Taking Liberties that Are Not Ours to Take

I can't climb through an open window into your house without being invited. That's not a liberty that is mine to take. I don't get to borrow your car because the door is unlocked and the keys are in the ignition. You understand those in a personal way. You also can comprehend certain actions like those on a little larger level. I can't take my entire salary in cash under the table without paying taxes. I may not like most of the government, but I still owe the IRS. I might know how to get away with copying someone's CD, but that isn't a liberty that is mine to take. It's against the law.

Last weekend's NFL football brought some controversy. When the Green Bay Packers lost in overtime, two plays stood out as a violation of the rules. In the Packers final drive, their first possession of the overtime period, they received a ten yard holding penalty, but replays showed that their quarterback was hit with a clear helmet-to-helmet tackle by a Cardinal defender. It was an immistakable illegal play that should have given at least a replay of the down. There would not have been a third and five play that ended in a Cardinal defensive touchdown. In the final play of the game, photographs show the Cardinal defender pulling down the Packer quarterback's helmet by grabbing his face mask. Not only would the Cardinal touchdown be overturned, but the Packers would have been moved fifteen yards forward because of the personal foul. Those incidents occurred on two of the final four plays of the game that, if called, could have changed the outcome of the game. I don't think any Packer fan believes that the Cardinal players should have had the liberty to get away with those two penalties against their team. Spectators understand that those kind of plays happen, but they don't believe that they should be allowed. They don't think that those are liberties that the officials should take in refereeing the game. They want the rules followed.

Many today seem to take a different approach with God. They take liberties with God that do not belong to them. They don't react the same way about God's laws being violated that they would about someone entering their house through an open window or a player committing a penalty against their team. They seem to think that they can take liberties with God that shouldn't be allowed in these lesser realms of life.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't expect liberties taken that shouldn't be taken. They will. We all sin. We all struggle with sins. We fall sometimes. But it's a wholly different matter when the liberties taken are not just overlooked but codified as acceptable and even superior behavior.

God says immerse. Someone sprinkles. God says immerse believers. Someone sprinkles infants. Those are not liberties that anyone should take with what God said, but they do. But what has now become the bigger problem? That someone doesn't accept this liberty that has been taken with what God said. It's not the sprinkling of infants that is today the problem, but that someone will break fellowship or separate from the one who has taken a liberty with what God said. God doesn't fellowship with unrepentant disobedience or sin. But we do out of what we see as love. God is love. He won't fellowship with it, but we will because of love. We're indicating that our love and our unity is superior to God's. That doesn't mean that we can't rejoice in some truth that the infant sprinkler believes, but do we fellowship with him when he tolerates this violation of God's plain teaching?

What is even more pernicious about this practice of taking liberties is that it now uses the gospel as a basis for it. These people are together for the gospel. They see themselves as having a robust, large kind of love that can overlook a false doctrine or practice for the sake of a transcendent unity. It isn't love. It is at best sentimentalism. It isn't about God. It's about being big. About having more friends. About not having to do the hard thing. About looking good in a world that values toleration above obedience and egalitarianism above authority.

This taking of liberties reflects on a view of either the plainness or authority of the Bible. Nowhere does Scripture tell us to allow for these differences. And we have enough of a grasp on language that we don't practice the same way almost anywhere else, essentially with areas that deal with our own tangible well-being. We don't nuance on what constitutes someone opening their car door into our car's paint job. We can see the ding. It's plain to us. It's our car after all. We don't want a car with a ding in it. We might forgive the act, but we do not embrace an acceptance or toleration of the continued practice of it. People are not at liberty to keep denting our automobile.

Because of the nature of this type of discussion anymore, I must say that when I use the example of infant sprinkling, it is just an example. This is not an essay about infant sprinkling. I know how hard it is, however, for people to accept certain other examples, even cessation of the sign gifts---tongues, healings, and miracles. Or public nudity. The conversation can easily turn junior high. It usually does on this. "He's a flame-throwing fundamentalist." "He's someone that's part of a very small and insignificant group of people who haven't found wide acceptance." "I can tell you from other conversations that I've had with him that he's unbalanced." "He wants to put women in burkhas." "He thinks that ladies who wear pants are going to Hell." This is a craft often learned in the high school locker room and then applied in theological circles.

When everything is finished, however, you still have God having said what He said and knowing what He knows. He's the judge. As much posturing and duplicity can be utilized as possible, but God is still on the throne. It is to Him and His Word to Whom we're accountable. And we know from His Word that He doesn't give us liberty not to follow what He said. He is of a very detailed nature that expects those specifics to be kept. He said no to any single item in Jericho, and one garment resulted in dozens killed. Nadab and Abihu died for a wrong recipe for the altar of incense. We can see how God looks at things. He is less lenient than most make Him out to be, even in areas of methodology.

The gospel brings liberty. Not to sin. Not to worship God the way we want. Not to be a stumbling block to the weaker brother. Not to be a bad testimony. Not as an occasion to the flesh. Not to disobey what the Bible teaches about separation. But to live in a way that pleases Him.