“The Legal Tangle” by Carl Ketcherside: Death of legalistic religion.

 

It is an amazing thing that brethren who can be so positive about everything else

cannot even tell whether they are saved or not. Characteristic of our casuistry in those days, we would always come up with a pat little slogan. “I know I am safe but no one knows he is saved.” We thought you had to wait until the resurrection and judgment and find out whether you had made a passing grade on law-keeping or flunked out in your finals. If there was something you didn’t know that you should have known, or something you should have remembered that you forgot, the recording angel would blot your name out of the book of life.

 

No wonder with that kind of an attitude we were all “recording angels” and blotting out the names of brethren “who did not live up to their responsibility.” If they missed three times straight without being able to give a good and sufficient reason, like getting a leg cut off in an automobile accident, we withdrew from them. It never occurred to us that they were fed up with a diet of corn flakes every Sunday morning, served up dry and without the sweetening of love and the milk of human kindness. I am glad all of that is over for me. I think it was good that I waded through it and tried to hang on because now I can appreciate what a blessing it is to be in the everlasting arms.

 

I know now that I have been made a partaker of the divine nature. I am dead and my life is hid with Christ in God. I “worship God in spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.” I have been set free from sin and become a slave of righteousness. I am a willing captive, drawn by His immeasurable love and power. “But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit” (Romans 7:6). The new life of the Spirit is not only contrasted with the old written code but it is contrasted with any other written code, old or new. I am glad that I found that out. Once I thought God wanted me to be a good lawyer, and I studied hard and majored in law. Now I know he wants me to be a great lover, and that’s my major. It is the more excellent way! I know. I have tried them both!

 

 

I want to be like Paul. I want to gain Christ. More than anything else in this whole universe that is what I want. I want to “be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith (Philippians 3:9). Read that again! It is a description of the ground on which I have pitched my tent. There are two approaches to righteousness. You can try to have a righteousness of your own, based on law. It will not work. You do not have what it takes. You can never be good enough by law to make it. You can have the righteousness of God that depends on faith. It will not fail. It is founded not upon what you do for God but upon what He has done for you.

 

Yes, there is a difference between being guided by the abiding principle of love and being under a written code, a compilation of laws, where you are treated like a child or a slave (Galatians 4:1-3). Never forget that any written code upon which justification is suspended is a law of sin and death. If you convert the new covenant love letters into such a code you doom yourself to die. You build your own scaffold. You knot your own noose. You sharpen your own dagger. If the inheritance is by the law, or by any law except the principle of faith in Christ Jesus, it is no longer by promise!

 

     If the apostolic letters are not intended to be a written code, why were they written at all?

 

Since they are personal letters and were written to different communities and individuals they were written for different reasons. If you have several married children away from home you do not always write the same things to all of them. Some of what you say applies to all and in that respect one letter is like another. But you deal with each situation as it requires. The same thing holds true with the apostolic letters. They were penned to meet needs, to encourage in times of stress and persecution, or to command actions that were worthy. The circumstances existing determined the purpose of the letters. Our problem is that we hardly think of them as letters. We regard them as so many parts of a book of statutes and we thus destroy the love that should shine through everyone of them.

 

Paul’s first letter to the saints in Corinth was prompted by a report conveyed to the apostle by the family of a Christian woman whose name was Chloe (1:11). He wrote, “I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children” (4:14). This was his method of dealing with a rather sticky case of division within the group. Another part of his letter was a reply to one addressed to him and carried by Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus. “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote” (7:1).

 

The letter to Philippi was one of thanks to brethren who had sent to relieve his need in prison. It was intended to reassure them of the recuperation of Epaphroditus who had almost died in bringing their gift to Rome. “I have received full payment, and more; I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God” (4:18).

 

The first letter to Timothy was to inform him of the way one should behave in the household, that is, the family circle of God. If Paul could have seen Timothy the letter would not have been written at all. “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God” (3:14, 15).

 

The first epistle of John was written that the recipients might share in the common life which the eyewitnesses of Jesus shared with the Father and the Son, that their joy might be full and that they might know they had eternal life. “And we are writing this that your joy may be complete” (1:4). “I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:13).

 

It was never intended that those who wrote the letters dominate the faith of the saints. “Not that we lord it over your faith, we work with you for your own joy” (2 Cor. 1:24). Those who have converted these timely letters into a legalistic code with which to force brethren to goose-step to their orders and will have completely missed the spirit of the revelation of God.

 

     If we are not under law, why does Paul speak of the law of faith?

 

In Romans 3:20, Paul affirms that no human being can be justified by works of the law in the sight of God. Actually, he says, law brings knowledge of sin. It does not bring relief from it. But now the righteousness of God is manifested apart from law. It is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. This makes boasting impossible.

 

Obviously, if one could attain to a state of righteousness through law-keeping he would have something about which to brag. But since we are justified by His grace freely, that is, as a gift, and not through our own efforts, there is no room for boasting. The King James Version reads, “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of law” (Romans 3:27, 28).

 

The law of faith is not the new covenant scriptures. They were not yet written. The apostle was contrasting two principles upon which man might predicate justification. One was by perfectly keeping law. The other was by absolute faith, or trust in the righteousness of Christ. He shows that the first was impossible for man in the flesh. The only hope was by grace as God’s gift. The Revised Version conveys the correct

meaning in the rendering, “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On the principle of works? No, but on the principle of faith. For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law.” Another good translation is that of Richard Francis Weymouth in The Modern Speech New Testament. “Where then is your room for boasting? It is for ever shut out? On what principle? On the ground of merit? No, but on the ground of faith. For we maintain that it is as the result of faith that a man is held to be righteous, apart from actions done in obedience to Law.”

 

There is no indication that the apostle Paul ever thought of the letters he was writing as part of a written code of law. It remained for us, after these letters were gathered up and compiled into a single volume, to read back into them the idea of a code of jurisprudence. Grace is so difficult for us to accept, simply because it is a gift without strings attached that we feel more comfortable if we devise a system by which we pay God back for what He did for us. Because of this tendency toward “legalism” every time some brethren see the term law they automatically think: it is speaking of a written code.

 

     But did not Paul say he was under the law of Christ?

 

Indeed he did, and I am also under the law of Christ, exactly as he was. Paul was talking about adjusting to various categories of individuals for the sake of the gospel that he might by the employment of all means save more. He was free from all men, but he made himself the servant of all men, in order to gain the most men possible for Christ (1 Cor. 9:19). He knew that in order to do this it was necessary for him to share the life and circumstances of those he met. He did not ask them to become like himself. He became like them. He adapted himself to their customs, recognized their hangups and made allowances even for their prejudices.

 

He said, “Unto the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law.” Paul respected the traditions of the Jews. He conformed to them while among the Jews. Although he regarded every creature of God as good and not to be refused as food if received with thanksgiving, he would not violate the dietary laws of those among whom he labored. He valued men more than his own freedom and would not allow his liberty to become a stumbling block to others. When one has a passion for souls other considerations are always secondary.

 

“To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law.” Paul did not seek to bind upon the Gentiles any of the ceremonies or requirements of the Mosaic law. Paul was circumcised, but had no qualm about eating with brethren who were not. He circumcised Timothy, who was a half-Jew, as a matter of expediency, but he did not suggest this as a rule for others of mixed parentage. He did not deliberately flaunt his Jewishness. As Albert Barnes says, in his comments upon this passage, “Nothing is ever gained by provoking opposition for the mere sake of opposition. Nothing tends more to hinder the gospel than that.”

 

But Paul was not lawless! He was not an antinomian. He was not an outlaw among those without law. He recognized the sovereignty of God. He sought to live, even among the Greeks, in such a manner as to demonstrate respect and reverence for God’s rule. Jesus was not just someone for whom Paul lived. He was Paul’s life. “It is not I that liveth, it is Christ that liveth in me.” That is exactly the way I feel, and although I cannot begin to imitate His life as did Paul, I want to do so “as much as in me is.”

 

For years I sought to be good by law. But law operates by fear. It does not bring inner calm, but trepidation. It causes you to measure yourself by dogma

rather than devotion. It even inspires rivalry and jealousy. But I was delivered from my childish concept of God as head of a universal bureau of investigation, composed of angels reporting back to him as chief. I came to know what it meant to be a child in the family of God. What a difference it made. I am not only under law to Christ, but Christ is my law. My law is personal. It is unthinkable to me, the way I feel about Him, that I would not respond to His wishes, and keep His commandments.

 

What a blessing it is to have no rivals! You are yourself and God loves you as you are. He doesn’t want you to be someone else or even try to be. This frees you from the frightful trauma of thinking you are a failure because you cannot accomplish what another does. It also delivers you from the terrible wrong of trying to make everyone else over in conformity with your own scarred image. You can listen to what others say about you and read what they write about you, and rejoice and be exceedingly glad. You can even laugh out loud when they lie about you, and feel sorry for them, rather than yourself!

 

No one is going to disturb my relationship with Jesus. No one is going to displace me or replace me. I’m the only child of the Father who is like me, and there are no substitutes for me. There are no substitutes for Him either. No one else has to think like me, talk like me, or write like me! They probably would not want to do so. But I do not have to think, talk or write like anyone else either. You’re right, I don’t want to! To let Jesus be your law does not mean that all of God’s children are stamped out with a divine cookie cutter. It does not mean they are a row of sanctified Kewpie dolls lined up on the shelf of the heavenly den. If you have any growing ambition to convert me into being like you, forget it! I am clay, but you are not the potter! You are another lump of clay. And there is nothing sillier than a couple of clay pots engaged in a knock-down-and-drag-out fight about whether the Father will swipe one off the shelf for supporting a television program.

 

Those of us who are heirs of our particular “restoration movement” which was launched by godly and devout Presbyterians with the help of others, are running out of steam and effectiveness in this generation. We have never made peace in the church. We have only made pieces of it. Even now, while others are thinking in terms of repairing breaches and binding up wounds, a lot of our brethren are in a frenzy of withdrawal, driving humble saints out from among them, breaking hearts and homes, cutting and slashing as if the sword of the Spirit had been given them only for the purpose of massacre in the family. The day for such “blood-baths” and political purges is gone. The saints are getting fed up with authoritarian assumption. They are tired of mere human beings throwing their weight around and “lording” it over God’s heritage. The fullness of times has come for a change.

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Galatians 3:21-29.  …For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law. ²² But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. ²³ Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. ²⁴ Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶ for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷ As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

The “church” is composed of individuals. It can only be changed as individuals are changed. And individuals are changed as their thinking is changed. We are today exactly where our thinking has brought us. We will be tomorrow exactly where our thinking takes us. If we would be different tomorrow than we are today we must change our thinking before tomorrow. You do not change the thinking of an organization. You change the thinking of those within it, but you must start with yourself. Please allow me to make a few suggestions I think may help restore to sanity a movement which is tearing at its own flesh, and ripping itself to shreds.

 

1. Begin to regard “the church” as a family, the whole family of God. Think of it as the entire collection of the ransomed and redeemed. It is not limited to those who have a correct understanding of certain doctrinal points. It consists of all who have been born again. It is the community of the whole creation. Every saved person on earth is in it. All who have committed themselves to an obedient

life under the Lordship of Jesus are a part of it. If you must judge others, do so by their fruits, and not by their intellectual ability or attainments.

 

There is a difference in being a member of your father’s family and in belonging to the Farm Bureau Association or the Parent-Teachers Association. It is true that the constituents of the latter organizations can get together for a Christmas party but it is not like having the family present on Christmas Eve. Our problem is that we have allowed the family feeling to erode away and the warmth has gone out of our association. Sometimes we are even “bugged” because we have to go to a meeting and we are afraid to take strangers for fear they will be assaulted verbally by impolite and boorish guardians of the ramparts. We must allow the Spirit of God to change our hearts until we regard each other as beloved brethren.

 

2. Put the new covenant scriptures back into the proper perspective. They are not a compilation of laws under grace, but a collection of letters written with deep affection to the children of God in Christ. You are not a law enforcement agent, or a political officer. You are a sinner saved by grace. You are not one of God’s police squad, but a participant in divine mercy.

 

The new covenant scriptures are a recipe book for life. They are not the Way. Jesus is the Way. He is also the truth and the life. The letters are a road map to show you how to follow the Way. They constitute the white lines on the edges of the highway, and the yellow line in its center. Do not get uptight when someone does not see everything like you do. You will not be held accountable for what another thinks or does. Above all, do not “lay down the law” for others. You are as human as they are. Show them “the more excellent way.” It is never inappropriate, and never out of place.

 

3. Think of the particular restoration movement of which we are the fortunate heirs as a historical reaction to disunity and fragmentation of the saints of God. Do not confuse that movement, or its crystallization into its present form or image with the “Lord’s church.” It is sectarian to build an institution around any concept, even one as great as unity, and designate it as “the church.” This means that we must stop thinking of any of the two dozen different Churches …., or all of them put together, as being the body of Christ exclusively.

 

That body has members in the world who never heard of “our” Church …. It has members who meet behind various and divergent signboards. They are not God’s children because of where they are, but in spite of where they are. One is a child of God because he is in Christ Jesus and Christ is in him. He is not a person who is right on everything, but one who is in the right Person with everything, including his mistaken ideas and notions. We are not a people of the united notions, but a people united in Christ.

 

4. Begin to quietly enjoy the freedom wherewith Christ has set you free. You do not need to engage in oratory or flag-waving to be free. You do not need to set off fireworks in the local congregation. You do not have to beat a drum and shout in the Bible class. But remember, you are not free so long as your life is regulated by other men and you are motivated in what you do through fear of what others will say or think.

 

A good way to commence to be used by God as a humble peacemaker in this divided complex is to resolve to visit other groups who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to see for yourself how they express their praise unto God. I suggest that you resolve to visit a new place one Sunday night per month. Scare your neighbors by telling them you would like to attend with them on a certain Sunday night. It will probably cause them to think you are coming unglued, and losing your marbles, seeing that you have always refused their invitation with a kind of self-righteous arrogance before.

 

If your intentions are misunderstood and you are regarded as a “potential

joiner” make your self clear. Tell them frankly, but smilingly, that you are satisfied with who you are and where you are. You are not seeking either personal identity, or “church identification” (whatever that is) but you are simply seeking to understand their approach to your Father, and you are interested in them as you are in all who love your Lord.

 

What you see and hear will probably “turn you off.” You may develop a feeling of pride and superiority and sit in the seat of the scornful thanking God that you are not as other men are. Do not let this happen. If you do, Satan has turned your good intentions into a personal destructive force. Search for the things you can commend as well as seeing those you cannot commend. But each place you go, enter with a prayer, “Lord, if there is someone here who needs me, lead me to that person. Let me touch his life, or hers, in such a manner that Christ, who is the Reality can shine through me.”

 

If you have been reared in “The Church …” you may have a real trauma about even going to another place for a visit. This is a part of the legalistic approach, and it affects us exactly as it does a devout Roman Catholic, and for exactly the same reason. Of course, on that basis Jesus could never have left heaven and come to earth, and even had He done so. He could not have associated with those among whom He moved. All sectarianism is based upon fear, and that includes our sectarianism as well as any other brand.

 

If you are afraid to go listen to others for fear you may be misled, your real problem is not what they may advocate, but what you believe. You are afraid that your shield of faith may be penetrated, or that your sword is incapable of saving you in certain encounters. The tragedy of all this is that what you call faith is merely your prejudice, and it is true that mere prejudice can never stand up in encounter. If the sword of the Spirit is not able to resist some enemies it is not able to resist any! I grant you that your use of it may be inept, but if that is the problem you ought not to be too cynical and critical of your religious neighbors who are not too well-trained either. In our sheltered monastic existence, where we send out knights, whom we dub preachers, to battle dragons like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the rest of us couldn’t kill a mouse in the castle with a broom. But Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living,” to which I offer my own paraphrase, “An unexamined faith is not worth having.”

 

All attempts at reunion of the people of God must begin with association, not for debate but for mutual understanding. This is not easy for those who have been taught that segregation from others is proof of fidelity to God, and any association on a friendly plane is compromise. Any reversal of policy is difficult when the traditional procedure is assumed to be the will of God, but we must change if we are to be used by the Spirit. In my own life I have developed a personal strategy. I call it the ART of peacemaking, because it involves three things—Association, Recognition, and Teamwork. Let me explain.

 

I am resolute in my determination to inaugurate and practice association with all who regard Jesus as the Messiah and God’s Son. Since this is my only creed, it is a good foundation upon which to stand with another while we try to explore the implications and demands of our mutual faith. In addition to mere association, I will recognize as a brother in Christ anyone who has been born of the water and of the Spirit. I will receive such a one as God received him—and me!

 

I do not receive one because he is a Baptist, a Methodist, a Mennonite, or a Church of Christer. To do that would be sectarian and I am opposed to all sectarianism, which is, in essence, simply the party spirit expressed. I receive him because he is in Christ. I am not so much concerned with what he is in. I am concerned with who he is in and who is in him. Since I must rely upon human judgment, as well as upon the word of God, I realize that I may make a mistake. But I would rather accept as a brother one whom God has not accepted, than to reject as a brother one whom God has accepted. That is but another way of saying that I want even my ignorance to be slanted toward mercy rather than the other direction.

 

In addition to association with all who believe in Christ as Lord, and recognition as my brothers of all who have become a new creation in what I believe to be the divinely authorized response to the good news about Jesus, I am driven to go one step further. I will engage in any work with others which I believe to be in harmony with the principles of righteousness. In plain simple terms this means that I will put my shoulder to the wheel and help in one particular with others with whom I cannot assist in anything else.

 

Let me be explicit! In case of a tornado tragedy, if the Mennonites are on the ground and alleviating distress in a well-organized fashion, I see no reason for me setting up a “Church … Depot.” I will serve in the soup kitchen and the clothing dispensary with the Mennonites. If the Presbyterians develop a good program for handling drug abuse among high school young people I will go into the schools with them, and appear on television with them, and throw my support behind them. I will engage in teamwork with anyone who seeks to exemplify the spirit of my Lord, even though I may think he is quite ignorant of a lot of things in the scriptures.

 

Disaster, hunger, drug abuse, cold, and age, are not “Church …” problems. They are problems of the human predicament and all of us are caught up in them. I want to fight sin, and that means I must fight its effects. The human predicament is part of those effects, and anyone who seeks to openly fight them is fighting the effects of sin, whether he knows it or not. I fully realize that I may be labeled a “heretic” for my position, but that does not bother me one bit. The heroes of today were the heretics of yesterday. I am perfectly aware that all of the reforms ever carried out were the work of heretics, and I shall feel in good company.

 

There is one thing you must remember, however, as you read this. I am telling you what I think and how I propose to work. You need not think as I do and you need not work as I do, for me to love you. I am doing what I think my Lord wants me to do and saying what I think He wants me to say. I will be glad to see Him and find out if I was right about it, but I respect Him to the degree that no one else will ever be Lord of my life! God bless you all!