From Jerry Sittser’s book ‘The Will of God as a Way of Life’:
A group of believers in the church of Corinth were especially adept at exploring the freedom they had in Christ. They claimed the right to do anything they wanted. They even applauded a man for living adulterously with his stepmother, and they filed lawsuits against each other if their rights were violated.6 As part of his rebuttal Paul actually quotes their favorite slogan—“All things are lawful for me”—in his reply: “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything.”7 As Paul shows, a Christian view of freedom is different: “Do you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”8
The obedience to which the Scriptures call us, however, is anything but oppressive. It is far different from the legalism that the Pharisees, Jesus’ main opponents, imposed on their followers. They took the Old Testament law seriously, but their seriousness led them into legalism and self-righteousness. They forced people to submit to yoke of bondage and required external observance, not inward change. For example, they followed detailed customs concerning the Sabbath. They would not light fires, carry wood, or prepare food on the Sabbath. But they missed the whole point of the Sabbath. As Jesus charged, the Pharisees strained a gnat and swallowed a camel. They reduced obedience to petty rules and neglected to pursue justice, righteousness, and mercy.9
Jesus did not confront their oppressive legalism, however, by advocating license. He taught and practiced the true meaning of obedience—an obedience that plunged to the heart of the matter, affirming God’s real intent. For example, while the Pharisees followed elaborate rituals when they washed their hands, Jesus demanded purity of heart. “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.”10
Dietrich Bonhoeffer understood Jesus’ radical commands, he wrote: Again, it is no universal law. Rather it is the exact opposite of all legality. It is nothing else than bondage to Jesus Christ alone, complete breaking through every programme, every ideal, every set of laws. No other significance is possible, since Jesus is the only significance. He alone matters.11 ~Jerry Sittser, The Will of God as a Way of Life (Grand Rapids, MI 49530, 2004), 60-61
