Grace Is Not For The Timid

I’ve recently been studying Isaiah 55. In bringing together much of what the great prophet has been saying, Isaiah reminds us that “everyone” can come to the party God has been planning since Adam and Eve first left Eden. At this party, you can “buy” milk, wine, and water without a dime to your name. Yet, Isaiah seems compelled to remind us of the danger of “spending your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy.” (55:2)

Those words remind me of what Paul says in Colossians 2. “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations – ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ (referring t things that all perish as they are used) – according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” (Colossians 2:20-23, ESV)

For many years, one of my personal convictions has been “rules can only monitor behavior; principles can transform character.”  I’m pretty sure the first time I said that was in a chapel sermon at what was then Atlanta Christian College in the early 1980s. The point was not that you don’t sometimes need rules – but that to the extent you depend on rules, you are just marking time, not transforming the world for Christ. 

Yet, what I sometimes refer to as “the civic Jesus” and “the civic church” seem determined to depend on rules to change our culture. As Isaiah warned, there is great danger in “spending your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy.” Paul would call what I call the civic Jesus and his civic church “self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body.” But he would remind us that such approaches “are of no value” – or as Isaiah warned, make us guilty investing in that which ultimately cannot satisfy.

On the day that I stood up in front of a group of believers and confessed Jesus as Christ and Lord, I made a covenant with God that I would allow the Jesus story to be the structural focus of my life. This is the real Jesus, mind you, not the civic one. It is the Jesus who declared that if I could figure out what it means to love God and to love my neighbor, I would have kept the whole law! That’s what covenants do. 

I was an immature young boy at that point, and I’m confident my parents had some “rules” that I had to follow – though I don’t remember much of a list. But what I do remember growing up, from my parents and other extended family members, is watching people whose lives had been transformed by the Jesus story. The fact that I probably had a rule or two about when to go to bed, what vegetables you have to at least taste if not eat, etc. was never as important as the Christ-like principles I saw in life on a daily basis.

When the church is comfortable substituting “monitoring behavior” for “transforming character” it has become what the churches in Galatia must have become that prompted the rather intense epistle we call Galatians. Civic Jesus is never a valid substitute for the real One!

I’m not suggesting, by the way, that the gospel is a kind of anarchist faith. In one way or the other, I’ve been involved in the lives of college students most of my adult life. I have spent weeks in Christian camps. I’ve been married to the same person almost 44 years and together we have raised two daughters who turned out pretty well according to anyone who knows them. Sometimes you have to monitor behavior before you can get to the transformation of character. 

Beyond those sorts of things, I drive nearly 60 miles to work and 60 miles back almost every day. There are some “rules of the road” that are important. Georgia has rules about who can and cannot buy alcohol and tobacco. There are all sorts of rules about drugs in Georgia. Doctors and lawyers, bankers and insurance agents, hair stylists and manicurists, - any “profession” actually – has to be licensed in Georgia and that means “following some rules.” 

But, if the only reason you trust the doctor who takes care of your health issues is because Georgia has rules he or she must follow, you might want to think about getting a new doctor!

Paul makes it pretty clear in Romans 13 that the state gets to do its job. So I’m fine with the state doing its job – though its tendencies to over-do its job is more than obvious in most circumstances. But he also encourages his readers in Romans “to stay under the radar” of the government’s interest. Respect the role of government and pay your taxes. 

But the church is a different story! As followers of Jesus, we have made a covenant with Him to tell a counter-intuitive narrative in our culture in ways that can transform a world without hope into hope-filled kingdom outposts where King Jesus rules and simply asks us to love God and love our neighbor. We tell that story sometimes in words, but all the time in modeling the principles that have transformed our lives. 

Growing spiritually is a process, not an event, and that means that there were times in our lives – for some maybe now – when we needed some rules to help shape us. However we can’t be content to simply bask in the glory of “there’s a rule against that” or “we’re protecting the gospel with this” and think that means we are reaching maturity.

The point of all of this is simple: grace is not for the timid!