Sin Trumps Law

I'm often reminded that we are covered with a myriad of laws. Not just God's law, (which many seem not to recognise), but traffic laws, civic, commercial, environmental and international laws. There are even societal laws, many unwritten, which govern how we behave in society, in our day-by-day rubbing alongside one-another in our lives.

It seems that we are able to get into law breaking in 1001 ways, and sadly all sin or lawlessness is offensive to our good, loving and just God!

Something in me responds to the awareness of a law. My conscience? I can be flowing with traffic when I realise that we're all going just-a-bit over the speed limit; immediately my composure deserts me, I  take my foot off the accelerator and look all around for police. No matter how fast I respond, it remains true that I broke the law! How easy it is! "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin" (Romans 3:20).

The Israelites tried for centuries to completely define the Law which had been brought to them by Moses from Mount Sinai as the Ten Commandments of God (Exodus 34:29,32); they wound up with hundreds of laws and still found that it was impossible for anyone to constantly keep them all.

I'm sure there are laws I've never broken; most people can say they've never robbed a bank, but I can't say that. I've worked for a couple of banks and have surely taken home paper clips or pencils or something which did not belong to me, certainly I've made personal phone calls and shopping lists on their time, so I stole from banks! I know too that I've dishonoured my parents; this is a serious sin among the Ten Commandments. I also had a big problem with envy when I couldn't find a job, this is coveting, another of God's Big Ten. Despite more than a quarter century of being Christian and trying to be good, I know I still sometimes sin .. Paul stated this plainly: "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin" (Romans 7:14).

Where does this leave me? Us? Because we know the laws we know what to avoid but we also know that we've failed. The law has both helped us and made our life uncomfortable. We're reminded that we have offended our earthly governance and our heavenly Father. "This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin" (Romans 7:25).

Besides, "the wages of sin is death .." (Romans 6:23). So, because of my sin (which I now cannot undo), I'm clearly deserving of death .. Right?

No law has ever kept humankind from sin. Is it true then that sin has won out over law and we're all doomed to eternal death? Has the law, ultimately, not helped?

Ah, but Jesus came to save us! Praise our Saviour and our Father God! "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:1-3).

The Message Bible says "we no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud".

This is good news! Thank you Jesus ..

Favourite Scriptures

This is Jesus, our Creator and Saviour, my hero:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all humankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5).

"Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's" (Psalm 103:2-5).

Amen.

Note: The book of Romans, or "The Letter Of Paul To The Romans" is considered by many to be one of the great teaching books of the Bible; it shows us what the New Covenant truly is and how it works. It shows New Covenant theology. A parallel book from the Old Testament may well be Isaiah.

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Praise Jesus.