The Dangers of Rule-Keeping
I’ve always struggled with the idea of balancing truths, which the New Testament is full of, and I know it’s because we are supposed to walk in freedom by the Spirit’s guidance. There’s always been a part of me that likes rules. I like the clarity of what is expected and how things are always done. There can be a false sense of safety within the black and white. Mainly, I like rules so I can be sure I’m right. I’ve always hated to mess up or be a rule-breaker. I see this obsession with absolutes within one of my daughters as well and how it can trip her up, make her worry and I just want her to have the blessing and enjoyment of a little freedom, not to live so bound up all the time. I think our heavenly Father is wanting the same for many of us.
I especially get tripped up when it comes to work. I was always taught that being a hard worker was to be esteemed more than any other quality. I’m afraid my heart will lead me astray and when I feel done, empty, got nothing left to give, I get afraid and panicky. Do I push past that to work more? Is that proving faithful? It’s as though in my flesh I would have liked the old law of work from sun up to sun down six days a week and do nothing all day on the Sabbath from evening to evening. In this rigid law I would have known when it was okay to rest and when I had to push.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9), this verse has always made me afraid that I can’t trust what my heart is telling me because I’m afraid it will lead me astray. But last week after this verse came up in conversation with a dear friend, I was trying to untangle my anxious heart through journaling my prayers when God showed me that I had been misinterpreting and misapplying this verse. The truth He unfolded brought so much freedom and rest. I happened to be using my husband’s ESV Study Bible that afternoon, and almost found new breath when I read it’s commentary on the verse, “However this strongly negative assessment of the human heart is not intended as a description of the heart of a believer under the new covenant, where God promises to write his law on people’s hearts.”
Could this be true after years of confusion? I began cross-referencing it with other texts in Jeremiah and it confirmed the truth. “BUT this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” (Jer. 31:33) We are the spiritual house of Israel under the new covenant, “In Christ you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for He himself is our peace…you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” (Eph 2:13, 14, 19)
In Jeremiah 32:40-41 God continues to show the liberty of the new covenant by saying it is everlasting, meaning we can’t mess it up. We can’t make an error and nullify it. “I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn from doing good to them and will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good.” I love that the commentary points out that, “God will make every provision for the keeping of the covenant.” It’s not on me. It’s not on you. It’s all Him. I don’t need to the feel the constant anxious burden of hoping I get it right, and don’t break a rule or mess up because He’s already made all the provisions and He causes my heart to turn towards him and his spirit guides my heart into truth.
Jeremiah wasn’t the only prophet that spoke of this new covenant, this new way in Christ. Ezekiel 36:26 says, “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my laws.”
Let me leave you with these questions penned by Paul to the Galatians (Message version), “Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s message to you? Are you going to continue in this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things out in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you?... The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping.”
2016/09/09 at 6:38 pm