The Works/Law disconnect...

Chapter 1 - Miserable Mediocrity
Where did we get the idea that working harder has an effect on God's view of us?  Or even that God "needs" us to work for Him?  Even though we may speak differently, most people understand the Christian life to be one of working and striving for God.  As if God somewhere says, "I require this of you."  Or, "Here are the rules."  And we find they are rules we cannot possibly hope to follow.  Hmm...how are we any different that the Jews how could not successfully follow the Old Testament laws?  Isn't their story one of continually failing to live up to God's standards?  Have we made our story the same?  Where do we get the idea that the Christian life is all about rules?  Read: "the Law"?

Paul makes it clear the purpose of the Old Testament law was other than giving guidelines to live by.  Check out Galatians 3:21 and 24:  "Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God?  Absolutely not!  For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law...So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith."  The rules we so want to live by, and the effort we so want to put into living for God (to make us right with God?)  is contrary to what leads to the "abundant" life Jesus promises.  It is human nature to work and strive and try.  (Remember the tree of good and evil/right and wrong?)  Religion emphasizes that perspective.  It is self-defeating.  It is wrong.  As McVey says in chapter 1, "Some of the most miserable people in the world are drowning in a sea of religious activity."  The perspective we need to return to is that Christianity is not about doing and performance, it is about a relationship with Jesus Christ.  All of the focus in our Christian life is to be on Jesus -- He will take care of the doing.

The result of being so focused on "doing." is that so many of us fall into, as McVey labels it, the "motivation-condemnation-rededication cycle."  We get high on Jesus, work hard, fail/sin/fall, recommit and try again.  Over and over.  The current question-of-the-day would be, "How's that working for you?"  But so many of us think that's how it is supposed to work that we never realize that maybe we are asking the completely wrong questions.  We are so focused on "doing" when maybe that isn't what it is about at all.

In John 6:28-29 Jesus addresses what God wants us to do, "They replied, 'We want to perform God's works, too.  What should we do?'  Jesus told them, 'This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one He has sent.'"

God invites into an intimate relationship with Him through Jesus.  If "doing" could get us to the place God's desires us to be, why would we need Jesus in the first place?  Jesus did not die on the cross so we could feel like failures.  He died so those failures that keep us separated from God would be erased.

Check out Neil Anderson's "Who I Am in Christ" and Frank Viola's "The Jesus Manifesto" links at the upper left of this page to help get a picture of Jesus' invitation and how God views every believer the minute they accept Jesus Christ.  Recognizing who we are in Christ is vital to every believer's relationship with Jesus and with each other.  We may not feel that way; we may not understand what God's word says; we may not know what it means, but our feelings or understandings have no effect on the truth of who God says we are and how He see us, right now.  Part of the call of Christian community is to remind each other, in the midst of the ups and downs of life, of who we already are in Christ.  Not who we are becoming...not who we will be someday...who we are TODAY.

We're reading Chapters 2-3 for next Wednesday's book study.  Join us online or 7-8:30pm at Java Jones, Elk Rapids, MI