Legalism

I get lots of e-mails. Some I even read :) Actually, I get lots of e-mails from other publishers, hoping we will sell their books. Some are a good fit for Eisenbrauns, other aren't. They aren't bad books, in fact some are very good books; they just don't fit our market. Today I received one of those. Here's a brief snippet from the book they were offering me:

Question: Why won’t some people go to church?

Answer: Because they have been to church.

Jesus intentionally broke the rules and customs of the religious establishment of his day, not for the sake of rebellion, but to reveal how preposterous it was to hold to meaningless rules. Strict legalism that misses the point of God’s grace and freedom in Christ is more than preposterous. It is grotesquely sinful...

The practice of following an ordered [synagogue] liturgy is not unlike the average Protestant or Evangelical attending Sunday services at a local church. Even in the free-group churches of my childhood where we did not have written orders of worship, we knew what was appropriate and inappropriate. In those churches, having a preset order of worship, even a sermon title, was an act of heresy that quenched the Holy Spirit’s freedom. Still, we all knew the order of events, even the exact moment when old Mr. Scott would commence to shouting hallelujahs on the third verse of “Amazing Grace.” These traditions were not written down, but they never changed.— Leaving Religion, Following Jesus, Ronnie McBrayer

<idle musing>
Ah yes! Our old friend the legalist coupled with his best friend, tradition. What a straitjacket we make for ourselves. The good news is Christ has set us free!
</idle musing>