Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1313 | This Is What Happens When Faith Becomes a Checklist

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

Jase turns a frustrating local government failure into a hands-on mission, sparking a neighborhood lesson on what it really means to love your neighbor. Zach brings in a wild real-life dilemma with black bears overrunning his neighborhood, forcing the guys to wrestle with authority, personal rights, and the limits of control. The guys pivot into a powerful breakdown of the tension between obeying God’s commands and truly loving Him; where obedience flows naturally—not out of pressure, but out of transformation.  In this episode: 1 John 5, verses 2–5; Matthew 5, verse 17; Romans 7, verses 7–25; Romans 8, verses 5–9; Romans 12, verses 1–2; John 10; Hebrews 5; Genesis 2–3; Galatians 5, verses 22–23 “Unashamed” Episode 1313 is sponsored by: https://trustandwill.com/unashamed — Get 20% off and protect your legacy today! https://myphdweightloss.com — Find out how Al lost 80+ pounds. Visit the website or call 864-644-1900 and mention "AL" to get 2 weeks free in the program! http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://open.spotify.com/show/3LY8eJ4ZBZHmsImGoDNK2l Chapters 00:00 Government Red Tape Sticks Jase With a Mess 01:44 “Love Your Neighbor” Gets Complicated Fast 06:45 Zach’s Bear Invasion & the Martyr Plan 13:16 The Power of a Right Attitude 23:17 Commands vs. Real Love 29:20 An Invitation to Life Itself 39:00 The Law, the Spirit & Why We Keep Failing — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? I had a little man out building a fire today. I'm teaching him fire skills, which that's, you're talking about a rabbit hole. I went from frustrated to angry to love all in about a month. Let me just tell you this story. Boy, I tell you, I got a government rant here. So here's the deal. The powers that be, and I won't be specific, they deemed after this ice storm that took place,

how long ago this take place? It was back in... It was during duck season. Yeah, it was three months ago. Three months? Yeah, two and a half, three months ago. And you're like, you're still talking about this? Oh, you're not going to believe this.

We're still being effective. Somebody in the government deems our area a disaster area, which means the government comes in, and if you'll put all your brush, which is massive. When those astronauts were up in the moon, they looked down and they saw this huge pile of debris, and they said, hey, there's North Louisiana. There's our neighbor.

I mean, literally when you drive through there, Jay's, to me, it's like you've got walls on both sides of the road. So it's like you're in prison when you're driving in our neighborhood. Well, guess what? You've been gone. And so while you've been away, Al, our whole neighborhood, they cleaned it up except for one road. And that would be our road.

Because they said it's a private road. And so I live, one of my neighbors, who's a lawyer, had an interesting conversation with the crew that the government sent out. He's like, well, during the hurricane, even though this was a private road, you picked our stuff up. And he's like, but not this time. We're not going down. Not this time, boys. And so, you know, this guy is a lawyer, my neighbor, so he had an interesting take on this. He said, well, but you're serving the people, not the geographical location, because we pay every tax that everyone else pays.

I mean, the more he started talking, I thought, well, you're right. We pay the tax. We don't get a discount because we have a private road. Are we not serving the people? He was arguing the case, and he was winning you over. Oh, he won me over, my neighbor. And so, but at the end of the day, he didn't win the guy with the truck over. He said, we're not coming.

So everybody's like looking around, well, what are we going to do? Because we had this massive, I mean massive amount of brush in everybody's yard, which is a fire hazard because it hasn't rained in weeks, which is so unusual. So I asked myself a question. I thought, I don't sit around and wait on the government for anything. I'm going to make something happen. So I just walked outside and I started looking. Well, the neighbor that's across from me, I'll leave up the names and protect the identities. I thought he has a perfect spot to burn stuff.

And so I called him up. And I said, hey, how about I burn all your debris and mine? in your yard. So it wasn't like I was asking, can I burn my stuff on your yard? Because I'm a man and I want to love my neighbor and I want him to love me. It's one of the greatest commands. You're manipulating him. No, I wasn't manipulating.

I'll clean your yard. I will clean your yard and I'll clean my yard and I'll burn it on your property. But look, here's what's funny. Here's what's funny about this. So I go over in my neighbor's yard and I start raking his leaves and I'm gathering up all his debris and I build a little fire and I don't want it to get out of hand. And so I slowly over a three-day period burn that and I haul all my stuff across the road. I'm pretty close though.

I'm in close proximity. And Al, you saw the pile in my yard. I saw it. It was a mountain. Massive. All gone. Everything. I mean, and I got.

I saw that by hand? By hand. Three days. I had me and a little man. Little man is a fire expert. But here's what's funny. In day two, all my other neighbors, which most of them are family, start gathering up in my neighbor's yard. And they're like, what's the plan?

I was like, I've made an arrangement. That was my plan. You're grown men. Go do you. Don't tag team on me. Is this the plan? I'm like, no, this has nothing to do with you. I love you.

But I think you're a little too far. You need to love your neighbor and work out a deal. So they all got frustrated at me, but I'm like, me and this neighbor, we have the love arrangement going. Because all he did was ride up and say, how are we doing? I was like, we're doing great. So, Zach, what I'm hearing is, Jay's took love your neighbor. to then love a neighbor. Love a neighbor.

I love a neighbor in the closest proximity to get the job done. I applaud you. Now here's my dilemma that I need help on. And I don't know the legalities of all this. So I'm asking for, what you put yourself in the middle of Asheville area, northern, you know, up in the mountains. Well, we have an issue.

The hurricane, we're done with that. We're, you know, it's still, you know, we're still reeling from it. But it's the bear infestation. So when I tell you that we have an infestation of black bears, that is an understanding. You know why? Because the government dropped them off. What you mean? They took bear.

What's the plural of bear? Bears or just bear? I think it's bears. Bears. Three bears. They took bears and they dropped them all over the United States. They want to bring back the black bear. which I objected because I'm like,

there's a reason that they're no longer here. But you can't, you know, defend yourself. And then we get into this, what do you do when you're encountered by a bear? We did a podcast on that. Scroll back, Maddie, you can find that. There's 10 things to do, and all of them are bad for you. None of them have anything to do with killing bear. It's the dumbest thing you've ever read.

Look, it's like, Raise your hands, make yourself bigger than you are. And like, go away, bear, don't hurt me. It's basically stand there and die. Because don't run, because that creates his instinct. You know, it's a nice way to die. If you're trying to live with purpose, you're not just thinking about today. You're thinking about what happens in the future.

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So what's your question? Well, let me tell you the problem. It's not just it's not that I have the bears and that I don't mind. I like watching them. They're kind of neat to look at. And the problem is they're like, they're like raccoons. They're big raccoons. They get in the garbage.

Now, what I've done, I've actually spent the money and you know how cheap I am. But about two, three years ago, I said, I will, I will spend the money to get the trash cans that they cannot get in.

And they cannot get in my trash cans. They, they've tried, they could jump on, they cannot get in the bear proof trash cans. I got two of them. They were about three. 150 bucks a piece.

The problem is, is that my neighbors don't, they haven't made that investment yet. So their trash is everywhere. And guess what ends up? Every single morning. Your yard. And my yard. And so my bear, I have a son named bear. I say, I said, because I'm, I'm retired from picking up trash.

So I'm like, hey, y'all get up there and pick up that trash. And they're rolling their eyes. Oh, dad. So somebody's got to pick it up, you know, and y'all don't do anything. I mean, I'm paying the bill. I'm going to pick up the trash. So my bear goes out and picks up the trash. And it's nasty.

I mean, it's a lot of trash. Probably two bags worth just all those just nasty. They get them all, put them up that night, that same night. Me and Jill went down downtown to have a meal together. We're walking back. And bear calls me,

my bear calls me and says, they're at it again. They're out. And so he's chasing the bears out of the yard, five of them. He's like running after him. all his buddies were there. So they're chasing the bears away.

But still, there's the other two bags of trash all over the yard. And I've tried to tell the neighbor. I've tried to be nice about it. He's not listening, apparently. He didn't respond to me on text this morning. I was, hey,

and it was a friendly text. Like, hey, buddy, the bears are out again. You're kind of passive aggressive. So I'm thinking about taking matters into my own hands. I just don't know what, what legally can a man do?

to stop the bears from destroying his property. Well, here's what you do. You go confront the bear and you can't do anything legally to the bear, but you just go confront. Can you shoot them with pepper sprays? No, no, no. Can't do any of that. None of that. None of that.

So go confront the bear. Worst scenario is the bear kills you, and then maybe they'll change the law. So what I recommend is you can be a martyr. Yeah, that's the hand you're dealt. Now, you weren't set out. So this is and Jill get a life insurance policy. That's the way the government has a set up. Or a much safer thing for you is send your son, who apparently was named bear for a reason, to be that person.

You can sacrifice your son. That's biblical as well. I'm like, you're not going to beat a black bear. What are you chasing a black bear? No, you don't chase him. you go up there and say, hey, get out of my yard. If he attacks you, you die, they'll pass legislation to Zach law where they'll put dumping bear out all over in the neighborhoods.

I mean, what did they think was going to happen? You're talking about dumb. That's the other side of it. Look, Jay, they're in a, this is a, this, Zach's neighborhood, there's houses everywhere. It's not like we're talking about out in the middle of nowhere, you know, where Gordo is. This is like a city. They're taking over. They're taking over.

I'm telling my brother. I mean, I would have been fine. I would have been fine with the dumping the bear out if you had a right to defend yourself or maintain, because God created the animals, and then he gave us as humans the right and obligation to rule over. Manage. Yeah, manage.

And so you should trust. human beings. Yeah, it's a violation. And they do the same thing. I mean, it's a religious, I mean, you think about it. It's a religious right that we have. I'm sitting there in Black Mountain and the bear is exercising dominion over me. That's right. You know how that, I mean, that is. Yeah. And Zach, your neighbors, your neighbors would be rooting for the bear here, not you. Well, that's true. So that's your first option. Your second option is to actually cause harm to the bear that's causing you problems. Then you can go to prison and start a prison ministry,

which is, at least you would be alive. And once again, first century, yes. Probably wouldn't change the law over that. So that's your two options. What about like a paintball gun? You can't BB guns, none of that. Maybe electric fence. Maybe we could do that.

Zach, you cannot do any of that. What part of this are you not getting? There's no argument. There's no argument. You have to stand, make yourself bigger than you are, and say, hey, get out of here. That's it. Well, that doesn't work. I looked at it.

That's what I did. Well, I did it the first night. I heard them out there about 11 o'clock. What I was. Hey, get out. And they literally just looked up at me like slowly. Well, huh. Interesting.

Right back to what they were doing. I've told you the two options. And ironically, it has spiritual implications because the end results are prison. or death, which is pretty much like a person living without a God. That lifestyle, you end in prison or death. But if you think about it, the whole thing that you described, Jay, is this whole big governmental plan for the bear was ill-conceived anyway because bear weren't made to eat human trash.

I mean, that's part of their problem, which has then denigrated them, even as a huntable animal because, you know, their meat's not very good. It's greasy. I mean, they're eating in our trash. That's not what they were made to eat as human trash. I went to a wild beast feast as spoken to wild beast. Oh, it's greasy. They bring out every wild animal you can think of.

And then that guy said, this is bear. And I'm like, I've seen, do they take a dump in my yard? And I've seen what comes out of a bear. I'm like, it is a plastic trash bag. I mean, they eat anything. I'd never eat a bear. Not now. I won't do it.

So anyway, I don't know why we got off on to that. But what I was going to say is the best thing about watching the Masters had nothing to do with the actual game. But my buddy, and I'm not even sure how I was actually researching, I'm having a Bible study, and you know how these algorithms or whatever. They suggest things for you. but our buddy, Al, Ted Scott, who is the caddy for the number one player in the world, Scotty Schaffler, who finished second in the Masters.

Who missed a playoff by one half of one inch. Hey, yeah, I'm sure he's... I mean, that putt in 17 falls in. That's a playoff. Scottie could have come back and won the whole thing, but I disagree. I think he'll be fine, though. So the interesting thing about Ted Scott is he was bubble. Watson's caddy, that's when we met him.

That's how we got to know it, man. And so he won two Masters, Boba Watson, and then Scotty Shephyler won two Masters, which the Masters is kind of the, I mean, the Pinnacle. Yeah. So here's this Caddy who's been a part of four Masters victories with two different players. So there's, you know how the media is. They're like, we need to go do a story. story on this guy. I mean, this is kind of incredible. And so this story that I watched was fantastic.

It's like 30 minutes long. So I'm suggesting that. And I even told my wife about this. I said, you need to watch this. She's like, I don't care about golf. I was like, but you'll like this. So the name of it is the man you walk with, Ted Scott's journey in faith and golf. fantastic. So he had one condition for doing the interview. He's like, it can't be about me. And they did it. Oh.

So you'll see why we're, we need to have him on the podcast. As I said, let's get him on the podcast. That would be awesome. I'm going to try to make that out. It was one of the greatest, you know, I'm just so frustrated. with some things the government does and a lot of what the media does. But I thought, I can't believe they put this out there for people to watch.

It is spiritual. It is not what you think. It is just absolutely fantastic. Teddy's one of the best people I've ever met. He's such a good man. So do yourself a favor and watch that. And what, one of my favorite, I'll give you one little nugget. One of my favorite things is, because they asked him how he got hired to be Sheffler's caddy.

And he said, well, you know, when him and Bubba went there on separate ways or whatever, Scotty Sheffler reached out and he said, well, I have one condition for me being hired. So, I mean, here it is. And he was very transparent. And he's like, when you look at my role in this, it is so small. I mean, these guys are freaks, the talent, the time, all of that. He doesn't really need me to tell him how far, you know, to hit an eight iron. I mean, all of that.

But that's why it's named you walk with the man. And this shows you what he contributes. He said, I'll do it, but you got to have a good attitude. And I'm going to hold you accountable of that. That's the one rule. But that they, where that went, really from Schaeffler's perspective, really helped him. Yeah. You know, because you can imagine all the pressure and all that.

And it's like, this guy's like, whatever we do, we're going to have a good attitude. Of course, they're united, you know, in their faith in Jesus, which produces these kind of attitudes. But it was just, it was, it was really fantastic. So there you go. There's your nugget. So for a lot of years, I kind of went by the analogy of the best way to keep your weight under control was just to move more and eat less. And for a long time, it worked pretty well until it didn't.

And then at some point for me, when I hit around 50 years old, the scale just seemed to not budge. I gained weight. It was frustrating. You think you're lazy and you're failing and your body is just stuck in. in survival mode, but I figured out something that no medication or crashed out or app was going to fix that. It was going to save some time and some understanding.

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No more guessing, no more short-term fixes, just a smarter way forward. Well, and I was pulling for our old pal, Sam Burns, who's an LSU guy who lives in Louisiana, from Shreveport, because he was in the mix this weekend and on Sunday. and he and Scotty are pals, but mainly because of their faith. There's been several things written about their relationship. And that started with just them both being believers,

and they're very vocal and unashamed about it, which, again, I was saying we need to have Sam on sometime because... I met him. He practices at a golf course that I'm a member of, and so Squire Creek. But anyway, and I was out there playing with a buddy of mine. and he's like, hey, that's Sam Burns. He's over there practicing.

I was like, well, that's cool. And he's like, you want to meet him? I was like, I would never say that. You know, just, I mean, he's working on his game. And he said, I'll be right back. He went and got him because I thought, oh, your friends, yeah. Oh, he really was. He brought him out there.

Got to meet him, which was kind of cool. So I was rooting for him, but he's getting close. Yeah, he's going to get there because he's finally finished in the top But his game is solid. So he's eventually going to get there. Well, I'll give you the segue to where we left off in 1st John 5. You ready for this? I'm ready because I think I know.

My interaction with the government is my point. It turned into everything is a legal document. That's our relationship. It's not, oh, we love you, Jays. we'll pick up your stuff like everybody else's because you pay your taxes and you're a good citizen. Nope, that got lost. So when we left off where it says 1st John 5, because I've been thinking about this, how confusing this is, when he says, this is how we know, this is 1 John 5 too, that we love the children of God by loving God and carrying out his commands.

This is love for God to obey his commands, and his commands are not burdensome. So you said, well, which is it? Do we love God, or do we keep his commands? Because it's real confusing. When you see the word commands, what do you think? This is something I've got to do. Yeah. Where's the rule sheet?

And the way this is set up in the Bible, so you have the old law, think 10 commandments. Look, I'm asked this question more than any other question in the Bible. it's like which commands still apply? What does it mean to obey his command? Are we still under the Ten Commandments? Which one do we need to observe the Sabbath? Because, you know, you start reading the Ten Commandments, and you're like, okay, okay,

then you get out of the Sabbath, and you're like, well, no, what about this, you know? And then most people say, well, that doesn't apply. That was under the Jewish system. and now Jesus, you know, gives us rest, which I'm agreeing with that. But I'm saying we kind of pick and choose, we're confused. And in actuality, when you tally up all the commands from the old law, it's over 600. And you know what I found interesting?

A hundred of them had to do with the temple, which is no longer here. So I got a question, how are you going to keep? those, if they were all temple, as in the structure, the temple at Jerusalem related. So what's your take on that? First of all, you bring up a great point about forced, what we see is forced obedience versus willful obedience. Because he says, when he says that they're not burdensome, and then he tells you why, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.

So the difference is, once I've submitted myself to Christ and want to live for him, because he now lives in me because of the Holy Spirit, then I don't have a problem with law. Those are all good things. I'm totally free from the results and the penalties of forced obedience. So that's the distinct difference for me, which we're going to get into later when we get into the Holy Spirit, is it changes everything. The idea that somehow I have to do these things to make me holy or make me worthy will never end well for me.

It's never going to work out whether I understand who Christ is or don't. If I look at it as a forced thing, the reason they're not burdensome is there's no impact anymore. The idea is now I'm serving and living him. I have overcome that which the world has to offer, not because of me, but because of him. So I just think that's the distinct difference. Yeah, as a countercultural nature of the kingdom. I mean, you contrast what you just said with like the kingdoms of the world, and you can see like the forced obedience just doesn't work.

I think Israel had probably were, they were expecting a different kind of kingdom, right? We know this from all the four Gospels. They were expecting a different kind of power. I mean, you even see it like this week. I mean, all the stuff that's going on in our politics right now, you see the name of Christ to try to co-op that into a political movement, and it just doesn't work. I mean, I don't know if you,

did you guys see the Trump's tweet, by the way, or not tweet is this truth post, this truth social post of him mocking Christ, probably didn't even realize he's mocking him, but puts himself in this position where he looks like Jesus Christ healing people. And he posts us out there. like this is some kind of, but that's not, that's not how this works. This isn't a power play in that way.

It's not a forced obedience. It's not a forced coercion. The kingdom of heaven, when the kingdom comes to earth, it's much more of an alignment of your desire, an alignment of your wills with his. When we pray, that kingdom come by will be done on earth as it is in heaven. that means is that my intentions become aligned with Christ. I start to smell like Christ, and all of a sudden, Dallas Willard said it best, in Christ you can have all the freedom you want. You can do whatever you want in Christ. He says, you can murder all you want if you're in Christ, which will be none at all. And that's the, I think that's why the commandments are burdensome, because they're not being forced on you. These are, this is your will coming in alignment with the will of God.

God, this is not a dictator dictating down to us, an edict. This is an invitation to come into and to be a participant in the divine life. And I think it's hard for us to see that so many times because every other power that's out there, in the political world, for example, it's always a, the paradigm is always to eat the other, to conquer the other. And everybody kind of uses the name of Christ as a mockery, but at the end of the day, his kingdom is totally different. It's not of this world. And that's why we have to, it is countercultural. And he said that, Zach, he said that whenever he said in the moment in the garden, which was this

moment of that was about to happen of regeneration of this, of humanity, he said, not my will, but yours be done. I mean, he provided the perfect example for all of us to follow through. Once we understand that, and then we get to Romans 12, one and two, that is the spiritual act of worship. There's no, there's no more temple for us to go to anymore because we are that temple. Therefore, we understand his good, pleasing, and perfect will because now his will is my will, not my will, but yours be done. Yeah, because what do the Jews want is that they wanted, particularly, they wanted the kingdom without the king. They wanted, they knew the law. Jesus said, you, you know, you read the scriptures and you studied them diligently, and by them you think

you're saved, but you miss me. And so that's always the rub. And so if you enter into and you think Christ in his way or the way of the Bible or whatever, this is a pragmatic solution to how we get what we want, then you've missed it. And the commandments in that setting will always be a burden because it's something that you have to do to prove your loyalty to the system. The opposite of that or the antithesis of that would be not something, that you have to do to prove loyalty, but an invitation into life itself. And so it recategorizes how we understand a lot of things like sin. Sin isn't a, it's not a violation of some kind

of arbitrary random commandment that God gave you. Sin is a deviation from life. And so we read verses like Romans 623 that the wages of sin is death, yes, there is a penalty involved in that, but it's also like just a reality. If I tell my daughter, Ruth, the stove is on and that pan is hot, the wages of touching that pan is pain. I'm not like necessarily like this is like a description of reality. Don't touch the pan. That's a commandment.

Don't touch that hot pan. It'll burn you. Well, it's not a burden for her to not touch the hot pan. I'm actually giving her instructions for a good life. And in the same way, when God gives us instruction via the Holy Spirit, it's a revelation of himself. It's a revelation of his inner life. It's not like, oh, let me give you all these rules.

And he's saying, this is the pathway into abundant life. So if it truly is the pathway into abundant life and the commandment is, go that way. And over there, there's a great life, that's not a burden. That's a blessing. And it's an imperfect illustration, but it's a good one that you point out because you have some teenagers now. As you watch your children grow older, the challenge becomes, do they trust your will

for their goodness stronger than their will to do it their way? And we know at some point almost every teenager has to try it their way. And that's when the problems begin for them. And it's exactly the same way for us as we're little children and we trust in the will of God. He's going to carry us where we need to go. And that's this idea of overcoming. You realize this word he uses here, which is Nicao for Conquer, he uses it four times right here in this overcoming and victory text.

He uses it 17 times in the Book of Revelation. I wonder why. I mean, why does John highlight this idea of conquer and victory because of faith in Christ and submitting our will to him? Because that's how we get off the planet and live. eternally and then live here where heaven and earth combined. And it's just a blessing.

Yeah, and that said in a revelation, you had, here's this Roman authority. And I mean, this is, the Christians were kind of like dealing with your bear problem. What can you do? And they wind up dead because Rome has their power

and he's basically like, you'll overcome them, even in death. Yeah. But what I wanted to say, I listened to a kind of a five-point podcast series by the Bible project about the law. It's been a while.

But I thought it was really good because they start back to hearing God's voice. And like what Al just said, when you said that Al about determining God's will, that's where they started the whole idea of the law. I mean, going back to the garden. Because really there's two aspects to it with those two trees in the garden.

The first one was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Basically hearing the voice of God was, trust me, don't even enter that world. Just look to me and trust me not to be able for yourself to discern that. Just keep the knowledge of good in my relationship and don't even eat of that tree. But what happens?

You have this other celestial being who introduces, ooh, the temptation of it. And then you're looking at it in the moment, which is the equivalent, what the evil one said, to you being your own God, you determine. The problem with that is we want to know. We want to know. So that's the first aspect.

Well, then the next aspect comes when he does introduce the law and gives all these laws to how to reflect God as a nation. Well, having that knowledge of that creates a problem because it was intended for you to do what's right. But us as humans, we're like, ooh, but what if, what if I don't? There's the problem with having a choice from a human perspective. And so basically they start from that garden and go all the way to, what Jesus, to the sermon on the Mount, which they read this, which I think is real interesting,

because he says, which I think this is where all the confusion is, on how many laws am I under? Because Jesus says, I didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And so then that sermon on the Mount becomes so complex to people because he's taking laws, and he's like saying the problem is, let's say, murder. You said, well, I haven't murdered anybody. He's like, but you look at your brother with anger and you don't do what's right. And so somehow the spirit of what the law was intended is lost. So he's like, I came to fulfill it to show you the whole point of it, which is going back to listening to God's voice and choosing to trust what he says. But I wanted to read that, Matthew

that's up verse 17 he says do not think that i have come to abolish the law the prophets i have not come to abolish him but to fulfill them i tell you the truth until heaven and earth disappear not the smallest letter not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished what do you think everything is accomplished is indicating that Jesus came to free us from that slavery to the law by his death, his burial, his resurrection, pouring out the spirit. The spirit then produces a, what, you know, he calls a new command, a new, a new law, where you're gaining wisdom through this back to the garden where you're trying.

trusting God in all the decisions that are to be made. And he's also exposing the problems with the law in that you have over 600, but not every situation is addressed. And you think modern day, how do we know, how are we able to discern what to do in a given situation, which is kind of the point of the sermon of the Mount? But then he goes on to say, anyone who breaks the least of these commandments and teaches others do the same, we'd be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of God.

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. So I realize this is hard to wrap your head around, but how could it surpass—I mean, these guys are were keeping every letter to the best of their ability of the law. How could you have a way to surpass that? And I think he was pointing to the spirit, the spirit giving you the discernment of what the point of the law was. And so it goes hand in hand with us having the spirit in the relationship you with the being rather than a list of rules that you're trying to keep flawlessly.

It's not, I think, again, it's not, it's not a pragmatic solution. And by pragmatic, I mean, it's not true because it works. It works because it's true. And so when you think about where you're, as you're talking about that, I was thinking about in Hebrews 5, the Hebrew writer. talks about a new priestly order. He introduces Malkazadek. He introduces Psalm 1, 10.

And he basically is like, hey, let me tell you about Jesus. He actually is a priest in the order of Malkesedek. And then it takes this weird, like, break. There's a whole, by the way, go read the book of Hebrews. There's like three or four chapters on what it means that Christ came in the order of Malkesed. But as soon as he introduces the concept of this new priestly order, he stopped. with a warning and he says, man, we got a lot to say about this, but you are so, it's hard to

understand because you're dull of hearing. And then he kind of gives them this chastisement where he's saying that you're drinking milk when you should be eating solid food. Like you're still, you mean, you're still on the basic stuff of Christianity. It made me think about when you mentioned the Garden of Eden, that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What's interesting about that tree? It's not that God didn't want to and no good from evil. It was that he was going to be the one to tell us that. He was going to be the one to give us the revelation.

This is the pathway to life, so that we would take something and look at our Heavenly Father, say, is this okay, Dad? And he's like, no, no, you don't want to do that. Okay, thanks. And then you move on, and that was how the relationship was supposed to work. And so you just keep doing that over and over, and everything that God reveals is a pathway to life.

But it's interesting how the knowledge of good and evil comes up again in the New Testament. particularly in Hebrews 5 when he says that mature people, like when you get off to just the milk, the milk is all the stuff like the basic tenets of the faith, repenting of your sin, you know, getting baptized, you know, basic stuff. He says, yeah, that's milk. The mature, what distinguishes the mature, the meat eaters,

it's those who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good, from evil. Now we're back to the garden. It's a, it's a, well, how is that even possible? It's, it's, it's by the spirit, by constant, it's rhythms, its practices, it's spiritual formation that over the span of a life, a life that is constantly coming back to Christ, constantly coming to Him in prayer, constantly in the word, like, it's this practice, you're practicing this out. And then you can actually look and see, whoa, that's actually good, and that's actually evil. And only,

then can you see the commandments of God is not burdensome? Because you're actually seeing them for what they are. Yeah. Well, and again, it's the idea that comes from it. That's why this idea not burdensome is so important, because the idea is once freedom is there, because you understand who God is and what his will is, and that we firmly asked him to be in charge of our lives,

then we understand how to live in it. It becomes clear to that. I mean, law can only do what it can. can do. It's not that it's bad. It's good. I mean, look at the founders of our country. Two hundred fifty years ago. We became a country. You know how many laws we have, Jays? Well, we've come up with in 250 years? Over two million. And they're still writing them. And they're still writing them with every new Congress, new laws. We've got to get to this. And there are to be a law, and so we've got to get to that. And we're building on two million.

I mean, we're talking about it. And we have law enforcement. Everywhere. Yeah. Well, I want to this before we finish out, just because I think there's this key to get in your head around this is that tree of knowledge of good and evil, and then when the law came, the Ten Commandments and all this. Because Paul, I think, is addressing this in Romans chapter 7 and verse 7. And I just wanted to read this and get this in because me listening to that podcast kind of opened my eyes to this. He says, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. Law's not sin. It was intended for you to hear the voice of God, which is why Jesus would say in John

chapter 10, I know my sheep, my sheep hear my voice. Why is that important? Because we want to do what God's will is. This is the right way to do things. So then it says, Roman 7, 7, 7, Indeed, I would not have known what sin was except through the law. So then once the law came, well, it's obvious now. Here it is. Do it. Well, what's the problem? We don't do it.

Because by knowing it, we also have the temptation to break it. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, do not covet. But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the, the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead, which is a hard thing to get your head around unless you go back to when the tree of knowledge of good and evil was there. Sin was dead when he said, don't eat of that tree. There was no sin.

They were just relying on God, trust him. They were eating of the tree of life, which was the gift of life. forever. But once they took of that tree, guess what happened? Oh, now we have that knowledge. Once the law was given at Mount Sinai, oh, here's what you're supposed to do. So that's what I think verse 9 is referring to. Then it says, once I was alive apart from law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. For years, I used that as thinking, well, the only time he could say that was being a kid. But what I realize now is, even though I agree with that point, I don't think that's what he's

saying. I think what he's saying is the time you were apart from law was in that garden before the knowledge of the tree of good and evil was partaking of. But when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. You see, once you knew the choice. of knowledge of good and evil, and you had the law, same thing manifesting itself, what happened? You sin and you die.

The thing that was supposed to bring me life actually brought me death, which is where he goes here, verse 10. I found that the very commitment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me through the commandments put me to death. So then the law is holy. and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

So you see the point. So he gets to verse 21 and he's like, so I find this law at work when I want to do good, evil is right there with me because we understand the knowledge of good and evil. For in my inner being, I delight in God's law. We know he's right, but I see another law at work in the members of my body,

waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my memory. members. What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death? And here's why Jesus said when all things are completed. And there's that victory, Al, overcoming. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. He not only did he forgive us our sins, he nailed that law to the cross, creating a new knowledge of good and evil through giving that spirit to us. And the backdrop of it all was love, which is John's point in 1 John 5.

So then that way when you get to Romans 8, and he starts talking about the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death, there's a new law that Jesus introduced and it's discovered through his Holy Spirit dwelling in people because of what he did on the cross and the resurrection. So he gets down to verse 5, and now we have a mutual friend who sent us this in the text, he's like, I finally figured this out. How to live. And he had Romans 8, 5 through verse 9.

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what the nature or the flesh desires. But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their mind set on what the spirit desires. So what's the fruit of the spirit? Love, joy, peace. patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace.

Yeah, Smith Eustacea says the law of sin and death versus the law of life and spirit, which is exactly what we do when we overcome the world. So we're out of time. We'll pick it up here next time on Anishame. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.