Thursday, November 16, 2006
Who Ruined Marriage? - And A Whole Lot Of Other Things
From The Point:
God tried the whole rule thing - It's called the Old Testament. 4000 years, at least, of human history dedicated solely to demonstrating one important fact - we fallen creatures are not capable of following the rules. We just can't get it right. We will muck up every single time.
Then along came Jesus - New Game! Now it's not about following the rules, now it's about being transformed - transformed into someone that does not have to follow the rules, but instead finds that rule compliance is a part of their essential nature.
But there is a problem, that transformation requires sacrifice and submission on our part. We can't be in control, we have to turn our essential being over to Jesus and let Him do the heavy lifting. To people that want desparately to control their lives, this is a terrifying proposition.
So, in the interest of filling the pews, maintaining the building, and paying the pastor, appearing somehow to be effective, we tweak the message a little, now, instead of "Jesus came to remake you," it is just "Jesus forgives you - go try and follow the rules."
But here's the thing, just like we have to leave it up to Jesus to transform us, so we have to leave it up to Him to decide if we are effective or not. He does not just to the heavy lifting with us, He does it with the world. All we have to do is be brave enough to let Him.
Related Tags: faith, trust, transformation
we've made that point at "BreakPoint" as well -- that we [ed: Christians, Evangelicals...] ruined marriage long before homosexuals supposedly did.This is true in more than the sense that divorce and sexual immorality is as rampant in the church as it is in society. We've runied this, and so many other behavioral, societal consequences of our faith by forgetting the most essential point of the gospel.
God tried the whole rule thing - It's called the Old Testament. 4000 years, at least, of human history dedicated solely to demonstrating one important fact - we fallen creatures are not capable of following the rules. We just can't get it right. We will muck up every single time.
Then along came Jesus - New Game! Now it's not about following the rules, now it's about being transformed - transformed into someone that does not have to follow the rules, but instead finds that rule compliance is a part of their essential nature.
But there is a problem, that transformation requires sacrifice and submission on our part. We can't be in control, we have to turn our essential being over to Jesus and let Him do the heavy lifting. To people that want desparately to control their lives, this is a terrifying proposition.
So, in the interest of filling the pews, maintaining the building, and paying the pastor, appearing somehow to be effective, we tweak the message a little, now, instead of "Jesus came to remake you," it is just "Jesus forgives you - go try and follow the rules."
But here's the thing, just like we have to leave it up to Jesus to transform us, so we have to leave it up to Him to decide if we are effective or not. He does not just to the heavy lifting with us, He does it with the world. All we have to do is be brave enough to let Him.
Related Tags: faith, trust, transformation
