Watch the video below, Christian Lie #19: “You need to keep certain religious rules” by Steve McVey, then my comments follow…
This is a great one…
You’ve heard me and Steve talk about how we aren’t living under a system of rules, under the law anymore — that we are dead to the law (Romans 7:4) and that you don’t have to follow any religious “rules” anymore.
Then it starts…
Christians start to get AFRAID that this will lead to sin, so they say things like…
“Yes, but we still need to follow the religious code of conduct in the New Testament”
“Yes, but we should still follow the guidelines the Bible lays out for us”
“Yes, but we still need to live our life in accordance with the moral standard of the Bible”
ALL LIES!
Seriously 
The words “code of conduct”, “guidelines”, and “moral standard” are all another word for rules…
We aren’t supposed to follow them, this self-imposed religion.
So why do people want to? Here’s what Paul says about it in Colossians 2:22-23 (the message, emphasis mine)
“So, then, if with Christ you’ve put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? “Don’t touch this! Don’t taste that! Don’t go near this!” Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they’re just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.”
Paul says the reason most Christians want to cling to the “codes of conduct” or keep SOME of the religious rules is to appear pious, to appear Godly, in other words — to feed the EGO!
I think this is dead on….
As humans all of use love to say things like, “I may sin… but never like THAT GUY!” to feed our egos. And looking at the Bible as a set of religious rules gives us the opportunity to say things like that as long as we keep steadfast to our little self-made “religion”.
But your ego is just another part of your “flesh” — the ways that you meet your needs APART from Christ….
That’s not the way God intends for us to live at all…
You see, we now have something BETTER than the law, BETTER than religious rules… we have Christ’s VERY SPIRIT inside us guiding us into what is right!
Paul said the law was just a cruel taskmaster to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24)
Many Christians are still afraid that you can’t throw out all the rules, because then you’ll have nothing to guide you. But, if you truly open your heart to Christ’s leading each and every day you literally can’t go wrong. Look at Christ on earth, He simply lived out of His and the Father’s love and it didn’t lead to him EVER sinning.
In fact, he broke MANY “rules” (healing on the sabbath, etc) but didn’t sin because “Christ is Love” …
So if you’re allowing Christ, who is LOVE to live through you each day as a Christian, then you literally can’t go wrong. You don’t need some religious rule book to guide you — you have the VERY LIFE of the only sinless man to ever live — Christ, who can guide you just fine…
The TRICK is to get out of His way
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5 Things I’m Grateful For Today:
- The weather is getting sunnier and sunnier
- I finished those two nagging projects
- Puedo hablar con mi madre este tarde…
- God is revealing more and more how complete, total, amazing, wide and HUGE His Love is each day
- That I was born in the U.S., and in this decade, because I’m able to be self-employed and work from home!
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