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Jesus was truly free. His freedom was rooted in his spiritual awareness that he was the Beloved Child of God. He knew in the depth of his being that he belonged to God before he was born, that he was sent into the world to proclaim God’s love, and that he would return to God after his mission was fulfilled. This knowledge gave him the freedom to speak and act without having to please the world and the power to respond to people’s pains with the healing love of God.
-Henri Nouwen
We follow Jesus after all—and he was as free a human being as any to ever walk the planet. I suppose that means we ought to be free ourselves to a certain degree if we follow him at all.
Jesus spoke often about the freedom that life in him entails:
17-21 Coming down off the mountain with them, he stood on a plain surrounded by disciples, and was soon joined by a huge congregation from all over Judea and Jerusalem, even from the seaside towns of Tyre and Sidon. They had come both to hear him and to be cured of their ailments. Those disturbed by evil spirits were healed. Everyone was trying to touch him—so much energy surging from him, so many people healed! Then he spoke:
You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all.
God’s kingdom is there for the finding.
You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry.
Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal.
You’re blessed when the tears flow freely.
Joy comes with the morning. (Luke 6:17-21, The Message Bible)
Many just don’t get it. It doesn’t sound like Jesus isn’t describing a life of freedom—but he is! To the casual listener it sounds as if Jesus is talking more in terms of jail than he is in terms of freedom. Make no mistake—the free life isn’t one of comfort and ease. It’s not the life of fame and fortune. It’s never about who’s watching or not watching.
The free life is about much more than any of that. The free life Jesus lived was about pleasing his Father in heaven and so it is with us. It is one of the great paradoxes: When we live for ourselves we aren’t exercising our freedom—no—that would be sacrificing the freedom that God has so richly given us in Christ. A free person can skip down the side-walk smiling after just having lost it all and hum a song of delight in Jesus, because in God’s reality—she hasn’t lost a thing.
Who loves not wine, women and song, remains a fool his whole life long.
-Martin Luther
When we value rules over relationships we run the risk of pushing those close to us as far away as Jupiter. We figure we are doing others a favor by mandating that they live within the restraints of what we deem responsible—and even holy. The problem is—we always go overboard. Instead of letting anyone out the side-door for some fresh air and recreation we bolt it shut—because—jimminy-crickets—they might just wander off somewhere they shouldn’t be you know.
We’ll keep them locked up in the house instead (this approach never fails to backfire by the way).
Instead of condoning sex—we figure it’s just safer (and easier I’d confer) to flat out condemn it entirely. It’s no wonder so many run off into the arms of illicit sex and uncommitted physical relationships—if you can even call it that. Kids that are raised to believe that sex is bad—wrong—dirty—sinful, or worst of all—not of God—are the same kids who will struggle mightily as adults. And don’t trust me, the statistics bear it out. If anything is of God here on earth—sex is! I hope that offends someone, because if it does, you need offending in the worst kind of way.
Seize life! Eat bread with gusto,
Drink wine with a robust heart.
Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure!
Dress festively every morning.
Don’t skimp on colors and scarves.
Relish life with the spouse you love
Each and every day of your precarious life.
Each day is God’s gift. It’s all you get in exchange
For the hard work of staying alive.
Make the most of each one!
Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!
(Ecclesiastes 9:7-9, The Message Bible)
May I remind you that God created sex—not Hugh Hefner.
When we sin and mess up our lives, we find that God doesn’t go off and leave us… He enters into our trouble and saves us.
-Eugene Peterson
Things aren’t always the way we are told they are. I was in church this past Sunday and my pastor was going on about the virtue of honesty. During his message he talked about the most well-known story in terms of honesty possibly in American history. It’s a story involving the patriot, war hero and president, George Washington. The story goes that young George was asked by his father about a tree that had been cut down at the family compound and responded: Father, I cannot tell a lie. I chopped down this cherry tree.
Well, the story is a big fat lie—seems the most popular story about honesty is nothing more than a sham.
Religion isn’t shy about trying to convince us that in order to get control of our sin problem (we are saved you know—and sinning isn’t what we ought to be doing)—all we must do is somehow kill our desires. It’s no wonder so many of us consider following Jesus more like living in a torture chamber than we do a daily celebration.
21-22 If such is the case, is the law, then, an anti-promise, a negation of God’s will for us? Not at all. Its purpose was to make obvious to everyone that we are, in ourselves, out of right relationship with God, and therefore to show us the futility of devising some religious system for getting by our own efforts what we can only get by waiting in faith for God to complete his promise. For if any kind of rule-keeping had power to create life in us, we would certainly have gotten it by this time. (Galatians 3:21-22, The Message Bible)
Just as the law (I’ll add religion) was powerless to save us—so it is unable to give us a lick when it comes to living the Christian life. All the law can do is point us to Jesus—it can’t empower us to follow him in a million life-times. We can thank God for the law in that it painfully shows us our utter inadequacy, but we must not then turn around and attempt to live up to it’s standards in hopes that we ever will ever meet it’s demands. To do so is to undermine the faith we placed in Jesus when we gave up trying to earn God’s favor—as if we ever could have. Jesus bridged that chasm.
The big fat lie of religion is that is powerful enough to rescue us when all it does is hinder us, and in the end, it sucks the very life out of us when we put any stock in it. Jesus—the author of liberty—is the only One we need to put our stock in.
Let me give you a principle: When Satan is going to deceive a believer, he first makes it religious. There are a lot of Christians who think that because someone quotes Bible verses and looks religious, it’s of God. That’s not true. The truth is that the most spiritual person you know probably isn’t and the least spiritual person could be a servant of God… sent to get you to be a little less religious. I hate religion and God does too. Religion is our effort to please God and find him. The Christian faith is God’s effort to get to us and tell us that, because of his Son, he is already pleased. The only people who made Jesus angry were not the winebibbers, the prostitutes and sinners. He was angry at the religious folks…
-Steve Brown
A question I have heard over the years goes something along the lines of Did Jesus come to introduce a new religion? The answer isn’t as tough as we might think.
The old adage If it ain’t broke don’t fix it couldn’t be more appropriate when it comes to religion. There are a good number of folks who are indifferent to religion and others who vehemently hate it. And then there who those so unfortunate to be addicted to it’s lure and happy within it’s confines and spell—these are the very kinds of folks who hung Jesus on the Cross (seeing that Jesus wasn’t an advocate for their religion).
Religion isn’t only broken—it’s condemned and never will be fixed.
Whatever your affection or disdain for religion—the truth is, religion has been broken from it’s inception. We make a mistake of mass calculations by assuming that Jesus came to reform or modify—replace—add to—or even offer an alternative to religion. He did nothing of the sort.
Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible! (Galatians 6:11-13, The Message Bible)
God sent us Jesus to introduce himself whereas religion gives us hell.
Whenever faith seems an entitlement, or a measuring rod, we cast our lots with the Pharisees and grace softly slips away.
-Philip Yancey, Soul Survivor
Pastor Mark Driscoll has laid out what I believe to be the best list I have run across in some time on the distinct differences between the Gospel and religion. Jesus delivered the very Gospel we preach today within the context of his earthly ministry and his fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures. It was the religion of the Pharisees (and any other man-devised system of connecting with the Almighty) that he came to abolish with his very life.
When you get down to brass tacks—Jesus is the Gospel and Jesus is about setting us free. And since I have been outlining what freedom is and what it isn’t (the Gospel shouts Freedom! after all)—I figured it would be fitting to share Driscoll’s list while we are taking the time to expose the fallacies of religion that are constantly at work to undermine the message of freedom.
Religion says, ‘If I obey God, God will love me.’ Gospel says, ‘Because God love me, I can obey.’
Religion has good people and bad people. Gospel has only repentant and unrepentant people.
Religion values a birth family. Gospel values a new birth.
Religion depends on what I do. Gospel depends on what Jesus has done.
Religion claims that sanctification justifies me. Gospel claims that justification enables sanctification.
Religion has the goal to get from God. Gospel has the goal to get to God.
Religion sees hardships as punishment for sin. Gospel sees hardship as sanctified affliction.
Religion is about me. Gospel is about Jesus.
Religion believes appearing as a good person is the key. Gospel believes that being honest is the key.
Religion has an uncertainty of standing before God. Gospel has certainty based on Jesus’ work.
Religion sees Jesus a the means. Gospel sees Jesus as the end.
Religion ends in pride or despair. Gospel ends in humble joy.
As Driscoll so explicitly points out, the Gospel of freedom Jesus embodies and the religion he came to expose are at polar ends of the spectrum—they are at diabolical odds with each other.
Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified. (Galatians 5:23b-24, The Message Bible)
Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we prohibit and abolish women? The sun, moon, and stars have been worshipped. Shall we pluck them out of the sky?
-Martin Luther
I grew up in a church where you learned very quickly not say the wrong thing—or look, act, or think any other way than you were told. Looking back now, it was rather cultish. Boys had their own section of the beach, the church bus, and the hallway for that matter. Blue jeans were frowned upon and any music that had a beat reminiscent of rock music was of the devil. Movies that didn’t feature Jesus sporting some goofy blue gown and sash were discouraged. Red lip-stick was banned and colorful skirts above the ankles were devices of Satan. Basically, anything that might be fun was frowned upon. I can’t say I looked forward much to hanging out with such a sour group of sanctified saints. Even hanging out was evil—if I remember right.
My upbringing served me well in fostering a healthy skeptism and a grave mis-trust for religion—when I finally did bump into Jesus it was refreshing to say the least.
Because we are aware that freedom can be abused and maybe have seen it firsthand (or in my case—been there, done that) we’d rather err on the side of thinking—Freedom might just not be the best thing, there has to be some restraints to keep this ‘freedom thing’ in check. And then after a few of our own failings, we conclude—I think I’ll write some guidelines for myself. In turn,we put together some guidelines for our weaker-younger brothers making anything that might be an occasion for abuse off-limits and before you know it, we have a whole manual something along the lines of How to be a good-little Christian. It’s no wonder freedom never gets a snowballs chance to even make it’s debut.
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? (Galatians 5:13-15, The Message Bible)
A major difference between legalism and freedom is that one can be legislated and the other cannot.
The prince of darkness is a gentleman.
-William Shakespeare, King Lear (Edgar at III, iv)
A friend of mine was telling me tonight about her aunt who is in town visiting from California this week. Her aunt has a friend out there in the Golden State who knew a lady who was going about her business at her local high-end modern-day fruit stand—one of those organic shrines I’m guessing. The market has a penchant for these big over-sized bins of fresh cilantro. Not realizing the hidden danger that lurked in the piles of green, the lady went ahead and dug down to get her share only to draw her hand back up in surprise as she was pinched by something—so she thought. She suddenly felt queasy, excused herself, and went out to her vehicle. Her husband became concerned ten minutes later when she didn’t return and went out to check on her only to find her—dead. She had been bitten by an Arizona Black Rattlesnake without even knowing it.
It got the writer in me thinking, as is the case twenty-three hours a day. Religion is both respectable and poisonous. It’s venom can go undetected, is fast working and kills it’s victim quickly. And the strange thing is how much so religion is able to grab hold of our hearts without our even realizing it’s happening. What I find fascinating if not alarming is that we are all not only susceptible to it—we are prone to it.
We’re drawn to religion much like the waves are drawn to the shore. It is both naive and foolish to pretend we aren’t.
Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. (1 Peter 5:8, The Message Bible)
Being bitten by the terrible killer snake himself can happen to any one of us—it’s only a matter of time when we become lazy in remaining solely dependant upon the grace of Christ which is the sure and proven antidote in opposing the forces of religion upon our own hearts.
Elizabeth Browning was on to something when she said The devil’s most devilish when respectable. We just miss him all wrapped up in the cloak of religion—that’s all I am saying.
Do you know why most Christians don’t get any better or why you don’t get any better? It’s because you’re doing it wrong, dummy! You are obsessed with sin and your faith has become another ’system of laws’ whereby you feel guilty and try and try and try to do better. It doesn’t work, never has worked, and never will work…
-Steve Brown
If I had this freedom thing down pat I wouldn’t bother writing about it. But I want to breath it with every gasp of air I have left before they box me up and stick me in some stuffy cemetery.
A few days ago I returned from a weekend away to see my oldest daughter graduate from high school. It was exhilarating and frightening all in the same swoop. Maybe you can relate to my feelings—she’s my first-born and makes me one proud dad. Anyways, I woke up the other morning and headed into the bathroom after putting my morning coffee on just to be greeted by a big red spot on the tip of the end of my nose (and for those who haven’t seen me—I don’t have the smallest beak in the world). The thing was irritating and it hurt too. Figures Id’ get one—my dad gets the pesky buggers every once in a while and I make fun of him. I thought by the time you were so close to forty these little ego deflaters would be history for good—let alone a man in his mid-sixties. I suppose I have something to look forward to besides streets of gold.
Nobody likes zits, or least no one has told me any different. Zits are like sin if you ask me—although those of you lucky enough to never get a zit can’t say you never get a sin. Sadly, some times it seems like I hate zits more than I hate sin. I also got to thinking about the fact that I didn’t touch my big zit—not once, and it disappeared within a day (to my satisfaction). Sin is like that I have found, and although my sin nature hasn’t taken any extended vacations lately to my dissatisfaction—my sins do seem to have a way of being less of an issue when I don’t obsess about them but rather trust that God meant it when he said he forgives every last one of them.
13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Romans 13:13-14, ESV)
I think the idea here is to starve the flesh—my sin nature has trouble surviving let alone prospering when I don’t feed it. Like my big zit, I have this thing for obsessing about things that are better left alone and I am slowly but surely learning that it helps to stop thinking about my sin and start focusing on the one who has delivered me from it’s penalty.
Temptation has a way dissipating when it isn’t messed around with.
And then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies’ plan. By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger.
-C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
Deadly snakes don’t do much discriminating in terms of their victims and our enemy isn’t about to cut us a break just because we’re not much in the mood to run into him today.
Religion is sneaky. It’s covert and cunning. It doesn’t raise it’s ugly head and humbly announce Here I am. Religion is always saying things like hath God said—twisting, perverting, and eventually getting us to settle for something akin to a nasty artificial sweetner in the place of the real freedom that life in Jesus entails. It’s as old as sin and goes back to the very beginning with the first cave-man on record—Adam.
The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: ‘Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?’
The Woman said to the serpent, ‘Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’
The serpent told the Woman, ‘You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.’ (Genesis 3:1-5, The Message Bible)
Truth is—we are afraid that our biggest fears will be realized in embracing freedom—so we reluctantly hang on to religion. Ditching the law and order (control and manipulation) that religion represents and the supposed protection that religion seems to offer is a very frightening proposition. In many ways we see religion as safe, when in fact in it’s rawest form religion is our enemy’s most seductive poison. It can look so good. After all—it’s sin that looks so bad. Drinking, killing, and cussing—these are no-brainers for us who are mature to identify. But we can’t see past the end of our own noses when it comes to envy, gossip, jealousy, hate, pride, or lust of every flavor—these look delectably tasty to the indiscriminate eye. And when we do see the offense to God in these minute lapses in judgement, we pass them off as if they were the smallest of small infractions or worse yet we just don’t see them at all.
The serpent’s fruit is always carefully packaged and presented, making it almost impossible for us to discern. It should come as no surprise that Satan carefully construes many of his most harmful lies in the form of harmless religion and in a light that fails to show any signs of being worm-ridden and rotten to the core—just like the first fruit he picked to begin with.
He won’t stop at anything to rob our freedom.
free·dom: 1: the quality or state of being free: as a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another
-Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Alright—we’ve been on this topic of freedom for a few days now and there must be a couple of dissenters wondering when I am going to hurry up and get back to the truth. Well, I hate to disappoint anyone, but the message of freedom is the simple truth of God’s Word and any counter-message is a lie.
How often we compromise our freedom and settle for some cheap imitation—we were not meant to live like some torpid chicken on a fast-track to slaughter, beak and feet removed, wings clipped off, steroid injected, anti-biotic ridden, disease infested—and force fed through a hose. That’s a picture of what religion can do to us when we get caught up in it’s web. It chokes everything that has the potential to be alive right out of us.
My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? (Galatians 5:16-18, The Message Bible)
God’s design is that we are to be able to move and roam about, sort of like free-range chickens are apt to do. Healthy-active-organic chickens cost a bit more down at the corner market and taste far better on the barbecue for a reason—they are raised the way chickens were meant to be raised.
Being caged up by religion isn’t the life for you and me.
And we can’t very well follow Jesus if we are all couped up by religion like frustrated mass-production chickens.
Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
-John Calvin
I hate silly religion.
If I only had a nickel for every time I have traded the freedom I could have had for a lie and if I could have another nickel for every time religion has conned me into believing it would give me the very thing it couldn’t—I’d be sitting on my own island sipping a cold drink making afternoon plans to play a little golf. Religion for many of us has become our security blanket—some of us would prefer good old-fashioned religion over having Jesus any day of the week. After all, without religion our teenagers will get tattoos—and have babies while they are at it. Without religion our husbands will find new brides or our wives will divorce us and run off with younger men.
And ultimately—without religion—believers will leave the fold.
I suppose these are legitimate concerns. But the approach—much less the solutions (that religion has to offer), only worsen matters. Just when you are hurting, angry, lonely, doubting, or need it most—religion is no where to be found.
David wasn’t all too fond of what religion had to offer either:
I hate all this silly religion,
but you, God, I trust.
(Psalm 31:6, The Message Bible)
At best—religion is a time waster, an emotional hymn, a good pot-luck dinner, and pretty stained glass windows—in other words, religion is nothing we can’t live without. And at worst—religion robs people of the truth of God, which is just one more reason I hate silly religion so much. God never demanded that we love religion or join it’s loveless parade of works.
Instead, God has invited us to a wedding feast of endless bliss.
When men and women get their hands on religion, one of the first things they often do is turn it into an instrument for controlling others, either putting or keeping them ‘in their place.’ The history of such religious manipulation and coercion is long and tedious. It is little wonder that people who have only known religion on such terms experience release or escape from it’s freedom. The problem is that the freedom turns out to be short-lived…
-From the Introduction to Galatians, The Message Bible (Eugene Peterson)
Religion is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
If Jesus came to bring us freedom from anything he came to bring us freedom from religion—he came to deliver us from it’s death-grip. It wasn’t restraint Jesus came to deliever us from so much but it was from the old code of rule-keeping and polishing up our own spiritual resumes if you will. And nothing has changed—plenty of the same old thing goes on today.
Do you ever wonder why non-believers find us so difficult to get along and converse with? Maybe one of the big glaring reasons is our fascination with passing out a thousand rules instead of simply sharing the glorious freedom offered within the gospel message? Jesus didn’t suffer and die so that we would have the freedom to merely keep a couple of rules.
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. (Galatians 5:1, The Message Bible)
I am convinced that religion is largely responsible for a good number of church people who are straight on their way to hell. So much for the separation of church and state—I’m one person who would rather see religion get the you know what out of the church.
Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die; another’s life, another’s death, I stake my whole eternity.
Jesus is who we run to when we escape the clutches of religion.
I have some Christian brothers I will call them—who share my faith in Jesus and just happen to be very dear to my heart. I have written about these guys a time or two in days gone by. These are the same guys who hugged me when the one person I loved most in this life walked away from a lifetime together—and more painfully, from me—never to return.
These guys are true-blue guys. And what I mean by that is simply this: They are sports-minded, red-blooded, beer-drinking, and girl-liking guys (several are married mind you—so they would be one-girl-liking guys). I know I said they were Christian brothers—and to tell you the truth (I do write about Christian spirituality—you wouldn’t expect me to lie), I’m not so sure if I have ever met too many men over the course of my adult life that I have enjoyed the company of more than these guys. The group was born out of (at least in part) a shared discontentment with religion—it’s limitations, trappings, and barriers in regards to meaningful relationships. Religion can be very isolating and some of you reading this know very well what I am talking about. The group’s rise and success in large measure has been in simply responding to those recovering from the damaging effects of religion and a dire need for true community.
What I took away from my time with these guys was real—a new appreciation for the freedom Jesus came to bring us in his coming to earth two-thousand years ago.
I do have reason for pause however—my concern is that my friends don’t get so caught up in their new found comradeship and shared authenticity, humility, and anti-religious sentiment—that they leave Jesus in the dust in the process of their rebelling against toxic religion and in turn forget the very freedom they celebrated to begin with. We must never forget that true freedom begins at the foot of the Cross and that any lasting freedom must remain there to continue—to forget Jesus would be to abandon the very freedom of God.
To see Jesus is to look freedom in the face—in all it’s fullness.
There were some Greeks in town who had come up to worship at the Feast. They approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee: ‘Sir, we want to see Jesus. Can you help us?’ (John 12:20-21, The Message Bible)
Do you want to see Jesus?
You can—he’s not hiding from you.
…To obey the law of the land leaves us our constitutional freedom, but not the freedom to follow our own consciences wherever they lead.
To obey the dictates of our own consciences leaves us freedom from the sense of moral guilt, but not the freedom to gratify our own strongest appetites.
To obey our strongest appetites for drink, sex, power, revenge, or whatever else leaves us the freedom of an animal to take what we want when we want it, but not the freedom of a human being to be human.
-Frederick Buechner, Beyond Words
Some times I get the feeling that I am supposed to be a stone statue when nothing could be further from the truth. I think God would rather we mess up once in a while than never attempt to live at all (and no—for the record and those who consider themselves God’s policemen—I am not condoning that we go out and commit some big fat sin because God has no problem with it—because he does).
We have rules all around us that ask us to do that which we can’t do or to abstain from that which we most want to do—and even when we can accomplish or live up to half of these self-sanctioned rules—adhering to these dictates would mean our ceasing to be human. God never demands we check our humanity at the door—it is religion that asks us to do that. God’s idea of following Jesus doesn’t include doing away with fun, desire, or even good sex for that matter—in it’s proper place of course. Following Jesus is to be a life of joy—not sadomasochism.
As I read my copy of the New Testament I am ever reminded that Jesus went to parties and the like—despite the ire of the religious establishment. And I’m certain that some within his own ranks wished he’d have stayed at home in the Synagogue (but Jesus lived among the people). It could even be argued that he was the life of the party (no pun intended, I promise). Jesus laughed and he really made some people mad (and I’ll go out on a limb and say his laughing had much to do with their being so upset—stiff-necked religious people consider it their God given duty to stop any fun before it begins you know). Jesus may have even teed it up a time or two in his sandals over at the country club—although, I’m not so sure that playing a round of golf in a toga in the middle of the desert heat would have been all that comfortable.
We see Jesus being the first guy out in the morning to go fishing and also read of him taking a nap in the stern of a boat—so it’s not hard to imagine him getting his beard trimmed up or him polishing off a stack of pancakes and going back for seconds.
Although Jesus was fully God—he was also fully human.
This is the family tree of the human race: When God created the human race, he made it godlike, with a nature akin to God. He created both male and female and blessed them, the whole human race. (Genesis 5:1-2, The Message Bible)
We do well to remember that we are free to be human ourselves—as a matter of fact—it is us Jesus-followers who should be most human.
There are some who have no understanding to hear the truth of freedom and insist upon their goodness as means for salvation. These people you must resist, do the very opposite, and offend them boldly lest by their impious views they drag many with them into error. For the sake of liberty of the faith do other things which they regarded as the greatest of sins… use your freedom constantly and consistently in the sight of and despite the tyrants and stubborn so that they may learn that they are impious, that their law and works are of no avail for righteousness, and that they had no right to set them up.
-Martin Luther
Some of you must to be shaking your heads and saying by now—Come on Ken, there has to be some rules, you are giving people the idea that they can live any way they choose and still be a Christian.
I have said nothing of the sort. I will concede—the gospel of grace is abused—but we don’t pull the medicine off the shelves just because some would use it recklessly. What I have said is that we want rules instead of relationship. We like religion over Jesus. We’ll take self-serving outward religious fashion shows over inward and uncomfortable revivals. It’s much more difficult to be genuine than it is to be religious. And it’s much more advantageous when it comes to our fragile and attention-starved egos to follow a man-made code than to follow the Son of the Living God. Let’s face it—we want people to pat us on the back when it comes to our being so religious, so giving, or even so Christlike—we’ll trade the freedom that’s ours for an ata-boy not even thinking a split second about what we are giving up to get the small worthless token.
11-12 The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that’s the real life.” Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: “The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them.”
13a Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. (Galatians 3:11-13a, The Message Bible)
God understands something that we just can’t seem to get through our thick skulls: A heart set free doesn’t need rules any longer. If you want the unadulterated-unfiltered-cold-hard truth—our hearts never needed rules to begin with. Our hearts were plenty lost without any help. Rules or no rules, we were wretched without Jesus.
You see, a heart set free wants to follow Jesus—it doesn’t need seventy-five rules about how to do anything. Rules got us no where before Jesus and I can’t understand what on earth makes us think they will post-Jesus. Seriously—it’s like learning where to get a spectacular gourmet meal and then returning to the place we were paying the same money to get a maggot covered plate of slop—as if we never found the new restaurant. Maddening behavior really.
What possesses us to return to rules and religion when we have Jesus?
The reason we’re so bad is that we’re trying so hard to be good.
-Steve Brown
Have you seen these invisible fences they have for dogs? I have to imagine that an invisible fence would make a good candidate to ruin your life if you were a dog.
You can’t see these things driving around your subdivision because they are invisible after all. They have become quite popular and it’s no wonder—what a great concept. We had a dog some years ago that was a prime candidate for the invisible fence thing. We didn’t end up getting one for several reasons and looking back I’m not so convinced our dog wouldn’t have run right through the thing no matter how many shocks it would have zapped him with. Max and I were pals on day one, we were two peas in a pod. Like me, he liked to move around and he wasn’t much excited about being told he needed to conform.
The spacious yard we had so kindly provided for our new dog was not even close to sufficient for him. I guess it didn’t help that we had one of those stupid metal stakes you put in the ground so your dog can run around in circles until he makes you so dizzy watching him that you need to scarf down a box of Dramamine to handle it.
It didn’t help that Max was a bird dog either. He’d just about rip off anyones arm that dare try to walk him. Even with one of those cruel choke collars on, he was a terror. It might explain the pain I have in my shoulder lately and it’s been almost five years since I saw the crazy dog. If there was something within a mile to chase—you might as well have attached yourself to a telephone poll. Max even decided one spring that he wanted to redecorate our backyard with crater’s he decided to dig—our yard resembled the moon when he was done with it.
I felt sorry for Max.
Looking back now, I think obedience school or Ritalin would have only made Max more frustrated. The reality is, we got the wrong dog to fit the bill. What we had in mind was a nice little pet for our kids. It didn’t work out that way. Sitting still and taking orders wasn’t the dog’s strong suit. And I’m not sure that dog was even capable of it. He was a dog after all, and dogs aren’t made to be couped up in an 4′ by 2′ cubicle all day long. Invisible fences have to make dogs resentful I figure, I mean how fun is to see a female two lots over you’d like to frolic with and have a straight shot at her and then all of a sudden you remember that you have a stupid invisible fence that you can’t jump over?
Dogs were made to run free without a leash tied around their neck when you think about it.
I think it’s reasonable to say that religion is a lot like the invisible fence thing.
While we were in conference we were infiltrated by spies pretending to be Christians, who slipped in to find out just how free true Christians are. Their ulterior motive was to reduce us to their brand of servitude. We didn’t give them the time of day. We were determined to preserve the truth of the Message for you. (Galatians 2:4-5, The Message Bible)
When we set up rules to keep and all sorts of regulations in regards to our life in Jesus we end up serving the same purpose an invisible fence serves; the moment no one is looking or the fences come down we are off and running to some place we have no business going.
Invisible fences aren’t for us Jesus-followers. Come to think of it, they aren’t much good for dogs.
If you but love God you may do as you incline.
-Augustine
I’ve stumbled across a story from the life of President Abraham Lincoln a time or two now about an appointee within the president’s cabinet that would try to challenge and stimy the president every chance he got. A friend of honest Abe’s finally came to him and asked why he didn’t have the pesky man replaced. Lincoln, in turn—told his well-meaning friend a story about walking down a country road one day and coming upon a farmer who was busy plowing his field with a horse-drawn plough. As Lincoln approached the farmer he noticed a jumbo sized horsefly on the back-side of the working horse and figured it couldn’t be helping the poor horse concentrate on the task at hand. Lincoln—in an attempt to help the farmer out, went to simply brush off the little pest. As Lincoln raised his hand to take a swat, the farmer protested—Don’t do that, friend. That horsefly is the only thing keeping this old horse moving.
The moral of the story for today’s lesson is simple: Religion is nothing more than a jumbo horsefly and there are those within certain circles of the church who’d like you to do anything—and I stress anything—other than contribute to freeing people from living under the irritating and deadly oppression that religion represents. Those caught up in the facade of religion do not like any one who messes with their religion and they are not afraid to tell you so—to mess with religion is to mess with God. Many church leaders feel the need to use religion to do the same exact thing the farmer was doing with the horsefly—use religion and the endless rules that accompany it as a means of motivating others to live the Christian life.
These preachers of bondage wouldn’t know freedom if it hit them upside the head. In his letter to the Galatian believers—Paul had something entirely different to say than what the peddlers of religion in his day were preaching.
What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a ‘law man’ so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not ‘mine,’ but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. (Galatians 2:19-20, The Message Bible)
There is a better way.
It’s called freedom—and it can be a rare commodity in some circles.
Luther, in speaking of the good by itself and the good for its expediency alone, instances the observance of the Christian day of rest—a day of repose from manual labour, and of activity in spiritual labour—a day of joy and cooperation in the work of Christ’s creation. ‘Keep it holy’, says he, ‘for its use’s sake—both to body and soul! But if anywhere the day is made holy for the mere day’s sake—if anywhere anyone sets up its observance upon a Jewish foundation, then I order you to work on it, to ride on it, to dance on it, to feast on it—to do anything that shall reprove this encroachment on the Christian spirit and liberty.’…
-Samuel Tayler Coleridge (1772-1834), Table Talk
The enemies of freedom are many—but I’d have to say that religion is it’s fiercest. If that surprises you it shouldn’t.
Religion has never been about the love of God but about the works of man. Nothing has changed since the inception of man’s oldest institution. More is done in the name of religion to keep people down and hold them back from actually following Jesus than any other single thing. For a people who should be as free as anyone—us Jesus-followers—we sure can be a pretty bound up and tightly wound people. It’s one thing for our younger brothers and sisters in the faith to be all hung up on keeping a list of rules that they feel they must follow to please God—but it’s altogether for us who ought to know better by now. Shouldn’t we be following a person instead of a set of steps to spiritual success after all? Doesn’t any measure of spiritual success for the Christian come down to following Jesus?
Jesus has written his law of love on our hearts if we know him at all—we can toss aside our note-pads.
It’s a bit disheartening to read about all the rules we should be keeping when Jesus said nothing of the sort. He summed up the new law of love in a single sentence. We, on the other hand—have volumes and volumes about the traditions and religious dogmas of man.
Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily. (Galatians 2:21, The Message Bible)
Is it time for you to stick a fork in religion and get back to pursuing your relationship with Jesus?
Freedom is transformative.
-President George W. Bush, May 1st, 2008 (Celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month)
No matter your political persuasion—or non-persuasion—there is no arguing the effects that freedom can have on a country (of course it’s not so smooth at times or unopposed as we are seeing in other parts of the world—and then there are the blatant abuses of freedom here at home that may very well prove to be the undoing of our great democracy). More specifically though—I’d like to look at the impact that freedom can have on one solitary human heart.
Like the slave girl that Lincoln purchased (see previous post) and her subsequent decision to stay with him after learning she was free to go where ever she pleased—freedom is a liberating and moving force. Freedom has the power to transform a life like no other power on earth. Just ask a prisoner upon their release from prison.
God loves us with a love that sets us free.
15-16 We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over ‘non-Jewish sinners.’ We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good. (Galatians 2:15-16, The Message Bible)
Some of us are up to our eyebrows in legalism—so caught up in the snares of rule-keeping that we don’t even bat an eyelash at it’s death-hold on us anymore.
The religion God promotes is never about rigid rules but it’s always about transforming freedom.
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