Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.

• Galatians 3:24

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

• Matthew 5:17-18

For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

• Romans 6:14

This issue again raised its ugly head with me recently.  I went to the Christmas Cantata.  Actually, I went to the regular early-morning worship service, then taught Sunday school, and then attended the cantata.  It was a short one, but they filled the rest of the time with the usual order of worship.

The cantata took such a short time, they even had the commissioning of an Associate Pastor Search Committee.

There is just one problem.  We have an Associate Pastor who wants to stay and the church, for the most part, wants her to stay.  But she came to the church under contract.  The higher up organization said we had to follow the rules.  So, we have to organize a group of volunteers to review resumes, conduct interviews, and do all that stuff before we can ignore all that stuff and hire the person that is already doing the job.

That struck me so much of being a Pharisee that it got me upset.  I am a recovering legalist.  My parents crammed legalism down my throat.  I never heard a sermon about how Jesus wants a relationship with us until about 20-25 years ago.  So, the first fifty years, give or take, nothing rocked my legalism world, although I prayed, read the Bible, and did my best to grow closer to Jesus and be more like Jesus, just in a legalism point of view.  I was saved, but my theology was off.  Even now, I see the Scriptures above and I see that Jesus fulfilled the Law, and we are not to willfully ignore any small part of the Law.  We just want to follow those rules because Jesus loves us and it is a way of showing love in return.  It still means the Law is there, but we must focus on Jesus and being more like Him.

I recently heard a Baptist preacher talk about shaving while looking at the mirror.  He noticed in his reflection that he had some shaving cream on his cheek.  He leaned over and rubbed his cheek on the mirror to remove the shaving cream.  No!  That would be silly.  The mirror reflects our imperfections back to us.  The mirror is not used to wipe that imperfection away.  The Law shows us just how needy we are, how we need Jesus in our life.  The Law does not wipe away the sin, it places a spotlight on the sin so that we turn to Jesus and cling to Him evermore so fervently.

So, do I applaud a religion that has stupid rules that must be followed?  Absolutely not.  Just as we follow very good rules in the process of showing love toward our fellow man, including all from neighbors to enemies to those we do not even know, I can just as easily commend the work that these modern-day Pharisees do.  Even Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus believed.  The rule followers need a little love, whether enemy or friend.

But I wonder if we will, this side of heaven, ever have a “religion” without “religiosity?”  I think on the other side, we will do the right thing simply because it is the right thing.  No committee, no rules, just love.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.