Church Life at Hillsong London

It was during the year 2005 that I finally started attending Hillsong London church. Hillsong is a large, contemporary church that meets him a large theatre in central London. This church was like a breath of fresh air to me: the worship was professional and invigorating, the A.V. presentations were slick and professional, preaching was non-condemnatory, but above all people were friendly, positive minded, sociable and fun to hang out with. I had always thought that a lot of Christians were rather quirky and insecure, but this crowd seemed to really have it all together. Sure, these people had their issues just like anyone else, but there was a strength of character about them that I had only witness amongst those in full-time ministry or those who didn’t believe in Jesus.

It was in 2006 that Joseph Prince came to visit and taught on grace for a week. Joseph managed to pack a lot of teaching about grace into that week which sort of summed it all up in a way that people could understand. Ever since that time, the preaching and the overall ethos of Hillsong London changed for the better. Joseph Prince still comes to preach at Hillsong London occasionally. He has spoken at the Hillsong Europe conference for the past few years. He has also spoken on the Sunday service after the conference, for the past few years as well. You can read all about this in the wiki page on New Creation Church. I feel rather privalaged to have seen and heard Joseph Prince preach in person, as he does not seem to travel to other churches all that much.

At first, I still had a “carry-over” of Institution Church baggage in the form of duties that I thought I had to perform, misdirected aspirations and motives and such like – this rather hampered my first few years or so at this church. It was only when I began listening to The God Journey and The Free Believers Network: "Into the Wild" podcasts, that I began to find freedom from the rigours of religious performance enforced upon me from my previous years in the Institutional Church. I’ll discuss more about these podcasts later on.

I still go to this church today, but not every week. It is very much different now; London, as anyone will know, is something of a “hub” in Europe. Hillsong is a great place to meet fun and lively Christians from all over the world, especially Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Plus, hanging out in London is such a cool experience – so much to see and do. So for me, I no longer attend church because I feel I have to – I go to church because I want to.

Having cooled-off from the insecurity-motivated Christian oddities and attitudes – I feel under no obligation to turn up each week, serve on team, go to conferences or even to pay my tithe. I go to this church now to hang out with Christian friends. I used to spend time with Christians at church because they were part of the group that I had been allocated to. But now, I have followed my heart in forming natural, spontaneous relationships – you could call them “organic relationships”.

There is an emphasis on organic relationships now when it comes to how we do church. I think Frank Viola’s book, Reimagining Church, has helped people understand the difference between contrived and organic relationships amongst believers when it comes to “church”. I love what Hillsong does in that it creates a wonderful environment where believers can meet and hang out together without the usual dull, boring religious trappings of the church. But when I listen to The God Journey and The Free Believers Network podcasts, it makes me wonder if indeed natural relationships can occur in the intuitional church. It is true that it is possible to form typical false friendships at Hillsong, just as in any other church. But I see the many people who really do form good, genuine friendships as well. It does not really come down to the environment or venue when it comes to Christian friendships – I think it really does come down to the individuals, their personalities and the expectations placed upon them by themselves and other people.

There really are no rules as to how you should live your Christian life anymore, some attend a church building, and others don’t. But I am so glad that I am free from the compulsions to go to church and perform from the pressure of fear. I am beginning to embrace my own vision of church now, rather than having a corporate vision foisted upon me by a ministerial team.

I tend to prefer the preaching of Gary Clark, the Senior Pastor. I value Gary’s experience as a pastor and his seasoned and realistic perspective on life. Gary has a dry sense of humour to boot, which I would compare his humour and demeanour in some ways to Jack Dee.  Hillsong attracts many visiting speakers from around the world. I suppose I should feel privileged about that, but I often find the visiting speakers to use what I call challenges (and here), platitudes and pep-talks.

I still find that Hillsong, although grace-oriented, still succumbs too many of the typical trappings of the Institutional Church: they encourage tithing and they often put the onus on the believer in a way that could be construed as religious performance. I think whenever you have a formal, organised church gathering, there are always going to be such things. Some would argue that we no longer need organised church; others would say we cannot be Christians without it. You just have to go with what is right for you at the time.

A New Found Freedom

I have experienced a profound sense of freedom from a lot of the religious baggage I carried with me and had brought with me into Hillsong London Church – even after I had been brought into this message of grace.

When I started listening to The God Journey and the Free Believers Network: Into the Wild podcasts, I felt as if I had had something like a vitamin deficiency in my spirit. I developed a craving for this totally honest, down-to-earth, relevant, balanced and humorous style of conveying the grace message. I feel that I had been missing this vital element of my Christian “diet” for a long time. For too long I had been pretending to be spiritual, devoted, kind and all of that stuff – all in the hope that God would eventually bless me how I want and when I wanted. I have felt encouraged to simply be myself now.

Christianity does not have to be weird, wacky, difficult, awkward and oppressive. Christianity is meant to be natural and spontaneous. When we make Christianity all about avoiding hell and not sinning, rather than on the love of God for us, it goes off on a totally different and unhealthy tangent.

When I first started hearing these podcasts, I soon downloaded all of them and listened to them exclusively of any other Christian teaching. Now that I have listened to most of the past teaching, I anticipate the God Journey and the Free Believers Network podcasts each week with great delight. I tend to listen to each of them now at least twice, perhaps even three times or more. The God Journey has been going now for about five years, so there are still some messages I haven’t yet downloaded.

I think I would have gone crazy if it was not for these podcasts because all the unrealistic expectations needed to be dealt with. I had reached a point in which I realised that it was highly unlikely that I would ever get into full-time ministry, write my own books or experience miracles on a regular basis. But now I have the freedom to enjoy everyday life, instead of gravitating towards some unrealistic fantasy world that leads to disappointment, frustration and guilt. I can see in retrospect that the institutional church and Word of Faith teaching had encouraged me to accept a foul, demanding God by giving me over-the-top promises that were loosely based on the Bible. Now I have learned to truly appreciate the simple, normal and everyday things of life; seeing them as no less profound, beautiful, valuable and enjoyable than the miraculous things.

I have cooled-off from scouring scriptures with a means of finding formulas and nuggets of truth that will give me the key to being blessed by God. I will admit that I would not have got so heavily into studying scripture if I had simply known the love of God and lived from that place.

My biggest criticism of the Christians at Hillsong London was that they did not seem as excited about the grace message as I was. Instead of spending time engrossed in Bible study – these Christians were more interested in social events and get-togethers. But perhaps they were just living from that place of God’s love, regardless of their ability to associate it with Bible verses? But I am adamant that a means must be saught by which insecure, gullible Christians can reach that place of inner transformation in which they find peace and balance, just like a lot of the people that I see at Hillsong London. I tend to find that this inner transformation that I have been searching for looks much more like a sense of security more than anything else – nothing weird and over-the-top.

Perhaps my insecurity had caused me to go overboard with the Bible and the antics of the intuitional church. When most, secure minded Christians, would have learned to take a more balanced approach to it all? I have been single for a long time now and I feel that this is what has enabled me to devote such as lot of time to Bible study, writing and reading Christian books. Most balanced, secure-minded Christians don’t have the time to engage in such activities all that much – perhaps that’s the way it is meant to be?

I think the main reason I have cooled-off from blogging and Facebook activity recently is this very shift I have been talking about. I just wonder where I will go from here.

I think I had become many of the characters in Phil Baker’s hilarious, but relevant and honest book, Weird Christians I Have Met. I had become a Theological Theo, Frank Faith amongst other personas detailed in the book. It still amazes me that this book was written in 1996 – at the peak of the charismatic movement.

Grace Elements… Free Believers / Anti-I.C.

Institutional Baggage

I will admit that I still clung onto some of the sensational and unrealistic promises that were made to me by the institutional church. I still could not see past some of the religious traditions that had been instilled in me over the years. I still tried to “believe God” for things, as taught by Kenneth E. Hagin, rather than trusting in God enough to allow life to unfold naturally and without recourse to worry.

I still had a desire to see miracles manifested in my life. I just reasoned that if I had the power of God in me – I could do anything. So I naturally became rather competitive as I mapped the outlandish and exciting promises of the church, onto my everyday life. I thought that as Christianity had developed such a bad name in the past - it was now up to me to impress people by becoming better than them in every way. But this approach just led to me getting disappointed and depressed as I put all sort of unrealistic expectations on myself. Furthermore, I just became trapped in that awful performance oriented aspect of Christianity in which I felt useless to God and other people, unless I was achieving something fabulous. With these goals set for me by myself and other, well-meaning I Christians, my self-esteem became rather low.

When you leave the I.C. or you “get into the wild” as Darin Hufford would say, you are left wondering how to do those things you did in the church: prayer, fellowship, tithes and offerings. In “the wild” these things are often totally different or they don’t even exist anymore.

The God Journey

Ever since I began listening to the God Journey podcasts and particularly The Free Believers Network: Into the Wild podcasts at the very start of 2010, my perspective on Christianity has changed, particularly in relation to mega-church sensationalism. The hosts of these podcasts are mainly ex-pastors of churches so they have seen it all before and know what it is like from the perspective of behind the pulpit.

There is a lot of sensationalism in the mega-church – it thrives on it; I think people need that in order to feel entertained, as if they would be bored otherwise. Whether this approach is right or wrong, I don’t know. But I do know that you can easily get swept away with it and become misled by making unrealistic expectations based on Bible verses that have been blown out of all proportion.

When I listened to my first ever God Journey podcast, I could not believe what I was hearing! These guys were just talking about fishing! I nearly turn it off there and then, but I’m glad I didn’t. After about five minutes or so the conversation shifted towards the subject at hand and what transpired was a truly amazing discussion on the performance trappings of the institutional church. I absolutely love the way that Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings, the hosts of the God Journey, just sum things up in such a succinct and beautiful way. Wayne and Brad’s casual conversation leads a person to see that it is all about living in the love of the Father.

They expose the way in which the church often manipulates people into a lifeless performance of rituals and formulas. When you know that you are loved by God, you do not need all that other stuff: the principles and formulas. Instead of anxiously praying to try to get God to make life happen the way you want it to, you understand that you are on a journey in a relationship with Him, learning to trust in His methods and timings, knowing that life will tend to go well for you – if you do not worry.

Wayne and Brad’s style is not particularly mocking, although they do sometimes look at things in a humorous and critical way. I find the God Journey totally refreshing; it is not a teaching, as such; there are hardly any Bible verses quoted and certainly there is no mention of original Greek and Hebrew words! It is more about learning to live from the heart in a relationship with the Father, in a way that is different from the way in which you were taught to “do church” and “be Christian” in the past.

The Free Believers Network

I began listening to the Free Believers Network because it had been recommended to me along with The God Journey. Nothing could have prepared me for this injection of Christian common-sense. Outside of the box of the institutional church, the hosts of this podcast were free to be genuine, without pretence and to be totally down-to-earth about their beliefs and experiences.

These podcasts had the same kind of style as the God Journey: a casual conversation between two or three people, which usually began with an unrelated conversation that would form an important part of the show as it would get you “in the mood”.

I will admit that I had avoided The Free Believers network in the past because I assumed they were bitter and were out to denounce the institutional church because they had been hurt. Some of the hosts have been hurt by the I.C. There is an element of anti-I.C. about their message: they do take a critical, honest and humorous look at the way we have tended to “do church” in the past.

You will probably find that many of the people who listen to Into the Wild podcasts are rather disillusioned with the church; for them, it is all about bashing the church. As soon as someone sticks-up for church practices, tithing or quotes a Bible verse on a related comments section on the internet – they will have people swooping down on them with a vengeance! I do find it rather curious that there are some Christians who came into the grace message via this route; for these believers, they don’t know much about Joseph Prince and the like; the focus for them is not on proving they’re right with God through scripture – it is more about taking a critical look at the institutional church and learning to live from the heart.

But what these hosts tell you and what you pick-up from the essence of their message is that their focus is on knowing the love of God and living freely from the heart. The focus of the Free Believers Network is very much the same as that of The God Journey.

Darin Hufford, the founder of the Free Believers Network who appears in all of the podcasts, has been a guest with Wayne and Brad on the God Journey. Wayne and Brad own Windblown Media which has published, amongst other books, The Shack by W.M. Paul Young, which is a number 1 best seller. Wayne and Brad were responsible for publishing Darin’s popular book, The Misunderstood God, through Windblown Media.

I think the Free Believers Network podcasts are somewhat “grittier” than the God Journey. The hosts do swear a little from time to time and they can tend to be critical – even political at times. Some people get all offended by the attitude and statements made by The Free Believers, especially those who are still steeped in religious performance and the trappings of the I.C. But I love this complete honesty and freedom to be you.

I used to wonder why Darin Hufford would not balance his “teaching” with Bible verses. But Darin revealed that there are people in the church who are used to a certain language being spoken in the church in which they relate to. Darin argues that we have substituted God with the Bible – as well as our heart with our mind. He therefore speaks in a way so as to confound those he calls “goats” so that the “sheep” will understand this language of the heart. For more information on this notion, check-out the following blogs and podcasts:

• Looking Past the Lingo 16^th April 10, podcast
• Glittering Generalities 18^th July 09, podcast
• Speaking Shoat blog
• Backup Verse Theology blog

Grace Elements… Unionist Teaching

Unionist teaching as some people call it, is the focus on what the Bible says in relation to our being one with God through faith in Christ. Major proponents of this type of teaching are Norman Grubb and Major Ian W. Thomas. I gained a revelation of this type of teaching even before I had ever heard of such people. The teaching of these people confirmed what the Lord had already been showing me. I suppose it is a natural progression for some people as they move away from a focus on works.

Grace on Facebook

It’s a rather funny thing that some of my grace friends on Facebook have shifted from the focus on righteousness and no-condemnation, as taught by Joseph Prince, and onto the unionist message, as taught by Norman Grubb and Major Ian W. Thomas. Whereas, with me it was somewhat different in that I began with a focus on the unionist message and then move towards the focus on righteousness and no-condemnation.

Most of my notes which I wrote since studying the grace message in 2005 are in relation to the unionist message. To a somewhat lesser degree, perhaps twenty percent or so, my studies and notes are on the subject of focusing on what is wrong in the institutional church – which is a topic we will examine a little later on.

If you have an account with Facebook, you may be interested to know there is a growing network of grace believers on there. Furthermore, there are some Christians on Facebook who are strong in the unionist message, such as Fred Pruitt, Nancy Gilmore and Dee Dee Winter. Fred Pruitt has his own website called The Single Eye.

Word of Faith

In 2005 when I was attending a small, charismatic but legalistic church – I found myself gaining a revelation of what the Bible said I was by faith in Christ. Kenneth E. Hagin had portrayed a type of faith that appealed to the masses through claiming miracles, healing and finances.

To his credit, this approach to faith was radical during its time and Hagin faced strong opposition to the concept that Biblical faith could be applied practically to ones life and challenged the notion that Christianity was nothing more than a lifeless ritual and tradition. But in establishing this new approach, Hagin also established a foundation of unrealistic expectations from the Christian life, with people seeking the miraculous more than seeking a relationship with God.

Hagin would occasionally mention that the same faith that you can use to believe God for finances or healing, could be applied to any other promise found in the Bible. I believed it would be better to have faith in inner transformation, rather than faith in miracles, achievements and material possessions. When Hagin did make this rare announcement, he would typically use the example of baptism in believing God for the Holy Spirit.

Inner Transformation

By “inner transformation” I mean living a life from a position of genuine love rather than having to fake it all the time. I just considered the notion of moving away from rules, principles and guidelines into a life of wisdom and a natural, strong desire to do those things that are right for you at the time. I considered this new approach to be dynamic rather than static, spontaneous and natural rather than coaxed. You would not need to live according to a set of rules, what someone else says is a right way to live – if you knew what was right for you in your heart and had a desire to act upon those instincts.

One of the key aspects of my whole life (something I have always found very annoying) was the way in which I would desire to do something in my mind, but just be at a loss as to find the peace, desire and wisdom to be able to act upon it in my heart. I also deeply resented being patronised by other Christians, especially pastors, into performing what I saw as being perfunctory church-related routines and duties, which my heart simply did not agree with. I have struggled with apathy and lethargy all of my life and see it as a side-effect of depression and anxiety. My focus was on finding what was truly right for me at each moment in time and having the power to act upon it through the divine nature.

The verse of scripture that caught my attention more than any other was 2 Peter 1:2-4.

² Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, ³ as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, ⁴ by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the Divine Nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

2 Peter 1:2-4

I vowed that if I ever launched my own ministry, I would call it The Divine Nature – because this was my primary focus when it came to the Christian life and the promises of the Bible.

Grace Elements…Righteousness and No-condemnation

I have noticed that there are different aspects or elements to the grace message. There is the focus on righteousness and no-condemnation, as taught by Joseph Prince, Bertie Brits, Andrew Wommack and Paul White. Joseph Prince also augments his teaching with quite a lot of Old Testament symbolism which points towards grace.

Joseph Prince – The Mega Church Grace Preacher

I’ve noticed that Joseph Prince still has something of mega-church flair to him: this is understandable as he is senior pastor of New Creation Church in Singapore. There is a tendency for Joseph Prince to make the usual sensational promises that other mega-church pastors do.

Who is to say whether or not this approach is right or wrong? Joseph is popular and gets the grace message out to the world, so I’m okay with that. I think it comes down to how secure a person is: if a person is insecure they are much more likely to get obsessive about promises of wealth and miracles; whereas, a secure person may be encouraged by such promises, but will still value the everyday things in life and will have a balanced perspective. But I wonder to myself if such preachers should balance their teaching by informing believers that there is no guarantee that they will be made substantially wealthy and that they cannot dictate what they want and how they should be blessed from God.

Bertie Brits – The Travelling Grace Preacher

Bertie Brits tends to be more down to earth with his straightforward, no-frills teaching on grace. Bertie lacks the charismatic showmanship of Joseph Prince - perhaps this is the right way to go about teaching grace when you don’t pastor a mega-church like Joseph Prince does? Bertie does not refute prosperity in Christ, but he does emphasise contentment and speaks against seeking wealth and miracles through faith. Bertie teaches that we should have faith in Christ, rather than faith in things, knowing that everything else that we need in life flows from there.

Righteousness…A Cliché?

I will admit that although this branch of the grace message seems to be the most popular, and for many, it is the only grace message – I did not begin my journey into grace from there. I think what killed off the whole meaning of righteousness for me was the way in which the religious church just bandied the term about as if it was some sort of meaningless cliché. I mean, Christians would tell me that I am right with God, but then proceed to give me a whole set of rules to follow so that I would be right with Him – talk about being confused!

I thought that righteousness was living your life right. Then I came to see it as being a combination of right-standing and right-living. Nowadays, I see it as simply right-standing with God. The church tends to veer away from the concept of right-standing apart from works, because it seeks to manipulate and frighten people into committing to what is considered to be right living. Hence the term “license to sin” in relation to the grace message.

Righteousness is all about our right-standing with God through faith in Christ; it has nothing to do with our behaviour and performance. As soon as we focus on behaviour, our works, we immediately expose ourselves to guilt as we realise that we don’t have what it takes to please God and merit His approval and blessings. All of our wrong behaviour, our sin, is caused by us not knowing that we are right with Him, just as we are. If we believe that we need to keep rules to be right with God, our flesh nature becomes alive in us.

Am I The Only One Getting This?

When God started to reveal grace to me in 2005, I did not even think to call it “grace” and I had not even heard of Joseph Prince and other grace preachers like him. I thought it was just me receiving this message. This had two effects in that I felt excited at the thought of bringing something seemingly new life changing to the world; secondly, I thought that I was possibly going mad and was being misled. I did think to myself that if the devil was misleading me then it was a very elaborate rouse indeed because it was profoundly scriptural. Thankfully, I came across Joseph Prince’s teaching in 2006 and that confirmed that I was not going mad, after all!

Grace Origins…How It All Started

Introduction

I was reflecting on my Christian journey recently and how I came about the message of grace and where I was at now. You could say I was contemplating my grace origins. This contemplation led me to the realisation that there are different aspects or “flavours” of the grace message; different Christians go through these different phases in a different order to others; whilst some tend to spend more time in other phases than others. Anyway, I’ll relate here what I went through and you may resonate with it, or you may not. Hopefully, we can all learn a little something from these experiences.

A Touch from the Hand of God

Firstly, let me begin with a brief history of my Christian journey. I have been a Christian now for about 15 years. I only really got serious about Christianity in 1997 when I first started going to Kensington Temple in London. Things really changed for me when I was dramatically baptised in the Holy Spirit in October 1998. Up until that moment I had been struggling with depression and anxiety all of my life. But in that moment in October 1998 God came into my life in an incredible way.

For a couple of months after that dramatic experience I experienced a profound sense of peace and joy that I never before knew existed. But it was not long before those dark clouds of depression and anxiety started rolling back in. I think that my negativity was never quite as bad from that moment on -- but was still bad enough for me to continue my spiritual quest for peace, success and fulfilment. I had been given a taste of what it must be like to have God in your life.

Word of Faith

It was around about the time when I was baptised in the Holy Spirit that I began studying the faith teaching of Kenneth E. Hagin. Hagin is considered by many to be the father of faith. I was amazed by the wonderful testimonies; the signs and miracles that Hagin would write about his books. Hagin's teaching also seem to focus more on the power of God working in man more than any other preacher that I knew of at the time. For instance, Hagin would teach that we are not to follow the Ten Commandments and that in the New Testament we are to simply follow love: love fulfils the law. I loved Hagin’s teaching because it seemed to offer so much; Hagin blasted away the cobwebs of religion and presented something fresh, new, powerful and relevant. Christianity was not a dull, lifeless adherence to religion – it was a practical way of life.

Hagin's teaching is something that I could liken to a combination of the Christian teaching of E.W. Kenyon and the positive thinking and affirmations branch of self-help: such as Dr Joseph Murphy, The Secret and The Law of Attraction. I pursued Hagin's faith teaching, known by some as Word of Faith, for about seven years till the year 2005. By this time I had well and truly burned myself out on trying to control my life and make things happen by following principles and formulas: through confessing Scriptures as a means of controlling my life and making God bless me, how I want when I want.

Religious Legalism

I think it was about the year 2003 when I stopped going to Kensington Temple and started going to a small, local charismatic church. I was delighted with this church at first: I liked the people, pastor and the worship. It’s funny when I think about it now: I used to get goose-bumps when I heard the worship leader playing the electric piano. They would hand out little weekly news bulletins as you entered the door. I had a little place reserved for them in a draw and I kept hold of each one.

This smaller church venue provided me with the opportunity to really get to know the people there. Most of them were rather quirky and dull, but some of the people I really liked and got along with well; most of the people were pleasant enough though. The church believed in signs and wonders and they would pray in tongues and lot. Sometimes people would stand-up and give a Word of Knowledge. They often had altar calls when they would pray for people and they would fall over under the power of the Holy Spirit. I became one of the people who would catch the people as they fell. My sphere of influence grew in the church as I became one of the ushers.

I tried to get noticed by the pastor with a means of serving in the church and somehow moving into full-time ministry. Like many other Christians, I saw full-time ministry as the ultimate achievement for a Christian.

After about a year and a half of attending this church I started to become rather disillusioned. I just felt guilty all the time because the pastor would be constantly preaching about behaviour modification; it was all about performance and I just felt that I just never seem to have the ability to measure-up. There seemed to be such a strong emphasis on committing to acts of charity in the church that just didn’t seem to be quite right; I thought that there was perhaps something wrong with me for not being keener on performing these religious duties.

It was in 2005 when I began to get an incredible urge to write. I started to gain a revelation of the Bible that had been there all the time, of course, but no-one else seemed to see it. I had a passion for studying the scriptures which I began to see in a light that was no longer performance based and guilt driven.

My foundation of faith teaching via Kenneth E. Hagin had taught me to see the Bible as the irrefutable Word of God and that anything written therein should be taken literally, by faith, even if you don’t see it manifested yet. I started focusing on the verses of scripture that said that God lived in me, His love had been poured into my heart and I had been given the divine nature. If these promises were true, I reasoned, why was the church being patronised and intimidated into maintaining correct behaviour? Surely, the focus should be more on faith, not so much claiming finances, but knowing that God lives in you.

I began to stay at home a lot, missing the mid-week church activates and even the occasional Sunday. I found that this new revelation was much better than what I was hearing in church. This was my introduction to what I later found would be called the grace message. I finally left that church after a year and a half because I just couldn't stand it any more.

The Four Gospels

It might surprise some people to learn that the Four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – are not actually the Gospel at all! These books chronicle the earthly ministry of Jesus, but the actual revelation of the Good News of redemption only came after the death, burial and resurrection of Christ! It is for this reason that the most important books in the Bible are the Pauline Epistles: letters written to the churches by the Apostle Paul.

The four Gospels provide accounts of Jesus’ parables, miracles and his encounters with the Pharisees, who were the religious elite of the day. The members of this Jewish sect would often try to trick Jesus because they felt that their religious empire, and pompous way of life, was under threat. There is a definite parallel here between religious pride during Jesus’ earthly ministry and some religious people today. It would seem that as soon as rule-keeping factors in the equation – pride and judgementalism is the result. I felt that being a Christian entitled me to be blessed more than unbelievers, as if God hates anyone who is not a Christian – but that is not true.

There are many Christians who read the Four Gospels as if they are some kind of rulebook. In fact, some Christians use the cliché of the word “Bible” being an acronym for “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”. But as soon as the Bible becomes a book of rules, the onus of effort shifts from Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, to what we can do for other people and for God.

Jesus actually raised the Old Testament law to another level in the Gospels. In Matthew 5:20, Jesus said that our righteousness should exceed that of the Pharisees. This seemed impossible because no one was as religious as the Pharisees, who diligently kept all the Jewish laws and customs. Jesus actually opposed these laws by healing on the Sabbath in Mark 3:1-6. If the Pharisees were more interested in loving other people, rather than adhering to rules for selfish purposes, they would have been delighted that someone was healed; but no, we read in Mark 3:6 that the Pharisees plotted with the Herodians to kill Jesus!

Christianity seems to be so steeped in rule keeping that you would think that Jesus was more zealous of keeping rules and rituals than the Pharisees, but no, it was actually the other way around. In Matthew 12:1-2 we read about how Jesus’ disciples plucked corn to eat, but they came under criticism from the Pharisees because it was the Sabbath. You would have thought that Jesus would have agreed with them, if He was more interested in rules than in love. But no, we read in Matthew 12:3-4 of how Jesus answered the Pharisees by relating the story of King David and how he ate the showbread in the temple because he was hungry (which was considered unlawful in a religious sense).

If Jesus was more interested in rules than showing mercy on others then surely He would have been the first in line to stone to death the woman caught in the act of adultery in John chapter 8. In John 8:5 the Pharisees quoted the Law of Moses in that it stated that anyone found guilty of adultery should be stoned to death. Jesus replied to them in such a way that they felt convinced of a guilty conscience and left one by one. The Pharisees were adhering to the Old Testament law as set-out in Leviticus 20:10. Jesus being a Rabbi (Jewish Teacher) should have agreed with them – but He didn’t. The reason why Jesus did not agree with the Pharisees is because He was living according to love, not according to the Old Testament law of do’s and don’ts.

So if even Jesus did not keep the rules – how was it that He lived a life without sin? It was because He lived according to the Father’s love. Jesus fulfilled the law, even though He allowed His disciples to pick corn on the Sabbath; He Himself healed on the Sabbath; and He allowed the woman caught in the act of adultery to go free, rather than agreeing that she be stoned to death.

It is only in the Epistles, the letters to the churches that we read of Christ setting us free from the law so that we could be free to enjoy a relationship with God the Father, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit.

So it seems that the whole purpose of the Four Gospels was to bring man to the end of himself. In other words, Jesus sought to show mankind that they could not stand blameless before God in their own effort; a Saviour was required who would save man from His sins. After all, who needs a Saviour when you think you’re good enough to live without one?