21 October 2015 - broken was the snare

The readings today warn us about an attitude wherein we try to game the system. Our lives as Christians aren't supposed defined by that with which we can get away.

Sin must not reign over us. OK, good. But maybe a little sin, where it isn't reigning over us, but where we're still in charge? We're under grace, not the law. If it isn't about the legalistic mind set, doesn't that mean letting small things slide?

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law
but under grace? 
Of course not!

It isn't because those small sins themselves are the real problem. It is because they are often gateway sins, leading us deeper into a prison from which escape is increasingly difficult.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves
to someone as obedient slaves,
you are slaves of the one you obey,
either of sin, which leads to death,
or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

We see that the idea of "eternal security" is a heresy. Once saved, not necessarily always saved. Sin indulged can eventually make us slaves to sin once more, leading to death. The alternative? Obedience.

This is just what Jesus says to his disciples. Obedience must mark their lives. The greater the knowledge they have of their masters will the more is demanded of them. It isn't the sort of legalistic obedience that only obeys when the master is looking.

But if that servant says to himself,
‘My master is delayed in coming,’
and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants,
to eat and drink and get drunk,
then that servant’s master will come
on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour
and will punish the servant severely
and assign him a place with the unfaithful.

We need to "become obedient from the heart". The law cannot achieve this. In fact, we cannot create this attitude within ourselves. On our own we're always concerned about what is the least we can get away with. We try to rationalize our behavior. We say, in a sense, tell ourselves that the LORD isn't looking. We really feel the need to believe that he doesn't care about our sin because if he does care then we, not understanding his heart, feel condemned. But he does not ignore sin, not because he is legalistic, but because he doesn't want to see us suffer. He himself sets us free from the attitudes of heart that want to do the least we can precisely because we insist on doing it on our own. Our help, our only help, is in his name.

Then would the waters have overwhelmed us;
The torrent would have swept over us;
over us then would have swept the raging waters.
Blessed be the LORD, who did not leave us 
a prey to their teeth.
We were rescued like a bird
from the fowlers’ snare;
Broken was the snare,
and we were freed.