If you wear glasses you may have noticed that over time they wear out. It seems like the longer you wear them the weaker they get. So every year or so you have to get a new pair. That was today for me. I picked up my new glasses at about 10:15 this morning. I saw things differently the rest of the day.
This time the Dr. changed the prescription for my right eye while the prescription for the left eye remained the same. I am hugely right eye dominant. For the next few hours I was in meetings where people were relatively close to me, plus my eyes were dilated. Later in the afternoon I was working in a situation where I had to keep in focus things that were further away from me.
My eyes were not cooperating. Everything felt out of whack. My right eye seemed to be fighting the new prescription. I felt feverish and low level disoriented. Those who know me well may suggest that is normal. It got to the point that I felt bad enough that I thought I might be running a fever, but no.
What has this to do with us as believers? I have been working through an issue with a pastor in another country who is ministering to people who are coming to Christ out of a heavily legalistic religious system. He is struggling with how to share the grace of God and the need to follow Christ with these people and not have them replace one legalistic system with an evangelical legalistic system. That is our wont is it not. To look to perform to a standard. But Colossians 2:9 – 10 says that these new believers are complete in Christ. It is grace for them not works. It is a new view of the world. A new set of glasses for them.
When our world view is challenged and changed, it is, like my experience this morning, at some level disorienting. It takes time to adjust to the new realities. That is a challenge for new believers as they learn about God’s grace. But it should be nearly a daily experience for us as believers as we continually come to the Word of God to have our spiritual glasses adjusted. For no matter how long we have been on this path, we have not aligned ourselves completely with our Lord’s view of things. Each time we come to His Word it should have the effect of adjusting our “prescription.” That should have the impact of disorienting us to this world on a regular basis.
My eyes were not cooperating. Everything felt out of whack. My right eye seemed to be fighting the new prescription. I felt feverish and low level disoriented. Those who know me well may suggest that is normal. It got to the point that I felt bad enough that I thought I might be running a fever, but no.
What has this to do with us as believers? I have been working through an issue with a pastor in another country who is ministering to people who are coming to Christ out of a heavily legalistic religious system. He is struggling with how to share the grace of God and the need to follow Christ with these people and not have them replace one legalistic system with an evangelical legalistic system. That is our wont is it not. To look to perform to a standard. But Colossians 2:9 – 10 says that these new believers are complete in Christ. It is grace for them not works. It is a new view of the world. A new set of glasses for them.
When our world view is challenged and changed, it is, like my experience this morning, at some level disorienting. It takes time to adjust to the new realities. That is a challenge for new believers as they learn about God’s grace. But it should be nearly a daily experience for us as believers as we continually come to the Word of God to have our spiritual glasses adjusted. For no matter how long we have been on this path, we have not aligned ourselves completely with our Lord’s view of things. Each time we come to His Word it should have the effect of adjusting our “prescription.” That should have the impact of disorienting us to this world on a regular basis.
In a couple of ways your pastor friend is in an enviable position: he knows his your believers are from a legalistic system, he can see and understand it, and he realizes the danger he faces in trying to help them learn the grace of our God in as a practical lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteI fear I rate low on all counts. Do I realize how legalistic I am (in acceptable western evangelical ways, of course)? At least I often do understand how legalistic others are. But what are my solutions? It's SO easy to demand a legalistic lifestyle on them simply by my actions and attitudes - without even having a clue!
Yes. That is so good. We model legalism without realizing what we are doing. We do that by not clearly explaining the impact of the believer's position in Christ and the actual purpose of the disciplines.
DeleteGood thoughts thank you for taking the time to respond.