So how do we apply biblical principles in
a way that isn’t legalistic on the one hand or ego-centred on the other? That’s
the question I left you with last week when I discussed the challenge facing
pastors and teachers of making biblical truth practical. It would be wrong to
think, mind you, that this is an issue only
for pastors and teachers. It applies to everyone. It is an issue that that lies
at the heart of Christ-centred, grace-filled living.
The key to practicing Christ’s commands,
it seems to me anyway, is to keep the
person rather than the practice foremost in mind. What do I mean by this?
Let me explain more fully.
When we go about performing any duty it
is easy for the duty itself to dominate our thinking. Take the case I mentioned
last week, our need to meditate on Scripture. That’s clearly something we are
supposed to do as Christians. Driven by that sense of responsibility, however, we
can become so absorbed with the practice itself and our performance in it that
we lose sight of why we are doing it. We develop our techniques (or borrow them
from others – or perhaps follow a prescribed approach) and set about achieving
our targets. Meditating becomes an end in itself.
When that happens, count on it that the
duty in view will become a heavy burden that eventually crushes you. This is
what happens when the “practice” (or duty) is to the fore rather than the
“person.” We will find ourselves becoming a slave to duty, and likely as not,
will try to enlist others in that slavery with us. This is the basis of a
performance-orientated, “do-this” approach to the Christian life. Many
Christians still struggle under it, and many pastors and teachers – unwittingly
perhaps – foster it by their detailed “how-to” approaches to practical
obedience.
But that changes when we keep the
“person” – namely, the Lord Jesus Christ – to the fore of our minds. That’s the
way life is supposed to be for Christians. Jesus is to be the focus of our
existence (Philippians 1:21). What matters most is no longer who we are and what we do but who he is and
what he has done. Christ-centred
living keeps the person and work of Jesus at the core of our being, and
grace-filled living rests in what Jesus has accomplished for us and who we have
become in him.
When Christ and his grace are the focus
of our lives the issue of practical obedience changes totally. Yes, we accept our need to obey Christ
because we are no longer our own but belong to him. He has given us commands
and requires that we keep them – not to be accepted by God but because we are
already accepted by him. And because we love him, that is exactly what we will
want to do.
With that in mind we can look at how to
go about doing what he requires. Often we will find that there is no single way
of doing what Jesus asks. There is a clear principle, or command, yes. But how
it is to be implemented won’t be detailed. It rather needs to be worked out in
individual situations. That’s what makes strict methods or set patterns of
application so dangerous. There can be helpful practical suggestions, but fixed
ways of doing things, that’s another matter. Usually obeying Christ can’t be
reduced to “one size fits all.” What’s most important is finding practical ways
in which people can fulfil their love for Christ in doing what he requires of
them.
Keeping the person – Jesus – foremost in
our minds like this has another benefit. It naturally leads us to look to him
for strength as we seek to keep his commands. Resting in his grace we are no
longer trying to do things on our own
to please him. That’s the way a duty-bound, legalistic approach to Christian
living works. No, we are doing things because we know that we already please
him and that he loves us and has given himself for us.
That encourages us to look out of ourselves to him to do what he want us to do.
And as we do so, we find obedience transformed from a burdensome duty into an
act of joy accomplished through grace.
That, as I understand it anyway, is how
practical obedience is to work. Yes, people need practical help to know how to do
what Christ requires. But they don’t need the help that leaves them with a list
of “laws” that they need to perform. They need to be left with Christ, and his
call, and his promised help. That is both practical and freeing at the same
time.