Replacing the Teddy Bear

Have you ever tried to take something from a baby? The moment you take something away from the poor child the whining and crying begins. The baby is definitely unhappy and all it wants is for you to restore to them whatever it was you took away. For example, what kid didn't have a teddy bear growing up? I have even noticed some people hanging on to these bears into their adult lives as some sort of keepsake. Those teddy bears go everywhere with that kid if it will keep them quiet and content. They sleep with that bear, eat with it and drag it all over the place. Over time that bear will be a shadow of its former self. It is stained up, discolored, missing pieces and probably doesn't smell all that great either. But, don't try to take it away. That bear is all that child has ever had and doesn't know what to do without it. However, what is the best way to get that child to not only allow you to take the teddy bear away from them, but makes them all, but forget that teddy bear ever existed? You give it a puppy! The bear was an inanimate object. It couldn't speak, couldn't respond to the child and definitely didn't return the love it was given. But, the puppy barks, licks, plays, protects, learns and even teaches on occassion. In other words, the bear was "dead," but the puppy "is" alive! So it is with Christians and the law.

How many Christians live a life in accordance with religious laws? It is a life of do this and don't do that? Granted those laws can change depending on the particular denominational persuasion, but they are still the same. All they are is an attempt at getting an individual to behave in a way supposedly that will result in them being pleasing to God. In reality, if you please anybody at all it is only those fellow Christians who are trying to live the same lifestyle as you, but you are not pleasing God. It sounds a lot like Colossians 2.

"Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 'Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!'? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence." Colossians 2:20-23

You know why this lifestyle doesn't restrain sensual indulgence? It is because when the focus is on you, your flesh and trying to stop sinning, all you reap is more sin. I never understand why Christians continue to subject themselves to trying to live a life they can never possibly live when nobody has ever lived that life, apart from Jesus Christ, in the history of mankind! Yet, like the child with a teddy bear, we refuse to let go of it because we don't believe there is an alternative. That bear, those rules and regulations we have dedicated our lives to, is all we know. And we keep it around in hopes that one day it will yield in our lives that which it cannot produce, the love and acceptance of a pleased God. The only way to get what we desire and need most is to replace that which we have held dear to our hearts.

The Bible says that a Christian is to live by faith. It goes on to say that without faith it is impossible to please God. Therefore, we cannot believe that our continued efforts to live our lives in accordance with rules and regulations is somehow an act of faith. By definition, what we are trying to do is an act of works. This is because our total focus is on what we are to be doing and not on what God, in the person of Jesus Christ, has already done for us. We cannot live the Christian life. Only Jesus Christ has ever lived the Christian life. Now, we are to rest from our self-efforts of trying to live that life and allow Him to live that life, only He can live, in and through us. If we could live the Christian life there would have been no need for Jesus Christ to have come to earth. Scripture tells us that we have been made alive in Christ. That means beforehand we were dead in Adam. When we were dead all we had to guide us were laws designed to modify our behavior. Now, we have been given the life of the living God, in the Person of the indwelling Holy Spirit, to guide us. We now have been given our puppy; a living, loving, protecting and guiding influence in our lives. We can now replace that tired old teddy bear and truly begin to live.