Being Free

So Jesus said to those who believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”(John 8: 31-32 NASB)

One of the sad truths about churches is that too often they are better at tethering Christians than they are at helping them live in the freedom of Christ. Over time, even churches who start with no creed other than the crucified Christ and an understanding that each of us comes to Christ in his own way, have a tendency towards homogenization. They develop rules, written and unwritten, that force people into a mold of “proper Christianity” that is not necessarily what Christ intended for His people.

First and foremost, Christianity is never about adherence to rules. There are no rules in the strictest sense of the word. If we insist on rules of behavior as a way to determine who is Christian or not, we are legalists who deny grace. If we insist on adherence to the Mosaic Law, we miss the point of the cross.

The Law of Moses was unkeepable.  At best, it could be kept only in outward appearance while the inner man was still prone to sin. Jesus made this clear in the Sermon on the Mount. Even those who obey the commandments that should be easiest to follow and neither murder nor commit adultery, break them in our hearts through anger and lust. The purpose of the Law was to show us our own inability to live holy on our own and to bring us to repentance and Christ. Paul calls the Law a tutor (Gal. 3: 15-29) and a lien against us because of our sins (Col. 2: 14).

That debt was canceled on the cross. It is no more. As we live in Christ, no one can judge us in regard to what we eat, what we wear, what we drink or how we celebrate and honor God. (Col. 2: 16-17) We are free of both the condemnation of the Law and of the burden of its outward keeping. In fact, if we put ourselves back under even a part of the Law, the entire Law will again govern us because we cannot pick and choose what part of the Law we want to apply – it is all or nothing. I for one choose nothing.

Yet we constantly allow ourselves to be governed by both remnants of the Law and by the imaginations of men by trying to adhere to rules that churches impose. Worse, we develop a sense of self-satisfaction that turns grace on its ear. Instead of freely admitting that we are sinners and all our righteousness is really filthy rags, but God grants us righteousness through grace, we pride ourselves on how well we keep the rules. It is Christ, Who deserves the credit, yet we claim it for ourselves – all the while denying that we are doing just that.

Worse, following the rules gives us a distorted view of our own need for repentance and grace. We play Let’s Compare Sins as a way of assuring ourselves of our own righteousness. Is there one of who has not said, “Well, at least I don’t use the Lord’s name in vain” or “At least I don’t gamble or drink”? God is not interested in what we aren’t doing, and is very concerned about forgiving the things we are doing if only we would bring them to Him. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NASB)

So, in Christ, we are free. We are freed of our sins through grace. And we are also free of the need to obey a list of rules and regulations imposed by anyone about how to be Christian or how to worship. And the best freedom of all is that we are now free of the necessity to sin. We can now choose not to follow sin, when in the past we were slaves to sin and had no choice in the matter at all.

We are not Christians because of what we do; we do what we do because we are Christians.