Living By The Law Stifles Spiritual Growth (Problem 6 of 8)
When we live by the Law our personal as well as corporate spiritual growth is stifled. CD Baker comments on this saying, “Keeping busy doing it all ‘right’ keeps us from facing the darkness of our hearts. And focusing on rule keeping also helps us avoid paying any attention to the needs of others.[1]” In other words, living by the Law deceives us into believing that it is ‘what we do’ that makes us sinners not the reality that we are sinners that sin. When this happens we judge spiritual maturity and growth by how well we are doing on the surface rather than having Christ work in and through our hearts. We end up focusing on our efforts in external growth, which is no growth at all, rather than Christ’s internal maturing work on our hearts. Furthermore, when a corporate church body is focused on living by the Law it turns inward and focuses on rule keeping which distances itself from Christ and distracts the church from the real needs of people in the church and community, thus stifling spiritual growth. (See Mark 7:14-23 & Colossians 2:6-15)
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