God’s Law is more than the 10 Commandments. Way more.
God’s Law is every demand that your existence places upon you. It is the total demand that you fulfill your humanity. That you do all that you are supossed to do, and that you do it in the manner that God has intended for you to do it. And that is, ‘perfectly’.
“You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)
Are there any pressures in your life? Do you have to eat? Do you have to pay the rent or the mortgage? (no bailout jokes) Do you have to be a good employee so that you can bring home the paycheck? Do you have to pay your taxes . Do you have to be a good parent, or a good son or daughter? Do you have to stay healthy and take care of your body?
All these things and much, much more are manifestations of God’s perfect Law.
No one, absolutely no one, from the villager in Papua New Guinea to the cabbie in Cleveland, is exempt from these laws of nature which are given by God for our existence in the world which He created.
Do we live under the law? You betcha we do. Every last cotton pickin’ one of us.
We all do our best to manage under the sheer weight of it. Although some do a much better job of it than others, it isn’t easy to handle for any of us. The demand of the law is relentless. It never quits demanding from us. Day after day, week after week, year after year…it is always upon us…always demanding …never ceasing.
We can escape it here and there, for short periods. We call these holidays, or vacations. A week, or two…maybe three or four. It ‘s great! But then it is over and we must again be good for something. The bills just keep coming and the world keeps nipping at our heels.
I saw a friend of mine yesterday. He’s 45 years old and is in the hospital, a victim of a couple of strokes. The last one severely affected his brain stem and the chances are good that he may not make it. He is dying, and there is a good chance that he may not be alive yet as I write this.
He was a very bright man with a wonderful creative mind and a sense of humor that was infectious.
That is all gone now, unless God decides that Jerry should be healed to continue the fight in this world.
Jerry had an awfully tough life in so many ways. The law started in on Jerry when he lost his Mom when he was only ten…and it never let up on him from there.
But He did the best that he could.
His pastor, who is also my pastor, went to see Jerry the other day to remind him that he has a Savior. To remind him, no…it was more than a reminder…to hand Christ over to Jerry, once again. To tell Jerry that he belonged to Jesus and that Jesus would not fail him. That Jesus will always take care of him, and that if he were not to make it, then Jesus would be right there for him… to raise him from the dead.
When I saw Jerry yesterday, he could not speak to me. I didn’t know if he could hear me. I whispered into his ear and told him that I loved him and that he could count on Jesus to give him life again. It was a promise on the cross, it was a promise in his baptism, and it is a promise that God loves to keep.
While I stood there beside his hospital bed, with all the machinery and the beeps and buzzes, and activity of people engaged in trying to save the lives of people being crushed by the weight of the law and facing the ultimate expression of that law, death…the thought struck me that soon I would be there too. The law would eventually put me down. Death would have me soon, as well.
But Christ really did defeat death on that cross. He really did come out of that grave. He really did everything for me that I could never even dream about doing for myself.
He did it for me. He did it for Jerry. And He did it for you.
Filed under: Law and Gospel, The Law | 40 Comments »
The Old Adam Lives! 