Wetzel's Blog

Not legalism but love

It is so easy to get wrapped up in the do’s and don’ts and the rights and wrongs.  Our life is built on the premise that if you do what is right, good will come to you, and if you do what is wrong, bad will come to you. (Karma)  Biblically speaking, this is not completely untrue.  In the beginning, God created man to be perfect and in oneness with Him.  He gave a couple simple guidelines, and when Adam did the opposite of what God said, he became imperfect.  It wasn’t God’s guideline that was bad, but it was the act of what Adam did that was wrong (God calls the wrong we do - sin).  In this life, our human bodies became bound by the sin Adam committed, and death became the punishment (Romans 5:12).  Through God’s law, we now have clarity about what sin looks like.  It’s not the law that is wrong, but it is our action against the law.

This now begs the question, “How can we become freed from the actions we commit?”  The book of Romans outline this dilemma and answer so clearly.  The answer is found in one short phrase in Romans 7:25 “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

It is through Jesus that we have hope.  It is though the Holy Spirit that we have power over sin.  And it is because of God’s love we have a way to freedom.  Hope, Power, and Love.

In a world of do’s and don’ts, we so often seek the answer to sin by doing the right thing.  We believe that by doing what God’s law (the 10 commandments and the golden rule) says is right, we become good and right.  If you believe this is the answer, then there is no need for Jesus or the Holy Spirit to exist.  Doing the right thing breeds a sense of pride and self-justification.  And the more we believe that the acts of right doing make us a better person, than the more we stray from what the bible teaches.

God never meant for us to live a life of “Do’s and Don’ts” to give us hope from the wrong we do.  We are not meant to live a life of legalism, but rather a life of love.  The Holy Spirit is the One who gives us the power to live this new life.  Life in the Holy Spirit is not a list to be followed, but it is a lifestyle to be embraced.  We know we are on the right track by looking at the results of a Spirit filled life. When we live life in the Spirit we will see this: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.“ Galatians 5:22.

Quit striving to do the right thing.  Die to what “You” can do on your own.  Repent of your self-dependent, moralistic, and self-righteous lifestyle.  Surrender to what Jesus did for you, and receive the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is the Spirit that will give you the power to beat your sin.  It is the Spirit that will give you a new life of freedom and love.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

This is the opening line from the epic novel “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens.  I think we can all relate to the fact that life is filled with both joy and hardships. Our joys are good to reminisce about, but our hardships can be painful to reflect upon.  It is in our hardships that we are stretched to become great.  We must remember that the pain of our past is the catalyst to experiencing joy in the future. Pain is a gift from God and it exists to help us become who we were created to be.  Becoming who God created us to be is where true joy and fulfillment is found.  As I get older, I become more retrospective about the past and more introspective about the future.  I sometimes ask myself: “What were the hard times I’ve experienced over the last 40 years, and how will those experiences help me to become who God created me to be?”

We all need reminders in our life in order to maintain perspective about where we have been and where we are going.  A well-known pastor talked about how he filled several glass jars up with marbles, and placed them on the mantel of his fireplace.  Each jar was representative of each person in his immediate family.  Each marble in the jar symbolized 1 month of life that was yet to be lived (with a 70 year life expectancy).  Each month, a marble was removed from the jar as a visible reminder that our life is passing and it will someday end.  Reminders like this can help us gain perspective about our future.

God continually reminds us in the bible how the pain of our past is not there to fill us with shame, but to give us a future that is filled with hope.  Look at what the first believers in the early church said in Romans 5:3-5 “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

God sovereignly, graciously, and lovingly uses our pain, our rebellion, the sinful acts of others, and the attacks of the devil, to conform us into the image of Jesus.  He does this when we recognize it, and especially when we don’t recognize it.  He does this in the best of times, and in the worst of times.  He is continually conforming His kids into a beautiful tapestry that will be a bright light in a dark world.  Hang on, and rest in God if you are struggling.  He will give you the grace, peace, and strength needed, just at the right time.

Zeal should not be a substitute for knowledge

When a person first comes to faith in Christ, their zeal for Jesus is one of the first things that others notice.  They are so excited to have received the forgiveness, grace, redemption, adoption, and salvation of God.  They are filled with the Holy Spirit which now dwells within them and shines through them in very obvious ways.  God uses their own abilities and spiritual gifts to proclaim to the lost and to believers the teachings of the Word of God.  But it’s key to know that a person’s faith in Jesus must be nurtured and cultivated with knowledge, so they can move from immaturity to maturity.

In Acts 18:24-28 we see this principle played out: “Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures.  He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.  He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately.  And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.”

It was only after Apollos had received additional teaching from Priscilla and Aquila concerning Jesus, that he became of greater help to the Church in Achaia.  His fervency, eloquence, and boldness in the Scriptures was now cultivated with more understanding and knowledge.  As a result, he was able to more effectively help and encourage believers and able to refute those who opposed the message of Christ.

Also we read in Hebrews 5:11-13: “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

With some new/young believers; study, learning, and knowledge can feed a spirit of pride through knowledge (which is sin).  But lack of knowledge facilitates spiritual immaturity.  Scripture clearly teaches that a zeal for Jesus should be nurtured with more teaching.  It is through knowledge that a believer can develop an increasing love and understanding for Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  We must continue to create and be involved in environments where we can learn more doctrine and more teachings of the Word of God.  We have a biblical mandate to pass those teachings on to young zealous believers.