Celebrating Guardrails- Part 2

Why is it that we have a love-hate relationship with rules? On one hand we love the ones we like, and on the other hand, we hate the ones that seem to restrict or inconvenience us.  We tend to promote the rules we don’t have any trouble following, and ignore the ones we daily struggle with.

When Jesus was interacting with the adulterous woman, he wasn't working on the rules; He was working on her heart. In a culture today (esp. in our present day churches) we are struggling with the balance toward heart and rules. Rules produce quantifiable results, and we like that, heart changes are much harder to see and count.

How do we balance enforcement of rules with a desire to see heart change? Regrettably much of church history is a story of imbalance. At points we can see the tendency towards loving rules, and then the pendulum will swing to the other side of we aren't about rules we are about hearts. Where is the middle ground of such a difficult topic?

It starts with understanding forgiveness. In verse 12 after Jesus tells the woman that He doesn't condemn her and that she should go and sin no more, He turns and says, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”  Salvation brings forgiveness and forgiveness brings light. The purpose of the light is so that we no longer walk in the darkness. This doesn't mean that we don’t have rules; it means that we don’t love the rules more than the Savior.

I have had the opportunity to be involved with many people getting married and I have yet to hear the future couples say, “I can’t wait to be married so I can have some more rules and obligations.” They are excited about marriage because of the relationship not the rules. That doesn't mean that there are no rules. Each marriage is unique and so will be how that relationship works, but it has rules. In our relationship with Christ, we are unique, and so are the rules.

I think the church today is hurting, mostly behind closed doors. We have forgotten what forgiveness looks like. We have forgotten why we have been given rules. We don’t forgive others as we have been forgiven. We judge people, without judging ourselves. We lack grace, not because we haven’t been given enough, but because we refuse to allow it to transform us. We love the rules more than the relationship and that means disaster will come (or in many cases, it already has).

Next Post: How do we get back to forgiveness and grace?