What to do when the Bible says “do!”

Ok, so the message of the Gospel just made sense to you with a startling clarity as you’ve been perusing through Galatians, and now your whole world is shaken. You almost have to sit back just to take in such a grandiose statement…

Jesus Christ performed perfectly on your behalf!

Now, your pastor is preaching more on salvation by grace apart from works, with messages like,

“stop trying to earn your salvation by doing good things,”

“rely only on the finished work of Jesus!”

“even your best works are like a filthy rag!”

You’re taking these message to heart. You quickly find yourself diving into websites that have “gospel” in the URL, and digesting everything that Martin Luther wrote on justification while drinking more wine, because you know what? You can! (Praise God for the Gospel). Legalism becomes your #1 enemy, and you are determined to purge it from your life in a whirlwind of freedom!

Then… you open up your Bible to Proverbs.

And as you begin reading a few chapters, your world crashes back down under the weight of heavy requirements. Proverbs is full of requirements! Now that you think of it, the Bible is full of requirements (Leviticus anyone??). So how do you treat passages that seem to give you imperatives to obey? Because…aren’t we now free from performing?

This is where its helpful to adopt an interpretive lens by which to study the Scriptures. Have you ever gone into a 3D movie theatre, and taken off the glasses? Everything gets blurry. You still are able to follow along a little bit, but the details don’t make sense. So, you put on a lens that will give you a more clear sense of the big picture and the details. It’s the same way with studying the Bible. You need the right lens to make sense of the big picture and the details.

The good news is…you already have that lens.

That lens is the Gospel.

You’ve been growing excited about the Gospel already, now you just need to wear it like a well fitting pair of dope Ray-Ban’s.

When you do, you’ll start to see that the impossible commands in the Bible being leveled at humanity, are just that, impossible. But the lens of the Gospel brings the clarity we need to the story by showing us a few things…

1. God is very holy
2. We are very sinful
3. Jesus bridges that impossible gap between us and God, by removing our sin in exchange for holiness

So when we read books that are heavy on the law side, we must read about all those requirements against the backdrop of the redemption God provides for all who trust in Jesus.