Out With Rules – 395

Hank’s Place is a place of grace — God’s grace. Not to worry if you are ‘good enough’ or have ‘done enough’ or ‘repented enough,’ or ‘sacrificed enough’ to join in — you are welcome because the blood of Jesus has cleansed believers from all unrighteousness, from every failure, from every missing of the mark. Because of Jesus, we now receive God’s mercies, lovingkindness, goodness — good things — He loves us beyond measure and can demonstrate it towards us — thanks to Jesus our Savior.

Some people stumble over the goodness of God, insisting there are rules that must be kept in order to receive from God or get closer to God. It’s not about the rules. A focus on rule keeping keeps us from exploring the riches of God’s grace – Galatians 5:4 says rule keeping causes a person to ‘fall from grace’ — not that God’s grace is no longer available, but that they are choosing to live at a much a lower level than God intended.

Such a person might bring up Romans 2:13 saying, “Well, didn’t Paul say, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.”” And add, “See, we must keep all the rules in order to gain God’s approval.”

Doers of the law will be justified?! Wait. What’s with Paul? That’s the opposite of what he said in Romans 5:1, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And Galatians 3:12, “However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by them.””

So why does Paul say doers of the law will be justified? Check the context; he was saying, “just hearing the law is not enough, you have to keep it – and none of us can!” Isn’t it clear; we are justified by faith, not law. If we try to impress God with our law-keeping, we fall from grace and cut ourselves off from Christ.

Like us today, those Romans knew about laws. Like many believers, they had been raised on a diet of rules. They thought if they heard the rules, studied the rules, and hung them on their walls, God would be impressed. Nope. You have to KEEP all the rules — and no one can.

Paul is not calling us imperfect souls to attempt the impossible; he’s trying to get us to admit defeat. Doers of the law will be justified, but we are not that person. Jesus was the perfect Doer of the law — and Jesus offers us this same justification, this same righteousness, as a free gift — by faith.

Let’s not focus on ‘the rules’ but let’s see JESUS offering us the gift of righteousness. By faith receive today — and COME ALIVE!