FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  (John 1:14,16,17 ESV)

There is more nonsense per square inch about worldliness than perhaps any other subject in the Christian life.  Usually, worldliness is reduced to a laundry list of taboos -- the nasty nine, the terrible ten, or the dirty dozen, depending on whose list you go by.

The do's and don'ts sound like they come straight from Sinai, but the truth of the matter is, they originate from our own parochial prejudices.

We want to watch out for worldliness, but we also want to watch out for the legalistic labels that some condescending Christians stick on many areas of life where God has granted us freedom.

The key to an abundant life under the lordship of Christ is not trying to impress Him with the check marks on our laundry list but trying to live like He lived -- full of grace and truth, not full of legalism and pious platitudes. 

-- Charles R. Swindoll in “The Practical Life of Faith” [1990] 

#6211

FREEDOM IN CHRIST

We can serve God out of a cringing feeling of failure to measure up, or we can serve Him out of gratitude for the work of grace He has fully brought into our life. Grace is by far a superior motivation to guilt. God doesn’t want us running holes in our shoes on some guilt trip. He doesn’t want us living life by some Levitical checklist of rules and regulations. He wants us to be free -- not just from sin, but from the chafing collar constraint that the Law clamped around our necks.

God wants us to be free, He wants us to live free, as Hebrews 10:15-18 indicates: “The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First He says: ‘This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.’  Then He adds: ‘Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.’ And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.”

Having the Law in our hearts as opposed to an external standard of stone is the primary difference between the New Covenant and the Old (Jeremiah 31:31-33). The power of God’s Spirit residing within us is sufficient for us to live fully, to live fruitfully, and to live freely, unfettered from the shackles of sin and from slavery to legalism…

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”  (Galatians 5:1) 

-- Charles R. Swindoll in “The Preeminent Person of Christ: A Study of Hebrews” 

#5653

CANNED CHRISTIANS

“For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.”  (Romans 8:2)

I used to think when someone becomes a Christian he must submit to the traditional picture.  He must "fit in" with all the rest of us.  He must be labeled "Christian," so that anyone can recognize him as a Christian.  Every Christian must look and act alike, and be as easily recognizable as the same company cans on the supermarket shelf.  He has to conform to a certain size can.  Some things he can do, other things he cannot; some thou shalts, and quite a few thou shalt nots.

Of course, he must give up his "worldly habits" and "worldly friends," and if, for example, he still drinks or smokes, he will not quite fit into the can.  We will have to compress him a little further.  So, all of my Christianity reduces itself to one long exercise of compressing and squeezing into a can labeled, "Christian."

But I can't find anything about this in Your words, Lord … Nothing about a canned Christian.  You never bound Your disciples.  You set them free.  You told us to deny ourselves, but You said it in the positive context of following.  You strike at the core of our pride.  You do not want us to chop off a few habits and then sneak that core of pride into the can.  How subtle and sinful we are!  You have come to release us; not to repress us.  You have come to set us free.  "If then the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free." (John 8:36)

-- H.S. Vigeveno in “Jesus the Revolutionary”

#5383

THE LAW AND GRACE

"The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 5:20-21)

The law did not encourage obedience, rather it magnified disobedience. Law merely indicated the sickness; grace brought about the cure.

-- Philip Yancey in What's So Amazing About Grace?

#3875

FOLLOWING JESUS

"He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant -- not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."  (2 Corinthians 3:6 NIV)

 

A recent study by the Barna Group found that the number one challenge to helping people grow spiritually is that most people equate spiritual maturity with trying hard to follow the rules in the Bible.  No wonder people also said they find themselves unmotivated to pursue spiritual growth.  If I think God’s aim is to produce rule followers, spiritual growth will always be an obligation rather than a desire of my heart.

“Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith,” Paul wrote, “but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping.”  In other words, it only results in a rule-keeping, desire-smothering, Bible reading, emotion-controlling, self-righteous  person who is not like me.  In the end, I cannot follow God if I don’t trust that He really has my best interests at heart.

The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.  There is an enormous difference between following rules and following Jesus, because I can follow rules without cultivating the right heart.

-- John Ortberg in The Me I Want to Be

LET THE WALLS FALL DOWN

"For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility." (Ephesians 2:14 ESV)

The politics of division separated Germany on August 13, 1961, when the residents of Berlin woke to a barbed-wire barrier between the communist East and the noncommunist West.  The Cold War had begun.  Soldiers quickly fortified the barrier, creating a concrete wall twelve feet high and over a hundred miles long.  Loved ones were torn apart, and more than two million people attempted to escape East Germany by climbing, vaulting, tunneling, or crashing through checkpoints.  Unsuccessful attempts resulted in more than four hundred deaths.  In 1989, restrictions between the two Berlins were lifted.  The Berlin Wall came down, announcing the end of the Cold War.  Celebrations around the world culminated with Germany's reunification as one country on October 3, 1990.  Though now free, a city and a nation had been divided by disagreement, laws, and treaties, culminating in a literal wall of separation.  Laws lead to walls.

In the same way, laws and legalism kept the nation of Israel and other nations divided by a wall of prejudice.  But two thousand years ago, a babe in a manager heralded the end of the Cold War between the Jews and Gentiles.  Jesus tore down the spiritual wall of separation.  Let the walls fall down!

-- Lenya Heitzig and Penny Pierce Rose in Pathway to God's Treasure: Ephesians


#3545

TWO PARTS

"Of the whole Scripture there are two parts: the law and the gospel," said Philip Melanchton.  "The law indicates the sickness, the gospel the remedy." 

-- Philip Yancey in The Bible Jesus Read


#3066

FREEDOM IN CHRIST

Christian freedom is… not a life of license to do whatever you want, but it also isn't a life of rules. Like so much in Christianity, freedom is a paradox: "For freedom Christ has set us free … do not submit again to a yoke of slavery, but through love become slaves of one another." (Galatians 5:1)

Christ sets us free – but to become servants in a different way. What must the Galatians have made of this? Indeed, what are we who live in the land of the free to make of it?

Martin Luther once wrote that there are two essential truths to being a Christian: "A Christian is a free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a dutiful servant of all, subject to all." This is the great paradox of the Christian life. We are no longer bound by the law, but we are bound by the love of Jesus, and that love binds us to one another.

-- Porter Taylor in From Anger to Zion: An Alphabet of Faith

 
#2796