How the narrow and straight way of Jesus Christ is neither legalistic, nor lawless.

How can Christians discern the correct way to follow Jesus, especially when so many false doctrines proliferate through social media and the age of the internet? The first rule for not being deceived or manipulated by wolves in sheep’s clothing is to read the bible for yourself and pray regularly. Have your own personal relationship with God and get to know who Jesus is through His own words and deeds. If you know Jesus, then you know the Father and can discern the perfect and acceptable will of God.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” – John 14:6-7

The second rule for following Jesus is the exclusivity of His ways. He is the only way to the Father and the only source of eternal life. All other paths lead to death. Salvation is through faith in Jesus alone, not through any other religion or guru or “saint” or false messiah or enlightenment or prophet or gods or light-beings or you name it.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” – Matthew 7:13-14

The third rule for following the true Jesus (as revealed by the gospel) is to keep His commandments (John 14:15 – If you love me you will keep my commandments.), and there are only two of them:

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus did not abolish the old laws of the Torah, but He gave us guidelines for applying them without legalism and it boils down to the rule of love, which the apostle Paul wrote about extensively in his letters to the churches.

Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. – Romans 13:8-10

In the very first generation of Christianity (which was originally called “The Way” by the apostles in Acts) there was a great deal of confusion about how much of the Law needed to be observed and how much could be a personal choice based on the conscience of the individual. Because so many early Christians were a mix of messianic Jews and saved pagans there was an understandable culture clash. Jewish Christians had grown up observing the Torah and keeping the sabbath as well as all of the dietary requirements, while the pagans often didn’t understand how idolatry and sexual immorality might be an issue. It was the OG tension between legalism and lawlessness. Some early Christians used their freedom in Christ inappropriately and caused others to stumble while other Christians judged their brothers and sisters harshly for exercising their freedoms and tried to impose the yoke of bondage to the law.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. – Galatians 3:13-14

Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. – Galatians 3:21&24-25

We are not required to observe the sabbath, but we can’t truly say we have a relationship with Jesus if we never spend time with him. We are not required to keep the feasts, but we are supposed to remember our Lord through the breaking of bread with one another.

One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. – Romans 14:5-10 (NIV)

We do not need to be circumcised, by we do need to undergo the circumcision of the heart.

For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. – Romans 2:28-29

So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. – Joel 2:13

Outward piety is of no use if your heart is far from God. That is why, even throughout the Old Testament, God was saying things like “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6) because he wants repentance to be internal rather than external. Now, that’s not to say that Christians are supposed to just think “loving” thoughts and leave it at that. Everything about faith in the bible is demonstrated through actions, and so is faithlessness. Faithlessness is a failure to act when God has called the person to take a step forward and trust God through the unknown. Christians are not gnostics; we don’t believe that our physical actions have no bearing on the spiritual. Quite the opposite.

The Israelites in the wilderness demonstrated faithlessness, and a whole generation missed out on the promised land. It can also be assumed that those who bowed down to the golden calf did not make it to heaven. In contrast, the whole chapter of Hebrews 11 is a list of faithful people throughout the Old Testament who demonstrated their faith through their actions. This is why the chapter starts with this statement about faith:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. – Hebrews 11:1-2

Firstly, Christians are supposed to have a testimony about God in their lives. Revelation 12:11 states that the saints (that’s us, by the way) overcome Satan through “the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony, and loved not their lives unto death.” Can many modern western Christians make such a claim? The reason why Hebrews calls faith a “substance” is because people who truly believe in Jesus walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. They are people of substance and their faith is substantial in its outworking.

The letter from James also emphatically states that faith without works is a dead faith (James 2:20). He challenges anyone to demonstrate their faith without having any works to show for it. People who believe they follow God without actually picking up their cross daily and following him are deceived by their own laziness and complacency according to James who says “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). In short, he defines religion and Christianity this way:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. – James 1:27 (NIV)

It was not only the apostles who warned Christians against abusing their liberties, but also Jesus himself. Jesus told multiple parables about “wicked servants” who were ostensibly believers, but who tried to get away with different kinds of disobedience to their Lord. In Matthew 24:48-51 the servant abuses fellow Christians, gets drunk, and spends all of his time pursuing his own interests instead of God’s purposes. His destination when the Lord returns is a place called outer darkness where people are weeping and bitterly angry. Matthew 25:26 Jesus calls the servant who buried his talent “wicked and lazy” because he did not share the gospel with others and bring souls to Christ. He too is sent to hell. In Matthew 18:32 Jesus is addressing a servant who he had previously forgiven a debt for, and telling that servant that the forgiveness has been revoked because the servant would not forgive others. That is the clearest example of what happens to us as saved believers (our debt was forgiven) if we withhold forgiveness from others and harden our hearts.

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” – Matthew 6:14-15

There are many examples of ways people can willfully forfeit their salvation throughout the New Testament. This has nothing to do with the Old Testament laws and everything to do with Jesus’ commandments for those who wish to follow him. Jesus also stipulates that nothing else should be a priority in life over Him in Matthew 10:34-38, where he states that anyone who choses something else over Jesus is “not worthy of me”. We are also in grave danger if we try to hide our relationship with Jesus:

“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” – Matthew 10:32-33

The bible is clear that there are ways of departing from God and forfeiting salvation through lawlessness. The bible is also clear that we are not slaves to the law of Moses, nor can we be justified by our works. Both are true at the same time, and both need to be navigated by the faithful Christian during their walk for the rest of their lives. The aim is to finish the process of sanctification so that we may receive salvation. As Paul said:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. – 2 Timothy 4:7

Similar to the model of salvation in Exodus, the blood of the Lamb releases us from the grip of sin and Satan; baptism (passing through the waters) leaves those demons behind, but life is now the wilderness where we must follow the Lord until eventually we reach the promised land. God fulfilled His purposes by leading the people out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the promised land, but not everyone made it to the end. Make sure you are not one of that evil generation who balked at the first test of faith.

*Unless otherwise noted, scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.