Friday, July 01, 2016

Rules vs Relationship

  • Old Covenant - Get the legalities right, and the relationship with God will be right. (Based on "don't touch, don't taste, don't handle" rules.) 
  • New Covenant - Get the relationship with God right, and the legalities will be right. (Not based on "don't touch, don't taste, don't handle" rules.)
Both "systems" have rules, but one is rules-based, and the other is relationship-based. The relationship you have with your government is rules-based; the relationship you have with your spouse is relationship-based. Both have rules, but their foundations are fundamentally different.

The kingdom of God is not about replacing one legal system (having rules written in stone for all to see) with a different legal system (having rules hidden between the lines, perceived only if you have the correct study method and love for the Truth, found only by a few). It's about replacing a legal system, wherein you wash the outside of the cup, with a relationship system, wherein you wash the inside of the cup.

If you have to ask, "Is X a sin?", you're living by a rules-based system. If you instead ask, "Does God want me to do X", you're living by a relationship-based system. Both systems should result in you avoiding sinful activities, but one system causes you to worth-ship a legal book/system, and the other causes you to worth-ship a Person.