Colossions 2: 13 - 15 NKJV
As I sat doing my writing this sunday morning I suddenly realized the extent of my criminal activity. After all, isn't sunday the Lords day? Did not the Lord rest on the seventh day, like God needs rest, but that's not the point. The point here is that I have been flaunting the law for years. Somehow I've remained under he radar in my zealous crime spree. Now, I might not look like a common criminal, but looks can be deceiving. I especially felt my guilt a week ago when I spent some time in the gym. Now, I may never answer for my crimes, but I still need to get them off of my consceince. What other illegal activities have I been involved in? Oh, there were those times I didn't do that ceremonial washing of my hands before each meal. I'm sure they'd throw the book at me for that one. There were also those occasions where I didn't eat what the law claimed I was supposed to. I tell you, I'M GUILTY! Has anyone else ever felt like a lawbreaker in their christian life? I get it. For generations we've been told over and over again just what we were, and weren't, to do. I lost count of exactly how many religious laws we christians were supposed to follow, but a fellow brother of mine reminds me every so often that they numbered somewhere in the several hundreds. So tell me something, how did all of those laws work out for you? Did writing requirements for life down somehow bring us closer to God? I'd say no, but I'm just a lawbreaker. I'm told that it all began with the Isrealites being in fear of God as they stood at the foot of that mountain {Exodus 20:19}. Oh how they pleaded with Moses that they would not have to speak to God. For to speak to God meant...death. So, Moses trodded up that mountain to with the Lord and receive His instructions to the people of Isreal. The rest, as they say, is history. God had spoken, through Moses, to all of Isreal. The ultimate middle man. Of course, everyone knows just how long it took for the Isrealites to break that covenant. The carvings on those stone tablets was barely dry before Aaron led the Isrealites into rebelion.
18Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. 19Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
Exodus 20: 18 - 19 NKJV
So began the long list of requirements which was against us. So, did God really intend for us to live by a long list of laws? Well, to the relief of all those law breakers out there, you can rest assured that I believe that it was never our Lords intention that we would live by such a long and structured system of requirements. For to do so would remove any semblance of a personal, one on one relationship with His children. Instead, God would be seen at best as a enforcer and, at worst, as a punisher of those who violated the law. Again, tell me how this long list of requirements has brought us closer to a more personal relationship with our heavenly Father. Tell me how the law brought us into a knowledge of Christ Jesus in us. I'll go out on a limb and say that the law NEVER did any of these things. It wasn't meant to. Have you ever heard the common phrase rules are meant to be broken? Well, tell me if you've ever driven through a stop sign. Tell me if you've ever driven over the speed limit or caught more fish than the regulations allowed. Did those laws ever lead to what they were intended? No. So, why would such a list of requirements lead to rightousness? It simply will never happen. Again, they were never meant to bring us closer to God. It is for this very reason that Jesus did away with those requirements which were against us at the cross {Colossions 2:14}. We are no longer under the requirement of the law. I suppose that's good news to most believers out there, yet there are still many who struggle every day wondering just how God sees them in their trespasses. I'll tell you how our heavenly Father sees you, as His loved and cherished child. Not as one who breaks the law, but as one who now lives apart from that system. The more we continue to see God as one who enforces the law and dishes out His punishment upon those who live against it, the more we miss out on the gift of relationship He has for all who seek Him.
"I don't need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It's not my purpose to punish it; it's my joy to cure it.”
~ William P. Young, The Shack ~
~Scott~
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