Of Grace and Law

Thursday, September 8, 2022

The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.  But some people have missed this whole point.  They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions.  They want to be known as teachers of the law of Moses, but they don’t know what they are talking about, even though they speak so confidently.  We know that the law is good when used correctly.  For the law was not intended for people who do what is right.  It is for people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred and defile what is holy, who kill their father or mother or commit other murders.  The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching that comes from the glorious Good News entrusted to me by our blessed God.  1 Timothy 1:5-11

The current mêlée in the United Methodist Church is the division which centers around sexuality and gender identification.  Somehow Paul’s counsel to Tiimothy is not sacred advice to a young minister anymore.  Rather, it has become an inconvenient truth, dropped from the comfort zone of denominational managers.  When it comes to what drives worldly, culture-pandering leadership to twist what Scripture means, even when that means obtusely ignoring what Scripture has presented clearly, it is, sadly, a weaponized form of teaching false doctrine.  Paul advised Timothy to steer clear of it at all cost.

When dealing with the Pharisees, (supposed) teachers of the Law of God, Jesus tossed aside their pedigrees and prestige in two short sentences:

Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!  Matthew 23:24

Swallowing the camel of law, and doing it in the name of grace, is what is wrong with the current practice of swatting the traditionalist gnats in the sexuality/gender-identification standoff, fueled by a higher commitment to political correctness and denominational survival, than fidelity to Scripture.

In the name of “grace” progressive thought says all humanity is exempt from law; there is nothing to forgive.  Yet, that kind of thinking lays aside the very substance of grace, as being forgiving that which is unforgivable.  It says perverted sexual practices are not sin…therefore, there is nothing to be forgiven, only embraced.  It belies the very essence of our vows in confirmation, to confess our sinfulness, and reject evil in every form.  Without accepting the grace of God, admitting our sins, and accepting that we deserve death, not a parade, we do not belong to Him, let alone get to presume upon His favor.  And that “camel” of false presumption that God winks at sexual perversion, is swallowed by unthinking (so-called) religious leaders every day.

For You Today

Continue to pray for leaders who are trying their best on both sides of this morass of sexual misunderstanding, especially in the halls of United Methodist leadership.  May God’s will be served.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Paul's Legal Review and De-railed

[1] Images:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Paul's Legal Review

[1]

Thursday, September 12, 2019

The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.  But some people have missed this whole point.  They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions.  They want to be known as teachers of the law of Moses, but they don’t know what they are talking about, even though they speak so confidently.  We know that the law is good when used correctly.  For the law was not intended for people who do what is right.  It is for people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred and defile what is holy, who kill their father or mother or commit other murders.  The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching that comes from the glorious Good News entrusted to me by our blessed God.  1 Timothy 1:5-11

There’s an old story about a young man who was challenged in his intellectual development.  The good people of the small town in which the fellow lived had compassion and gave him a job polishing the cannon near the town square flagpole.  Every day for 6 years the young man showed up at 9am and polished the cannon until mid-afternoon.  Finally, one day he was a no-show; this continued for two weeks.  The town manager saw him on the street the next week and asked him why he had been missing work.  The young man proudly answered:  well, I’ve gotten pretty good at polishing the cannon, and I’ve saved half my salary the past couple of years; last week I bought my own cannon and now I’m in business for myself.

There is reality, and there is delusion.  The debate which pits traditional, orthodox interpretation of God’s purpose in sexuality, against neo-interpretive permissiveness has been tried in the court of popular opinion, and in the Supreme Court of the United States.  But the supposed new day of LGBTQ++ acceptance and normalization in culture still flies in the face of common sense, or theological correctness.  When God has plainly said something is sinful (such as Paul’s denunciation of liars, slave traders, murderers and those who indulge in homosexuality), no matter how much you polish the cannon of God’s compassionate patience, you will never undo what He has declared as sin.

And therein lies the rub; as in any sin, for God’s forgiveness to be effectual, there must be wholehearted repentance.  Absent of an outright admission of sin, a glutton remains in his cholesterol-infested guilt.  Without confession, a liar remains a liar.  And without ceasing the sin – at the very least, steps taken to forsake the sin – a homosexual continuing his or her lifestyle of sexual aberration remains outside the realm of obedient contrition required to stand before God forgiven! 

No matter what sin we’re discussing, the only sin never forgiven is the one never confessed.  But, in a massive, egotistical display of pride the sin of homosexuality today is not confessed; rather it is baptized and brought into the church as neo-conventional.  Granted, that is no different than ignoring other sins.  It only points out that the church today has lost its’ way and stands in its greatest need of revival!

For You Today

The apostle James reminds us that so-called faith which doesn’t result in a changed life is spurious and merely a delusion:

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions?  Can that kind of faith save anyone?...Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.  James 2:14, 26

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

 

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of  Pixabay.com     Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©