Did you know there were spies among us? Or did you think we had nothing worth spying on? We might be naive, but deceivers can detect the slightest scent of freedom. Haven't you noticed how someone always seems to be around to squash it? They're in bondage and can't stand the thought that someone else could be free. If I seem unbending it's only in this. The fact is that someone wants to take this from you. Don't you see what they are doing with their programs and their entrance requirements? Don't you see the distinctions they use to split believers? They talk about unity, but their words would convince you that you are a lesser Christian who should go to the next level by a dedication or an action. Fill in the blanks, it's all the same! “Because I fall short in ___ I must do ___ in order to get ___ !”

The written formula makes it look more like the program that it is, doesn't it?  And it forces you to put on a mask! For how can you evaluate someone through the reality of Christ when the system demands that you judge them by the flesh? We can do such stupid stuff under that influence! These programs may seem so biblically correct, but haven't you seen how it has been used to categorize? If there are Spirit-filled Christians, then do the rest not have the Spirit? If there are obedient Christians, are all others disobedient Christians? The list is almost endless, but the distinction is the same: some Christians have it and some don't! And because we have read the Bible in view of the formula, it seems to support the formula.

Look at it another way. Let's say you do the so-called spiritual thing and join an accountability group, and in the process you discover just how carnal you are. Do you think it is Christ who tells you that you are still a sinner? Do you really think it is His Spirit who convicts you of sin? If I put myself back into the system that sets one above another, who is convicting me of carnality, and who is calling me a sinner?  I am!

Christ has nothing more to do with sin. Don't you get it? It is the old system of rules that killed me. It is that death (through Christ) that removed me from the system of rules. And His death also removed me from the sin. He did this to make me alive to God! For when Christ was crucified, I was crucified. The sinner I used to be is no longer alive, and Christ has become my very life! This life I am now living in this body I live by the faith that has its source in the Son of God, who loved me and gave His life for me.

So, do you think we should void out the grace of God with another message of freedom? Listen up. If you can really find freedom from the things that overpower you in this life by following some kind of a program or system with steps to victory, then Christ didn't have to die at all! It would all have been for nothing!