Shay Thomason

Photo by Joshua Cook.

“Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” – Mark 7:8 Those are the words of Christ telling the Pharisees basically where they stand in their own hearts. These so called “religious leaders” couldn’t understand why the disciples of Christ wouldn’t wash their hands and follow the ceremonial cleansings before eating. The Pharisees believed that by doing these certain rituals it would make them righteous before God. Even though those rituals weren’t commanded by God, they held that these things must be done or one was considered “unclean”, or worse still, unrighteous. But that’s exactly where they got it all wrong–just like me.

Simply stated legalism could be defined as creating an external standard of righteousness to earn God’s favor. Legalism is what Christ pointed out in hearts of the Pharisees. They thought their own rituals, laws, or whatever would earn God’s favor even though God had never commanded those things in Scripture. Somewhere along the line they started adding to God’s Word with their own, which created all these nit picky (and sometimes absurd) practices which they held to. So it makes sense that they come to confront Christ and his own disciples concerning their traditions. They honestly believed that Christ’s disciples were in sin for not complying to their rules, but the reality was they had completely distorted God’s Word and were placing their law above God’s. It would be nice if I could just leave it there and say it was a problem exclusively for the Pharisees, but I can’t. The fact of the matter is this is exactly what I do and it’s been robbing me of my joy.

Legalism has been taking out notches out of my joy a little bit at a time. This is because, as my pastor clearly stated “legalist’s are more aware of their own sin then what Christ did on the cross.” For a while now I’ve felt that I can’t seem to get it right. No matter how hard I try I can’t seem to always be humble, always trust God, always speak kind words, always be at peace with people, etc., etc., etc. From there I was overwhelmed by the fact that no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t put myself on a daily Bible reading schedule, my prayer times only came before meals, I didn’t share my faith enough at work, etc., etc., etc.. All of these thoughts were stealing my joy because I lost sight of the cross and could only think about myself. Furthermore, I got caught in the trap that I could do enough to earn the Lord’s favor. My own standard of righteousness, like the Pharisees, had taken the place of God’s standard which (or who) is simply Christ. I’ve watched as this has made my heart grow cold as I try and DO everything in my power to please the Lord. I’ve been trying to DO so much to obtain God’s favor, but the truth is I can’t do anything–Christ already did it. That’s the basic premise of the Gospel message! Christ is the only one capable of obtaining favor before the Lord’s eyes because He lived a perfect, sinless life. And as God in the flesh, He then gives up His own life for me so I can reap the benefits and stand righteous before God. It would be impossible otherwise. I can’t stand before a holy God because my sin separates me from Him. But Christ can! Christ can stand for me and God will see His perfect life and not my sin-stained life.

I never expected that Mark 7 would be a life changing passage of Scripture, but it’s been the most freeing thing for my heart. This teaching has has made me more aware of my legalistic heart and in turn my joy has slowly been restored. I’m slowly realizing that I’ve been creating a standard of my own that looks and feels very spiritual, but in the end will cripple only me. My standard will only cause me to look inward and not upward, and that can only lead to a self-righteousness, joyless life. As my pastor also said, “there is nothing you can do to make God love you more or to make God love you less”–Christ finished it on the cross.

If you would like to hear the messages my pastor has been preaching, I have put together a zip file with all 4 sermons. The title of the series is “The Deadly Dangers of Legalism” and as I’ve tried to attest here, the Lord has used it mightily in my life. Click here to download the series.

If there’s one topic I can’t stop thinking about lately, it’s my need for the Gospel. Not a “saving” Gospel in that I need to be evangelized, but an applied Gospel. Not just the saving Truth of Christ dying for my sin, but the application of that Truth in my life.

The last few weeks the Lord has used his Word mightily in my life. It’s incredible for me to think that He goes beyond the bounds of saving me, to then nourish and train me through the teaching of His Word. Fortunately, I am a part of a church that cherishes God’s Word and proclaims it week in and week out and is committed to it.

I was reading in 1 Thessalonians last night where Paul writes to the church, “Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us” (I Thess. 2:8). What strikes me in this passage is Paul is explaining how he didn’t just give the church a Gospel presentation and leave town, but he stayed on with them and gave “his life”. He gave his time, his energy, his knowledge, his whole life to the church. He wanted to see them grow and watch as their hearts were transformed by the grace of God. Obviously, it didn’t happen over night because he had to stay on with them and continue to teach and train them. But Paul loved the church there and earnestly desired to be with them because they “…had become very dear…” to him. So apparently, the Gospel of Christ had brought him and the church in to a new and exciting relationship–one where God could be glorified and the church could be edified. This is why I need the Gospel every day.

I need the Gospel daily because it takes the focus off of my own life. It allows me to see the grace of God at work in both the Church and my heart and forces me to my knees in humble and willing submission to the God of the universe. It’s when I lose sight of the cross that I don’t want to serve, don’t want to love people, and simply drown in self-righteousness–which is how my heart unfortunately has felt these past weeks. I appreciate Martin Luther’s words when he writes, “…it is true that the doctrine of the Gospel takes all glory, wisdom, righteousness, etc., from men and ascribes them to the Creator alone, who makes everything out of nothing.” If I don’t get a daily reminder of my need for the Gospel, my heart grows hard and I continue to walk in my former ways–that is, in disobedience to the Creator. Praise the Lord for the way He works in each of our hearts and praise Him for how He uses His Word to reveal areas in our lives that need change.

Last night I had a great time with my friend Josh just hanging out and shooting (our cameras) under a nearby overpass. I’ve had this recent thought that photography can be a little like studying the Bible, and vice versa. In Bible study, we always want to dig deeper in to a passage until we can’t dig any further and we’ve pulled out all the nuggets we can find. The classic example is one of my teachers from high school said that when he was in seminary he was told to go study Ephesians 5:18 and write down 20 different observations. Unfortunately, it’s not a long passage, so getting 20 would be tough–though not impossible. When all the students returned to class with their observations the professor was satisfied, but then he assigned the same assignment again, only this time they would have to think of 20 more observations, all of which needed to be different than the first set they turned. This continued until they had something like 50-75 different observations on one passage. Each student was forced dig deep, then dig a little deeper, then even more. But in the end they were taught never to underestimate the power of observation and being able to study well.

I think the same goes for photography. Last night we spent almost 3 hours underneath the 5 freeway and we weren’t bored. We saw different angles and different objects to fill our camera frame. We tried different lighting and different poses in order to create something new and inventive. I laid in the ground and my friend Josh got inside of a concrete tube. Nothing was going to stop us from getting everything out of that place as we could, and now I feel like we’ve got some great images. All we have to do is take the time and effor to dig a little deeper and we’ll start to see change. For Josh and me, we started to see how to make a concrete tube look new and interesting and even how to use a porta potty for something other than going to the restroom.

My desire is always to dig deeper, but sometimes I just give up a little early. In Bible study, I probably short myself on time and don’t let the verses sink in long enough for me to dwell on them and think through them. In photography it’s similar–I give up too early and don’t pursue a subject or a place long enough to know what it’s all about. I think I’m going to continue to try this out in both my study of God’s Word and in my photography. I have this feeling that the results will be both a blessing and encouraging.

See more of my photos from the underpass in my “Titles and Images” group on Flickr.
Josh’s photos can be found here.