Released from the Law

This book as instructed above, is a charge to the believer to refocus our attention away from religion and legalism, what I call 'churchism' and other distractions and onto the object of our faith, the Lord God, Jesus Christ our Savior.Believers are exhorted to meet together regularly, so coming to church is essential. However, during New Testament times, Roman law expressly forbade these new believers from meeting or congregating so these folks stuck out their necks and risked harsh punishment and consequences whenever they met together.In fact, it became so difficult for believers to find safe locations where they could worship together in peace and safety that these early Christians had to be creative in the ways and places where they met and in how they communicated the location of their meetings. They invented the Icythus symbol and hidden within these five Greek overlapping letters was an acronym for letters representing Jesus, Christ, God, Son, Savior. They had been so affected by their encounter with Jesus Christ and the Word of God so much that they did all they could to meet frequently to show their love for God. They went to extra lengths not just to show their love for God but to each other so much so that some of them sold their property and donated the money to the fellowship as Acts 4:32-37 records. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ which now has more than 27,000 full-time staff and over 225,000 trained volunteer staff in 190 countries and who has traveled to practically every single country on the globe before his death reported that the overwhelming majority of professing Christians all over the world use their faith to obtain things from God for themselves and nothing else which benefits God rather than them and theirs only. My wife and I as Pastors sometimes find it difficult to keep our cool when we have to cajole, drag or push church members, born again and spirit filled believers to pray, volunteer, give or get involved in anything beyond coming to church on Sunday morning to be blessed.Like one of those Christians Bill Bright encountered, I was passionate and I loved God as long as it cost me nothing. I used my faith in God for me. This was where I was when the understanding of some of what you will read in this book began. Many 'Christians' are just like I was. Being called a Christian in the book of Acts at the beginning of the new covenant after Jesus Christ had risen, was a reference to a bunch of people who met together constantly, shared everything together as we see in the scripture above and obeyed Christ's teachings at great peril to their freedom and safety. They carried themselves openly trying to be like their Christ, after they had met constantly, secretly to worship Him These believers described above experienced the power and the fire of The Holy Spirit and sought their God with passion Acts 2:42 records such.Beloved, God does not want your Sunday church routine, religion or your 'ministry'. He does not want you to be regulated by man-made customs, traditions and doctrines which are modern-day legalism and laws creeping into the church for which Christ died to rescue from the curse of the law What God wants is a living relationship with you in Christ. It is only out of this love walk with God that the submitted fragrant offering of your life and ministry becomes acceptable.When people receive Christ we often urge them into service but we must first rather nudge them into this secret place of intimacy with God in worship, His Word, prayer and obedience before service Jesus exemplified a close walk with God as a man, demonstrating that dependence on God and His Spirit is a sustainable power source that releases man from bondage and elevates man above the law.