Thoughts During a Sermon

[jedizero]

Salvation is not some sort of cosmic "get out of jail free" card.

Following Jesus is not about keeping rules.

Good works and service and loving our fellow human beings is not about earning points with God or meeting some sort of requirement.

Rather, encountering God results in a process of transformation, which culminates in a person fully alive,

Comments

The many

[anonymous]

There are, Mr. Howard, unfortunately a great many Christians who use it as a "get out of jail free" card. I know I am guilty of that on rather more occasions than I am comfortable admitting. The astonishing thing is, once you turn around and start acting like you actually love God, the reward is immediate, overwhelming, and far more... real than any momentary pleasure or gratification from any sin or indeed from even just following the rules.

Christ said that the greatest commandments are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. He then added, quite importantly, that if you follow these two, then you're good on the others. The individual rules are rather irrelevant (in fact they are automatic) if you are pointed in the right direction.

[jedizero]

Exactly. The rules are not meant to be the driving force; rather, they're a signpost. If you're coming from the right place, it should look like this... you know?