What’s so complicated?
Here’s a wonderful email that I received from one of the young gals in our Friday night Bible study. It brought tears to my eyes to think how the Holy Spirit can speak even through me who still only speaks this language like a 10 year old. Shelley is a charming young woman from New Zeland, so try to hear her precious accent in her words:
“i have been meaning to tell you, that the last time we came, and your message was on how incredibly simple grace is, touched my heart…for the first time in 28 years, i…who has been a christian all my life type christian…is beginning to understand that i cant keep focusing on my sin and feeling guilty about it (thereby stopping me from moving forward with God), but focus on what HE has done for me….NOT what i can do for HIM, what HE has done for me. go figure!! takes a message in another language for me to think about it in another way…perhaps when we hear it in our own language all our lives…we just take it for granted how amazing that message is. anyway, thanks guys!! i am still learning, and trying to understand this grace however, its a hard thing to grasp that i need to stop the guilt and receive the grace.
i was just listening to a radio broadcast this morning of chuck swindoll of getting through the tough stuff ‘shame’ ….. one of his verses was romans 8.1…”Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”
its amazing how many times i have read that, but its not until you accept the gift…like that €10 note you gave to me type example…..that you understand what it means
cool aye….if God sent us to italy just for me to learn that…how cool!
Shelley’s words touched me so much that I felt I should share what I believe about the simple truth.
Jesus came to us to do two things, 1) die as a sacrifice to wash away our sin so we could stand in the presence of God, and 2) to explain to us how we could accept that gift.
He made a point of telling us He was relieving us of all of the many laws that had been written for us to live within. Laws that were so complicated the Israelites had to have lawyers, called priests, who had to interpret these laws for them.
Jesus took all of this away and replaced it with something very simple. He said,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Mt 11:28-30
What did He mean, “….my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”? When tested by one of the Pharisee, a group of the lawyers who interpreted the law, Jesus was asked,
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all of your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
What was Jesus saying here? Didn’t he make it clear that “all the law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments?” Wasn’t Jesus saying that living by the rules themselves isn’t what’s important to God, what’s important to Him is where your heart is? If God has a heart for someone or something, then He wants us to have the same heart. So, as Jesus was being reproved by the Pharisees for not washing hands before eating, which is a certain violation of the laws, Jesus reproved them in return by saying,
“And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother; and Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father with. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’” Mt 15:3-9
In this case Jesus was pointing out that the Pharisees would knowingly gave what they owed to their parents as their gifts (financial and otherwise) to “God” by giving it to the temple instead. Jesus saw this as a heart issue, they used the part of the law for their own benefit caring nothing about the “heart” of the law.
So, what has man done to the Church over the years? We have returned to the same place the Israelites were 2000 years ago and before. We now have priests, pastors, elders who all interpret and add to the word of God more than what God had intended. As a result, many have reached a point where it has become more important how the Bible is interpreted than how much we love our brothers and sisters. We have created walls separating believers in Jesus Christ, one from another on the premise that what one believes is blasphemy to the other and as a result we can’t be united together as one Church of Jesus Christ. If you think God’s heart was broken by the Jews who would rather give to the temple than to their parents, how do you think He feels about us not associating with each other because of differences in interpretation of things that aren’t even important compared to the simple truth:
“….for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” Rom 3:23
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom 5:8
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom 6:23
“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Rom 10:9
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Rom 10:13, Joel 2:32
That’s it, end of story! Why must we always make it so complicated? Yes, there is much more written in the Bible, but it’s really for teaching us how to live according to God’s will. It’s not all there so we can argue over the interpretation of it. Why can’t we just agree to disagree and then focus on the heart of the issue, and I mean heart in two ways: 1) Jesus is Lord and 2) God wants our hearts to love Him and others as He loves us, without reservation or pretense and unconditionally. Only then will we be living according to the will of God.
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