Rules, Rules, Rules

Do you ever feel like life is all about rules? Rules at school, different rules at home, and maybe even more rules at church.

Can following rules save you from sin and death? Can doing good things make you perfect? Do you have to follow certain rules if you want to go to heaven—to live with Jesus and His people forever? Those are all good questions—ones that might fill your head and keep you up at night.

The Bible is filled with people who thought they had to follow certain rules in order for God to be pleased with them. In today’s Scripture reading, even after Jesus had died and risen from the grave, some people still held on to lists and lists of rules they felt everyone must follow in order to be close to God.

Jesus, who is God, came to bring grace to the world (Titus 2:11-14). He came to release those who were following dozens and dozens of rules each day in an attempt to save themselves. While some people in Jesus’ time felt they needed to add to the rules God had given them, Jesus came to bring freedom (2 Corinthians 3). He came to bring a life that is not as much about rules as it is about love and about faith—about restoring relationship between Himself and humans, by destroying the sin that caused the brokenness in the first place.

The rules we follow and the works we do will not save us. Because rules can never change our sinful hearts. We can only be changed when we are united by faith to Jesus, the One who died for our sins and rose again to give us freedom from the chains of sin and death. • Emily Acker

• Check out Micah 6:8, Matthew 22:34-39, Romans 13, and Ephesians 2:8-10. If you know Jesus, what is your relationship with rules? Do rules or doing good things save you? What is the purpose of doing good in God’s kingdom?

Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life. John 5:24 (CSB)

Read Verses:

Acts 15:5-11