{"id":1745,"date":"2016-04-06T00:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T00:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/?p=1745"},"modified":"2016-04-06T00:00:46","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T00:00:46","slug":"re-post-what-good-is-being-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/?p=1745","title":{"rendered":"Re-post: What Good Is Being Good?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It\u2019s God\u2019s gift from start to finish! We don\u2019t play the major role. If we did, we\u2019d probably go around bragging that we\u2019d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” -Ephesians 2:7-9 (The Message)<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

One of the guys in my small group asked the following question: “If Christians are saved by grace, why do we have God’s law?” \u00a0An excellent question.<\/p>\n

\"Getting<\/a>

Getting an A in tuning is just the start — not the main point.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Law as a Tuner<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

I would compare the purpose of God’s law — the Ten Commandments<\/a> and all the other moral teachings of scripture — \u00a0to tuning an\u00a0instrument.<\/p>\n

Tuning\u00a0ensures that the sound of the instrument will be pleasing. \u00a0However, an instrument that is in relative tune — that is, one whose pitches are correctly spaced — \u00a0will sound good played by itself, but it will not necessarily sound good played with another instrument. \u00a0One string out of tune on one instrument can mar an entire performance<\/a>. \u00a0For this reason, all the instruments in the band must be tuned to the same absolute pitch — an objective standard.<\/p>\n

In this same sense, God’s moral law provides an objective reference point for determining how we relate to Him and how we deal with each other.<\/p>\n

Ear training<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Over time, a musician trains his ear. \u00a0He learns to recognize specific pitches, harmonic intervals, types of chords and chord progressions. \u00a0Likewise, as you grow in your relationship with God, you’ll become better able to distinguish right from wrong and to hear His voice.<\/p>\n

A Little Help From My Friends<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Even if you have\u00a0perfect pitch it can be difficult to tune your instrument in a noisy environment. \u00a0Instruments get out of tune during a performance — even in the middle of a song. \u00a0That’s why even professionals use electronic tuners . \u00a0Whether they choose strobe, stomp box<\/a>, smart phone apps or clip-on tuners (see photo) you see them everywhere. And audiences and musicians are the better for it. \u00a0In a high-pressure situation, or a noisy venue, the ability to determine whether or not your instrument is in tune is most valuable.<\/p>\n

And let’s agree that life is noisy, so being able to weigh our motives, decisions and actions against God’s standard can help us calibrate our lives.<\/p>\n

The Limits of Technology — And The Law<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Tuning isn’t a one-time thing. \u00a0Recognizing you’re out of tune doesn’t correct your errant pitches. \u00a0The musician has to make those adjustments himself to be able to play in tune. \u00a0And some instruments are more prone to stay in tune than others, so a good musician will check his tuning and make fine adjustments as needed\u00a0over the course of a performance.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the law doesn’t fix what’s wrong — it merely shows us where we’re out of line. \u00a0It’s up to us to seek God’s help and bring the sour notes of our lives into conformance with His standard as often as it takes.<\/p>\n

Buying a Stairway to Heaven?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

So what’s the goal? \u00a0Is it possible to get to Heaven by being a good boy and obeying the moral law? Nope. \u00a0Following the law won’t put you in a relationship with God any more than being great at\u00a0tuning will secure you a spot on the tour bus.<\/p>\n

Tuning is an important aspect of musicianship — as obeying God is an important part of living as his follower — but music is much more than being in tune. \u00a0It’s about the relationship of melody, harmony and rhythm, and the expressiveness among the players in the band. \u00a0Spiritually speaking, God has made a place in His family band for you through the sacrifice of His only son, Jesus if you’ll accept this gift. \u00a0Relationship is greater than rules. \u00a0Grace is greater than law.<\/p>\n

One more thing: In the band I’m in, everybody has his own tuner. \u00a0When something’s out, we all know it, but each band member tunes his own instrument.<\/p>\n

So how about you?<\/strong>\u00a0 In what ways are you imprisoned by rules and rule-keeping? \u00a0What do you need to help you sort this out and get free? \u00a0Add your comments below.<\/span><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It\u2019s God\u2019s gift from start to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,44,46,56,60,61,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-grace","category-jesus-christ","category-law","category-music","category-musicians","category-snark"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1745"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1747,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745\/revisions\/1747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}