A Better Way

There is a distance in religion that starves the soul and makes God appear cold. No matter how grand the ritual or solemn the song, the feeling is the same, God is not here. In place of His presence is a pantheon of anxiety, guilt, disease, and fear. The mind gives way to the toxic regime that cannot bring us to rest. Religion’s behest is a never ending treadmill of tests, hoops, and eggshells. At the ens of the day a person finds themselves bereft of peace, joy, and love and asking is this all there is? Is there no other Way? 

Jesus came to the same circus of sanctimony. People were being crushed under the yokes of religion (Matthew 23:4) and man made traditions (Mark 7:9-13). In addition to the hardships of life, people had Roman occupiers who had disdain for Hebrews. Seeing the cocktail of persecution, life, and religious strictures Christ, God in human form said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).  The words of the Word of God called to the people. He offered rest in a time of restless penance and law keeping. Jesus offered another Way, one that was totally antithetical to the religious system that He said crushes people, “They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden,” (Matthew 23:4 NLT), and that neglects the more important matters, “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law--justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.” (Matthew 23:23). Christ offered a different Way, one that ensured eternal security through faith in Him (John 3:16, John 6:40) and that would put at ease the souls of men who were striving to be good under the Law.  

The Apostle John makes a-bold and true distinction. He states that Moses come with the Law, but Jesus came with Grace, “Moses came with the Law, but Christ came with Grace and Truth.” (John 1:17). That truth is the New Covenant, the Way (John 14:6) that is Jesus and the rest for our souls! This is amplified by Paul’s revelation that Sabbaths and festivals and rules are but shadows, “These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.” (Colossians 2:17). And why if we can now have the Body, namely Jesus, who lives in us (Colossians 1:27) and whom we live in (1 John 4:15), would we seek shadows again? If we have the substance, the perfect, who is Jesus, why chase after the shadow that has passed away? (Hebrews 8:13). And yet that is precisely what religion and the devil do, they have you chase after shadows: rules and secret knowledge, when you already have the substance that is Christ Jesus our Savior! 

The Way is restful. It is not pyramid company, where we are grunts and God sits at the top commanding more good works. Nay, God is in us and we are in Him if we confess Jesus Christ as Son of God and Lord (1 John 4:15, Romans 10:9)! If we then believe, we are in a natter of fact inside God (1 John 4:15), why then would you even conceive He would have you go back to Rule keeping and slavery to the Law? Is God or His Law greater? Certainly God is, His law came from His mouth, but God can change His mind (Exodus 22:14) and He did when He instituted a New Covenant (Luke 22:20) which was foretold by His prophets (Jeremiah 31:31-34) and fulfilled by Himself and His Son (John, Chapter 19 and 20). But the Lord God promises He will not change His mind if we have faith in Jesus, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30). Nothing can snatch us away, and so we have rest for our souls that God the Trinity holds on to us tightly who are His sheep. 

Jesus promised rest, part of that is our eternal security. In addition He promised us peace, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid,” (John 14:27), and “ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7). This better Way is peaceful, with anxiety and fear caste aside that is caused by trying to be good enough for God! If something or someone takes your rest and peace away in Christ then it is not of Christ. If a church cult, individual, teaching about exorcism (demons, deliverance, spiritual ware fare) , and  etc steals your inner peace and rest in Jesus then it is evil. Our eyes should be focused on Christ (Hebrews 12:2) and any teacher or teaching that oppresses you by removing your peace, security, and rest in Christ Alone (Solus Christus) is dangerous and of the devil. There are many who once rested in the better Way, trusting in Christ but fall prey to the schemes of deceivers, as the Apostle said, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.,” (Galatians 3:1-14), “For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace,” (Galatians 5:4), “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.,” (Galatians 2:21) and “I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3). 

Finally, along with rest and peace, Jesus offers love in place of law. In fact when asked what is the greatest commandment He said, “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40). Love. It was for love’s sake that Jesus died for or sins and gives us eternal life, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) and “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,  not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:4-10). The apostle even goes as far as to say the love of God is all consuming, “1that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19), and that love is so the nature of The Triune God, that He is love, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:7-21). 

So let us rest, be filled with peace and walk in the love of God! Resist the lies that would distort our Divine Lord’s image and put you under yokes of bondage in the name of religion. Instead cling to a “pure and simple devotion to Christ,” (2 Corinthians 11:3), “fix your eyes on Christ..,” (Hebrews 12:2) and “count all things lost but knowing Christ.” (Philippians 3:8). Amen.