Alright, I confess. I've been one of those people; an "uptight do-right" who idolized morality, the church and all its cultural habits. I only listened to Christian music, only engaged people from other denominations in order to wrestle with minor doctrine, and was a bit muddled in thinking that being a better Christian is defined by abstaining from all things not immersed in some evangelical holy water. I was so entrenched in all my major and minor doctrine and looking holy my spirit developed a metaphorical hunch, heavy laden with legalism.
Truth be told (expounding on what my pastor stated today in membership class) we all have a tendency and nature to slide our focus off the Cross & living for the glory of God and lean either towards making idolatry of our Christian freedom (grace abuse), or making idolatry of the law and the church. Those of us who claim to be reforming evangelicals would do well to read upon the words of early reformers who, if they were alive today, would no doubt instruct us to loosen the collar and enjoy the journey through a deeper understanding of grace. We miss out on far too much beauty in this world when we think the elect have cornered the market on it all.
John Calvin: "Christian freedom, in my opinion, consists of three parts. The first: that the consciences of believers, in seeking assurance of their justification before God, should rise above and advance beyond the law, forgetting all law righteousness...
The second part, dependent upon the first, is that consciences observe the law, not as if constrained by the necessity of the law, but that freed from the law's yoke they willingly obey God's will... The third part of Christian freedom lies in this: regarding outward things that are of themselves "indifferent", we are not bound before God by any religious obligation preventing us from sometimes using them and other times not using them, indifferently...
Accordingly, it is perversely interpreted both by those who allege it as an excuse for their desires that they may abuse God's good gifts to their own lust and by those who think that freedom does not exist unless it is used before men, and consequently, in using it have no regard for weaker brethren... Nothing is plainer than this rule: that we should use our freedom if it results in the edification of our neighbour, but if it does not help our neighbour, then we should forego it." The Institutes of the Christian Religion
Further studying:
Doctrine of Common Grace, Wayne Grudem
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