Are you a lawman?

Editor’s note: This is a reprinted column from Jack Purcell’s “On the Journey” archives. It originally appeared in The Star in 2013.

Let me clarify my title — I don’t mean do you wear a badge, carry a gun and wear a white hat.

When it comes to how you perceive your Christian life, your avocation is more important than your occupation. The dictionary defines avocation as something that a person does besides his regular business.

So a Christian may be a law man to earn a living but a child of God cannot be a law man in his approach to the Christian life or he will go broke.

The law in the Old Testament was a system that required unending rules to be followed to be in right standing with God.

There was great attention paid to keeping the rules and observing ceremonies and offering sacrifices, all to meet the approval of God.

There was however, a major problem with this system. People could never measure up. As hard as they tried, they could not keep all the laws.

In Romans Chapter 3:20-24 we are given a description of the problem and the solution.

“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (NIV) Good News! We no longer have to try and fail, try and fail, until we get so exasperated that we walk away from our faith. The other option is usually to carry around a bucket full of guilt feelings.

Neither of these is required as an avocation. It all comes back to grace. It is by the grace of God that we are completely accepted by God. Our sins have been paid for and we are in right relationship to God.

Paul says in Romans 11:6 “And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.” Amazing Grace! That could be the title of a good song.

Let’s explore this a little further. If you are something close to a normal Christian, whatever that is, you are probably still hung up in the law business. Are you still trying to quit sinning using will-power? Human willpower cannot work the work of God. Grace means that we must cooperate with the life of Christ in us, giving him freedom to live his life through us. He died to free us from the law. One of the reasons the law has a certain attraction to us is because we don’t have to depend on someone else even if it is God. However this is one of those places where independence doesn’t work. Grace flourishes when we rest in our dependence on the life of God within us. Grace to you.