"Violations"

 "You are the salt of the earth, but if you loose your taste, of what value are you?"

Jesus - Matthew 5:13.

"All who rely on works generated to appease the law are doomed, for everyone who does not comply with every requirement of this is deemed judged and condemned".

Paul - Galatians 3:10.

Sometimes, 'renegade' is the only virtuous badge of honour.

If you recall in the last posting here, I drew attention to how both Jesus and His disciples found themselves in this particular camp on numerous occasions for involving themselves in such heinous things as dining with disreputable company or restoring those broken by sin and sickness.

It's clear we need to really understand what is happening in those oh so familiar stories in the Gospels and Acts.

These were men who crossed the line. Constantly.

What manner of deeds would the 'pious' view as unworthy of 'godliness' and draw that  manner of verdict in 2021? "Unauthorised" fellowship? "Public" Witness? "Expressions" of concern regarding the impoverishing of the church?

Clearly, there are seasons when 'bondage' to what is foreign and detrimental to the gospel must be ejected or, the church must move elsewhere to escape such poison.

Egypt once provided a haven for the likes of Joseph, Jacob, and their families. Jerusalem and Judea were fine for launching the good news. Rome provided the roads that allowed men from 'every corner under heaven' to become touched by the radiance of a reconciling word.

But, the day came...

One such moment when chains were broken in the more recent times of the 17th century, was when the Pilgrim Fathers founded 'colonies of conscience' across the ocean in the Americas. Again, it's imperative that we understand the motivation in these ardent searchers for a place where they could live in a fashion that would delight God and serve each other. Preaching to the House of Representatives in response to the manner of government which was framed by the Constitution just three years on from Independence in 1779, Samuel Stillman affirmed that "no laws are obligatory on the people but those obtained by like consent" (through those very people). Even then, he noted, "such laws are of no force" if they are used by a "corrupt majority of the legislature" (governors) to bring about a subversion of the very fundamental principles of (good) governance.

This is a profoundly biblical approach to civil government, echoing the manner of authority required by the Lord amongst His freed people (Deuteronomy 16:16-20). It's also a really high bar to clear.

So, here's the question - how well does this manner of approach fit 1. Civil authority in the West right now and 2. Ecclesiastical leadership in respect to the national, regional and local church?

Are we living in a moment when "laws" are founded and established by consent, and the ways these are implemented are genuinely good for those who are required to live beneath them? If we are honest, then the answer is we are far from that point now.

Just how far we've drifted becomes clear when we listen to another of those Puritan preachers revelling in the goodness of what is true when civil liberty, expressed in limited government, is married to the free expression of the Gospel.

Amos Adams, in anticipation of the coming new nation, preached in 1769 "It is a truth, impossible to dispute, that the spiritual tyranny that the the fathers laboured under, being inhibited in their worship of God, according to conscience, caused them to leave their native country, to inhabit a howling wilderness. Such a trouble on their consciences mightily assisted in the settlement of this place.The oppression under which they laboured, has, in the hand of Him who is the excellence of wisdom, proved to be a great blessing in the world, and a means to a glorious enlargement of the eternal Kingdom of the Great Redeemer".

Notice, again, what caused their actions - an inhibiting of worship. The Gospel always drives us towards the imperative that men and women are free to know, enjoy and serve God, even when this means driving against the mainstream, heading into a wilderness, and finding solace in God's good care in such hardship.

The only value of tyranny is to drive men towards liberty in their worship and their community, but there is another depressing reality to recognise.

The children of Jacob became so accustomed to their slavery that they had no appetite to escape it, and therefore, when they finally did depart, they had no setting within them for being those "made free" - they instead longed to return to their poverty.

The darkness and pain of false religion and authority is often identical to this malady. It kills genuinely civil society and genuine godliness because it impairs our capacity to hunger for these precious gifts, and burdens us with a dependance upon our own miserable resources alone.

A person who is a 'peaceable subject' of what is genuinely good, noted the Reverend John Leland in the 1800s, should be properly protected in his liberty to worship the Lord without any dictates beyond those of conscience, the laws of a civil society upholding such a necessity.

That splendour has to be recovered if we are to see something truly expressive of God's radiance amongst us once more.