Free From the Law? We Have a Law for That (Laodicea - Canon 29)

Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians.  But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.

When I first read this, my first thoughts came up with this paraphrase:

In order to keep people from living by the Law, we are going to enact a law by which to live.

I understand the desire of the synod to remove vestiges of Law practice and live in the freedom Christ brings.  The NT church had difficulty from the beginning with well-meaning Jewish believers trying to bring in the old practices (Acts 15:1,5) while Jewish antagonists did their best to impede (Acts 14:19) and subvert (Titus 1:10-11) the work of the gospel, however this was not the way to bring about the change.

The gospel liberates by freeing us from sin and the just condemnation evidenced by the Law, so that we might walk in newness of life.  Those who believe and confess Christ have no need for man-made precepts to demonstrate what has been effected from divine action by grace through faith.  Yet, as with this synod, denominations make rules that have an appearance of godliness and holiness but in reality are used as metrics to determine spiritual growth.  This is addressing the fruit.  To properly deal with an issue, ensure the believer is properly rooted, fertilized, and pruned by sound teaching with an eye always on Christ.