I don't believe I posted this recently but if so, it might be worth reading
again since I have done some editing to it.  Otherwise, just skip it.  The
topic, on the other hand, has a lot to do with what I will eventually get
around to posting concerning the program I listened to called, Hope In The
Night, which is a counseling ministry run by June Hunt.

Rules Of Engagement

The Opposite Of Legalism


By Phil Scovell



     I was listening to a Christian program that I have
personally heard, and appreciated, for literally decades.  The
guess speaker that day was one I had heard in previous broadcasts.
He calls himself a preacher but I have heard others refer to him
as a motivational speaker.  He appears to be both, that is, he
teaches and makes Biblical principles applicable, by story telling
and illustrative examples.  That sounds like a preacher to me but
in all fairness, his goal very likely is motivational but not just
for the sake of making his listeners feel good.  He truly brings
home the importance of having a personal relationship with Christ.

     Later it was explained he also holds public speaking
training seminars around the country at various times for people
to attend and thus to become better public speakers.

     As I sat and listened to the first part of this two part
presentation, I felt spiritually uncomfortable for some reason.
I didn't feel he was wrong, necessarily, nor did he in any way
marginalize the Bible or Biblical precepts, as far as I could
tell, but something felt wrong.  I focused more closely on his
method of public speaking, the stories he told, the humor he
incorporated in order to illustrate a point, and I found nothing
out of place.  In fact, his speaking technique was flawless.
Still, I felt something was wrong but could not put my finger on
it.  The feeling I had was spiritual in nature.

     The next day, the second part was broadcast so I took time to
listen.  It was in the second presentation I recognized what I had
been feeling earlier.  It had to do with the implication of
Christian legalism or what some now call performance based
Christianity.

     In one of his stories, he told about how he had learn to fly
a small airplane.  As he flew along one day, he entered small
puffy clouds to see what it would be like.  After experimenting a
few times, by entering and exiting various small clouds, he found
a larger cloud and entered it.  Later, when he popped out of the
cloud, he was flying completely upside down.  This frightened him
a great deal, of course, and upon landing, he signed up
immediately for instrument flying.  He commented on there being a
large number of thick books filled with rule after rule after rule
and he memorized them all in order to pass his instrument exam.
Now, he said, he doesn't get lost in clouds because he flies by
what the instruments tell him.  He compared this to how we get the
most joy out of living for Christ.  It was at that point I turned
my radio off.

     Sitting in the silence of my room, I reviewed everything the
man had said.  Frankly, I really had no major disagreement with
anything he had been teaching until he came to the comparison of
living for Christ by rule.  I turned the radio off because I had
already lived 50 years of my life by legalism, rules and
regulation, and performance based Christian methodology.  Now I
knew from personal experience, such did not work and wasn't even a
Biblical concept or principle.  It is, unfortunately, still widely
taught and accepted as Bible based.  His implication, or
application, seemed to be that all the rules had to be kept or;
what?  No joy?  At least that was what I got out of his teaching.

     A basic definition of legalism is living by a set of Biblical
rules.  Some weaken this statement by considering the Christian
life to be a set of "Christian rules" lived by.  I trust you are
noticing the words I am using.  If not, you'll miss the
progressive downward drift.  Another lower level of definition
might be a set of "religious rules."  Still others may reduce it
to just a "set of rules," or "moral rules," but most often you
will hear them called "The Golden Rules."  I've even heard some
call them "cosmic rules," or, "universal rules."  Regardless,  the
key word is "rules."  In our case as born again Christians, I am
staying with the first definition because unless you are born
again, it makes absolutely no difference what rules you live by;
you won't be going to Heaven because you lived by any set of rules
even if you think they are godly in nature.  Notice, I used a
small letter "g" there and not a capital "G" to illustrate.

     Concerning born again Believers specifically, and
Christianity in general, we often think of Old Testament law when
thinking about legalism.  These rules were required.  Yet no one
was ever able to keep the letter of the law so a sacrifice was
offered once a year for all the sins of the nation collectively.
According to Chapter 7 and 8 of the book of Hebrews, Jesus
fulfilled all Old Testament law by becoming the supreme sacrifice
for sin.

     Growing up as a independent Baptist, we considered liberal
churches to be those types of ministries that kept few Christian
standards.  For example, in my own life, I was not allowed to play
with neighborhood friends on Sundays.  I could not ride my bike on
Sunday.  We never went out to eat on Sundays.  My sisters didn't
wear shorts.  As a young assistant youth pastor in the mid
seventies, my wife didn't wear shorts or slacks but only skirts
and dresses.  We didn't own a television for a period of time.  In
fact, my whole life was made up by two lists of things I did, and
didn't do, for the Lord.  The good list was long but the negative
list was just about as long.  I didn't smoke, go to movies, drink,
cuss or swear, and I could continue until a book was written on
this topic.  The question is, did I do anything wrong by living
this way?  No.  Nothing I was doing was wrong, on the surface, and
in many respects, was beneficial to me personally as far as self
discipline was concerned.  It had nothing to do, on the other
hand, with my relationship with God.

     I was listening to one of my favorite radio preachers
recently when he used an illustration that disturbed me.  He was
actually speaking on the topic of having a close personal
relationship with the Lord.  He wanted to prove that his listening
audience did not, in fact, have such a relationship.  This was, by
the way, a taped message before a live audience but I heard the
tape over his daily radio program.

     As he taught, he asked how many people listening to him had
ever been in a service, church meeting, where someone gave a
spectacular testimony.  He suggested, that the testimony was
something highly unusual such as a person encountering an angel or
something like that.  Then he stated that most people hearing such
a miraculous testimony, will sit in their seat and rather than
rejoicing with the person, will think to themselves, "Well, God
never does anything like that for me."  He declared this was pure
and simple selfishness and self centeredness.

     After the program was over, I sat and reviewed in my mind all
he had said and wondered why I felt uncomfortable about what he
said about selfishness.  It didn't take long for the Holy Spirit
to reveal the truth to me.  The Bible teacher, unfortunately, may
have been right but only under some circumstances.  Most people
that I personally know, are envious of such deep and personal
spiritual encounters because they desire to know God that
intimately.  This man, by the way, preaches dogmatically against
legalism but in this case, as well as at least one other example
he has used, is nothing but legalism in its rawest of forms.  Why
are we so afraid to live with Jesus as the only rule to live by?
Why do we have to perform to make God happy?  Why do we have to
have a Sunday school pin that is as long as a football field that
we ostentatiously have to wear to church every Sunday to make sure
people know just how faithful we have been?  Have you ever
wondered why tithing is preached so imperiously?  I have heard it
preached more than once that if you don't attend every service,
including Sunday night services and midweek services, you are
casting your vote that the church close its doors on those nights.
Yeh, and a chicken has lips, too.  I have even heard it preached
that if you work on Sundays, you are living outside the will of
God.  I was in a church once that when weddings were conducted, if
you had been involved with premarital sex, you could not be
married in a white wedding gown, if you were the woman of course,
and you could not be married, in this church, in the main
auditorium.  Please show me this in the Bible.  Why do we have to
read the Bible once every year, or twice or three times, to be
spiritual?  I've read the Bible 114 times in my life, and once I
read it twice in one month from cover to cover, and guess what?  I
ain't one bit more spiritual than you are.  In fact, I know many
people that are so far superior to me spiritually, I look like a
spiritual midget in comparison.  I know Jesus though, and we are
friends and he is my brother and He loves me like his own son.
Come to think of it, I am, that is, one of His own sons.  So why,
please tell me, do we have to become Christian circus animals,
performing before others, in order to be loved and accepted by
God?  That's right.  We don't.  How do I know this?  Well, the
thief on the cross wasn't Baptized.  He never graduated from
seminary.  He never read the Bible,  He wasn't even the member of
a church.  Yet, Jesus said today, right now, he was going to join
Him in paradise.  Go figure.  The thief on the cross didn't even
have time to practice his Christianity but we are going to see him
in Heaven.

     May I ask where you are in God today?  Are you a performer?
Are you an achiever?  Are you perhaps a spiritual goal setter?
"Oh, no, Brother Scovell.  I do all these things because I want
to.  I like pleasing god."  Me, too.  May I respectfully submit
that God isn't impressed with anything you can do even if you are
a Christian?  He doesn't collect Sunday school attendance records.
He doesn't print bibles to sell to the Christian public.  He
doesn't market Christian preaching tapes of His sermons for tax
deductible gifts of 6 dollars a piece.  He doesn't sell crosses
you can wear around your neck as necklaces.  Quite simply, He
loves you just as you are.  No, He doesn't appreciate sinful
living nor does He bless sinful behavior.  However, you haven't
committed the unpardonable sin just because you didn't read your
Bible and pray for 15 minutes this morning.  He hasn't stopped
loving you because you didn't take communion last Sunday.  His
standards, my friend, are far above anything I have mentioned.
No, you cannot, nor will you ever, be able to obtain His
standards.  We can, on the other hand, obtain Him personally
because He has fulfilled all that for us and thus, when we come to
Him, we come to Him on His terms.  His terms are, "Come as you
are."  Did you ever stop and think that God doesn't look at you
with clothes on?  You are naked before Him and He isn't ashamed of
you either.  He is waiting for you to stop being ashamed and
accepted for who, and what, you are in His sight and not yours.
As long as you see yourself as you are, you won't see yourself as
Jesus does.  In short, the opposite of legalism is Lordship.
Seeing yourself as Jesus does is Lordship.  So what do you see?
If you se anything less than what Jesus sees, you are denying the
fullness of the Gospel message and you are believing lies about
yourself.  It is time to stop lie based thinking so you can stop
performance based spirituality.

How Big Is God?  The Size Of Your Mouth.
WWW.SafePlaceFellowship.com