Not Legalism, but Christ.

So many times I struggle with the topic of legalism.  I have it in my mind set that I need to read x minutes a day, pray x minutes a day, or I am no longer a Christian.  I set so many rules and regulations on my walk with Christ that I  limit what God can do through me, because I am more focused on keeping my 'Christian' walk on target.  I have seen this mindset in many churches I've attended.  The whole 'I" based salvation, where our salvation is based off 'my' strength.  Last time I checked my Bible, salvation is a free gift that we can not work to obtain, but we obtain it by accepting Christ as our Savior.  There is nothing more needed from us that complete belief in Christ. 




When we come to Christ, we are told many times we need to stop doing things by others.  Stop smoking, stop drinking, stop doing drugs, stop looking at porn, etc.   The reason given often times is that if you are a Christian, you are not supposed to be doing those things.  The problem with others pointing out blatant sins in a new believer this, is that they will stop that particular sin, but they are doing it to please the older 'spiritual' believers.  The addiction they give up becomes a huge battle, and many times the new believer run back to it, because the new Christian gives these things up because others tell them to, instead of allowing Christ to take away the desire to commit the particular sin.  Often this causes the new Christian to live a double life, to praise God on the outside, but be diving deeper into sin on the inside.

I can testify to this in my life.  I was told many things that needed to change in my life now that I was a Christian, and I changed myself (outwardly only) to please those who were older 'spiritually'.  Inside, I was the same, because I was never taught the delivering power of Christ, and that only He can truly set me me free of my strongholds.  For years I looked the part of a Christian, but inside I was 100% Pharasee.  It took God stripping away EVERYTHING I held dear to get my attention that He wanted 100% internal obedience. That was a revelation to me.  From all accounts I looked the part of a Christian.  I went to church, I listened to Christian Music, I knew the 'Christianeese' language quite well.  Inside I was diving deeper and deeper into sin, until one day, by God's mercy, I got called out on my sin by God.  I remember this night well.  At this point, I had lost 'my' American dream, and God and I had a wrestling match at my apartment.  God won, I finally truly accepted Him (even though I started confessing Him as my Savior 4 years prior),.  God then showed mercy on me.  He provided a way for me to move to Kentucky, to get the training I desperately needed to learn how to be a Christian man, then after being protected in a spiritual bubble in Kentucky for 2.5 years, He called me to Maryland to serve Him.  To say that move was seamless and perfect, It would be a lie.  I struggled for a while with my beliefs (and have had failures), but God is using everything I have gone through to refine me.  God has been showing me that I need to rely ONLY on Him. He is causing me to have to trust Him to provide for ALL of my needs.  God has also restored some of that the locusts have eaten in my life.  He has also blessed me with a wonderful wife in Charlotte (be married for 4 years tomorrow), who loves me greatly, and loves God more :o). 

You may ask what all of that has to do with the title of this writing.  Simple.  When I first professed to be a Christian, I was very legalistic.  I was a complete Pharisee complete with my own white washed tomb of dead bones inside.  As I started to truly trust God, He started to remove those dead bones out of me, and started to fill me with His spirit.  I can testify that Christ is all that we need.  God gives us grace for when we sin (and since we are human, we will sin, no matter how close we get to God on this earth).  One truth that really hits me hard is something my pastor has shared many times.  He says that grace is for falling, and not for jumping.  Since we are still sinners, we are going to fall in sin.  However God does not want us to jump into sin head first.

  I am learning that I can not do do this on my own strength. I know that I still can be legalistic, but I know God is working on me with this issue.   My relationship with Christ does not hinge on how 'good' I am.  Romans tells us that we all are sinners, and fall short of the glory of God. The only thing we can do is believe.  God will do the rest of the work in us.  We just need to believe He will change us into His image.

In Christ.

-Kevin