What are your thoughts on taking off the training wheels?
My friend, Richard Truitt, sent this to me … (his reflections on living “under grace”)
The Christian walk is a like a narrow path lying between an inviting meadow and a beautiful cliff. The path has up and downs, but generally climbs upward.
The Law, represented by the fence, runs along the path for the first part of the journey. It is useful as a reference to make sure one is on, or near the path. The fence over time, though, is less useful as a guide – I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. (Jeremiah 31:33). The law lessens its guiding importance as our sensitivity to the gentle pulling of the Holy Spirit (i.e. Rope of Grace) becomes stronger.
The Field of Legalism is safe and inviting as opposed to the exciting slopes leading to the Cliff of License. We have a natural tendency to wander into legalism because we can make our own gods out of our efforts to perform up to the law and fear of looking bad if we tumble off into lawlessness. We also have a natural tendency to guide others along the Law Fence to keep them away from the Cliffs of License. It is easy to lean towards the known of legalism than the unknown of lawlessness.
But it is important to know we are equally off the path, i.e. out of God’s will (read “sin”), on either side (Galatians 5:4). But is more important to remember the Rope of Grace is never untied from our waist.
The sides of the path become steeper as we journey. Martin Luther likened the Christian walk to a drunk peasant riding a donkey continually falling off one side (legalism) or the other (license). But he keeps getting back on. Thank God for grace. And our faith in grace is periodically tested when we come to various trials (Abyss of Unbelief).1 We will be called to step off into a void in faith that the Rope of Grace will hold us. It is at those times that the Field of Legalism looks particularly inviting (and is the most dangerous).
1 from Larry Crabb’s book, Marriage Builder
3 responses so far ↓
Ted // October 20, 2008 at 11:52 pm
“The great tragedy of our age is the fact, if one may dare to say it, that there are so many godless Christians – Christians, that is, whose religion is a matter of mere conformism and expediency. Their ‘faith’ is little more than a permanent evasion of reality – a compromise with life. In order to avoid admitting the uncomfortable truth that they no longer have any real need for God or any vital faith in Him, they conform to the outward conduct of others like themselves. And these ‘believers’ cling together, offering one another an apparent justification for lives that are essentially the same as the lives of their materialistic neighbors whose horizons are purely those of the world and its transient values.” Thomas Merton
Iris Papyrus // October 23, 2008 at 4:39 pm
This isn’t a question or a contradiction or anything, just a verse I saw today after I did the daily devotional. Talking about the “law of sin” and everything just made this verse (below) stick out to me and made me think of God’s law versus the sinful law…just a little something to throw into the mix
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“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”- Galations 6:2
akalt // October 23, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Great insight Iris — Galatians is one of Paul’s other writings where he warns against coming “under the law” again — the Old Testament and seeing life through the grid of right and wrong. In an ironic/creative use of the expression “law” – he talks about the law of Christ — meaning “love” — when we carry each other’s burdens – we love. When Jesus was asked the most important command, in Matthew 22, he said that the whole law is fulfilled in the command to love God and love others!