Rules, Rules, Rules
Titus 3:6,7 God poured out to us that Holy Spirit fully through Jesus Christ our Saviour. We were made right with God by his grace. God saved us so that we could be his children and look forward to receiving life that never ends.
I don’t know how it is for you, but I for one am not all that good at following rules … I’m just not. Which is why, at least for the first thirty-six years of my life, this whole Christianity thing was a decidedly unattractive proposition.
Most people – me included, back in the day I have to tell you – think of Christianity as being a rule-based, oppressive religion. That’s certainly what I was taught growing up, as was this man from Rwanda who emailed me a while back. This is what he wrote:
It seemed to me that the Christianity I’ve been taught since I was five years old (now I’m 62) is totally different from the one you teach. Too much I can tell you about religious teachings I have experienced in my life, but to simply say that what you are teachings is what I’ve been searching for. To know that all of us: black, white, Hutus, Tutsis, we’re all sinners and that Christ has died for all of us to be reconciled to His Father, gives me new life and new hope.
And the reason that light bulb went on for him is that I was teaching at the time from this passage of Scripture:
Titus 3:6,7 God poured out to us that Holy Spirit fully through Jesus Christ our Saviour. We were made right with God by his grace. God saved us so that we could be his children and look forward to receiving life that never ends.
It turns out that what I’d been taught was wrong. It turns out what this Rwandan man had been taught was wrong, too. It’s not about following a bunch of rules – it’s about experiencing the grace of God.
And when we discover the grace of God in Jesus Christ … well, it gives us a new life and new hope.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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