Free at Last - Point 3

But after a while, the celebration winds down. We begin to think about what has taken place. And even though we may know that we are forgiven, victorious people, somehow we still try to earn salvation. More than that, we look down upon those who perhaps aren’t as spiritual as us or we make up arbitrary rules that “good Christians” follow. We come up with rituals you should be involved in, and make rules to determine the things that you should not be involved in. But Paul speaks to that as well. He tells us to be Focused on Christ—Free from restrictions (vs. 16-23). Let me read just a couple of snippets from these verses:

16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. Why do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

According to the Law, good Jews celebrated the yearly, monthly, and weekly special services. Good Jews kept themselves strictly pure and wouldn’t even touch or go near something that might possibly be defiled. Good Jews would only eat certain foods, considering other foods sinful. They prided themselves in their accomplishments. They made up rules that clearly showed how good of a Jew you were. They set up boundaries. It was called “putting a hedge around the Torah”. You use a hedge to keep things out. But hedges also keep things in. And their boundaries were human commands, not divine ones. Unfortunately, these rules didn’t deal with the heart. They skewed the Word of God. They lost the freedom to be the people of God. They lost the ability to love outside their rules—outside of their hedges.

I think when they started focusing on the extra rules instead of the intent of the original command they were doomed for failure. But we do it too. Why do we change how we speak and act when we walk into the church building as though there are special rules for church? Our speech and conduct should be the same. Or we try to become somebody different through artificial means. For example, how many of you have ever tried to stop a habit by wearing a rubber band on your arm. If you want to quit smoking, every time you think about smoking you snap it. It is sort of like shock therapy. Eventually your body cringes at the thought of smoking and you quit. Or perhaps your house has a swear jar. And every time you use foul language you have to put money in. Makes you watch your language or you can watch your money leave you.

Here’s the problem with that—it doesn’t get to the heart of the habit. You care more about the consequences then you do about the nature of the addiction. You are destined for relapse because you haven’t addressed or solved the problem. We do the same things with kids. We put boundaries on them without telling them why. My parents would never let me mess around with fire or firecrackers, but they wouldn’t tell me why. When I asked, “Because I said so.” But we all know that 10 year olds shouldn’t be messing around with fire—they burn down houses, blow off fingers, cause scarring, perhaps worse. And if we just say, “Don’t do it” with no explanation, it will just cause us to be enticed even more by it. These boundaries will not keep kids from wandering close to flame.

Boundaries are good for the most part, but if we focus on the boundaries and not on grace, we get into trouble. When we obsess about staying away from certain influences, it gives material things more importance than they deserve. And we often overlook the root problem. These self-imposed disciplines seem to be wise and appear valuable, but they do not encourage faith. These things are self-reliance and not Spirit-reliance. They seem good, but they are based on our own power and not the power of God.

God said, “Don’t eat.” Eve added, “Don’t touch.”
God said, “Be holy.” The Jews added “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”
Jesus said, “Go into all the world, preach, baptize, make disciples.” We added all sorts of traditions, rules, and restrictions.