Key Life Network

Steve Brown: You smell like Jesus, and you can't help it. Let's talk about it on Key Life.

Guest (Male): It's for freedom that Christ set us free, and Key Life is here to bring you biblical teaching that encourages you to never give in to slavery again. Our teacher on Key Life is Steve Brown. He's an author, broadcaster, and seminary professor, who's sick of phony religion.

Steve Brown: My late friend Ben Hayden had an incredible media ministry on radio and television. You may be familiar with his name. He told me that once he got dizzy and fell in a parking lot, and for a short time he was unconscious. He said when he regained consciousness and opened his eyes, a woman was leaning over him. She said, "You know, you look different than you look on television."

We look different too. We really do become different and better, primarily because we don't have to be different or get better. Some friends have a podcast devoted to dealing with the curse of legalism, thinking that the Christian faith is a moral improvement society. It's about obeying rules. So my friends had a podcast where they dealt with that issue. My friend said, "What the legalists don't understand is that if they had left me alone, I would probably have lived pretty much the way they wanted me to live."

Now, before we go any further, let me say something that's important. One of the great gifts God has given his people is a roadmap on how the world works. It's called the Law. It's not only a roadmap, it's also how we define things when we talk about getting better.

The law measures what is good and what is evil, what destroys and restores, what is right and what is wrong. C.S. Lewis in his book *Mere Christianity*, and other places, writes about the natural law, which he calls the Tao. He says that the knowledge of good and evil and of right and wrong is universal and built into every human being.

Paul said something like that too. In Romans 1:19, that we can be known, that what can be known about God has been revealed in God's creation. Therefore, nobody has an excuse for their failure to obey God's law. That's Romans 2:1. So there is a universal understanding of a holy God, and a reason for everybody's guilt and shame and fear and regret.

But the law is far more specific and clearer for the Christian. And thus, a far greater source of guilt and shame and fear and regret. It's the reason Christians seem so weird. We obsess about being obedient. It's what the Bible means when it says we were under the law.

Theologians talk of three uses of the law of God that are revealed in scripture: the political, the pedagogical, and the normative. Now stay with me. The law restrains evil, reveals right and wrong, and helps create Christian obedience. I don't have trouble with those uses of the law, except in one small point: we aren't good enough to pull it off.

Leaders are rarely restrained. Nobody cares much about what is right or wrong, and we are so often dismal failures at obeying the law. Not just me and you, but all of us. If you haven't noticed, crime is rampant, right and wrong are redefined in our world, and frankly, even Christians don't seem to be getting a lot better, and in some ways, we seem to be getting worse.

Now let me suggest one place where the law is really effective. The law is a truth-teller, a mirror as it were, where we can see the way we really are. Paul goes on to say that without the law, there is no sin. That's Romans 4:15. So there is a sense in which ignorance is really an excuse.

Christians can never plead ignorance. We know, and it's killing us. We get well when we see what God is doing with the law, and believe it or not, it's all good news.

There's a human proclivity to dislike authority, and that proclivity is universal. Nobody likes being told what to do. One of the reasons I'm so orthodox in my Christian beliefs, and sometimes even my political ones, is that I was a student at a graduate school where any kind of orthodoxy was derided and criticized.

Most of you won't remember, but Barry Goldwater once ran and lost an election for the U.S. presidency. He was mocked and hated at that graduate school. One morning, referring to a particular professor who hated Goldwater even more than most, I told a friend, "If that turkey one more time says something bad about Goldwater, I'm going to vote for Goldwater."

He did, and I did. I had the same attitude about the way evangelical Christians were described. I wish I could tell you I'm a political and theological conservative because I thought and prayed about it for a long time, heard all the arguments, and made a wise and balanced decision. It didn't happen that way. It happened because I was angry.

My authority problem became the primary reason for my theological and political convictions. There's obviously more to my convictions than that, but the soil out of which they grew in the beginning was no more and no less than an angry young man with a serious authority problem. You'd be surprised how often that is true of you.

A problem with authority is built into the human DNA, and it's the source of a lot of worldviews, opinions, and convictions. That's the problem with atheism. It's not because atheism is a balanced and healthy way to deal with the world. It's not. But because atheists have a problem with any authority, and certainly the absolute authority of God.

It is a desire to be autonomous, to be one's own authority, and the concomitant desire to be one's own god. When people tell us what to do, something inside of us says, "Ain't gonna happen that way." Sometimes that reaction is passive aggressive, and we don't recognize it. Other times, it's in your face rebellion against authority, but it's all a part of what it means to be human.

God knew that. In fact, he created us that way. It's a gift. Sometimes that gift causes lots of trouble, but with the things of God, it's the way God loves and works with his people. He knew about our authority problem, and in a brilliant strategy, removed the authority of laws and rules and the necessity of getting better.

God also removed the authority from those who think they're our mother. He said, "You're forgiven." What? Yes, you're forgiven. Totally forgiven of everything.

There've always been questions. "Does that mean I can do anything I want and still be forgiven? Does it mean I have a free sin card? What if I leave the church and no longer hang out with other Christians? What if I'm unfaithful and fail in my commitment to Christ and even in the commitment I made in my marriage? What if I'm a thief, or a swindler, or a liar? What if I really blow my witness to Christ with my sin? Am I still forgiven?"

The answer to that and thousands of other questions just like that is yes. It's not yes, but. It's an absolute and strong and clear and wonderful yes, period. And that's how we get better. You think about that. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thanks, Steve. With that, we wrap up this week of our teaching series based on Steve's new book, which again, comes out next Monday. We're very excited here at Key Life, and hope the book will bless you. Order your copy now at keylife.org/notmadbook, or find it on Amazon. Tomorrow, hope to see you here again for the nearly world-famous Friday Q&A with Steve and Pete.

Hey, by the way, have you been to keylife.org lately? Just a few highlights to point out. First, the Key Life Podcast Network at keylife.org/podcastnetwork. We now have a brand new podcast from Drew Hensley called *Still Becoming* that I know you're going to love. Of course, there's the Vault Project. That's our ongoing preservation effort to digitize classic sermons from Steve, going all the way back to the early 70s. Get the details and hear a sample at keylife.org/vault.

And finally, our digital magazine is available for free and on-demand at keylife.org/digitalmagazine. So you're asking yourself, "How do you guys do all this cool stuff?" Well, the answer is you. We count on the generous support of listeners just like you to make all of this possible. If you'd like to donate, then call us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433.

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