What did you hear from the pulpit this past week; a message of what we should or shouldn’t be doing? Or, one that spoke of Christ in you, the hope of glory?
So often we're told things like “We must persevere!” “We must set aside a block of time every morning to pray!” “We must do good works!” “We must do this and we have to do that!” Over and over again it’s about what we should be doing, inferring that if we aren’t doing…whatever it is…then maybe we were never saved in the first place. What a great way to keep the average Christian a nervous wreck wondering if he/she is truly saved, and/or, puff up those who think they’re doing a pretty good job of it. This certainly sets us all up to judge one another, too. For we only see what's going on on the outside; God, however, sees the heart. "Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you..." (Gal 3:1-3)?
My own pastor admits he used to teach law until he came to realize his error.
“My preaching has become more Christian. I looked back upon my preaching in the early years and I came to the devastating conclusion that it was not Christian preaching. It was Law centered. I used to preach Law, Law, Law… here is what you should do to be a Godly person. The problem was that there was nothing Christian about it! When I was younger I didn’t preach messages that exalted Christ, and the hope we have in him, as the center of our lives.”
Now he says this:
“There is a lot of preaching today that wouldn’t give you the impression the Christian life is responding to what God has done for us through Christ. Most preaching is about what we do for God by obeying the great commission, making sure we love God adequately, dealing with the sin in our lives. This kind of preaching is a bunch of law and it is laid on people who really need to be fed Christ.”
“The topical preacher can fall into this trap because at the end of the day, all “how to do life” sermons are law. They are about what we can do, what we ought to do, what we should do. This appeals to our ego, but it isn’t the message of the Bible. The Bible message is that we live life as an expression of gratitude for undeserved grace.”
I sincerely appreciate my pastor's candor and perspective.
It's so easy to fall into this kind of preaching. Because of its prevalence, the pressure to do so is tremendous. None of this is new, however. As I alluded to earlier in this post, in Galatia Paul had to deal with the fallout from this very thing:
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing — if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard (Gal 3:1-5)?
Even Peter struggled with it:
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray (Gal 2:11-13).
(Interesting that these "certain men" came from James; might this help explain Jas 2:24 and Rom 4:5, 11:6?)
The fact of the matter is, preaching law puts the focus in the wrong place. When the focus is placed on a whole list of things we must do or shouldn't do, we become “me”-focused instead of Christ-focused. And it’s never been about what we do because what we do is always a mess! We couldn’t save ourselves, we can’t sanctify ourselves, and we can’t persevere either. God is the only One who can do all these things.
Therefore, the only thing we can do is keep our focus on Christ — keep putting on the new man — because He is the One who saved us, He is the One who is sanctifying us, and He is the One who will preserve and keep us till the end (Heb 10:14, 12:2; 1 Cor 1:2-9, 30-31; Gal 5:16, 25; Eph 4:30; 2 Tim 4:18).
Very well said and very encouraging. I am guilty of having placed way too much emphasis on the doing of my work and not so much on Christ's work already done on my behalf. This misplaced emphasis has undoubtedly led to some degree of ineffectiveness of both works, in my life and the lives of those I'm trying to serve.
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