I have always known about the rules.
There were always rules and most of them were about what you could not do or,
if they were something you could do, they always started with the word only. We
always used to talk about how God gave such specific instructions to his people
in the Old Testament so he obviously must have the same amount of specific
details for us to follow in the New Testament. After all, that was the Old Law
and we are now under the New Law. So we found all kinds of small verses,
inferences, and examples from what the early church did and turned those things
into the law. We made laws about communion (number of cups, the only day it
could be taken, the appropriate words during the prayer, who is allowed to pass
the plates, and the frequency), worship (the only acceptable method, posture,
and day), the order of salvation, how and when we are required to give, and a
number of other things all based off of inferences and examples which were in
the midst of a particular set of circumstances. When we look at the context of
the entire story of God and his redemptive plan, and especially the incarnation,
death, and resurrection of Christ, something just does not jive.
The point of Christ was never to take
away the Old Law and create a “New Law”. That is almost the exact opposite of
what he came to do and I think he grieves for his children when they come under
this deception. Christ came to bring something different. I think John puts it
well when he says in John 1:17, “ For the law was
given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The Law
came through Moses; it was not the “Old Law”, it was the law. Jesus brought something new and different: grace and
truth. He came and defeated sin on the cross. Hebrews 10:11-14 teaches us that
his sacrifice makes us righteous and justified once and for all. This does not
mean “once saved, always saved” as some would have us believe, because verse 26
says if we willfully go on sinning we lose the effects of this sacrifice, but
it defeats the idea of “once saved, barely saved” that many of us carry. Some
would have us believe if we mess up any of these “New Laws” then we are in a
state of damnation until we pray a prayer of repentance. Christ sacrifice is
much more powerful than that.
People who come to us need to know that
their salvation is weighty and strong. Christ paid a great deal for our
salvation and defeated death on the cross. The salvation he paid for is once
and for all. That means two thousand years ago he made a self-sacrifice that
would never again have to be repeated. This one sacrifice is the atonement for
every sin you have ever committed. For many people this is a somewhat easy
stage to get to, but many people that come to us keep messing up and are coming
to us looking for help. They come with lots of guilt and shame because, though
they are saved and their past sins are forgiven, they cannot stop from sinning.
They have the expectation that they should be past their sin. We need to share
these verses with these people; they need to know that Christ has already made
them perfect and that it is both okay and expected that they are in process.
The process proves they are perfected. The Hebrew writer says it so well in
verse 14:
“For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified”
We often think when we mess up that God
is angry at us. I have believed in my past that if I died after I had messed up
without saying a prayer of repentance that I would be damned to hell. What we
often do not realize, and what people who come to us need to realize, is that
salvation is much bigger and wider than we have often understood it.
Sanctification is a part of our salvation. Because we are saved, God is making
us holy. When we mess up, see that we have messed up, and are convicted to
change it we should rejoice. This does not mean we are screwed up, it means
that we are perfect and that God, through his matchless grace, is making us
holy.
