GIG 193 - It's Not About Keeping the Rules

A recent Barna survey found that "most Christians equate spiritual maturity with following the rules." But if you've listened to this program for any amount of time, you know that we don't believe that the Christian life is about following the rules, and this week we talk about how to not let "Christian rules" rule your life.

We find it quite amazing that Christians continue clinging to laws, rules and commandments, when that's what God has set us free from! So we take some time to discuss how the Christian life isn't about doing things for God but rather about us being in Him, and Him in us. It's not about doing. It's about being. We take a look at how many people are actually being "compliant" by trying to follow God's laws - which anyone can do, whether filled with God's life or not. The key word there is "trying," and so we also discuss the difference between "trying" and simply "trusting."

gigcast.graceroots.org

That 'Love Thy Neighbor Thing...' (repost)

In July 2007 I wrote a series of five posts called "That 'Love Thy Neighbor Thing...'," which was sort of my response to the billboard that essentially says that God meant it when He said it. I spent four posts building up to my main point, and I just thought I'd repost the final post in that series. If interested, the first four parts are here:
Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3 -- Part 4

--------------------

Part 5
I hope by now I've made the point that to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is no small task. In fact, it's an impossible task! In this fifth and final post, I hope to address two things: "Why" would Jesus teach impossible laws and "how" are the commandments ultimately fulfilled in us?

Years after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, many things would be revealed to Paul that weren't necessarily understood during Jesus' life of ministry and teaching. Something that I think we often fail to grasp from Paul's writings is his teachings on the true purpose of the law.

Rom 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. NKJV

Gal 3:24-25 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor . NKJV

I've made a habit of often pointing out that the law's purpose is to stop every mouth and to make the world guilty before God. By the law is the knowledge of sin, but not the power to overcome sin, so no one can be justified by the deeds of the law!

Remember the lawyer, who "wanted to justify himself" by asking, "who is my neighbor?" And remember the rich young ruler, trying to justify himself by his law keeping with his words, "all these I've kept since my youth." When he found out the true depths of the meaning of the law, he went away sad. The law's purpose was indeed to produce sorrow, and much more. I like how Matthew (Daelon) commented on the previous post: "Jesus is laying such heavy loads of the law on these people so they will scream "I give up!", not so that they will try harder." That's well put.

But yet Jesus said He came not to condemn, but to save! (John 3:17) Why then would He teach the law, which only produces guilt and condemnation? We return to Paul's revelation of the purpose of the law from his letter to the Galatians. The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. In order to come to Christ, the tutor of the law must first do its work! Jesus wanted people to come to Him in order to be justified by faith - didn't He? The law then had to first do its perfect work!

But somehow we have looked at the law and not seen it for the true condemning factor that it is. We've looked at it as a "moral guide." We've tried to keep it, and we've changed it and amended it and made our own interpretations out of it so we could try to justify ourselves with our own keeping of it. Jesus, I believe, came and laid down the true depths and meaning of the law, so that it would do its perfect work and fulfill its perfect purpose: to condemn and bring guilt, so that people would then turn to Him and be justified by faith. Once the law has finally done that in the life of an individual, he comes to this place: "After faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."

There are many, many examples of Jesus using the law, which the church today has turned into "teachings" or "principles" for Christian living. One example would be His words, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matt 5:27-28)

We've "Christianized" Jesus' words that He spoke to those under the law, and since we see that adultery comes from the heart, and not just the physical deed, we've invented our own Christian principle by saying that we need to be very careful to obey Jesus' words to not lust. After all, what holy person would argue that lusting after someone else's wife is a good thing? But yet we miss the whole point! There are many, many people, even such as the rich young ruler, who have never committed the physical act of adultery. According to a simple knowledge of the law, they've "kept" that law. But Jesus says, "not so." This teaching of His, I would say, is a mouth-stopping, guilt-producing teaching to every person in the world who would justify themselves by their keeping of the law.

Jesus' words to the rich younger ruler, "sell all you have and distribute to the poor," were mouth-stopping, guilt-producing words to this man who considered himself justified by his law keeping. Jesus' words to the lawyer were mouth-stopping, guilt-producing words.

No one can be justified by keeping the law. That is the whole point of the law!

That 'Love Thy Neighbor' Thing... I meant that.
-God

Yup. He meant it alright! He meant it more than most people will ever realize!

So, how do we then walk in love? How do we fulfill 1 Corinthians 13? How do we agape God and agape others as we agape ourselves?

The answer isn't really a "how." It's a "Who." As Christians who have died to the law in order to be married to Christ, by faith, that we may bear fruit to God (see Rom 7:4), we seem to quickly fall back on law and principles as the means by which we live our lives and fulfill the call to love God and one another. But a person can know - and know well - all Christian principles in the world - and still have no power and still have no life and still have no love!

The "how" is really a Person - Jesus Christ. He is in us, and we are in Him. His life is our life. We are one spirit with Him. In Him we live and move and have our being. When it came down to the truth of living a godly life and bearing godly fruit, Jesus didn't say, "follow all these laws and principles and you'll bear fruit." He said, "He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit." Under the law and principles, we could bear no fruit. In fact, Paul says, "the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death!" (See Rom 7:5). But now that we've died to what once bound us (the law), we serve in the newness of the Spirit! The good fruit that comes forth is the Spirit's own fruit that He produces in and through us as we simply abide in Christ, not struggling to fulfill commands and principles. Maybe I'll put it this way: The commands of God and the principles for Christian living are fulfilled in us, not as we set out to try to do them, but as we rest in Christ and let His life in us take over and produce all of it. All of it!

I'd most certainly like to discuss all this with anyone who has any thoughts, questions, opinions, etc.

The command to love vs. the law of love

This past weekend at the Radical Sonship Conference in Atlanta, Steve McVey asked a question that went something like, "Do you know what the most legalistic teaching in the church is?" I mean, if you were to survey all the legalistic stuff you've ever been taught, which do you think would be the most legalistic? Well, Steve went on to talk about the man who came up to Jesus and asked Him what the greatest commandment in the law is. Jesus, of course, replied that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

And so there you have it. The greatest LAW is to love God more. Therefore the greatest LEGAListic teaching in the church is teaching people to love God more. We can teach people that they're supposed to love God more, but there is simply no power to be found in a law, rule or principle to actually do it!

About a year and a half ago I drove past one of those "-God" billboards.

That 'Love Thy Neighbor' Thing... I meant that.
-God

Well of course He meant it. After all, it's the second greatest commandment! But to teach it as a Christian principle or rule, just as with the greatest commandment, is to miss the point entirely!!!

The command to love is bondage, as is any and all of God's law. But the "royal law of love" is something that is fulfilled, not as we look to commandments, but as we abide in the Vine and as we submit ourselves not to our own attempts at loving others, but to God's very life that we've been made alive to!

I ended up writing a series of five posts in July 2007, based upon what I saw on that billboard, and building up to the impossibility and futility of trying to keep the commands to love. I essentially took four posts to show how our attempts at keeping the commands don't work, and then in the final post I made my point that it's all about a "Who," not a "how," when it comes to loving God and loving people. My next post will be a repost of the final post in that series.

Perfection - Part 1 of 2 - The bad news

During my Christian life I've often heard the term "God's Standard." Usually the term is used in the context of how well Christians are living the Christian life (i.e. "Are we living up to God's standard?").

My question is... What is God's standard? And... how do we know if we're living up to it? It seems to me that when many people say "God's standard," they mean things such as "God's laws" or "the rules of the Bible" or "the commands of Jesus." To some, "God's standard" seems to be more of a matter of "right vs. wrong" or "good vs. evil."

And so we (Christians) measure ourselves according to what we believe God's standard to be. But again, how do we know if we're living up to "God's standard?" Is it a matter of our "good" outweighing our "bad?" Is it a matter of "doing our best" to keep the Law or to keep the commandments of Jesus or to keep up with the standards of the Sermon on the Mount or to live by the New Testament principles given by Paul, Peter, John, etc?

What if God's standard was not a matter of any amount of human achievement - but rather was a matter of God's very own PERFECTION?

Jesus, speaking of love and hate in Matthew 5:43-48 (part of the Sermon on the Mount), said "if you love those who love you, what reward have you?" "And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?" "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Years later, Jesus' little brother James would point out that "whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." All in all, this sounds like quite a lofty standard!

Whatever is the extent of our heavenly Father's perfection... that is to be the extent of our perfection. Our heavenly Father's love is PERFECT, as is His righteousness. And in whatever way - even if it's the tiniest way - that we stumble in living up to this standard of perfection, we can only conclude that we are guilty of all. Have you ever stopped to think about the seriousness of Jesus' words about perfection and James' words about being guilty of all?

In the rest of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus had quite a lot to say about righteousness, perfection, etc. "If you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." "I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment." "Anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you shall by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

And that's just a tiny selection of verses from the Sermon on the Mount. Again... isn't this serious stuff? Even with this tiny selection, I think it's pretty obvious that the bar is so much higher than we'd like to think! Jesus doesn't just say, "here are some things to aim for in your daily walk with God." He says, "You must hit the bullseye." He says, "be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect." I think we find through Jesus' words that perfect law-keeping, perfect righteousness, perfect love, etc, is not simply a matter of "trying" or "doing our best" to observe 10 commandments. As if that wasn't already a hard enough performance to live up to. But it really goes much deeper than that.

In Romans 7 Paul proclaims the truth that "the Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good." I'd also like to be so bold as to assert that Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount are holy and just and good. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Law and there is absolutely nothing wrong with Jesus' words on the mountain. I think they are a representation of God's standard(s). In fact, what I see Jesus doing in the Sermon on the Mount is putting the holiness, justness and goodness of the Law under a microscope, exposing it at a much deeper level.

Look at your arm. What do you see? Skin, hair, etc. Imagine taking a sample of your skin and putting it under a microscope. You'll find that there's a lot more to your skin than the naked eye can see! Well, to many naked eyes it seemed as if the Law were a pretty simple concept. Just do these things "and you will live." But Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere, took "The Standard" (the Law) and put it under a microscope and exposed the depths of it in such a way that I would hope would help people to see that it wasn't quite that simple!

The Law, although holy and just and good, had a problem. As perfect and holy as it was, it could never do one thing to make a human being holy and just and good. As Hebrews 10:1 says, the law could never make anyone perfect. And as Galatians 3:21 says, the law could never make a person righteous and it could never give a person Life. And if the law itself could not do any of these things, neither could following any of Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount. But yet over and over in the Sermon, Jesus proclaimed "do this" and "don't do that." He laid out many conditional promises of blessings and many conditional warnings of judgment and curses. Why? Is this what our life in Him is really about??? Are we to take the Sermon on the Mount as God's word to followers of Christ?

Let's back up by taking a look at what the New Testament reveals about the Law. Paul calls it "the ministry of death" and "the ministry of condemnation" (2 Cor 3:7,9). Hebrews 7:19 says "the law made nothing perfect." Gal 3:12 says, "The law is not of faith, but 'the man who does them shall live by them.'" The law's job... the law's purpose... was to impute sin to man (charge sin to man's account) and to condemn man and to sentence man to death. Romans 3:20 says, "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." "The law was our tutor to lead us to Christ" (see Gal 3:24-25). But in order to actually come to Christ, we had to die to the law (see Gal 2:19 and Romans 7). In summary, the holy, just, good Law showed us our sin, charged us with sin and condemned us to death. It pointed us to Christ, but we had to get out from under it (we had to die to it) in order to be "married" to Christ.

The law is not the gospel! The law is holy and just and good, but the law is not good news! Now take a look again at Matthew 5-7 and tell me if what you see more closely resembles the bad news of the Law or the good news of the gospel. I'll just come right out and say it. The Sermon on the Mount is not good news! The Sermon on the Mount is not the gospel, nor is it part of it.

The law demanded perfection. ("One strike and you're out," to paraphrase James). Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount demanded perfection. Again, don't just skim by those words of His! It's serious stuff! And it's not good news if you've not been able to uphold this standard!

But this is Part 1 of 2. We'll get to the good news. You betcha!

Sin Revival

I'm thinking today's Garfield comic is a great illustration of the reaction of the flesh to Law.

Rom 7:7-12
What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. NIV