Freedom

This is continued from my post on The 10 Commandments.

You see, a lot of people have the wrong idea about Christianity and about God. They think Christianity is about a list of rules, of do's and don'ts. They imagine God up in heaven, just waiting to strike anyone that gets out of line.

And so when I ask if The 10 Commandments are relevant I expected to get one of two answers. One group will say they are not relevant because they don't want the guilt of not living up to them. The other group will say, yes they are relevant because they are God's Word and He can only love those that keep His law.

But that is not the truth.

Christianity is about freedom.

One of the reasons God sent His Son into this world was to set you free.

He wants to set you free from addictions--to alcohol, to drugs, to pornography, to food, to approval. He wants to set you free from anger and depression. He wants to set you free from anything that is mastering you, that holds you down--fears, worries, anxieties, lies, and much more. He wants to set you free from guilt and condemnation. He wants to set you free from being used and abused. He wants to set you free from hell--the literal hell and hell on earth.

Most people have this perception that Christianity is about keeping a set of rules because that is what all the other world religions are about. And unfortunately many Christian pastors perpetuate this myth, as well. If you are in a church that tells you that God can't love you unless you are doing everything to a tee, then you need to find a new church.

This is called legalism and religion and I hate both. Jesus hates both, as well.

Read these passages where Jesus confronts religion and religious people. (The Pharisees were the some of the most religious people of Jesus' day.)

Matthew 9:10-12

¹⁰ Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
¹² When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

Matthew 12:1-8

¹ At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. ² And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”
³ But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: ⁴ how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? ⁵ Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? ⁶ Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. ⁷ But if you had known what this means,‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Matthew 23:25-28

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
²⁷ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

It is religion that says you must clean yourself up in order to be accepted. God says He loves you, while you are a sinner, and you've done nothing to deserve it.

If you are a Christian and you're reading this, you may be thinking that I am promoting sinful living. You may be thinking that I'm preaching a brand of Christianity that lets people just do as they please, because God will continually forgive, over and over. Stay tuned for the next installment.