Thursday, October 23, 2014

The Gospel of Grace...


...or, The Problem With THE LAW...


What is called The Law, came to the chosen people from God in the form of the Ten Commandments.

But that's not an accurate name for them.

Because really, they could be published in a modern magazine column titled, “Ten Things That Will Improve Your Life”.

(Can't you just see that in bold type next to the sexy starlet on the cover of Glamour?)

Every so-called “Commandment” is an expression of an attitude and/or behavior that will enhance your life, the life of your family, and that of your whole community.

They are not directions on how to “please God”, or  “get to heaven”. They're guidelines to make your earthly life a good one, a happy one, a prosperous one.

But being middle eastern people who just got out of generations of slavery in Egypt, where “loving” gods weren’t thick on the ground, but despotic pharaohs and blood-thirsty, arbitrary pagan gods were, they soon came to see these as “COMMANDMENTS”; rules that you better not disobey for fear of God's wrath.

And, naturally, there were men more than willing to use and abuse this propitious development for their own advancement and power.

And so, as the Law progressed, as law is wont to do, it became less a guide for a happy life, and more a demand for strict adherence to complicated, demanding, rules in order to be approved of by a stern Taskmaster God - and his rich, important, self-righteous Priests.

It’s a lot like our own situation.

We have a simple, easy to understand, clear, concise Constitution that has become, through the agency of foolish, greedy and power-mad men, millions of pages of laws, regulations, centralized power, agencies, principalities, groups, committees, and a special class of ruling Priests that make the entire edifice unstable, abusive, rigid and inhumane.

Which is exactly what happened to the lovely Ten Guidelines for a Happy Life.

Until we find ourselves in Jerusalem in the time of Jesus, where the Law had become so oppressive that it imprisoned people’s spirits and declared them guilty before a Judging King God rather than free and beloved in relationship with a Loving Father God.

THIS is what God sent Jesus to deal with.

And there is not a better metaphor for it, than Jesus clearing out that Temple.

Remember, it was often the Pharisees that Jesus preached at/about and condemned—those faces of The Law as it had become, that shut the people out and claimed the approval of God only for themselves.

Jesus was sent to us to tell us that it is not our obedience to THE LAW that makes God love us. He came to give us the Good News that God loves us no matter what. That we are His children, and He loves us like a father loves his children…and while we could be better sometimes—okay, a lot of the time—He loves us nevertheless, and will never forsake us. He promises, through Jesus, that He will always be there for us. All we have to do is realize it.

God didn’t send Jesus to change or overturn or supersede the Ten Ways to Improve Your Life. He just wanted all the man-made dross and detritus that had accreted to them scraped off and thrown away—and a lot more love added.

He just wanted to Set Us Free.

And that’s the Gospel of Grace.

/gun

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"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7


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7 comments:

  1. trubolotta23/10/14 2:39 PM

    It takes a certain degree of religious maturity to see what you have expressed here. Violating any commandment carries with it a punishment here and now. Take the 10th for example because it seems so unimportant. Envious people are unhappy with the knowledge that someone else has more than they do and they may never catch up. If they do catch up, they only become disappointed to find new competition. The sin carries it's own punishment.

    The only place I disagree is with Jesus in the temple. That was no metaphor but it was the expression of anger that God's temple was defiled. I don't think God is impotent or tongue-tied or attempting to be clever when he wants to deliver a message. He can be outright blunt and direct.

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  2. The Gunslinger23/10/14 3:12 PM

    Jesus' action can be literally true and a metaphor too, can't it?

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    1. trubolotta23/10/14 5:18 PM

      Yes it could, but why make it more complicated when what was done was right to the point. The pharisees made religion a business and partner with government. Turning over the tables of the money changers was about as direct as you can get to express your anger and disapproval. What more does the message need to convey? What hidden meaning could be in that action that is not expressed so explicitly by the action?

      To borrow a line from the original Star Trek, on the evolutionary scale, we are to the Organians as an amoeba is to us. When God speaks to us amoebi, I think he understands our problems with pride, comprehension, attentiveness and other amoebic disorders.

      (PS: I don't believe in evolution either but I'm sure that is no surprise to anyone reading this.)

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    2. Anonymous31/10/14 3:41 PM

      It would have to be universally true, in each and every instance, eternally. God, in the flesh, remained the eternal and infallible Person. Jesus was fully human, fully man, and eternally God. That, "I and the Father are One." stuck in some religious folks craw. Still does, that God made man stuff. Big order, and maybe a little hard to follow. True, none the less.

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  3. The Gunslinger24/10/14 9:30 AM

    "What more does the message need to convey? What hidden meaning could be in that action that is not expressed so explicitly by the action?" - Trubolotta

    I suppose I mean that a literal, specific action is a one time event, and applies only to itself. Jesus got mad and turned over tables in the Temple. The end.

    But as a metaphor it fits in a larger context, a deeper story. It needn't be a "hidden" message...just one that goes beyond the immediate literal context of the action.

    His action in the Temple represents His entire mission...that he came to clean out the Old Religion of all the crap that had accumulated on/in it, and reveal the simple, unadorned, uncomplicated, Good News Truth, that the Law and the prophets had been pointing to and that the Jews had gotten so fouled up with all their own Human additions.

    It makes His action in the Temple richer, more meaningful than just a report of "what happened in the Temple today".

    It's great writing, weaving Jesus' action with his overall mission and message. And I think it's cool.



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    1. Anonymous31/10/14 3:33 PM

      Actually, the law of Grace fulfilled and replaced the Law of sin and condemnation. Knowledge of guilt and sin was necessary to see the need for salvation and the glory of grace. Fancy dancing like a stripper on a pole might entertain some, but no opinion, no politics, no preacher can change that gospel. Any time it's "God and . . ." something other, you lose the salvation message. And a half salvation is no salvation at all.

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  4. Tim in Seattle1/11/14 1:04 PM

    I really appreciate your thoughts about this. I don't agree with you on all of it but I agree that God's intent is not to punish us with the 10 commandments but to give us direction to have a happier, more fulfilled life.

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