Have you got your Rules & Regs.?
In my days with British Rail, long gone, for those who worked on the track, those who were train drivers or conductors, or who staffed platforms at stations, it was necessary to pass your ‘Rules & Regs.’ (regulations) exams to ensure that you were fit to safely undertake your duties in such a way as to ensure the safety of the travelling public, not to mention your own.
But in some ways it was a very mechanical thing, knowing the correct procedures that had to be adhered to and rigidly carrying them out.
We like to think that rules are there for our own good in most situations, but it can be very burdensome and legalistic in trying to live with them.
God, in his Word has given us his rules – his teachings (that we call ‘doctrine’), to enable us to understand his will and to obey him. You could call them God’s ‘Rules & Regs’. The sad thing is that for some, Christianity becomes somewhat mechanical—it can seem as if it’s the ‘dotting of the i’s and crossing of the t’s’ of their knowledge of scriptural doctrine that is the ‘be all and end all’ of their Christian life. But the heart of God’s truth seems lost to them. Getting to the ‘heart of God’s truth’ is surely in coming to know the Lord Jesus Himself more deeply, and that can only come as we enter into
a loving relationship with him through his grace and mercy towards us.
Jesus told Jewish believers in John 8:32 “If you hold to my teaching you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth.” That’s great for us, too—we need to know it and to hold to it. But Jesus adds “and the truth will set you free.”
Free from what? Surely freedom from the power of sin and its penalty. But to know the truth effectually in our hearts means we enter into the freedom to enjoy that wonderful close relationship with our Saviour and Lord, because he has cleared the way of that terrible, monstrous obstacle of sin from our lives. We are free to love him, to serve him and to enjoy him.
The first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism ( now there’s doctrine for you!) is
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
Surely glory comes to God as we honour and obey him, but the enjoyment comes in knowing him through the freedom of walking and talking with him. The ‘rules & regs’ of God’s Word are important, but they should lead us on to renewal & rejoicing in our glorious Saviour.
Steve Piggott
Elder
July 2011