Gospel Liberty

Two Sundays ago I preached from Romans 14-15 on the nature of Gospel freedom.  While I am breaking from the blog for a while, I wanted to post on this message because of the response it received.  What is Gospel freedom and what does it look like in the life of a local church?

The early church faced the same challenges we face today -- when godly Christians, seeking to honor the Gospel in all things, make decisions about the details of application -- they often differ.  Whom shall I vote for?  Will I watch the television?  Will I home school?   The Bible does not address these issues specifically.

Godliness requires making those decisions.  Paul wants Christians to come to convictions about such things.  He does not desire to have Christians drift along without convictions.  He does not want people to "do what others do."  Paul is not a "everyone has their own truth" advocate -- nor is he going to tell all the Christians in Rome to be abstainers or observers.  He wants them to get their Bible in hand and seek what pleases God in their own practice.

But we see things differently. Our practices vary. Where there are no specific commands, we compile all the Scripture that may apply to our decisions and weigh out what God would call us to do -- and we decide. 

There are multiple temptations that come when I meet other Christians with whom I differ. 

1. there is the temptation to think I am God and to judge them or despise them (Romans 14:3ff).  I think they must be immature and wonder when they will grow up and be like me.  I think they must be ungodly and wonder when they will live with my rules.  Paul makes it very clear that I am not God and not in a position to judge.  God is at work in them and he will work in their conclusions and sustain them and judge them.
2. there is the temptation to undermine them -- to weaken their convictions.  I may hear them say, "Our family has decided to watch some TV each week."  To which I respond, "Have you really thought about this?" and thus sow doubts in their hearts and undermine their convictions -- leading them to sin against conscience.

Our calling is to speak and act in a way that enhances their faith for what God is doing in their hearts -- to respect the work of God in their souls.  And that means I need to figure out how my actions and words may affect them.

What is clear in Romans is this:

1. Paul never expected uniformity of conclusions -- so he did not want one church of partakers and another of abstainers -- one church of home schoolers and another of public schoolers -- one church of move goers and another of movie avoiders.  Yet this is precisely what we have done.  Churches take conscientious positions and turn them into absolute rules, required of al members.
2. Nor does Paul play politics -- he is very clear about his own convictions!  He is not an abstainer.  He is not worried about his "example" in admitting this.
3. Paul expects them to work with each situation differently . . . . whether I serve Merlot to a dinner guest depends on who the guest is.  I may do so with one couple and not with the next.  THis is not a matter for uniform rules in the church by-laws -- it is a matter for situation by situation discernment.

This is not easy -- requires humility and prayer and knowing each other.  But the practice of love in relationship is much harder than a uniform policy. 

The bottom line with Paul is very simple -- we are to welcome those whom God has welcomed -- even where we differ in the details of applying agreed upon absolute truth. If someone else has stood before the Judge of all humanity, and there, in Christ, has been fully accepted by God -- I am not to add a few more requirements for fellowship with me.

Comments

[Andre Yee]

Mark,

Thanks for this helpful post on Christian liberty. You've made a point of not only discussing how decisions are made with conviction in the framework of liberty but also noting the importance on how we approach others who may differ from us. I noted it on my blog roundup for this week.