Last night (Sept. 7, 2010) I was discipling Cesar, the man I wrote about in my post Cesar, Man of Peace on July 13, 2010. The discipleship took a turn that I wasn’t expecting. As I arrived at Cesar’s apartment, he was reading the Bible. I asked him what he was reading. He responded that he was in Ps. 62:1-2. My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. Then he asked an interesting question, “Is Christianity about following a bunch of rules?” My first thought was, what does that have to do with Ps. 62? But my question was soon answered. Cesar brought out a leaflet which the local Pentecostal church had distributed door to door entitled “Spiritual Clinic.” It was a tri-fold flyer. The front had the title and the name of the church; the rest of the flyer was a checklist of “sins” in small print. It was a pretty compete list, from procrastination to movies to every bizarre form of sexuality.

Imagine with me for a moment that you are a couple of months old in the Lord and you find this lovely gift stuck to your door. How are you going to respond? What will this “gift” do to your soul? Frankly, Cesar was in the middle of a spiritual crisis. What ensued was a two hour discussion of how to live in the joy of a relationship with God. It is not the old covenant of the law but a new covenant which allows us to live in the joy and power of the Spirit. We investigated together Hebrews chapter eight where the new covenant is explicitly expressed. And, we concentrated on two important verses in that chapter Heb. 8:7 and 8:13. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. And, By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. At one point Cesar’s eyes brightened and with a smile on his face he said “I was hoping Christianity wasn’t a prison. Now I see that it is spiritually powerful.”

Cesar’s statement pretty much sums up our relationship with God based on both the old and new covenant. Living by the rules is better than no structure at all, but it is still a prison. But now, because of what Jesus did, ushering in the new covenant, we can live by the power of the Spirit. Jesus lives inside of us. Our very bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and he speaks to our hearts and minds. The result is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness… You know the rest of the list from Gal. 5:22. But that list of spiritual attributes is a result, not something we strive for.

Every Christian I know thinks legalism is wrong. Yet many of us are still living much of our lives in the old covenant. Here is an ironic twist. This second sin listed in Cesar’s flyer was: Legalism, Phariseeism, and religiosity. Isn’t it amazing how blind we can be to our own problems? Legalism is a pretty simple thing, but it is also a pretty subtle thing.

If we live even part of our lives in the old covenant we are legalists. If there hadn’t been a problem with the old covenant, there would be no need for a new one. How do we know if we are still living in the old covenant? Answer this question, where does our avoidance sin and our power for living come from? Do we avoid sin by know knowing which things on a list are naughty or nice, then checking it twice? We are living in the old covenant. We are legalists. Do we live our lives by biblical principals? Old covenant, we are legalists. Do we model our lives on the behaviors of trusted spiritual leaders? Old covenant. Do we try to emulate Jesus? Old covenant. Legalism is subtle yet deadly to our souls. The difference between the old and new covenants is “trying” (old covenant) and being in the Spirit (new covenant); which results in a new and powerful life. Cesar was right. Living our Christian faith in the old covenant is a prison. But Jesus offers us the freedom of living in the Spirit, which is powerful. It’s a pretty good insight for a young Christian isn’t it?

For more posts on or covenantal relationship with Jesus see: Integrity, Jesus Manifesto, Jesus as Our Capstone, Jesus as the Cornerstone and Ministry with Jesus as Lord. See also this post from another blogger: The Four Gifts of the New Covenant (Transcript).

For other posts on discipleship see: What Is Organic Discipleship?, Organic Discipleship #1: The Place of the Bible, Organic Discipleship #2: The Place of Prayer, Organic Discipleship #3: The Bible in Community, Organic Discipleship #4: Prayer in Community, Organic Discipleship #5: Pray for the Lost and  The Spirit Leads to Truth.

  • Where does your spiritual power come from?
  • Is it possible to have the benefits of the new covenant available to us and yet not know how to live within those benefits?
  • One of the benefits of the new covenant is that the Spirit puts the law in our hearts and minds? Do you know how to listen and discern the voice of the Spirit?
  • How can we grow in our ability to discern the voice of the Spirit?
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