (Acts 16:30, 31) The Bible says: “Just as the body without spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26) To be saved, we must:
- Learn about Jesus and his Father, Jehovah.—John 17:3.
- Build faith in them.—John 12:44;14:1.
- Demonstrate our faith by obeying their commands. (Luke 6:46;1 John 2:17) Jesus taught that not everyone who called him “Lord” would be saved but only those “doing the will of [his] Father who is in the heavens.”—Matthew 7:21.
- Continue to demonstrate our faith despite hardships. Jesus made that clear when he said: “The one who has endured to the end will be saved.”—Matthew 24:13.’
Having brought Jade to the point of despair in Romans 7, she must now earn the salvation the servant brings, something Paul went to lengths in Romans and Galatians to demonstrate is not possible, a point where, ‘I have the desire to do what is fine but not the ability to carry it out.’
‘Who will deliver me from this body of death?’
“O senseless Ga·laʹtians! Who has brought you under this evil influence, you who had Jesus Christ openly portrayed before you as nailed to the stake? This one thing I want to ask you: Did you receive the spirit through works of law or because of faith in what you heard? Are you so senseless? After starting on a spiritual course, are you finishing on a fleshly course? Did you undergo so many sufferings for nothing? If it really was for nothing. Therefore, does the one who supplies you the spirit and performs powerful works among you do it because of your works of law or because of your faith in what you heard?
Just as Abraham “put faith in Jehovah, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Surely you know that it is those who adhere to faith who are sons of Abraham. Now the scripture, foreseeing that God would declare people of the nations righteous through faith, declared the good news beforehand to Abraham, namely: “By means of you all the nations will be blessed.” So those who adhere to faith are being blessed together with Abraham, who had faith.
All those who depend on works of law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not remain in all the things written in the scroll of the Law by doing them. ” Moreover, it is evident that by law no one is declared righteous with God, because “the righteous one will live by reason of faith.” (Gal.3:1-11, NWT, 2013)
The Improving our Skills training videos have titles like, Improve your Skills, Asking Questions, Illustrating Key Points, Teaching with Enthusiasm, Showing Empathy, Using Research Tools, Unleashing the Power of God’s Word. Nothing about bringing the power of God’s grace, the transforming power of the Spirit.
I am sure these are all good ideas, helpful in developing practical skills, but where is the answer to Romans 7? Where is the response to the heart-cry:
‘Who will deliver me from this body of death?’
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