47 - Rules

It's getting confusing: Many Christians seem headed in opposite directions. One group is becoming more and more legalistic, pointing to all the rules in the Old Testament and insisting that they are eternal which means they must be obeyed forever. Another group is becoming more and more lawless, pointing to the fact that when Jesus died for our sins He died for all of them, so it doesn't matter if a believer continues to sin. They say everything is under grace. Both groups quote from the Bible to support their positions, but they say very different things and present a very different picture of God. One group is rediscovering the “Law.” The other is abandoning it altogether. 

So who's right, and who's wrong? And what if both are wrong, then how would we discover the right way? Are we supposed to obey all those rules or not? And the most important question of all is, how will we know for sure that we're right? Thankfully there is an answer, a rock-solid answer. And it's not an answer that comes from someone's opinion or a clever argument. It's an answer that comes from God Himself. But He doesn't tell us this answer; He shows us the answer. He lets us watch as He applies His own rules to someone who has broken the rules. And what we discover is that He is neither legalistic nor lawless. He's exactly like Jesus.