No matter how much we want to believe that God is a God of grace, we all at some point end up living life as though He's a God of rules……the law of His Spirit and life can seem a long way off. When we talk about God, well that name "God" means so many different things to so many different people. Yesterday on the program, we looked at the notion that God is kind of a bunch of rules and sometimes people want to reduce Him down to being just that but that's not it. If God's a bunch of rules, then He's bad news not good news. It's an easy thing to do and some people do it, to pick up the Bible and read it as though it was a book of rules. And that's where people get this sort of Bible bashing, accusing, condemnatory form of religion. But that's not it. Jesus said: "I've come to set you free and if I set you free' said Jesus, 'then you're really free." (John 8:36) So how do we make sense of all that? If we read this book, the Bible, as the letter of the law then it's full of condemnation. But what about the spirit of the law? What does God mean by it all? And what about the law of the Spirit, which is what the Apostle Paul talks about? Is there really freedom in all of this? The way I try to understand that is looking at the three different ways that we can be a parent. To me there are three models: The first model is the model of being the tyrant dictator. I'm the dad or I'm the mum and these are the rules of the house. And if you don't like it, go and live somewhere else. It's rigid, it's inflexible, it's dictatorial and it doesn't work. We can force kids, I guess, to comply with rules but we can end up losing their hearts. We lose the relationship, we lose what it means to be a mum and a dad and a family. So that's one model, the tyrant dictator where being a parent is all about enforcing rules. At the other end of the scale, the second model is what I call the anarchistic model. No rules, anything goes. Messy room – fine. Stay up late – fine. Let the boyfriend or the girlfriend sleep over in the same room – fine. Smoke, drink, get drunk, be rude, be disrespectful, be lazy – fine. And that's the model where the parents abdicate responsibility, where there are no rules. Is that good for our kids? Is it a fun way to live as a family? The third model is the model that God always planned, the model of being a good parent. It's about love and relationship and affirming our kids, and caring for them, and honouring them, and respecting them. But at the same time setting some boundaries. Setting some rights and wrongs, saying, "No, in this house there are some rules". And letting them bump into those rules and live the consequences of bumping into those rules. Under those circumstances home is a place to live and to love and to learn. It's a place where it's okay to make mistakes and live out the consequences and still be forgiven and held and affirmed and nurtured. So the three models: the tyrant dictator, the anarchistic model and the good parent model. Which one makes sense? No one would advocate totalitarianism, no one would advocate anarchy, and it's pretty obvious, really. So why do we think that God is any different? Why do we say God is a dictator, God is a bunch of rules? It's easy to look at God that way but to do that is to miss the point. On the other hand, people try and see Him as a god of no rules, as a god who's being a sugar daddy and that's misses the point too. God's a good dad. God's a good parent, one that loves and wants to be in relationship with us, and wants to affirm us, and care for us, and honour us, and respect us. But still set boundaries of right and wrong. God's a good dad. And that's what the Apostle Paul's says when he writes: There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because the Law of the Spirit of life in Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8: 1-2) There's no condemnation because God has replaced the rules of law and said, "It's different now in Jesus because in Jesus you're one of my kids. In Jesus you're one of my family and I want to breathe my spirit of life into you. I want you to know that I honour and respect you and care for you." And in that relationship you get to grow because God did what the law, what a bunch of rules couldn't do – by sending His Son as a man to pay for sin on the cross. He did away with sin through Jesus so that the just requirements of the rules and the law could be met. And then He said, "Now that you're forgiven, walk in the Spirit. Here, let me breathe my Holy Spirit into you." Says God, "Be one of my kids." There's no condemnation because the law that God wants now is the law of the Spirit, the law of life, the law of being set free from rules and regulations dominating our lives. The law that says, "Jesus paid for our failures, we're forgiven." God's approach is the good dad model, not the tyrant, not to say there are no rules. God's a god that's a good dad. He's wiped the slate clean. I don't know whether you have stopped to let that sink in. But in Jesus, He's taken all our failures and all our sins and every mistake we've made, are making and will ever make. And He's wiped the slate clean and said, "There's a different law. There's a new law, there's a law of my Spirit of life and goodness and relationship with me." How does that work? You know when we have kids who are teenagers and they might be lazy, or they might be disrespectful, or they might be doing something wrong, or they mightn't be working hard enough at school. And when we put boundaries in place and part of that is, if they step over the boundary, there are consequences and there's punishment. It's painful for a while but when we accompany those boundaries with love they respond and they grow. It's amazing how relationship with them, honouring them, kindness, and gentleness affects them and they grow and they actually want to please. God knows that, that's what we're like, that's how He made us and that is why He forgives us and brings life and love rather than rules and regulations. Further down in that passage we just read, in Romans chapter 8, He says, For all who are lead by the Spirit of God are kids of God. You didn't receive a spirit of slavery and fear but a spirit of adoption so that we can cry out, "Dad". (Romans 8:14) God's word, the Bible, does set some boundaries; don't lie, don't steal, don't talk behind people's backs, and don't yell at people. Don't get angry with them and let that anger fester. Don't be critical. But when you look at those boundaries, you look at any of them and you say, "You know something, those boundaries make sense." And God even, somehow, sets these boundaries for our hearts that are designed to set us free. He says, "Go and forgive people." In a sense it's a boundary because He says, "If you don't forgive people, I'm not going to forgive you." But on the other hand it's an enormous freedom, when our hearts forgive other people, we are set free from what they've done. Yeah sure, God's word sets some boundaries but not many and they're good boundaries. And at the same time God's Spirit brings forgiveness. If you believe in Jesus, you are forgiven. And His spirit comes into our lives and ministers that forgiveness into our spirits, into our souls, into our hearts. God's Spirit comes into us and brings God's very presence into our lives, to change them, to make this faith real. That's why Paul talks about the rules and the regulations as the law of sin and death and the law of the Spirit as life. What a great Dad!

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