I heard something that made sense to me on a podcast this morning. It was from a man who said he grew up in a strict conservative Southern Baptist church – no drinking, no smoking, no cussing…that kind of stuff. The idea was, if you followed those rules, then you were a Christian. The thing is, that kind of legalistic approach doesn’t entirely square up with the Bible. Yes, we’re expected to follow rules — that’s a condition of all humanity — but it’s also a given that we’re going to break them. It’s in our nature. Paul talks about it quite a bit in his letters, lamenting his inability to do what’s right while quite naturally doing what’s wrong. John writes that if we say we’re without sin, we’re lying and we’re making God out to be a liar too.
Beyond that (not that calling God a liar needs any help), I can come up with two other major problems with this line of thinking. First, it gives us crazy Baptist “churches” in Kansas picketing soldiers’ funerals with anti-gay hatred. Their lives are based on the “rules” as they see them with no consideration for the rule-giver who says, “You are wholly incapable of keeping the rules.” The same rule-giver who provided a way for us nonetheless. But human nature being what it is, these legalists would rather take their set of “don’ts” to the extreme, and of course, destroy any actual Christian witness…which is ironic because Jesus himself tells Christians to go and make disciples. Disciples of Christ, not blind followers of some legalistic ideology that leads people into believing that following the rules is the way to heaven. It isn’t.
The second major problem with this line of thinking is that when it fails, your concept of “Christianity” could very well fail. When you’ve built your foundation on the shifting sands of someone’s legalistic interpretations and then come to the conclusion that maybe some of those rules you grew up with aren’t really cause for hellfire and damnation; well, rather than actually turning to the Bible for answers you just decide that maybe everything you’ve been told is a lie. You end up chucking the whole thing and moving on. The podcaster (Alisa Childers) gave a great example – like pulling on a thread in a sweater. You pull on it enough and the whole thing unravels.
So what can we do? First off, it is important to recognize the law (rules) as it is. And that works in all directions. It’s easy to get “Thou shalt not…” But believe it or not, “love your neighbor as yourself” counts too. We don’t get to heaven by loving our neighbors as ourselves. There are plenty of people in the world who do that (or at least make the attempt) but ignore or scorn God in the bargain; in some cases even quite smugly saying “See? I can check this box without any sky-faeries telling me what to do.”
But the point God makes is that we’re not even good enough to do that. It’s on him. We fall short. The selfish piece of us wins out quite often. And then what do we have left? “Well, close enough. At least I’m not as bad as that guy.” Reminds me of one of my favorite stories in the Bible:
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Yeah. It’s the smug legalist — the guy who does it by the book — who loses out.
Secondly, we have to recognize the gospel as it is. The gospel builds off of that simple fact that we can’t do it ourselves. We can’t keep the rules, and in God’s eyes, even the breaking of one means you may as well have broken them all. Why? Because God’s some overbearing ogre who selfishly demands his way? Not at all. It’s because God is perfect. Perfectly holy. Perfectly righteous. And perfect in his judgement. And perfection cannot welcome and accept the imperfect. If it did, it would no longer be perfection. A perfect judge cannot let some cases slide and bring the full force of the law on others. We all know this, and yet some still demand that God act just this way.
Thankfully, God is perfect in his love too. But wouldn’t perfect love conflict with perfect in justice? If the breaking of the law demands punishment, then punished we must be. A perfect judge can’t let us off the hook just because he loves us. Unless, of course, the one against whom the offense is committed offers to pay the penalty himself.
And he does. This is the gospel. It’s our way out. And yet, because we stubbornly stick to our desire to do it our way — to try doing what the law demands rather than accepting the free gift of God having done it already for us — we keep getting it wrong.
