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Why Christ Alone Has Authority Over the Conscience | John Calvin · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back. You're listening to Reformed
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Thinking, and this is the Deep dive.
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Today we are going straight to the source, into the 16th
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century and pulling from one of the sharpest minds in church
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history, John Calvin. We're looking at a section from
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his huge work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, and
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we're really zeroing in on a massive question.
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How does our spiritual freedom survive human authority?
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Specifically, we're looking at his critique of how the church
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makes laws and what that does to the Christian conscience.
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So our mission for you is to walk away with Calvin standard
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for telling the difference between a helpful church
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guideline and, well, spiritual tyranny that enslaves the soul.
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It's a conversation that is, I think, just as needed today as
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it was back then. And the section we're in has
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this incredibly intense title. It's called The Power of Making
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Laws, in which the Pope, with his supporters, has exercised
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upon souls the most savage tyranny and butchery.
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Wow, yeah, he doesn't pull any punches with that title.
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No, he doesn't. And the language is that strong
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because the stake are as high as they get.
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We're talking about the right worship of God and the freedom
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that Christ purchased with his own blood.
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And we should be really clear, this isn't a political
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discussion about civil government.
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This is all about how God is to be worshipped according to his
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Word and how that spiritual freedom we have in Christ isn't
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chipped away. If we get these boundaries
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wrong, we risk losing the gospel itself.
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And the group he was writing against, whom he calls the
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Romanists, they made this huge error.
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They basically defined the church's authority as the
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ability to make laws that could bind a person's soul.
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That's it. It wasn't just about keeping
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good order, it was about spiritual jurisdiction.
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And this led to what he called innumerable human traditions.
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Right, which he famously described as Nets to ensnare
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miserable souls. The moment you declare these
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human roles, whether it's some ceremony or a disciplinary
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action, as necessary for your standing with God, you've
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invaded Christ's Kingdom. You've overthrown the freedom he
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gives. So maybe this is the main take
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away right from the start. The second a human rule makes
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you feel spiritually guilty before God for breaking it,
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that's the moment it's crossed the line from being about order
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into being about tyranny. That's a perfect way to put it.
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Calvin's whole point here is that necessity should never be
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imposed on consciences in matters where crisis set them
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free. We have one law of freedom, he
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says, and that's the gospel. Even the Apostle Paul was so
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careful not to lay any kind of restraint on people in these
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external matters because he knew what a wound it is when you make
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something necessary that the Lord left free.
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OK, so let's dig into that because it gets tricky pretty
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fast. How can any law bind the
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conscience? Because someone's going to
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immediately bring up Romans 13. Paul tells us to obey the civil
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government, the magistrates, and he says we should do it not just
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to avoid getting in trouble, but because of conscience.
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So that sounds like civil laws do bind the conscience.
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If that's true, why wouldn't church laws do the same thing?
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This is where we have to slow down and be really precise with
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our terms. Calvin gives us the key.
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He draws a sharp distinction between two different spheres. 2
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jurisdictions. There's the Outward Forum, which
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is all about political order, your visible actions, how you
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live in community. OK, so the outward forum is like
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traffic court paying taxes, all the external stuff.
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Yes, and then there's the Forum of Conscience, and that relates
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only to your standing with God. It's like a spiritual courtroom
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where only God is the judge. Exactly, and not understanding
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that difference is what he saw as a total theological disaster.
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So we have to be clear on what conscience even is.
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It's more than just a vague feeling.
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So what is it according to Calvin?
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Well, he looks at the word itself.
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It comes from the Latin for Co knowledge or awareness.
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For Calvin, conscience is this awareness of divine judgment
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that's attached to us. It's like an internal witness
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that's always there, pursuing us when we sin, accusing us before
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God's judgment seat. So it's a mediator in a sense,
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between US and God. It is.
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It's what's behind that old saying.
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Conscience is 1000 witnesses. It's that feeling of being
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perpetually and inescapably observed by God.
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So if conscience is all about divine judgment, then it really
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only relates to God. That's the critical point.
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Your external actions might concern other people, how you
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treat your neighbor, whether you follow the law.
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But your conscience relates specifically and only to God.
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So a good conscience, then, is an inward uprightness of heart.
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It's a lively longing to worship God and a sincere intent to live
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a godly and holy life. So when we ask if a law binds
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the conscience, what we're really asking is, does breaking
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this law make me guilty before God, even if nobody else sees
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it? That's it.
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A law binds the conscience when it binds a person simply without
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any regard for other people. Think about God's law against
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lust that binds your conscience, even if you were the only person
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on earth, because of the sin is before God alone.
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Or if someone drinks too much, they sin not just because it's a
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bad example, but because their conscience is guilty before God
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for breaking His moral standard. OK, that makes sense for God's
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clear moral law. But what about all the
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indifferent things, The stuff that isn't good or evil in
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itself, like eating certain foods?
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Paul talks about meat offered to idols in 1st Corinthians 10.
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He says if someone objects, you should abstain, but he makes a
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point of saying it's for the sake of the other person's
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conscience, not your own. And this is the case that proves
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the rule. You see, abstaining in that
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situation might be necessary. But why?
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Because of God's general command to love your brother, if you
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know it will cause a weaker brother to stumble and you eat
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it anyway, you've sinned. But here's the key distinction
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Calvin makes. This necessity, binding only
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outward works, leaves the conscience free.
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Ah, so your conscience is free because the act of eating meat
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isn't inherently sinful before God.
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The sin is violating the law of love, which is God's eternal
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moral law, not breaking some rule about meat.
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You've got it. So now let's apply that to human
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laws. If a church passes a rule with
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the intention of placing a spiritual necessity on you, as
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if following their tradition earns you favor with God, or
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breaking it automatically makes you guilty before God in and of
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itself, that law is unlawful. It's trespassing into guard's
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spiritual jurisdiction. Why?
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Because the conscience has to do with God alone.
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OK, let's circle back to Romans 13 then, just to lock this down.
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If a civil law like a speed limit doesn't bind my conscience
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in itself, why does Paul say I should obey for conscience sake?
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Because we are held by God's general command to honor those
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in authority. That's part of His moral law.
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The authority of magistrates is ordained by God.
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So when we obey the speed limit, my conscience isn't bound to the
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specific #55 as a spiritual necessity.
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My conscience is bound to obey God's general command to honor
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the magistrate, maintain order, and live in peace.
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So the. Obligation is tied to the
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general purpose, which God approves of.
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Yes, that's the pivot. Human laws, civil or church,
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don't bind the conscience in and of themselves.
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They have to be aimed at an external purpose like order or
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peace. They can never be about the
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thing itself being a necessary act of worship or something that
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earns spiritual merit. That's where they cross the
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line. And that distinction between
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laws for external order and laws that claim spiritual necessity,
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that's really the launchpad for Calvin's whole critique of the
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Roman church at the time. It is now we get to the
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ecclesiastical constitutions that he says are thrust upon
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people claiming to be true and necessary for worship and
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trapping souls in thousands of rules.
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So the false bishops, as he calls them, they claim to be
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spiritual lawmakers. Yes.
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They argued that the government of the Church was given to them
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not just for administration, but for spiritual legislation.
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They said that anything they commanded had to be followed out
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of necessity. So if you violated their rule,
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you were guilty of a double disobedience.
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You were a rebel against God and against the Church.
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That gave them a terrifying amount of control.
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But Calvin doesn't even grant them that first step.
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He says yes, true bishops have authority to maintain the
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government of the Church for order, like we said, but he
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completely denies their right to invent something apart from
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God's Word and make it obligatory on the conscience.
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He says that right was unknown to the apostles and the reason
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is simple. God reserves that law, giving
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power for Himself alone. The Lord has given us everything
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we need for the perfect rule of a good life in His law.
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There's nothing left for men to add to that summary that affects
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our salvation or righteousness. That seems like a really bold
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claim. Why is God so exclusive about
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being the only law giver for the soul?
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Calvin gives 2 powerful reasons. First, God wants us to see him
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as the only master and guide of our life.
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All our actions should conform to His will.
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If men can just add to that rule, they become rival masters.
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And second, God wants us to get that.
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Nothing more is required of us than obedience to Him.
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The moment men start adding rules, people start to believe
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that something more than simple obedience to God is needed to be
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in His favor. And he backs this up with
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Scripture, right? It's all about who has
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jurisdiction over the soul. It is.
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He points to James who asks there is one law giver who is
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able to save and to destroy, and to Isaiah who says the Lord is
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our king, the Lord is our law giver, the Lord is our judge, He
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will save us. If we agree that you can't just
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transfer to man what God has reserved for himself, the right
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to bind the conscience for salvation, then the whole
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legislative project of these men just collapses.
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So if I'm trying to evaluate a church rule today, the test is
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pretty clear. Does this rule claim to be part
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of the true worship of God, and does it bind my conscience to
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keep it as if it were compulsory?
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If the answer is yes to both, it's an illegitimate rule.
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That's the test that he says won't let us go wrong.
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And that brings us to the deep impiety of the papal
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constitutions. They pretended that the various
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worship of God, the purest, most essential form of it, was
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contained in their man made traditions.
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Which Paul said is unbearable, reducing worship to man's
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decision. It's against Christ.
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Right. And it's not just a theoretical
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error, it's a real oppression. They bind consciences with
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extreme rigor to follow these commands, and in doing so, they
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deny the very freedom Christ purchase.
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They are putting yokes on people where Christ promised rest.
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And the outcome of this is that they end up in the same place as
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the Pharisees Christ condemned. They nullify God's commandment
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for the sake of their tradition. And the examples he gives to
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show how absurd this gets are just shocking.
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They make the point better than any abstract argument.
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Let's get into those. He talks about this inverted
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moral scale they had created. He does.
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He points out that in their system, it was considered far
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more wicked to skip your yearly auricular confession than to
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live horribly wicked life all year long.
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The external human right was given more legal weight than a
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life of actual righteousness. That's just it's hard to even
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process that kind of thinking. Or consider this one.
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Infecting your tongue with a tiny taste of meat on a Friday
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was seen as a worse sin than fouling your whole body with
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daily fornication. Or a priest who entered into a
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lawful marriage was condemned, but one who was entangled in
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1000 adulteries could be dealt with much more leniently.
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Now hold on, that sounds like an exaggeration.
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I mean, surely they didn't actually claim that breaking a
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fast was worse than adultery? Is he being hyperbolic here?
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That's a fair question, but he's not just being rhetorical.
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He's talking about the legal and disciplinary priority that was
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given to human rules. The evidence for this moral
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collapse was in the punishments. If you violated God's explicit
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law, like adultery, you might get a light penance in
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confession. Something you might or might not
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even do. Right.
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But if you broke one of their decrees, like a priest marrying,
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the punishment was swift and severe.
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Prison, fire or the sword. They were far harsher on those
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who despised their own rules than on those who despised God's
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commands. And the result is what he calls
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sham obedience. It is a fake piety.
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People's spiritual focus shifts away from God's Word and toward
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meeting human expectations. These trifling elements of this
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world, as Paul calls them, are treated as more significant than
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God's own words. The person forgiven for adultery
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is then judged harshly for the food they ate on a Friday.
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So beyond this tyranny over the conscience and twisting God's
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law, Calvin points out two other big problems with all these
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human constitutions. Yes, the first is that most of
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them are just useless and sometimes downright foolish, and
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2nd, the sheer number of them is overwhelming and it crushes
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pious consciences. It leads to a kind of return to
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Judaism, where people are cling to shadows instead of to Christ
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himself. And he mentions Paul's warning
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that these human traditions can trick us because they have an
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appearance of wisdom. They do.
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They look like they promote humility and self denial.
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They seem like they can tame the flesh better than the simple
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gospel can. Human nature loves its own
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inventions, you know. We often embrace these
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complicated rituals more eagerly than something that is actually
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excellent but doesn't flatter our own sense of effort.
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It feels like you're doing something for God instead of
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just resting in what Christ has done, and Calvin just dismisses
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them as trifles and tricks. Because he says they have no
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real usefulness. Their main job is to delude
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people with empty pump, and he points out where they came from.
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He says the authors of these rights took their patterns
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partly from the ravings of the Gentiles Pagan superstitions,
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and partly by foolishly imitating the old Mosaic rites
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from the Old Testament, which are now obsolete.
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So when the church leaders claimed there were these great
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mysteries in their ceremonies. Calvin calls them pure
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mockeries. The whole point of a new
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Covenant ceremony should be simple to teach and to show
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Christ present. Instead, these rites just ended
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up confusing people, numbing them with a bunch of theatrical
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props that did nothing to build them up.
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And then there's the problem of just the sheer number of them,
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the burden of multiplication. Right.
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He quotes August Austin, who was writing 1000 years before him,
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who was already complaining that the church in his day was so
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oppressed with rules that the condition of the Jews in the Old
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Testament was actually more bearable.
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Wow. And Galvin says in his day, it
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was even worse. 10 times worse, he says, and every single point
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was enforced 100 times more strictly.
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It led to what he calls unbearable torment for anyone
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with a sensitive conscience. When you have thousands of
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external rules, you spend all your time worrying about the
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rules and none of your time resting in Christ.
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It's a natural tendency, isn't it, to just keep adding more and
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more rules? It is.
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It's the trajectory of false religion that Paul pointed out
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in Colossians. First they forbid you to eat
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something, then they say you can't even taste it.
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Then it's unlawful to even touch it.
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It's always moving toward more and more scrupulosity, adding
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snare after snare until the believer is just suffocated.
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Which is the complete opposite of what Christ intended for His
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Church. He bound the new community
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together with sacraments that are, as Calvin says, very few in
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number, very excellent meaning, very easy to observe.
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And by multiplying rules, they were confusing the basic
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difference between the old and new covenants.
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God taught the Jews like children, with tutors and signs
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and figures. But he teaches Christians who
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are like adults more simply, without all the external
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ceremony. We've been freed from that
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tutelage. So to bring back all those
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figures is to overturn the order that Christ himself set up.
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The whole point of New Covenant ceremonies is to show Christ as
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present, not to hide him behind a curtain of ritual.
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Exactly. God gave us a few ceremonies,
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baptism in the Lord's Supper, and they aren't burdensome.
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They show Christ present and his work accomplished.
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The Jews were given far more ceremonies, like sacrifices and
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washings, because those were pictures of a Christ who was, in
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a sense, absent. He hadn't come yet.
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We have the reality. They had the shadow.
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To bring back the shadow is to insult the reality.
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But the deepest problem, the most dangerous spiritual
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corruption, is when people start to think these ceremonies
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actually work for salvation. Yes, this is where it becomes
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spiritually lethal. People start to believe that
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these ceremonies invented by humans are sacrifices that can
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appease God, cleanse their sins, and earn salvation.
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That's the heart of the impiety. They're giving honor to works
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devised by men instead of relying only on the finished
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work and sacrifice of Christ. And this goes directly against
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what God has always said He values.
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He wants obedience, not man made ritual.
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That's the lesson from Jeremiah. God says I did not command you
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concerning sacrifice, but only that hearing you should hear my
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voice. When men invent their own works
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of worship, they're trying to justify themselves by their own
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efforts, not by resting in Christ.
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And Scripture is filled with warnings against this God
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threatens blindness on those who worship him with the doctrines
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of men. He says he's worshipped in vain
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with human precepts. This isn't just a small mistake,
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it's a form of spiritual rebellion.
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Look at the example of King Manasseh.
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His great crime was building a new altar in Jerusalem, the very
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city where God had said There I will put my name.
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Any invention in worship is a departure from God's command and
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a rejection of His soul authority.
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God wants to be the only law giver for His own worship.
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When we create new ways to worship, we are trying to take
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His crown. OK, so after that really intense
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critique of human traditions that buy in the conscience, we
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have to pause here because some people might hear this and think
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Calvin is just calling for total anarchy in the church, no rules
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at all. Right.
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And that's not at all what he's saying.
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He's not condemning rules that are for the sake of order,
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decency and peace. He knows that any human society
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needs some kind of organization to function, and that's
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especially true for churches. They would fall apart without a
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well ordered constitution. He immediately points us back to
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Paul's rule in First Corinthians.
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All things be done decently and in order.
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So order and decency are biblical commands.
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But how do we tell the difference between a legitimate
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rule that falls under Paul's command and the spiritual
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tyranny we were just talking about?
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We need some clear boundaries. He gives us 2 essential non
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negotiable safeguards. 1st a legitimate rule must not be
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considered necessary for salvation.
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It cannot bind the conscience with spiritual guilt.
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And 2nd, it must not be associated with the worship of
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God, meaning we can't think there's any piety or merit in
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the act of observing it. So it has to be aimed only at
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external order and decency. That's it.
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Once you understand that a rule is just for the sake of public
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decency and not for earning brownie points with God, the
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superstition is gone. Legitimate church rules are for
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one of two things or both Making sure our sacred gatherings are
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done with dignity and keeping the community in good order by
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fostering love and peace. Let's define those two terms a
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bit more. What's the difference between
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decorum and order? Decorum is about what's fitting
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for the reverence of holy things.
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It should help our devotion. The classic example is praying
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with bent knees. In many cultures, that posture
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communicates modesty and piety. It helps people focus.
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But he says it's not about theatrical props or useless
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elegance, which was his critique of all the pomp and ceremony
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where the ritual itself became the show.
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In the order. Order is about the arrangement
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that prevents confusion, barbarity, stubbornness and
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division. It's the structure that helps
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leaders govern well and helps the people get used to obedience
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and discipline without being spiritually enslaved.
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It's the framework for peace in the community.
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And we can see examples of this kind of legitimate order in
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Scripture itself, right? For decorum, there's Paul's
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instruction for women to cover their heads in public worship.
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A sign of reverence in that culture, or just the general
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principle of administering the sacraments with dignity?
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Right. And for order and peace, you
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have things like setting fixed times for services, ensuring
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there's quiet during the sermon so people can actually hear,
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Paul, forbidding women to teach in the public assembly because
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it would violate the established order of authority there.
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And things that maintain discipline like catechism,
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church censures, or calling for a time of fasting, all of those
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fall into that second category, discipline and peace.
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So this brings up a bit of a contradiction.
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How can a human rule be considered holy, divine?
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If men made-up the specific detail, Where does the authority
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come from? It comes from God's general
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command. Think of it like this.
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God's general command is the law that says drive safely.
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That's First Corinthians 14.4 O the specific speed limit sign
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that says 45 mile per hour is man's application of that
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general rule for a specific road at a specific time.
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So take kneeling for prayer. It's a human tradition, but it's
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also divine. In a sense, yes, it's human
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because Christ didn't explicitly command it.
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But it's divine in that it's part of the decorum that the
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Apostle commanded to us. God commands reverence.
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Kneeling is just a specific posture that designates
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reverence in a particular culture.
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So the need for order and decorum is from God, but the
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specific form it takes, kneeling, standing, the exact
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time of the service, that's for man, and it's determined by what
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is fitting for that culture. Precisely.
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God's Word gives us everything we need for salvation.
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He didn't spell out every single detail of outward discipline and
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ceremony, because those things going to be adapted to the times
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and the culture. So we have to rely on the
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general rules. He gave us order, decorum, love
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to figure out what the church needs right now.
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And because these are just circumstantial, not essential
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for salvation, they have to be flexible.
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They can change. They must be able to change.
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Calvin is very clear on this. He says it will be fitting, as
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the good of the church requires, to change and abrogate
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traditional practices and to establish new ones.
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Love is the guide. Love has to judge what will
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build people up and what will hurt them.
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We shouldn't just change things for the sake of change.
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But if love requires a change for the sake of better order, we
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are completely free to make that change.
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That is freedom from the slavery of unchanging tradition.
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OK, so if the church sets up these kinds of flexible rules
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for good order, what's the duty of the average Christian?
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And how do we maintain our Christian freedom even while
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we're obeying these human rules? Seems like a paradox.
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It's maybe the most practical part of the whole discussion.
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Our duty is to keep these established rules, but to keep
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them with a free conscience. We have to avoid superstition,
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but still have a pious and ready attitude of obedience for the
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sake of unity. And this is key.
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We shouldn't violate them out of contempt or stubbornness.
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So the real danger isn't the rule itself, but our hearts
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attitude toward the order of the Church.
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That's it. And the way we maintain our
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freedom is by constantly remembering that these rules are
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just outward helps for a human weakness.
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They are not permanent, fixed laws that bind us to God.
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We follow them not because each of us individually needs that
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specific rule, but because we are all bound together to
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nourish mutual love and order. So because they're just for
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order and love, love can also override them in a specific
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situation. Can you give us some practical
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examples of what that freedom looks like?
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The exceptions really prove the rule here.
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If a woman has to run out of the assembly to help a neighbor in a
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dire emergency, she doesn't sin by going out with her head
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uncovered, even if that breaks the decorum rule.
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If a man is sick and can't bend his knees, he can stand to pray
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and he's not a Sinner. If you don't have a shroud, it's
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better to bury a body in a timely manner than to wait for
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one and risk spreading disease. None of these are spiritual
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crimes unless. They're done out of contempt for
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the established order. Right.
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God's higher moral laws, mercy, necessity, love, always come
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before man's specific rules for decency.
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The sin isn't in the breaking of the custom, it's in the
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contempt. If you depart from a rule out of
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necessity or just plain imprudence, it's no crime.
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But if you do it out of willful rejection of order, that's
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wrong. Not because you broke the
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posture rule, but because you violated God's general command
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to love your neighbor and respect the order of the body of
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Christ. This freedom is so vital, but
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the Romanists at the time would often point to the decree from
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the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, one about abstaining from
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meat offered idols and from blood and from strangled things.
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They would say, see, the apostles made new rules, so we
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can too. How does Calvin handle that?
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He says that if the apostles were laying down a new law for
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the conscience, they would be contradicting Peter himself, who
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in that very same council said that they would be testing God
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if they put a new yoke on the necks of the disciples.
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So whatever they did, it couldn't have been a new
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spiritual necessity. So what was that decree actually
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about then? It wasn't a new law.
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It was a specific, temporary application of the eternal
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divine command not to violate love.
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You had Jewish believers whose consciences were weak on these
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issues, and they were deeply offended when they saw Gentile
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believers eating blood or things that have been strangled.
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So the apostles were just warning the Gentiles on how to
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conduct themselves around their Jewish brothers so as not to
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offend them by flaunting their Christian freedom.
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So it wasn't a permanent binding law for all time that touches
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the conscience. It was an act of pastoral
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prudence to keep the peace between two very different
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cultures that were coming together in the church.
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That's it. It's like a pastor today telling
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his congregation not to eat meat openly on a Friday in a
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neighborhood with a lot of devout Catholics.
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Not because eating meat on a Friday is a sin, but to avoid
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causing unnecessary scandal and offense.
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The apostles were just trying to prevent scandals that the Lord
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forbids, but they didn't elevate abstinence from blood to a new
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moral requirement for salvation. And we know this interpretation
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is right because of what happened later.
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We do, because the Romanists themselves eventually set that
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Apostolic decree aside. Nobody worries about eating
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blood sausage today. By doing that, they basically
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admitted that the rule was to be judged by its purpose, which was
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love and temporary order. When they set it aside, they
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acknowledge that it was just a simple accommodation to the
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times and customs, not a permanent addition to God's
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eternal law. That really makes the
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distinction clear. So the final warning that is to
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prevent this whole system from sliding back into corruption,
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which we know it tends to do. How do we keep the use of these
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legitimate rules pure? Calvin says we need two things
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constantly in place. First, we have to make sure that
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all our observances have a manifest usefulness and that we
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keep them to a very few. A huge number of ceremonies is
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the first sign of creeping corruption.
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The church has to prioritize simplicity.
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And 2nd, and this is the most critical part, you have to have
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faithful pastoral teaching that constantly bars the way to wrong
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ideas. The pastor has to keep teaching
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people that these ceremonies don't add to Your Holiness and
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they aren't meritorious sacrifices.
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And the ultimate test for any practice is still its purpose.
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Is it for the upbuilding of the Church?
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Always, if the community requires that practices can be
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changed or even abandoned, even if they were started for a good
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reason. And the relevance for us today
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is that churches still struggle with this balance.
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We have to be vigilant. Many rules, even simple ones
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like specific dress codes or exclusive music styles, might
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need to be reexamined to make sure they aren't becoming a
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source of frightful superstition or a spiritual burden.
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So a quick summary of an acceptable law would be what?
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It must not obscure the gospel's clarity, it must be constructive
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for external order, it can't be designed for financial gain, and
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it can't be tainted by superstition or the idea that it
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earns you merit. The true difference is that one
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set of rules binds us to Christ and leaves the conscience free.
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The other set binds us to men and ensnares the soul.
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We started this deep dive with the question of how Christian
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liberty can possibly survive the human tendency to make laws that
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bind the conscience, and Calvin has given us a remarkably clear,
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scripturally based answer. He's given us the boundaries we
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need to understand church authority.
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If you walk away with two things from this, it should be these.
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First, worship is defined by God alone.
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When you put human rules above God's instruction, especially
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when you claim they are spiritually necessary, you end
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up with a perverse kind of worship that is condemned as
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idolatry because you're confusing righteousness with
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human invention. And 2nd, legitimate church rules
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are only for the sake of order and love, following Paul's
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command that all things be done decently.
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They are never, ever to be seen as necessary for salvation, and
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they can impose spiritual necessity on your conscience.
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That space belongs only to God. And that really leads to the
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ongoing work of the Christian life, which is applying these
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principles every day. Calvin is very clear that
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contempt for humanly established order, even if the rule itself
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is indifferent, is wrong because it disrupts the peace and love
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that God commands. So here's the thought to leave
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with Given the incredible diversity of church practices
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today, how should you as a believer balance the command for
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freedom in Christ with the command for decent order and
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peace within your own local church?
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That tension between freedom and unity is the ongoing task of
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Christian prudence and love. Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive into reformed thinking.
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We hope this is giving you some clear criteria for telling the
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difference between helpful order and spiritual tyranny.
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Until next time, keep seeking wisdom.