design

I'm as American as the next guy, meaning I value my freedom. Not just in the stars-and-stripes, bald-eagle-screaming sense of 'Merica, but also, and mostly, in the sense of wanting to decide for myself what I do.

That's why I always get a little uneasy when God reveals himself to have very specific expectations. Like this morning, reading from Ezekiel about God's plans to reestablish the temple. Those plans were pretty intricate, filling a couple of chapters.

And then God said this (Ezekiel 43:10-11) “Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider its perfection, and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple—its arrangement, its exits and entrances—its whole design and all its regulations and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations."

Two things about these verses are interesting. First, all this detail is intended for repentant people only. If the people weren't ashamed of their sin, they didn't get to know.

Second, though, God laid out in detail exactly how his people were to worship. I know, it's the Old Testament, and all those regulations were superseded by the Gospel of Grace. But God doesn't change, so the God revealed in the Old Testament is not different than my God. He may not require the exact same things now, but he does still expect that when he tells me something about worship, I will do it. Things like worshiping in the Spirit and in Truth. Things like meeting with God's people. Things like making my body a holy temple. And then all the detail of how to live out my worship provided by Paul, Peter and John in their letters to the early church.

I know I've been set free from the law as part of being washed of my sin, but it seems that faithful Christ-following requires attention to detail. Maybe it's more about the how than the what now that I'm under grace, but the point remains. Christianity isn't an anything-goes faith. Christianity requires choice-making and wrestling with ideas and methods and some very specific direction, all together adding up to a life of worship.

That's for me, though. As I witness to my unsaved friends and co-workers, the Gospel is simple. They're not ready yet to know the whole design and all the regulations of obedient living. They need first to be blinded and bowled over by the love of Jesus, like Saul. 

In the end, all the detail needs to somehow become together into an attractive, simple-seeming whole that accurately shows people what a wonderful life Christians have. The process of wrestling can produce its own joy as I walk each day a little closer to God.