Study 53
Legalism and Mission
Clearly one of Paul’s motives for releasing believers from the shackles of legalism was this: he wanted them to run unencumbered with a message of freedom. Legalism frustrates mission. Paul wasn’t called to impose a Judaistic kind of Christianity on the Gentiles of his generation, neither are we called to impose our cultural preferences on other nations.
Christianity isn’t a Western religion reflecting Western styles. Westerners have no commission to impose their particular approach on those of other countries. Grace sets people free ‘from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven’ (1 Thess. 1:9,10). But each ethnic group needs to bring its own distinctive contribution, colour, language, music and diversity to that end. Grace teaches us not to clone the nations but to liberate them!
Crucified to the World
Paul’s final cure to worldliness was the cross. ‘May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ he said (Gal. 6:14). To him, it wasn’t ‘the old rugged cross’ in the sense of being a nostalgic, even sentimental symbol. He boasted of a cross ‘through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world’ (Gal. 6:14 italics mine). For Paul, the cross wasn’t merely a memory. It was a powerful life-changing experience, which dealt a deathblow to any world-based expectations and aspirations and touched even his reputation.
Christians don’t prove themselves ‘unworldly’ by simply learning a few rules of conduct or retiring into a monastic lifestyle. Jesus didn’t do that. He offended the religious people of his day by striking up friendships with sinners and eating and drinking with them. But he never compromised his purity and innocence, or let the world shape his value system. The same is true of us. Once we receive the deathblow of the cross, we will all have contact with the world, but we must live as though we had no dealings with it. We ‘use the things of the world’ but must never become ‘engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away’ (1 Cor. 7:31).
Paul urged the Roman Christians to ‘offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God … Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ (Rom. 12:1). Worldliness isn’t about cultural preferences and personal traditions. It concerns a radical change of attitude and a thoroughgoing renewal of the mind. Once we allow God to alter our thinking, we’ll stop pointing the finger at the apparent worldliness of others and will, through grace, be ‘able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will’ (Rom. 12:2).
To Meditate On
We must be careful how we judge others.
‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged’ (Matt. 7:1,2).
‘Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls’ (Rom. 13:4).
‘Do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him, speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgement on it. There is only one Law-giver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you – who are you to judge your neighbour?’ (Jas. 4:11,12).
Food For Thought
Read Mark 7:1-23.
What were the Pharisees doing?
What was Jesus’ focus?
To Correct
Correct the following ‘Scripture’:
‘The Law of the Lord is with me, because he has anointed me to preach tradition to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim obedience for the prisoners and recovery of customs for the blind, to bind up the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s rule’ (Luke 4:18).
How would you feel if you were living under this mandate?
To Be Inspired
‘If there’s anything in life that we should be passionate about, it’s the gospel. And I don’t mean passionate about sharing it with others. I mean passionate about thinking about it, dwelling on it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to color the way we look at the world. Only one thing can be of first importance to each of us. And only the gospel ought to be.’
C. J. Mahaney, The Cross Centered Life |
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