Hola everyone. First of all, I had a great time on Wednesday. Our romp through Romans 7-8 was a definite blessing for me and got me thinking about a topic that has been at the forefront of my mind for quite some time.

As all of you know, Joy and I made the decision to leave CMC about 2 weeks ago. While there were a few major reasons for this, the one that took precedence over all the others was the sin focus at the church. When works based on fear, doubt, and guilt become the overwhelming thrust of a church, God’s love and grace for His children gets lost in the muck and mire of “just getting through this life, workin’ and grindin’, until we get to the next.”

In the final Ruth sermon, Driscoll started hitting on religion vs. redemption, and boy did he nail it. Hearing his words was like hearing my own thoughts on many a Sunday morning. Religion says you better do this, this, and this, and then MAYBE you’ll make it and God will love you. On the contrary, redemption says “God does love you and has loved you through Jesus’ finished work. It is Finished, you are redeemed, so trust in Jesus who did it for you!” The radical difference between these two ways of thinking can totally change how we live out this glorious life we have in Christ.

The ironic thing is that many of the people who have a religious focus will whole-heartedly agree that we as humans are unable of doing good, and yet their view of sanctification (and the primary source of assurance of our very salvation) is HOW WE ACT! It’s like trying to fix the problem with the problem itself. I’m definitely not saying that when we come to faith we’ll act the way we did before, but the changes in our actions, thoughts, and perspectives will come directly from resting and basking in God’s grace and goodness and perfection, rather than in our own strength.

Confirmation for how we have been feeling on this topic for the last 9+ months has come from quite a few sources including Driscoll, Bryan Chapell, Joseph Prince, and Jim Fowler (to name a few.) While I haven’t heard a ton from any of these guys, what I have heard has made it clear that they are all focused on Jesus and the power we have in Him. While they all might be saying it in their own unique way, their focus seems to be consistent and extremely encouraging.

I’m gonna end this post with a quote from Fowler that goes a little something like this (read Romans 8:1-2 if ya’ need some context):

“The indwelling function of the Christ-life sets us free from the religious performances of self-effort by which we are admonished to produce what only God can produce. We are set free from the obligatory compunctions of the “ought”, and the restrictive resraints of the “ought nots,” from the mandates of the “must,” and the moralism of the “must nots,” which always create condemnation in the conscience when we fail to meet the religious regulations. This is not an advocacy of license. But religion is always afraid of this “liberty of conscience,” claiming that it leads to novelty, uniqueness, variety, non-conformity, eccentricity, and Spirit-spontaneity which cannot be controlled by man. True, the “no condemnation – liberty of conscience” allows the living Lord Jesus to be uniquely Himself in each Christian, and no religion can control Christ.”