The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Rules? Reality!"
I recently heard a prominent figure in Christendom suggest, "We should not expect unbelievers to keep the rules we keep as Christians." He went so far as to apologize to unbelievers if they have experienced this laying upon them burdens they cannot bear.
This caused me to wonder if the man himself actually understands what it means to walk with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian life does not comprise a set of rules to be followed. Many commands grace the pages of the New Testament, of course, mandates to be taken seriously by every believer and obeyed through the power of the Holy Spirit. However, the commands obeyed proceed from grace received through living relationship with our Lord of grace. The New Testament does not lay before the Christian a mere guideline of what we must do, but rather a promise of grace that if we rightly relate to our Heavenly Father through Christ, a quality of life will flow as the natural - supernatural - result of His vital and active presence in us.
"He that believeth on Me as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly (heart) shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38).
Continual warning marks the pages of the new Testament, calling us to avoid the error of seeing faith and faithfulness in terms of code, regulation, and rules that, even if followed, do not produce the genuine "fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus
Christ" (Philippians 1:11). The Apostle Paul's most strident warnings challenge any and every notion of failure to see relationship in terms of God's grace and truth in the Lord Jesus.
"But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain" (Galatians 4:9-11).
If use perceive even one command of Scripture as a rule, we have rendered meaningless and powerless the entirety of what it means to walk with God by His grace through faith in the Lord Jesus. Christ did not suffer and die to make possible a mere servile obedience without heart that belies God's working us in us to know Him in living and loving personal terms that result in the obedience of sons rather than slaves (Galatians 4:7). Rules to be followed? Never. Reality to be known in such measure that we obey the commands of Scripture through the indwelling love of God in Christ? Always and forever.
We have a mulberry tree in our backyard that produced a good measure of flavorful fruit this season. Mere adherence to physical law and principles did not lead to the bountiful harvest. No, life did that, the mystery of God's working in the physical creation that bears witness to the even greater spiritual mystery of fruit bearing in the hearts and lives of human beings rightly related to the Lord Jesus. This is the Gospel we seek to communicate to believer and unbeliever alike, namely, the provision of that - Him - which alone leads to obedience pleasing to God. Even a cursory reading of the New Testament puts to rest the notion that walking with God involves rule keeping. Instead, we bear the fruit of life in Christ Jesus as we grow in His grace and the truth of reality rather than regulation…
"God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
(II Corinthians 9:8)
"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing."
(John 15:5)
"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"
(I John 5:3-5)
Weekly Memory Verse
We do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great mercies."
(Daniel 9:18)
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