Guilt or Grace

Drew Clarkson
Outside Reading, Not a Fan
November 19, 2016

"When following the rules becomes the principal focus of a church, then you can count on guilt being the primary motivator"(80). This causes us to be in a continual state of feeling weighted down. He continues, "Every time they come to church they find that the preacher has another weight to add to the bar." This has to do with the idea of do vs done. In this case, people are coming to church to overcome their guilt by doing the right things. They try to outweigh their guilt and their sins by the good things that they are doing. These people are what Idleman considers fans, and not followers of Jesus. When we follow Jesus we are not overcome or driven from our guilt. We can focus and celebrate the done. We do things for Jesus because we love him and want to serve him, not because we are trying to overcome our guilt by merit. Eventually, being a fan of Jesus and not a follower, constantly trying to overcome our guilt, we will wear ourselves out. We can only fight on our own power for so long before we are overcome by sin. This is the freedom we are offered in Christ, to be free to follow Him for what He has already done.