Putting on Jesus Christ - so much more than obeying principles

It was several years ago that the Holy Spirit prompted me to begin to proclaim that the New Covenant is defined by much more than a new set of godly principles and precepts.  It was not meant to be a new set of rules and regulations to replace what the Old Covenant law was designed to do in its time.  The New Covenant rather, gives a "new and living way" to live our lives.  It invokes the very life of Jesus Christ and all that He was subjected to in His life here.  Taking on His Person involves more than being sure to abide by tit for tat promises - obeying "X" rule, and reaping "X" results, etc.  While the blessings of God still follow obedience, all difficulties and lost battles are not necessarily the result of wrongdoing or rebellion on the part of the suffering party.  True enough, the Bible is a kind of instruction manual; but living the life of Jesus Christ goes far beyond reading and following a neatly organized set of promises.

Examples of wrong judgments based upon principles and precepts alone:
  1. Just because someone is physically sick, does not necessarily indicate that he or she has unconfessed sin in his or her life.
  2. Just because someone is divorced, does not necessarily indicate that one or the other spouse did not fill his or her god-given responsibilities.
  3. Just because someone is suffering financial need, does not mean that they haven't given enough to reap a sufficient harvest, or that they are bad stewards.

To allow Jesus Christ to live perfectly through us, invites all kinds of spiritual warfare that takes one outside a neat little Christian precept box that many people have constructed for their own felling of security.  To judge others based upon principles for the Christian life only, is like the scribes and pharisees of the Old Covenant condemning others based strictly upon the laws of dos and don'ts.  The Old Covenant was the Covenant of rules and regulations.  Its purpose was to usher in a Covenant of life through Jesus Christ - one where His life through us would resemble both the positive and negative side that accompanies His life.  The Old Covenant was intended to lead us to a whole-life experience of Jesus Christ in the world; and His life lived in and through us leads far beyond a list of New Covenant principles.  God's principles are important, and wonderful; but they were never meant to become an extension of God's law to condemn others by.  His life in us brings both blessings from God, and cursing from the world.  It may require that we have to sneak through the crowd to escape a plot to kill us, or that we may occasionally find ourselves at a whipping post of the local church.  We may be with or without a place to "lay our head," or we find ourselves needing to go fishing with faith to get some money to "buy groceries," or even to pay the... taxes! 

Jesus said, "a servant is no greater than His Lord." (John 15:20)

Next time we judge the life of a fellow believer based upon his or her outward circumstances, let us consider His righteous judgment (discernment by the Spirit) as our guide; and not be shallow-minded like spiritual babies, only to quote precepts and principles.