Please pardon the little joke – playing with words. The point of this article is just to get us thinking about where our emphasis is. It is hard to write on this because anytime you put something to pen and paper (even digitally), it is there and people begin finding exceptions to what is written.
When you consider those involved or claiming some connection to the Restoration Movement, we seem to automatically go to our corners and come out fighting. Perhaps we as a movement need to consider some “sy-la-bles” more carefully.
Growing up in the conservative Churches of Christ, I understand the feeling of discomfort of changes being made through the years and in our brotherhood today.
GRACE – Grace is deep and considerably wider than we usually teach. It is marvelous, and hard to get over once discovered and really applied with some consistency. Grace is neutralized by legalism, abused by attitude of license, missed by pride, and just plain ignored by lack of study. I have done my share of ALL of the above.
This is why I sometimes refer to myself as an ‘ex-Pharisee’ and I understand now how dirty the Prodigal son must have felt, and how difficult the trip home, and how grateful for a Father who “loves so much!” This “amazing grace” has helped me so much in dealing with things such as “congregational differences.”
– I have seen how much legalism has hurt the church and chased away so many our brothers and sisters in Christ. Legalism is when one takes the Gospel (GOOD NEWS) and makes it a system to gain acceptance of God (this is BAD NEWS not good). “Bad news,” because one can never be good enough, perform well enough, give enough, love enough, sing enough, work enough, win souls enough, or be just GOOD ENOUGH to be pleasing to God under a ‘law-works’ system! Under LAW if you break one part and you’re guilty of ALL (Jms.2:10,) and if one knows to do good and doesn’t do it, it is sin, (James 4:17). It’s a double “gotcha!” Law is good, needed, provides, protects, prohibits etc… It just cannot save us!
Should our emphasis be LAW or GRACE? Law without grace is unbearable. Grace without law is unnecessary. Without law there would be no need for grace, without grace there is no way to be saved from our sins. Grace is a vital teaching in Scriptures. Our problems come when applying it, and being CONSISTENT with it. The GRACE-LESS attitude has lead to churches dividing over silly things as well as not so silly things. My conviction is that much of the division within out brotherhood would not happen if we understood, and yes applied God’s grace (elbow room).
“Autonomy of congregations,” becomes a nice sounding phrase with little meaning, as seen when one congregation withdraws from and publicly blasts another congregation ‘dis-owning them’ in the local newspaper. Does grace cover differences that exist in those who claim to be part of the Restoration Movement? Well, without going to extremes, YES! The blood of Jesus which puts one into Christ, keeps one in Christ! Does performance, or perfection? No! Grace allows for growth, but legalism does not.
Law can operate under grace, but grace cannot live, tolerate nor breathe under LAW, much less allow for change and growth. I remember some things I USED TO BELIEVE, but I grew. Surely you do the same. GROW IN GRACE!
So what’s with this wrong “sy-la-ble” business. Simply this, Jesus calls us to FOLLOW HIM, copy HIM, be like HIM, be in relationship with HIM. Like James Woodruff says in his marvelous volume “Sayings that saved my Sanity,” “Jesus did not come to introduce us to a shinier cage to keep us from doing what we really want to do.” IT’S A LIFE, A RELATIONSHIP, A WALK, A HELPING HAND, A SHOULDER TO CRY ON, SOMEONE TO RUN TO. It is a growing process…Brethren, it is easy to fall from a SYSTEM, but hard to fall from a RELATIONSHIP.
May the Lord help us grow in grace and emphasize Him, walk with Him, forgive like Him, wash feet and serve like Him, be humble and empty ourselves out like Him. To emphasize TRUTH and ignore GRACE (“graceless truth”) is just as wrong as emphasizing GRACE and ignoring TRUTH (“truthless grace”). Jesus was full of both… So must we be… I have to offer this last word… I for sure do not understand the depths of grace nor do I understand everything about the many topics that disturb and divide us… I can only encourage you to study, pray, and brethren, grow in grace. We need it.
