Monday, September 21, 2009

400 posts

This is the 400th post on this blog - the first being on June 1st, 2007. You can see that one here. And as such, I guess it is a time for introspection for me - a little pause for that.

One of the things that stands out is the simple fact that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The main thing I was writing about when this started was Christian freedom - that we must fall into neither anti-nomianism nor legalism. What still is on my mind now - the same thing.

Partially this is because I find the idea of the Christian response to freedom to be the essence and heart of what it means to live as a Christian. I have freedom - I don't have the security blanket of a check list -- there are many things which I may do, and I simply have to spend the actual time and think what is best. This is hard.

Some abandon freedom by saying, "Do do whatever you want" - ignoring God's Word entirely. Who cares what God's Word says - anything goes. That's one way of abandoning freedom, for that is simply slavery to the desires of the flesh.

Some abandon freedom by trying to make additional rules - "here, this is what you must do". The thing is. . . it's not a must, it's not a "thus sayeth the Lord" -- and that is an abandoning of freedom, that is an attempt to circumvent thought and diligence and to simply turn Christianity into automatic responses -- and thought and reflection are then gone (and where thought and reflection are gone - humility and confession soon follow. Indeed, it's only when you use your freedom in Christ do you begin to see and understand that everything you do still falls short of the Glory of God in every way).

I still think Luther said it best - sin boldly, but believe more boldly still. Try to live in your freedom as best you can, but know that it will ultimately fall into sin, for you are a sinner, a man of unclean lips who dwells amongst a people of unclean lips. But seeing this, confessing this, believe in the love that God has for you and the salvation which He has won for you through Christ Jesus all the more.

I think this is the true battle - not how we react to the flare up of the day - because unless we hold onto the Freedom Christ has won we only become reactionaries, and will always be doomed to fall one way or the other, to become liberals who don't care or conservatives who care about the right things for all the wrong reason and all the wrong things for all the right reasons.

Thus is the state of the world - Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner!

2 comments:

Dan @ Necessary Roughness said...

With you on the subject you're referring to. We're either choosing the lesser of two evils or the equal of another evil. Even those that are "doing good" ONLY do good in Christ.

Go in peace. We are free. Thanks be to God.

Jay Hobson said...

"Indeed, it's only when you use your freedom in Christ do you begin to see and understand that everything you do still falls short of the Glory of God in every way."

I guess I never thought of it that way. This was one of those moments for me (you probably know what I'm talking about) when the ends of thoughts tie together to form a much clearer picture than there was before shedding light on a number of topics.

Thank you for your faithful pastoral care and advice over the years!

+Vicar Hobson