Sermonette: Striking a Balance

Sermonette: Striking a Balance

#109s
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 08-Jan-94; 20 minutes

listen:

description: (hide) Richard Ritenbaugh, asking us to imagine a one lane road which climbs relentlessly uphill with deep ditches on both sides, symbolic of the narrow road on which Christians are to travel, warns us of the tendency to go to extremes in our beliefs. One ditch consists of legalism, or the desire to abide by every minute detail of the law, over-regulating our lives with crippling petty rules (often missing the weightier matters of the law), making Christianity stifling, a matter of keeping a kind of spiritual tally sheet. The left ditch or the liberal ditch minimizes the law altogether, maintaining that all one has to do to be saved is "believe." To the liberal, freedom and doing one’s own thing is more important than obedience. Licentiousness is the extreme destination of liberalism gone amuck. The Gnostics saw no problem with sin because it would produce God’s grace. Both legalism and liberalism can lead to our destruction; God’s way is the perfect blend of law and grace. God’s word implanted in our hearts and minds will promote a perfect balance.