NORTHSHORE CHURCH OF CHRIST

Are you a rule-follower? Do you hate it when someone fudges, breaks in line, bends the rules?

The Pharisees hated rule-breaking so much they piled rules on top of rules just to make sure no one broke the rules. The worst sin, for the Pharisee, was rule-breaking, and they came up with lists of over 600 laws which they fastidiously kept before the people. Not only did they keep the laws themselves but they laid their standards on the backs of their brethren. In other words, they believed and taught salvation by rule-keeping.

The Pharisees scoured God's laws to figure out how to stay absolutely spotless.

God commanded priests to wash before they ministered in the tabernacle. To mirror that, the Pharisees required the washing of the hands before eating anything--and the washing of all vessels and utensils--so they wouldn't ingest any unclean thing and thereby defile themselves. That's why they became upset when Jesus' disciples "broke the tradition of the elders" by eating with unwashed hands (Matt. 15.2).

God clearly required the Jews to rest on the Sabbath Day, to cease from their daily labors. They were not allowed to build a fire or gather firewood on the Sabbath. Taking it just a step further, the Pharisees wrote a few extra laws (which logically flowed from God's, right?), which included no picking of grain (harvesting!), no rubbing grain together in the hands (threshing!), and no chewing freshly-picked grain (grinding!). That's why they accused Jesus' disciples of law-breaking when they did all three of these things (Matt. 12.1-2).

Holy men and women of old fasted and prayed to the Lord and gave alms to the poor. The Pharisees then, in order to plumb the depths of righteousness and holiness, gave to the poor (Matt. 6.1-4), prayed (Matt. 6.5-6), and fasted (Matt. 6.16-18) to be seen by men. After all, what good were those holy activities if no one knew how incredibly holy they had become?

Much to their dismay, Jesus spoiled their scene and began to peel the outer layers of their so-called righteousness to reveal empty, dark, and rebellious hearts. Jesus told the Jews their righteousness had to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5.20)! How could one possibly out-righteousness a Pharisee? They were the self-appointed keepers of the Law. They sat in the seat of Moses, claiming to speak for God.

One of the leading Pharisees of Jesus' day was Nicodemus, who approached Jesus by night with great praise, calling Jesus "Rabbi" and affirming his belief that Jesus was from God because of the signs He was performing. Did Jesus welcome Nicodemus with open arms? To the contrary, He answered him rather roughly, questioning the Israelite teacher's basic understanding of spiritual things! Don't you know you must be born again before you can see the kingdom of God? Why don't you understand these things? (John 3)

The major point was this--Nicodemus needed JESUS to reveal the heavenly things. Nicodemus could not approach Jesus as a fellow Rabbi. He couldn't think of Him as simply one sent from God. He would have to accept Jesus as God. He would have to accept his own sinfulness before the Almighty One, no matter how carefully he had kept the Law of Moses all his life, no matter how pure he thought his hands and feet and eyes were, no matter how many righteousness points he felt he had racked up over the years. In truth, unless he looked to CHRIST, Nicodemus stood no closer to God than a tax collector or prostitute!

Can we be so in love with God's LAW that we totally miss HIM? In reality, the Pharisees didn't love the law in the same way they might love a person. They really loved themselves. They loved the idea of showing God how righteous they really were. They loved being more righteous than everyone else around them (Luke 18.9).

Yes, we can fall into this trap--quite easily, in fact. Have I done this myself--thought of myself as a gatekeeper of God's law, an interpreter who really knows what God means about almost everything (admitting a few nooks and crannies I haven't totally figure out yet...)? Is my standing before God based on how well I understand His laws and how well I keep them? Is my standing in His kingdom based on my outstanding performance? Is my purity some great gift I give to God, which places me above my peers and gives me something to boast about?

If we think like that, we sit in the camp of the Pharisees. We love law, not Christ. We love ourselves, not our brethren. Examine the gospels and you'll find the Pharisees persecuted and oppressed their own brethren because of their self-righteousness, and worst of all they rejected and slaughtered their own Messiah.

Brothers and Sisters, don't get me wrong--we should love God's law--but for the right reason. We should love God's law because it's God's law. We should love His commandments because they come from Him and we love to obey Him. We shouldn't love the law apart from Him. We shouldn't look to the law to do for us what only God can.

Here's the point: The law does not and cannot save us! Jesus saves

The cross offended some false teachers in Galatia, against whom Paul strongly preached. Jews had infiltrated the churches. They claimed to be Christians, but they brought a twisted, corrupted, distorted gospel with them (Gal. 1.6-9) as they attempted to bind the Gentile Christians under a host of Jewish laws which Christ had already eliminated through the cross.

Circumcision is not a sin. Paul was circumcised (Phil. 3.5), and he even had Timothy circumcised for practical reasons (Acts 16.3), so he wasn't condemning the actual act. He condemned it as a religious ritual as the Jews were teaching; they commanded all Christian men to be circumcised to be right with God, making it a prerequisite to salvation.

In addition to circumcision, they also insisted Christians keep special Jewish feast days (Gal. 4.10), adding them onto the list of things necessary for salvation. In other words, the Jewish Christians wouldn't really accept the Gentile Christians as brothers until they measured up to their list of laws and demands.

Why did the cross offend these Jews? Paul preached against circumcision for salvation and that keeping the ceremonial and civil aspects of the Law of Moses is now unnecessary under Christ! He preached that Jesus abolished the Old Law and clearly stated that salvation is by faith in Christ apart from works of the law (Gal. 2.15-16). In fact, "if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose" (Gal. 2.21), and "if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law" (Gal. 3.21). But now that faith has come, we are no longer under the guardianship of the law (Gal. 3.25).

Christ has set us free in order that we may experience true freedom (Gal. 5.1). He has freed us from sin and law. The law binds us under sin, so Christ had to abolish the law so we might be perfectly free from sin! This is grace.

But grace offends the legalist (who believes he is saved by keeping a law) because grace says we are not saved by our work of keeping law; we are saved by Christ's work of keeping the law and His sufficient sacrifice on the cross on our behalf. Just as the cross offended the Jews because it did away with their law, the cross offends legalists today because it does away with their law.

Who gets to make the list of laws which are necessary for entering into the kingdom of heaven? Only God holds that position. Is there a law Jesus expects us to submit to? Absolutely! If you don't think so, you should read Matthew 5-7, Romans 6, James, and Galatians 5-6. But Jesus clarifies our relationship to law—law doesn't save; He does. We keep His law because we are His children, not to make ourselves His children.

The legalist lists actions and teachings which will keep a person out of heaven. Many such lists have been made which exceed the boundaries of gospel-level issues, and those lists divide good-hearted brethren. The legalist believes that eating (or not eating) certain meats will keep you out of heaven (Rom. 14; 1 Cor. 8). The legalist believes that observing (or not observing) certain special religious days will annul your salvation. The legalist believes you must add this or subtract that from your life in order to be saved. Their additions to the gospel divide and do violence to the body of Christ! And that's why Paul so vigorously opposed the mindset of legalism.

Paul could have made a long list to show why he was "qualified" to be saved, but he counted all his so-called qualifications as loss, he said, "for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I my gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith..." (Phil. 3.2-10).

Let us refrain from binding fellow Christians to our lists of laws! If Christ said to do it, then we shall do it. If Christ said to avoid it, then we shall avoid it. But let's not add to or subtract from what He has said, and let us not think that we are saved by keeping His laws. We've been saved in order that we might keep His laws. There's a big difference, and that difference has eternal consequences (Gal. 5.4)!

The preacher hammers the importance of daily Bible study, and most of the church sits feeling condemned, inadequate, and guilty, because we sure messed that up last week!

It's actually not the study itself, but our failures along the way. We make commitments (or at least have a vague idea of what we ought to do) and end up not fulfilling them. We don't hit our targets, don't actualize our vision, don't work the plan perfectly. And our hearts condemn us.

It's as if we feel God accepts us based on whether or not we hit our daily targets.

I know God wants me to spend time in His word (“a minimum of 15 or 20 minutes a day” is the goal I set for myself), and I never got around to it. And I missed yesterday, too. The days pile fast and guilt grows. I'm failing God, myself, my family, my church. I can't let the church know I'm a failure at this because this is what being a Christian is all about, right? If I'm not in the Bible every day, they might think I'm not really a Christian—or at least not a serious one. I'll tell everyone else they should be reading the Bible every day, I'll put on a face like I'm getting it done, and I'll continue to feel bad every week when I don't make it.

Have you ever felt this way?

Trade Law for Grace!

We feel like this when we see ourselves as under law. When we don't understand why Jesus died for us, we can get the idea that God is pleased with us only when we have our act together and displeased when we don't get “enough” works in—as if our works keep us holy and in His grace.

Get this, Brothers and Sisters: as many of you as have been baptized have put on Christ, you are one in Christ Jesus, and you are sons of God through faith (Galatians 3.26–4.7). Because you are sons, you are heirs alongside the Son, Jesus. You inherit eternal fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! God adopted you into His family while you were spiritually immature and broken--and He continues to cover you by the blood of His Son while you grow in Christ. You have freedom in God's house even while you are not perfect! God does not accept you on the basis of what you do for Him, but on the basis of what Jesus Christ has already done on the cross. Nothing you do for God now will make you more holy, more righteous, more acceptable to Him—you are totally accepted right now in Christ Jesus!

So don't feel condemned and guilty when you don't get the works perfect. Keep loving God; keep loving your neighbor; keep loving your family. Keep striving to know and understand more. You have not fallen out of God's favor when you fail.

In God's grace is an amazing freedom—including the freedom to fail and keep right on going. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8.1).

Being under a heartless law system stifles growth and kills the spirit. But being under the grace of a kind and loving God provides and promotes an attitude of steady joy in the face of all our failures. I hope you and I forever revel in that joy!

Interestingly, those with this biblical understanding of grace find their Bible study becomes even more frequent and fruitful!