Legalism kills. Grace gives life.

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:5-6

I’ve had my struggles with judgmental legalism and have sadly found that truly the “letter of the law” kills. It kills freedom. It kills grace. It kills love. It kills new life in Christ. It does not liberate, but binds hearts in a trap of thinking that self-effort is able to save and keep us. It unleashes unrestrained pride which inevitably lets loose the worst parts of a broken soul (at least it has done so in me in the past). 

I reject trying to manipulate God’s commands to demand self-effort from myself and others. My efforts are literally damn insufficient to please God, because they condemn me as a rebellious, pride-filled, selfish, spiritually impotent sinner. I need the new covenant. Only then does Christ do in me (through His death, resurrection, and new life) what I am woefully incapable of doing. And then I am set free!

God has blessed me with so much in Christ. I cannot claim to have achieved it. It is ALL God’s doing. I have a great family… a treasure to me as I live out the last adventures of this season of my life. God can call me home anytime. Am I pouring my love into following Jesus and others in grateful recognition of Him empowering me to do so? I look back now on true wealth in which Christ blessed me. I did not create it. Even though there were times I nearly let the letter of the law wreak havoc in my heart, in my marriage, in my family, and in my home, God graciously brought me back to repent of this pride… to let my family know that I am far from perfect. And I know we learned to love one another as God loves… to forgive as we are forgiven… to bless with grace, not curse with tight boundaries of violation of arbitrary self-created interpretations of commands.

And in my church family I have learned the same, now in a season where I lean into the flock God has called me to help shepherd. I need them as much, perhaps more, than they need me. They nurture me in ways I desperately feel with thanksgiving as decades of grace flow back into me… and I pour it back even in occasional graceless responses and needy situations of others. It gives life!

O God,

Thank You that mutual ministry gives life! Thank You that Your Spirit renews and strengthens as we look to and follow Jesus as Your people in a new covenant of GRACE! 

Amen