Christian Life Restrictions
Episode 39
Christian life restrictions are the norm, right? Christians have no fun, Christians have so many restrictions placed on their shoulders, people think it is a list of do’s and don’ts. Christianity is much more than that, and living a Christian life can bring us true freedom. In this episode, we will explore these restrictions and see if there is any truth in the accusations that Christian life is full of rules.
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Show Notes: Christian Life Restrictions
Those of us who consider ourselves Christians do live by a right and a wrong. We believe, through our formed conscience that things are either one way or another. You will find many who consider that to be a form of restriction.
Why be a Christian? What’s in it for us? I don’t want to follow a list of do’s and don’ts – being a Christian is no fun.
Is this true? Let me share with you the truth, that being a Christian and living a Christian life is indeed freeing.
It always amazes me when I hear people who say there is no God because there is no right and wrong and everything goes – well, actually when you get right down to it, that isn’t true. If you ask this same person who believes there is no right or wrong (a moral relativist) if someone broke into their house and stole their computer, money and jewelry if they would be okay with that, they would say, “No! That isn’t fair. They broke the law.”,
How can you have laws, what is considered a law of the land, and not have a moral law? What is the difference? A movie worth watching is God’s Not Dead. In this film, the main character is a college student, a Christian, who takes a class on philosophy with a professor who is an atheist. The first thing he does is require each of the students to fill out a sheet of paper with the words, “God is Dead,” sign it and turn it in because he does not want to deal with the arguments that follow along the line of Christianity in his classroom.
One student refuses to sign this paper and is challenged by the professor to take the end of the class period, in the subsequent weeks and “prove’ that God is truly alive. These arguments come up, and one of them is that rules serve us all and protect us. They are not restrictive to those who are morally right. They only restrict those who want to do what is wrong.
Christian Life Restrictions–No! It is a gift.
Ephesians 2:8:
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Through God, we are saved and this is an amazing gift – I’m not sure how you can say a gift is a burden.
- A Gift
- A Choice
- A Blessing
- Allows for Freedom From Sin
- Opens the gates of heaven
What makes me realize that while God gave us a choice and allows us to make up our minds, many are so biased in their belief.
If Christianity is restrictive in that we cannot do certain things, I would say that everyone is under restrictions in some way or another.
For example, just because you want to run a red light you can’t do it – unless you want to harm yourself or someone else. If you want freedom of speech you can’t just go out and make a racist remark or defame someone else (well these days people are doing this but you should not!) Our society has norms and the evil one is disrupting those norms by causing dissension.
Just because I don’t agree with you—it does not make me wrong. There is a set of boundaries in our world. We can’t travel without a visa or passport, we can’t travel without paying for a ticket, we can’t use a credit card without paying for our bill. Our world, our lives, in essence, are bound by rules and regulations, so why shouldn’t faith also have some guidelines?
When God handed down the 10-Commandments he asked Moses to spread the Word. These are the guidelines we use to lead our lives. These guidelines set us free – they bring us peace, joy and happiness.
Just like any good parent, our God watches over us – it is amazing the same people who accuse Christians as having their freedom restrictive are themselves, restrictive parents. Would any parent allow their child to play in traffic, to play with matches or to stick their fingers or worse in an electrical outlet? No. And why is that? Because of imminent death. Does that mean the person is too restrictive, not the person is loving?
The same way for a Christian we have a God who cares about us and wants us to have everlasting life.
We can never understand the mind of God or anything about God other than reading the Bible, our interpretation and allowing the Holy Spirit to enter our lives in a deeper way. The Bible does talk about how we should live, and we will discuss that in the next podcast.
CS Lewis recounts in his book, Mere Christianity, which I recommend every Christian read, that when he was an atheist he rationalized his belief about why Christians were wrong based upon a set of notions that he later found were false. And, one of them was moral relativism, that there is no right or wrong. That is the crux of this is free will – we have the intellect to decide for ourselves.
Those who believe Christianity is too restrictive are the same people who want to defy all that is good and holy. Or they say that Jesus was a good man but not the Messiah. How can you be good and a liar? Jesus said He was the Son of God – either He is who He said or He is not.
Freedom of regulations does not bring us joy in and of itself. Giving children limitations and rules allows them to flourish. Those who break the rules often find themselves in trouble doing things they should not to the harm of their bodies or their souls or both.
True freedom is knowing we are loved and loving others. The rules help us to live lives that are God-honoring and honoring to each other. What is wrong with Thou shalt not kill? Thou shall not commit adultery? Honor thy Mother and Thy Father? Honor Thy Neighbor? I think we would all agree there is nothing wrong with wanting to live the best lives we can.
Further, the commandments begin with, “I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange gods before me. (Exodus 20:2-6; Deuteronomy 5:6-10), 2. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. (Exodus 20:7; Deut 5:11)
3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
God is love and while again, we are so limited in our own understanding and human usage of words for a Divine being, we know that he saved us from eternal damnation by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to set us free and the Holy Spirit to reign with us always.
Eternal life can only be found in the true God. Let’s pray.
Dear Lord, I pray in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit…I thank You for the gift of freedom, the gift of free will, the gift of faith, the gift of opening the gates of heaven by Your death and resurrection. Thank you for setting us free, for giving us a renewed gift of faith—for allowing us to believe in Your Divine Providence for our lives and those of our families. I am blessed that You have called me to live a life that is honoring to You but I can only do this by Your grace in my life, so I pray for an outpouring of Your love and grace to fill me. Please Lord, hear my petitions which I now pray__________________________, I ask that as a community of believers, all those who are listening to this broadcast, that we join together in prayer for each other and for our personal needs. I thank You for all that is good and Holy and I praise You with every breath I take, In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.
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