The reason religious people love rules and regulations so much is that deep down, we’re afraid of getting this thing wrong. We really want to know God, and we want to make sure we don’t mess that up, so how can we best guarantee that we do things right? Rules. Rules and regulations are like boundaries or landmarks that tell us where we are. We can measure them, identify them, keep them and break them. They make us feel safe and comfortable. Rules make me feel like I know whether or not I’m doing this well. The only thing is, God is mysterious and infinite and personal! Rules don’t actually get me all that close to Him. In fact, when I mess them up (which is all the time) I just feel driven further away! Hebrews 7 says that the old rules were set aside because they were “weak and useless and didn’t make anything perfect.” Rules may make us feel safe, but they don’t actually bring us to God! It goes on to say that Jesus is a better hope because He draws us to God. You see, we’re so afraid of getting this wrong, but hey - we’ve already gotten it all wrong! That’s the beauty of the Gospel! We were wrong, and God still wants us anyway! It turns out that the infinite, mysterious and personal God doesn’t want a bunch of little straight-laced rule followers - He wants friends. He wants love. Love isn’t always comfortable and it almost always breaks all the rules. When you love someone, you don’t always know where you are or if you’re doing things right, but you don’t care because you’re in love. Knowing God is about love, not safety.
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