I used to love talks like this. They seemed to encourage us to cast off restraint… don’t worry about rules or what you do, only worry about Jesus. The end result for me though was mush. I looked at people with routines and disciplines as uptight and rule based religious types. (Never mind that they were productive and generally happy in life)
For too long I was caught in the middle… not wanting to be “religious”, yet not being comfortable with whatever it was that not being “religious” meant.

The argument was cast as “religion vs. relationship”. The types who were all about relationship didn’t like to discuss sin and repentance. Sin involves breaking a rule and rules are religious so let’s not talk about it… just focus on Jesus. Think for a minute about where that’ll lead.

I think that’s why, generally speaking, most Christians are no different than non-Christians. It bugs me to no end when churches tolerate sin and look the other way in the name of grace. That kind of grace is cheap, meaningless, and weak. Jesus dished out grace wherever he went. Frequently, that meant calling out sin, sometimes rather bluntly.

Jesus calls his people to be different. That’s what the Greek word for church means. “Eklesia: called out from” Jesus calls us to love him. Did he not say to his desciples “If you love me, you’ll obey my commands.”? Aren’t commands rules? Don’t rules call for disciplines for consistency? So the issue comes full circle.

Our actions speak volumes but they only say so much. They can only demonstrate for sure that we don’t love God and don’t obey him. They may indicate that we do love God but only maybe. God has rebuked people for only acting like they love him. God says about these people “They worship me with their mouth, but their heart is far from me.”
Those are the people who have figured out how to play the church game. They fool people but they don’t fool God. If God has our heart, it will show up in the way that we live. It probably will not be automatic, but will require sacrifice and maybe even some pain. But what is that compared with dying on a cross for the sin of the world?

Please don’t think I’m being critical of the speaker… this clip from one of Driscoll’s messages is refreshing because he mentions the “R” word and the “O” word: repentance and obedience. These concepts are too often left out of the discussion… at our own peril.

Press On.