• Doctrines can be defined as those things we cannot do without and still be a Christian
• Beliefs are those things that make a Christian a Christian
o Salvation is through Christ alone, by faith alone through grace alone
o The Bible is the Word of God
So our focus should be on the essentials of Christianity
• Essentials are those things that define our identity in Christ
• A statement of beliefs is a list of these essentials
• Circle Diagram - Essentials, Distinctives, Minor heresies, Major Heresies
• To often the things we argue over are more about form than substance
o Music – type of, how we express ourselves
o Type of baptism – sprinkling, full immersion, Baptism of the Holy Spirit
o Fortunately God looks at the heart. Don’t think he is going to stop someone coming into his kingdom because they were sprinkled, big toe was sticking out, or they did or did not speak in tongues
• The more we focus on these outer circles the more we run the risk of becoming legalistic
• Legalism is the belief that at some particular point our salvation somehow depends on how well we do!
o only be accepted if we are baptized a particular way - thief on the cross wasn’t even baptized
o only be accepted if we speak in tongues
o only be accepted if we keep a particular day
Legalism ultimately leads to a misconception of God
• the focus of legalism is on the “will of God” to the exclusion of the who God is or “His Being”
• Diagram – BEING (Who God is in His Totality) WILL (of God)
• People unfortunately divide the two
• One of the misconceptions that has developed about God over the centuries is that God the Father is this harsh God of Justice who is mad at mankind for our sins
• Jesus on the other hand is portrayed as this good guy who comes along and turns away the wrath of God so he is no longer mad with us
• So its like this “good cop, bad cop” routine
• And so the argument goes, if we want to stay on God’s good side we had better be good and keep the ten commandments
• Of course this presents all sorts of problems not the least of which presents God as a being harsh and vindictive, that that God the Father and Jesus Christ are not in one accord
• Yet the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are always in one accord
• Remember Jesus response to Philips question in John 14:8-11 (NKJV)
• 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
• 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
• One of these mysteries about the Trinity
• Now if we extrapolate what Jesus just said about the Father and apply it to the cross, when Jesus went to the cross who went with Him? God the Father
• when Jesus came as God in the flesh, the Father and the Holy Spirit participated in Jesus’ death on the cross just as much as Jesus did
• There is no “good cop, bad cop routine”
• God the Father is not this God of wrath that sits off somewhere in heaven seething with resentment about a creation that has gone AWOL on Him
• Rather He is the Father of the prodigal leaning over the fence encouraging us to come back
• He is the good shepherd looking for the lost sheep
• So an undue focus on the will of God leads to a distorted view of who God really is
• Now we all want to please God and do the will of God, that is important
• Part of who God is includes the Will of God
• But God does not want to us to merely deal with Him on the basic of His Will
• He is so much more than that – He wants us to deal with us according to His whole Being
• Its true He is a God of Justice, He is a God of Judgment, but he is also a God of love, mercy and grace
• He has a personality, revealed through the creation – beauty, majesty, power, design, even a sense of humor – can’t look at wombat without smiling
• Parenting is a good example of this dynamic
• Do we want our kids to relate to us purely on the basis of fulfilling our will
• Of course not. There is much more to a relationship than just the parent’s will
• What kind of an atmosphere do you think a focus on the will would create in the home? Fear, stress, anxiety, caution, “What is going to happen to me if I do this?”
• It leads to a relationship which is based on rules, regulations, and laws
• We know at times parents need to be angry with their kids, but those are normally rare and far between if it is a healthy relationship
• The rest of the time there is talking, playing, laughing, enjoying one another’s personality etc
Focusing solely on the will also leads to another problem - conditional love – “I will only love you if ……”
• Again is that the basis on which to develop a healthy relationship
• Is that the type of relationship we want with our spouses and kids and friends
• You haven’t vacuumed today, so forget about me taking the trash out!
• Fortunately God does operate this way because we are told, God loved us while we were yet sinners - Rom 5:8
• The fact that our kids don’t always stay within our will does not make us love them any less, we continue to work with them because we are their parents and we love them
• We are still God’s children if we stray from His will, He doesn’t love us any less
• Just as we need to be careful as parents about to much emphasis on our will to the exclusion of the relationship, we need to be careful in the church environment not to allow an unhealthy emphasis to develop in our relationship with God
• Legalism is an unbalanced focus on the will of God to the exclusion of God the Being
Aren’t we glad God does not deal with us conditionally?
• If God were to deal with us “conditionally” we may as well give us right now because we are never going to measure up
• To try to live according to God’ “will’ is to fail
• Fortunately our certainty does not rest in how well we perform, but on how well Christ performs. Our certainty rests in Christ
• It’s not “us” plus Christ making up the difference for us – He does it all
Something else that is interesting about the New covenant is that we don’t see the same emphasis on the law as we see in the Mosaic Covenant
• “Obedience” is still emphasized, but it is predicated on a relationship rather than the law
• The New Covenant’s focus in on imitating Jesus Christ rather than measuring ourselves by the 10 commandments
• 1 Corinthians 11:1 (NKJV) Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
• Romans 8:29 (NABWRNT) For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
• Ephesians 5:1-2 (NKJV) Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
• Obedience is based on a relationship, not a law
• I like that because Jesus is forgiving while the 10 commandments aren’t
• I need forgiveness because I mess up
• The 10 commandments never mention forgiveness
• In fact the law is very unforgiving. In 2 Cor 3:7 Paul calls it “the Ministry of death”
Back in John 1:18 we read that Jesus came to reveal the Father so that we would have the right impression about Him
• God the father is not this angry wrathful God sitting off in some corner of the universe brooding about those terrible sinners on the earth
• He is just as much involved in our salvation as Jesus Christ is – He is the prodigal Father
• Jesus came to change our distorted view of the Father – He came to reveal the Father in all His Being
• It wasn’t God who started this distorted view, it was the Israelites at Sinai
• Right from the time the 10 commandments were given the Israelites wanted nothing to do with God
• They wanted Moses to deal with Him – they cut themselves off from Him
• And so their perception of God was formed through the prism of the law or the WILL of God
• Jesus changed all of that. We now view God the Father through the prism of Jesus Christ
• It showed all mankind once for all how much God the Father loves us. After all He did give up His one and only Son for us (John 3:16)
• That is the greatest love of all
More than anything, God wants us to be in relationship with Him
• He doesn’t want to relate to us solely on the basis of His Will. He wants us to relate to all of Him, His whole Being
• He wants us to worship Him as the God who gave us His Son as well as the God who gave us the law
• Legalism distorts our view of God. It distorted Israel’s view of God, it distorted the Pharisees view of God and it distorted our view of God
• For me personally, the greatest impact of the changes our church has gone through is getting to know God on a personal basis
• Our focus on the will of God distorted my view of God. Now I no longer view God through the distorted image of the law, but through the crystal clear image of Jesus Christ
• And you know what, my incentive to fulfill the “will” of God is greater now because I know Him better and I want to be like Him
• My motive now is to imitate Him. I want to love as He loves. The Law could never teach me that
• The Law is lifeless, it’s no more than a list of rules by which to measure ourselves
• In contrast Jesus Christ is the living dynamic representation of the will of God in action
• The law could never express what Jesus did for me on the cross
So our goal is the come to a closer relationship with God the Being
• When we see and know God for whom He truly is, believe me we will want to imitate Him
• And surprisingly, when we want to imitate Him, we will automatically be within His will
