I grew up in church, through college at a large Baptist church in California. As an adult a little Foursquare, then Vineyard but mostly non-denominational. One consistent theme across them was that being a Christian wasn’t about “don’t do this” and “don’t do that”. Israel in the Old Testament was under The Law as God was bringing His people into focus as a nation. Most importantly The Law was given to show that no one could live to God’s standard.

It was Jesus, who lived a sinless life and who in His death and resurrection paid the price for all of our sin, He was the fulfillment of The Law for us to the Father.

Growing up I remember hearing time and time again about how Christianity is different than other religions, because other religions were about man’s attempt to reach up to God (through good behavior and good works), and Christianity is about God reaching down to man through Jesus.

If you’re a Christian you’re probably shaking your head yes about now saying “you go girl, preach it!”

After all, it’s spelled out pretty simply for us in the scriptures…

Christianity is about God reaching down to man through Jesus

In Luke 23:32-43 when Jesus was hanging on the cross beside two thieves, while one of them hurled insults at Jesus, the other turned to Jesus and said “remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus said “today you will be with me in paradise.” Boom! Just like that. No special prayer, no checklist of things to do, just the faith that Jesus was who He said He was.

In Acts 31 Paul is in jail with Silas, and while praying and singing suddenly there was an earthquake and the chains fell off all the prisoners and the prison doors opened. The jailer was ready to kill himself fearing everyone had escaped under his watch. Paul shouted for him to stop, as all the prisoners were still there. Knowing why Paul was in jail, he fell before Paul and asked him “what must I do to be saved?” Paul’s response was “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”. Again, he didn’t say do this and do that, simply believe in Christ’s salvation.

Romans 10:12-13 says For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

And then we humans have to go and complicate it—again.

Rather than using scripture to realize what is wrong in our lives, we use it to expose what is wrong in OTHERS’ lives

God gave the Jews The Law to teach them, but he gave us Christ to free us from The Law, and maybe because we feel a little guilty with all that freedom, we start setting up our own laws to follow “just to be sure” that we’re making God happy. I’m not sure the reason, but I remember growing up that I was sure if you smoked or consumed alcohol you weren’t a Christian (I didn’t think to look it up in my Bible back then). I remember as a kid my pastor in church saying that the wine they drank in Christ’s day wasn’t as strong as the wine made today, and that was why they drank it then but we shouldn’t today.

I’m not saying we just take the few verses I mentioned above and ignore everything else that we have today as scripture. 2 Timothy 3:16 says “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” [NLT]  And that’s true, it helps us to live better lives. We learn to live more like Jesus, to love like Him, have compassion like Him.

And THIS is where we go off course.

Rather than using scripture to realize what is wrong in our lives, we use it to expose what is wrong in OTHERS’ lives. We use it to judge others, even condemn others to the point we tell them they need Jesus, even though they already HAVE Jesus in their life. Grace is reserved only for the “minor” failings in our own lives, not the major “sins” in the lives of others. We find a way to insert the word “but”.

It can be such an awful word. “We love you, but…” “We think you’re an amazing person, but…” “We know you love Jesus, but…” “We would love to have you in our church, but…” I can’t tell how many times people who are transgender hear these hurtful words from Christians.

I could now write another 4,000 words on why judging someone who is transgender to be “in sin” and needing to repent in order to be saved or even part of a church is such a stretch Biblically that Jesus himself would look at you and say “you’re not serious, right?” However (my attempt to avoid using the word “but”), I’ve written so much about that already I’ll just reference a couple of my past articles here for easy reference…

It’s Not About Sex – It’s About Integrity

We Can Do Better Church!

Absolute Truth

You’re Not Gonna Like “Therefore”

As Christians, we ALL have to work harder on finding more of the faults within us and less of the faults within others. God will use His Word to teach US (i.e. individually) what is right for us and what is wrong for us. Being transgender isn’t a sin, but if you think you are required to tell someone that it is, may I suggest you work first on that log in your eye? Matthew 7:3-5

-Blessings

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