The Life Force of Grace, Part II
Health of the Spirit: What the Law Cannot Do
By Dr. Clyde Walker
Dr. Clyde Walker holds his doctorate in Psychology and Counseling.
A graduate of Florida State University, he has served several mental health
facilities as Executive Director, including the Church Street Counseling Center,
Orlando, Florida. In addition, he is an ordained Southern Baptist minister and
a former U.S. Air Force helicopter pilot. He is now in private clinical
practice.
A young Christian disciple, eager to avoid judging who is and isn’t a “true” person of faith, nonetheless felt compelled to ask “isn’t there some bottom line we all must agree on?” A fellow believer suggested looking to actions, as in the song lyric, “they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Following that lead, a simplistic answer could be that we recognize a church or
its members as Christian when they are “Christ like.” It sounds simple enough to be true, but human behavior and Christian behavior
are not so simple and in the end we are left feeling it is better to let God
make the call.
What we can do, however, is identify behaviors which tend to strip our faith of
its full potency. Lewis Smedes (Shame and Grace) says that churches or groups of Christians sometimes fall into practicing a
faith that can be described as “graceless,” with grace replaced by moralism. Many of these Christians, following a very
human impulse, have attempted to codify grace. In effect they have fallen into
the same trap as the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, becoming experts at both creating and following rules. The outcome is
that Jesus' teaching for personal faith—which gives direction for successful, meaningful and creative living—is forsaken in favor of the safe haven of legalism with its stock answers for
any questions life might throw your way.
The biblical Pharisees were a frequent focus of Christ's penetrating logic and
his infrequent ire. These Pharisees were the most compulsive of their community
in keeping the law, and because of their very real obedience, they were
convinced of their own righteousness. But the law, in effect, was a buffer
against development of the Kingdom of God. Their approach to religion was based
on adherence to a system of laws, not on creativity and the growth of faith
that comes when belief proves effective in answering the dynamic challenges of
life.
While it is not our practice to decide who is and isn’t a “Christian,” we can’t deny that modern day Pharisees are at work in some churches or institutions
misinterpreting the teachings of Jesus and attempting to lead others backward
to the way of the law. The most productive response to this is to offer the
contrasting way of the cross—the way of grace. Given our choice between joyful freedom under grace and a
constricted pursuit of self-righteousness, most of us will choose grace.
Rejecting grace puts would-be believers outside the scope of what makes us
Christian, and promotes an “unchristian” approach to the faith.
A mental health benefit of embracing grace is that it leads us to openness and
honesty about our own humanity. A common issue area has to do with whether a
person is real or wears a mask to win recognition and hide one's failures—in religious language, our sins. Jesus underscored this weakness of the law
lovers by referring to the Pharisees as hypocrites. "So, when you give alms,” he said, “do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the
synagogues and in the streets to win men's admiration"(Matt.6:2) For Jesus the
essence of who we are is more important than the impressions we create. In
other words, people take precedence over the appearance of honoring laws.
Modern day Pharisees tend to worship laws and relegate people to lower levels
of importance.
Another important focus between what is Christian and “unchristian” has to do with the self. The “unchristian” church members see the self as wicked and defective. A person must reject
himself as having no value in order to be accepted by God. This is a common
misunderstanding, although Paul writes that salvation comes by God's grace, not
by hating oneself. A human being, as an individual and as a member of a group,
is a significant creature (Psalm 8:5-6, Matt. 18:14).
Humility is not to be identified with a feeling of worthlessness. On the
contrary, it means having a sense of sufficient worth and a secure concept of
self so that an individual may assume a humble status without being threatened.
The tendency to devalue the self in order that God may be exalted comes from an
inadequate, childish theology.
Another important question is whether evil is seen as external or internal? How
do modern day Pharisees line up on this issue? What often passes as
Christianity in our culture is the tendency to see the devil in the other
person but not in ourselves. As John Sanford wrote (The Kingdom Within), many people project evil into everything they do not understand. They see
others who espouse contrary points of view as evil and therefore as belonging
to Satan. They see themselves, on the other hand, as God's children and
therefore in total possession of the truth. Jesus dealt with this issue in
Matt.7:3. He said, deal with your own evil before looking for evil in another
person. Jesus, it appears, saw evil as both external and internal.
Modern day Pharisees presume to know God's mind on sin. The view they espouse is
that sin is identified with disobedience in action, that is physically breaking
of the laws of God. This is the flip side of making great public shows of
keeping the law. Sin remains on the surface of existence. Favorite sin targets
are those relating to sexual activities, such as adultery, homosexuality, and
masturbation. Yet, on close examination, we find that Jesus had very little to
say about these “sins of the flesh.” His main concern was sins of the spirit. Jesus' view was that while breaking
laws was not appropriate, the larger concern was what constitutes a person at
the core of his being. His teachings emphasized that sin had more to do with
who we are in relationship to one another than breaking laws. Jesus, over and
over again emphasized the importance of people as opposed to the legalism of
the biblical Pharisees. He delineated in many ways that the Kingdom of God is a
process, a work of life, a faith journey, and the beginning of becoming the
whole, complete person that God intended each of us to become.
A good way to focus the contrast between genuine Christian thought and the
modern day Pharisees would be to consider what Howard Clinebell (Mental Health Through Christian Community) has to say about healthy and unhealthy faith. With some liberty, we could see
this list as a partial description of what differentiates Christian and “unchristian” behavior.
Tests of Healthy Faith:
1. Does your faith build bridges or barriers between people?
2. Does your faith strengthen or weaken your basic sense of trust?
3. Does your faith stimulate or hamper inner freedom and personal
responsibility?
4. Does your faith help move from guilt to forgiveness? (from moralism to
morality?)
5. Does your faith contribute to releasing feelings of joy?
6. Does your faith emphasize growth and love, or fear?
7. Does your faith strengthen or weaken self-esteem?
All content Copyright © Gary Broughman, 2007
