Getting Off The Teeter-Totter
Living a life in harmony and constancy with the Gospel of the Kingdom is transformative. Weirdly, you have to want it to have it. And to make matters even more difficult, how do you know you want it (life in the Kingdom) if you have never seen or heard or experienced this gift from God? Mostly what we experience is this kind of mystic spiritual lament that goes something like this...
"I thought life was going to be different. I thought that giving my life to Christ would change things. But I've been a Christian now for a while and things haven't changed all that much. I go to church now, but frankly, that isn't all that great. Life is hard. I pray but I don't see things change for my circumstances. Other people seem happy; I still lack peace and purpose. I'm overwhelmed most of the time. I thought it was going to be different."
This is Dave Scherrer and I'd like to have the first of several conversations regarding the command of Jesus to abide. The problem is that for many of us we are stuck in a false 'Christian' paradigm that is a lose-lose venture. We find ourselves balanced on a spiritual teeter-totter like existence where one side is no better than the other – just different kinds of spiritual bondage.
Picture this:
License (or so-called "Freedom in Christ") ←→ Legalism (or so-called "Holiness")
On one side of the teeter-totter is a lifestyle of Legalism. A nice way of saying it might be to call this lifestyle a pursuit of "Holiness." But really, it is a list of artificial do's and don'ts that are extra-biblical or even non-biblical. It varies from church culture, denomination and local church leadership, but the expectations are the same: practice certain habits or church rituals and you will be more holy. Put another way, you are a better "Christian" if:
Please note!!! Most of these practices or traditions aren't evil or bad in and of themselves. In fact, a set of disciplined habits that encourage us in our faith are terrific (in my podcasts found at Kingdom Offerings, at this time I am going through the Disciplines of the Kingdom life so discipline is important)! The problem comes when the habits become a hidden or secret understanding that practicing these things makes me "better" or more "worthy" as a Christian. That understanding has the fingerprints of legalism all over it!
The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States defines legalism as:
"A pejorative descriptor for 'the direct or indirect attachment of behaviors, disciplines, and practices to the belief in order to achieve salvation and right standing before God', emphasizing a need 'to perform certain deeds in order to gain salvation' (works)."
Most of us, I suspect, have experienced the consequences of legalism as a judgmental attitude. This tendency to promote certain works or habits as "necessary components of a life of faith" can be dangerously heretical.
But equally devastating on the other side of the Teeter-Totter is a lifestyle of Licentiousness. This is the consideration that sin, or certain sins, are ok. Perhaps they are seen as small sins, along the idea of a "white lie." The nice way of thinking of this is perhaps "Freedom in Christ." The Apostle Paul warns us of this idea that I can live with a certain amount of sinful license in my life...
Romans 6:1-2
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
The sad reality is that this idea that a lifetime of walking back and forth across the Teeter-Totter continuum in order to find a "place of balance" is generally considered the best that the "Christian life" has to offer. The internal thought process goes something like this:
"I want to act holy but it's not much fun. I kinda want to sin, but I know it has bad consequences. And anyway, I know I'm not as good as some people, but I'm better than a lot of others. I mean, I'm exhausted trying to find a place to stand as the center of the teeter-totter keeps moving!!!"
We will keep exploring this subject for a couple more blogs. For now, let me just say that this Teeter-Totter lifestyle has nothing to do with an abundant life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. He has invited us to get off this damned device and simply Abide in Him.
Check out these verses that show us how important Jesus' commandment to abide really is:
John 15:4
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
John 15:7
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
1 John 2:28
And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
1 John 2:6
Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
1 John 3:24
Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
John 15:10
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
John 8:31
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples."
1 John 2:24
Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.
John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
2 John 1:9
Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
1 John 4:13
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
This is Dave Scherrer and this is also a Backyard Conversation! We have so much more to explore here. Part two and three are on their way! There is so much hope in this practice of abiding! Peace!
