A Gospel Life Makes Death Easier (5)

Death is something we all must experience. Life in relationship with God, by means of the gospel, — rather than living by laws, rules, principles and precepts — creates a much better dynamic.

Previously in this Series on Death

Episode 2 (click here for it) painted a picture how life looks living in a gospel relationship with God vs. living by rules. This episode 5 will do the same: showing different aspects of living by relationship vs. rules.

Episodes 3 (click here for it), and Episode 4 (click here for it) showed WHY it’s so important to live in Christ’s gospel when facing the reality of a death experience.

The Difference Between Rules and Relationship

We’ll look at four comparisons today.

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RULES. If you talk to someone who lives by rules, they are almost fearful of having their theology challenged. It is as if their identity has become their theology. Their tendency is to avoid other people who differ from what they think. They fear letting anything new into their thinking, — for fear they might be wrong, or even more disturbing, that the other person may be right. Rules people are more rigid, concerned with what they need to do ‘next’ — and there is always a ‘next.’

RELATIONSHIP. If you talk to someone who lives in God’s gospel love, they welcome any challenge to their theology. They want to be stretched. They want to know Father at deeper levels. They aren’t fearful of new things. Instead, they are fearful of missing something new Father is trying to show them. They will listen to anyone, maybe even the dog next door, unless he barks too much. They know Father won’t give them a serpent if they ask for bread. They trust God, and just ‘prove all things’ against his word. In fact, they give God permission to change their theology on a daily basis if he wants to. They do not fear being wrong. They don’t have to defend some belief system. They know WHOM they believe, as Paul says, not just WHAT they believe. What they believe continually evolves and changes because their revelation of whom they believe continually grows.

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RULES. If you ask a person who lives by rules about their prayer life, they will often talk about their faithfulness in prayer, about their prayer list, and about intercession for other people. They will talk about their ’journal of answered prayer,’ and about just ‘tarrying with Jesus for an hour.’ Perhaps they will talk about attending a 6:00 A.M. prayer meeting each week, and how faithful they are to do so.

RELATIONSHIP. If you talk to a person who lives in Jesus, they don’t talk much about their prayer life. In fact they may say they don’t pray for much at all. All they say they ‘fellowship in the gospel’ with Father (Phil 1:5). They may talk about their worship of God for who he is, and thanking him for all he has done. They may talk about coming to know Father and his Son as Philippians 3:10 says, which includes knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection in them, being joined to his sufferings for them and the comfort this gives them, and how God conforms us to his son’s death: “You are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Their focus is trust in God, knowing that he knows everything they need, even before they ask, but this doesn’t stop them from asking, if they have something that is really on their heart.

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RULES. If you ask a rules person about righteousness, they will talk in terms of things they do and don’t do, and how those things make them either feel righteous or unrighteous. They don’t cuss, steal, or commit adultery. They do attend church, read the Bible and give money. They interpret their righteousness in the sense of a VERB — what they do — in terms of their deeds and actions. Their focus is always on SELF, and they fail to see that self-righteousness is living by law (Phil 3:9). This keeps them from entering into God’s righteousness (Rom 10:3).

RELATIONSHIP. If you ask a person who knows Father’s New Testament love, they know righteousness is the free gift of God imparted to them through Jesus. They talk in terms of being, not doing. They know that righteousness in the New Testament is a NOUN: who they are. It is not a verb: what they do. They might say, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ” (II Cor 5:21). They may say, “As Jesus is, so am I in this world” (I John 4:17) — or “I am a joint, equal heir with Jesus himself” — because of his finished work for us (Rom 8:17).

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RULES. If you talk to someone who lives by rules about worship, you will hear things about going to worship services, or about how ‘good’ a worship service was, or how ‘bad’ it was. They will talk of enjoying worship, or about not enjoying it. They will talk in terms of the music, — the amount of ‘praise music,’ vs. the amount of ‘worship music.’ They will talk about the drums, or about the guitars, and how loud the instruments were, and whether they should be turned down. They may talk about whether the songs were ones they knew or didn’t know.

RELATIONSHIP. If you talk to a person who knows Father loves them like crazy because they are ‘in Christ,’ they have a whole different perspective of worship. To them, worship isn’t a worship service, or any other type of special time. Instead, it’s a constant lifestyle. They wake up in the morning and worship God — sometimes even before their feet hit floor. They talk of the gospel empowering them to worship God in spirit and in truth, and of the Holy Spirit infusing them with God’s love for them, and thus their love for God. They don’t look at a so-called ‘worship service’ except as only one special time to express their gratitude and love to God, and to his Son Jesus, and to hear from them in a new and special way.

Living life by Rules vs. Relationship with God

I am just finishing my E-book and will give it away when I finish it. In it, I give 16 examples, showing how living life in relationship with God is so powerful, and living life by rules and laws and standards is so defeating because we can’t measure up to God’s standards, or often even our own standards. As Pogo says, “We have met the enemy and they is us.”

The tighter the relationship we have with God, the fewer rules are needed. The Holy Spirit takes over and guides us better than the law of the Old Testament did the ancient Jews. The more questionable and loose the relationship with God is, the more rules people think they need. This is true with God, but it is also true in human relationships with other people, especially in families.