Years ago as a minister, I used the "parable of the kite" to preach that boundaries and rules may seem to imprison you, but in fact they set you free. I likened this to a kite: without a string to restrain it, it cannot fly. What a great proposition: Prohibition = Freedom! My parable captured a certain undeniable truth, and it became a signature theme in my ministry. It makes great preaching because people who like sermons also happen to like rules, even the rules they like to break. Too bad, my parable was basically wrong.
Like my convenient parable, most of the teachings of the devout church follow this basic assumption. The vast majority of teaching follows the pattern: If you live according to the rules, you'll be okay. But I have come to believe that this paradigm, and even my beautiful kite metaphor, is actually contrary to Christ. In fact, while it perfectly captures the essence of Law-Religion, it is the antithesis of the life of the spirit, which is the heart of the Christian message. It is not a false religion exactly, but it is positively not the faith of Jesus and the apostles.
No wonder St Paul calls this arrangement "the Law of sin and death." Not only so, he also says that the rules by which we strive to live actually make matters worse because our sinful nature, "taking opportunity by the commandment, produces [in us] all manner of evil desire. Apart from the law sin was dead." [Ro 7:8]. And he urges us "Now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code."
In other words, my parable of the kite is perfect...for those living under the law of sin and death. But for those freed by the blood of Jesus, it is a return to the Law. And agains St Paul is witheringly clear, "you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace" [Gal 5:4]. But, thank God, "if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." [Gal 5:18]
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"What shall I say then? Should I sin more so that Grace may abound?"
Heck no!!
Joe, while I think I understand what you are saying, I'm not sure.
Yes, the people who are trying to justify themselves by the rules and thus earn their way into Heaven are deluding themselves. It can't be done.
But we who are in the Spirit are not free to do anything contrary to the Law jsut because we are living in Grace. We are free of the penalty of the Law because of Grace. We are not free to disobey the Law.
I just wanted to have a chance to weigh in, I've been gone a while.
This seems to me to demand a bit more explanation, Joe. . .
I certainly agree with Garry (and the whole of the Christian tradition) that salvation is not, and never could be, a matter of 'keeping the rules'. And as a card-carrying charismatic, I think I understand some of what 'the glorious freedom of the sons of God' might mean. . .
And yet. . .
There is such a thing as 'God's Law' (even if only in the sense of being our 'tutor'), and our lives do go better when we conform ourselves to it. The 'Design Manual' and all that. . .
Any competent jazz musician will tell you that, before you can be 'free' in the 'jazz sense', you've got to learn 'the rules' - how stuff fits together, what makes sense and what doesn't, etc. But once you know 'the rules' of jazz, why then, within the context of 'the rules', you can be as free and creative as you want. And I've tended to take that as a pretty good 'working metaphor' for 'the glorious freedom of the sons of God', within the context of 'God's Law'. . .
So I guess, going back to the beginning of my comment, I'd ask you to say a little more explicitly just what it is that you mean here, for the sake of folks like me that are just a little slow on the uptake. . .
Joe, I'm with you on this. We have such an inclination to revert to living by the law. It must be tough to have to give up such a good illustration as your kite one!
"If I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe, how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?"
Garry & Craig, answer me this before I will respond:
Explain, why would you assume I might be talking about "sinning more' or 'not conforming to God's law?' Is the Spirit of God opposed to God?
Examine your thoughts on this, then feed back to me.
I am not going to adjust what I said to just make it fit into the very assumptions that Jesus, me, and St Paul challenging...
How about you, Kevin? Are you indifferent to sin?
Sorry, I mean Ken
"But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."
So then, your point was...?
Might as well read the whole chapter, Galatians 3. It's a start!
Joe, I wouldn't characterize myself as indifferent to sin, I'm just not freaked-out by it in me or others. The law was useful in pointing me to the need for a Savior ... it was by that law that I understand that no matter how hard I try, I'll never earn my salvation. I accept my salvation as a gift of faith and then try to live a life out of gratitude for that gift that honors the One who gave it. The consequence, I think, is that I live a life more reflective of Christ in this way than I would out of any effort motivated solely by following the law. BTW, I still like your kite metaphor.
Ken, The kite metaphor IS a great metaphor, but here lies the flaw. In that metaphor, the string = restraints and rules, i.e. the Law. But as we see in Romans 8:3, the Law is powerless because it is undermined by the flesh.
The correctly constructed metaphor would have a different "string" principle. Properly, the kite would not be restrained by a string, but controlled by the wind, the pneuma, the Spirit.
A kite is not actually flying. Like Woody the Cowboy told Buzz Lightyear; "That's not flying! That's just falling...with style!"
BTW Ken, your last comment is just brimming with wisdom and full of grace. Like a basketball swishing the net.
yes! it is for FREEDOM that Christ set us free! & there is no freedom in rules or law, just as there is no freedom in sin. i am free to be ministered to by the Holy Spirit, and free to come before the Lord of Heaven, and he will make me new and clean.
does it even do any good to follow the rules if your heart doesn't change? no - Jesus called the Pharisees white-washed tombs for doing this very thing.
but he is making us NEW creations! while we no longer live our lives clinging to the law of sin & death, we live our lives clinging to Jesus, who makes us free, pure, & holy.
How can you be holy without the law, Jillian??
does the Lord need the law to declare a person holy? probably not, since he wrote it. after other people had already lived and died and been declared righteous, like Moses.
Straightforward enough, Joe - you were talking about 'boundaries and rules', and how your 'Parable of the Kite' captured the concept of Law, to which you opposed the life of the Spirit. So I assumed that the 'boundaries and rules' you were talking about were more-or-less equated with 'The Law'.
And my point was only that there are 'boundaries and rules' that God has built into both the Universe and our own human nature, to which it behooves us to conform ourselves.
So I was asking you to clarify what you meant, because I didn't really think you were meaning to say there are no such 'constraints'. . .
As to the Kite, and how it 'flies' -
It really is 'flying', in that the flow of the wind around the shape of the kite generates lift. Which, it seems to me, is actually a pretty cool metaphor, all by itself. And the string would more like correspond to the control flaps on an airplane - a way to manage the behavior of the kite within the given Laws of Aerodynamics. . .
Or so it seems to me. . .
Joe, its me, Garry.
I guess my comment is founded in the idea that those who are "bound by the Law" (the rules before men modified and added to) for their justification and as the corner stone of their claim to salvation. "I am good enough because I am obeying the rules!" That can't be done, if it could then the Cross was not necessary.
As for 'rules to live by' Jesus laid down plenty of those, some seem impossible to really completely do all of the time.
Jesus said "If you know the truth, you will be free indeed" (my paraphrase). He is the Truth so we can be free indeed. We are free of the penalty of the Law which is death and separation from God because no one can fully obey the Law of Moses. This requires Grace, which is what frees us from the penalty we deserve. That is what I meant. We are not free to be theives, murderers and adulterers because of Grace. When we are theives, murderers and adulterers we can, through Grace be set free of the just penalty we earned by the actions we have done.
I'm pretty sure we agree, we may just be saying it in a way that seems contrary to the other.
Thanks Garry & Craig. I think that clarifies where everyone stands. I realize that we agree largely, and I'd say both you guys exemplify men who grasp Christian liberty, even in clear contrast to most of Christendom. But I am going to stand apart to make this point rather forcefully. If anywhere the shoe does not fit, bear with me; I'm baiting you into arguing on behalf of a heretical tradition we have all inherited from our christian forbearers. It is time for an outcry against a mainstram Christian heresy.
Stand by for more. I'm really sleepy!
I'm going to post my Manifesto Contra Nomos in a couple of days as the next article. Don't want to break the flow of Scott's new one.
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