Life vs. The Law

Greetings, Dear Friends!

To my new visitors, I say welcome! I post every Wednesday and my sole purpose is to provide you with some soul nourishment that you may be energized to be about the things God has called you to!

I was reading in the book of John this morning and I was impressed again by Jesus' tenacity of purpose in spite of the constant opposition He faced.

In Jerusalem was a pool surrounded by five covered colonnades. A great number of disabled people spent a great amount of time there, hoping to be healed. A certain man had been disabled for thirty-eight years!

Surely he was hard to miss. If you lived in Jersualem at the time, you no doubt saw this man spending time at the healing pool.

Jesus, the healer, walked up to the man and asked him if he wanted to get well. Instead of shouting, "YES!" the man explained why he hadn't been healed up to this point. Even so, you can't have an encounter with the Living One and remain unchanged. The man was healed.

And how did the "religious" ones respond to this miracle?

I imagine them narrowing their eyes, tapping thier lips while saying to the restored man, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat." (John 5:10)

Talk about making a mountain out of a mole-hill!

Read this verse, it's pretty amazing:

"So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted Him" (John 5:16).

There's no emotion around that verse, but think of what that must have been like for Jesus!

He heals a man who has suffered for thirty-eight years and is treated with hostility as a result. What a backwards world He came to save.

But I love His response in verse 17: "My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working." It's as if He is saying, "Think what you will, but I came to impart life. If it doesn't fit in your box, well, I guess that's too bad. I will go where people are more intent on my presence than on their religious program. Though you all need me, I came to save and heal those who know they need Me."

Here lies the difference between those after religion, and those after a relationship with Christ:

With an eagle-eye on the law, one points out every little deviation from what they understand the law to be...while the other runs after Jesus, rises up with eagles wings, and pursues the LIFE Jesus came to give. Jesus said, "I've come that you might have LIFE - and not just life - life overflowing - life to fullest - a free and powerful and impacting LIFE" (my paraphrase of John 10:10b).

The law shows us our need for Jesus.

Instead of being the "law police" and bashing every one who steps outside the lines - let's be a people who are far more earnest about going after anything that would hinder the presence of God in our midst.

Let us be quick to repent of our own sins of arrogance, judgementalism, and unbelief. And if someone runs after Jesus in a way that makes us feel uncomfortable, may we bow low and ask God for a renewed sense of passion and insight.

Francis Frangipane wisely said, "The Pharisee honors what God has done, but rejects what God is doing."

Until next week...