Posted on Wednesday, October 29, 2008                                                     by Ben H

One Christian artist Tye Tribbet said at a recent concert, “The devil has been attacking God’s people with weariness.” I have always been passive in debating over politics, but after my talks with some of my closest friends over the recent election, I could not agree with the man more. It is no longer about politics and candidates at this point; the issues are much deeper rooted. This election has made the problem more real to me. 

Some people are more informed than others about the issues. Some have been swept up by rhetoric and charisma. Some are genuinely concerned about the economy and the war. Rarely do I hear anyone concerned about the moral issues. Call me closed-minded, but when did morality stop becoming the foremost concern for us as Christians? The answer I usually get is disturbing to me especially coming for my closest brothers and sisters. “Well, people are going to do what they want anyway.”  

I am not writing this because I am passionate about politics or candidates, but because I am passionate about my generation and the one to come. If we do not stand as Christians our generation is lost. Have we become so passive that we can say, “To hell with the next generation! I care about my pocketbook.” 

Or maybe we do care, but have become so weary in the battle. Perhaps we simply do not believe we can win anymore. We have bought the lie that the world and its media has sold to us. Maybe we believe that the killing of the unborn is an option every woman should have and that 40 million slayings is not a silent holocaust. Maybe we believe that homosexual “unions” should stand neck and neck with traditional heterosexual marriages as two perfectly valid paths for our children to choose from. Maybe we believe all is lost and we should just worry about our bank accounts for now, for today.  

Imagine for a moment desperately trying to convince your children that homosexual marriages are really not morally or ethically parallel to a heterosexual marriage. But you just do not seem to be getting through, because they never knew about a time when it was any other way. Imagine sitting around with your middle age friends, talking about yesteryear like your parents do now, as a time when it was actually an issue. Now imagine living with the fact that you had a chance to fight it if only for one more desperate hour, but you were more concerned with healthcare plans and tax credits.  

There is a key line that still rings in my ears from the movie Lord of the Rings. When Frodo has reached the last of his strength and he wonders if it is all worth it, Samwise says, “There’s good in this world, Mr. Frodo….and its worth fighting for.”  Some Christians know that there is good, but they believe it only belongs to us, and that we should only engage the culture on a materialistic, professional level.  

I pray that we have not bought this lie that Satan has been selling us. How far have we strayed from the church in Acts of whom it was said that they are turning the world upside down?  

This is not a time for compromise. This is not a time for white flags of surrender. Now is the time to stand and be counted. For us and our posterity. My brothers and sisters, in the words of Winston Churchill, “Never give in. Never, never give in.” Serve God in your generation and raise the standard for the next.  

For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:

(Acts 13:36)

   Posted on Wednesday, January 9, 2008                                                        by Ben H

Legalism has been a buzzword in Christendom over the past years. It has been so overused that people use it without even knowing what it means anymore. It has gone through the semantical washing machine and has come out shrunken and wilted. What does this word mean and what does it mean for the Christian?

Webster’s definition does not give the word any connotations as negative as the ones it has in Christendom; it is simply defined as “Strict and literal adherence to the law.” But what has the word come to mean when we use it to describe denominations, and or people in the church (building)? Many times it has come to mean a rigid adherence to or an improper fixation with rules and regulations. There are some problems with this definition. It is so often used to criticize any organization that has any rules or regulations that are enforced at all. As a friend of mine says, if you are a player on the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner has a rule that you cannot have facial hair other than a mustache; he is trying to maintain professionalism. Would anyone use that term for him?

I take my definition from the Word of God. Okay, so the word legalism is not in there, but there is a conceptual definition. Jesus and the Pharisees had a very strained relationship because Jesus publicly criticized them for being hypocrites. He said they looked nice on the outside—that they put on a good show—and did all the right things, but inside they were dead. The Pharisees accused Jesus on several occasions of breaking the law by healing on the Sabbath. People often think that Jesus was doing away with the law. But Jesus himself said the opposite:

¹⁷Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. ¹⁸For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. ¹⁹Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

²⁰For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matt.5:17-20)

The Pharisees had become obsessed with following the system itself and had missed the whole point. They believed that in following the law they had attained righteousness. Jesus said that our righteousness had to exceed theirs. Jesus came to raise the standard, not to take it away. He goes on to say that one is guilty of murder if he hates his brother in his heart.

Jesus knew the essence of the law: Love the Lord with all our heart, mind, and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves (Lk.10:27). We are still required to fulfill the heart of the law (Rom. 3:31). The difference is that we can no longer see obedience to the law as a means of salvation, or attainment of righteousness (Gal. 2:16). The law reveals God’s high standard and leaves man guilty. It reveals God’s holiness and our inadequacy.

Our justification is through faith in Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross. The Law cannot condemn us (Rom. 8). We now rely totally on the supernatural work of God to make us more like Him. We don’t do it in our own strength anymore. We let go, let God. And that is the beauty of Grace.

Legalism is believing what the Pharisees did, that they were righteous because they followed the letter of the law. It is believing that following a set of rules and regulations will make you holy or more pleasing to God. It does not mean that there are no rules in God’s book anymore, that we are free to party-hardy now because Jesus paid all our debts. If so let’s the pain the town red, for tomorrow we die.

Grace means that through the work of Jesus Christ I am free from the sting of sin (separation form God) and that God is working in my life the will to obey Him because I love Him.