Relationship vs. Rules

Reading some critiques of the spoken word poem by Jefferson Bethke -http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1IAhDGYlpqY - and they are bringing up some issues regarding the movement in some areas of churches focusing on the relationship with Christ not the rules to live by.  I have often talked about the focus of Jesus' message is a relationship with our Creator through His Son.  It seems in the New Testament we see the story of the church unfolding as a group of people connecting with God despite their weaknesses and failures.  A story that continues to reveal failures even of some of the leadership as the church develops (Peter rejecting gentiles, corrections by Paul of church leaders messing up, Paul admonishing Peter for pushing the gentiles to follow ceremonial laws, Paul and Barnabas separating over disagreement, abuse of the communion time together, etc.).  It is also a story of a people that after connecting to God through Jesus start to find significant life change and begin a journey of following more and more of the standards laid out for Christian living - not because those standards or rules provide salvation, rather because they work to bring fulfillment and peace!  Following Christ is a growing trust in our God that reveals to each of us that the rules and standards we feared and ran from really are patterns of living that provide real health - spiritual, emotional, mental, physical, relational and social health.

In the NT there were some that wanted to discard works and rules completely and they were corrected as well as the ones that wanted to discard grace.  My point in saying relationship vs. rules is based on the many churches I have been involved in preaching and teaching a self righteousness based on their rule following.  It seems Jesus' point in explaining we are guilty of violating the law just by our thoughts is that we can not do this - it is only in Christ we can be proclaimed righteous and be in a process of transformation into God's original intention for us.  A second reason I focus on the relationship aspect is that the predominant view of the non-believer is that following Christ is all about following rules.  Since scripture teaches we can not follow the rules without Christ (Romans 7) it seems very reasonable to begin with the lifesaving relationship first as our focus and watch as a person's trust in their Savior increases over time.  So when I say Relationship vs. Rules I am referring to what we begin with in this journey.  Did Jesus tell us to follow His commands? Absolutely!  But it is also taught that we can only follow His commands by faith and we are saved by faith through grace alone.

There are groups that are moving toward a Universalist theology that all will enter heaven and be saved regardless of faith or works.  Those of us that are focusing on the Relationship aspect as primary are not automatically saying our actions do not matter.  At The Bridge our 3 fold mission is based on Jesus' 3 primary commandments - Love God, Love others, Disciple all.  Since He said all of the Law and Prophets hang on the two greatest commandments to love God and our neighbor we should be pretty safe pursuing those two commandments. His final words to us before ascending into heaven were to disciple all nations so that would be our primary purpose of being left behind.  Hopefully this clears some things up. If you find this clear as mud please respond with clarifying questions.  Thank you.