It's Not Either Or, It's Both And

All churches & all followers of Jesus tend to drift. We're human. It's impossible for us to maintain perfect holiness. Even Paul recognized this in himself when he wrote in Romans 7, "for what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." Even with good intentions, the flesh has a way of rising up. That means we have to guard against that drift in our lives & in our congregations. However, that drift isn't just a drift toward overt, obvious sin. In fact, for many of us who have been in church most of our lives, it's the drift toward self-righteous, rule following legalism that we have to fight against. It's that tendency to look at the lost with disgust & say, "why can't you get your life straight?" Then when those who recognize their distance from God dares to muster the courage to enter our churches we think, "I can't believe their here." We think that before we or God can accept them, they have to get some other things right. The good news is that this isn't a new tendency. In fact it goes all the way back to the days of the early church.

In Acts 15, Paul & Barnabas have been reaching non-Jews with the Gospel, & God has been saving these Gentiles & bringing them into His people, His church. However, some Jewish believers from down around Jerusalem show up & say, "Hold on, before you can become a follower of Christ, you have to become a follower of Moses." That means they were adding the Law to the Gospel. They were beginning to make the Law the means by which people were admitted into the fellowship of the Church. This set Paul off. After all, he had been preaching the simple message of salvation through faith in Christ & Christ alone. Now these new converts were being saddled with the burden of over 600 laws & of the men, a small but sensitive surgical procedure. So what's Paul to do? What are the leaders of the early church to do? Who is the Church for? What exactly is the Gospel? What does someone have to do to be saved?

In Acts 15 there is intense debate but the input of two men settled the discussion, & their words should guide us now, 2000 years later. In Acts 15:7, Peter stands up & gives testimony to his own experience of how God led him to take the Gospel to a Gentile family & how he has seen God reach out to the non-Jewish world & bring them in with no distinction between them & the Jews. Regardless of their ethnicity or religious background, God had purified their hearts by faith. If that wasn't enough, Jesus' brother James stands up & says, "we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to Christ." The issue was settled.

Yes, these non-Jewish believers came from a different background without the Law of Moses & because of that they had some habits & customs that the Jews found offensive. However, that had nothing to do with their standing before God in Christ. It had nothing to do with whether or not the church was for them or not. The stand that those early church leaders took that day is vitally important for us today because we have certain issues that we look at & point at & say that people have to get this right before they will be expected, & we usually have a verse to back it up. However, we don't always reflect Christ-likeness in the process. After all, John says in his gospel that Jesus was "full of grace & truth." That means that we should pursue a life full of grace & truth as we pursue a life that looks more & more like Christ.

"Instead Of Drifting Toward Grace Or Truth, We Should Stand On Both."

Personally I know more Christians & church goers who struggle with the drift toward truth than the drift toward grace. We love truth. It draws a clear line in the sand, & when someone crosses it, we can point it out. However, that kind of drift ends up using the truth as a weapon. We should never ignore sin, but we should confront that sin with grace just as Jesus did. Jesus never excused sin. Instead he confronted sin with compassion & graciously invited people to a better way, namely Him. As you look at how you or your congregation engages with the world around you, do you see the drift toward law & legalism in your life? As you think about how you can fight against the drift toward grace OR truth & instead stand on both, ask yourself this:

What Would Happen If The Lost People In My Life 

Viewed Me The Same Way The Lost Viewed Jesus?

Jesus never had a problem attracting or reaching the lost. In fact, they usually loved Him. So if Jesus' people are having trouble engaging lost people, is it the fault of the lost people or the Jesus people?