2005-09-23
Good Morning Entrusted Ones,
God has entrusted us with His Law, which is the reason for today's greeting. We must remember that everything He has given us is because He loves each of us so much that He wants us to be able to return to Him, in His perfect time, for an eternal life of fellowship and bliss with Him in heaven. The Law was instituted to protect the innocent from those who are wrongdoers. Let me cite 1 TIM 1: 8-10 once again to give God's perspective on the jurisprudence. "We know that the law is good if it is used as it should be used. It must be remembered, of course, that that laws are made, not for good people, but for law-breakers and criminals, for the godless and sinful, for those who are not religious or spiritual, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the immoral, for sexual perverts, for kidnappers, for those who lie and give false testimony, or who do anything else contrary to sound doctrine." How much clearer must that be? One can surely see that the law was created to protect those who choose not to break it.
Any time God's system of law is perverted to give more protection for the perpetrator of a crime than for its victim (s), then lawlessness is encouraged. I've written before about how Japan, for example, forces its convicts to serve out their entire sentences and not in comfort. Hence a smaller percentage of Japan's population is in jail, despite their remarkably large number of residents in proportion to the size of their country than the US. People who are convicted of a crime and must serve out their entire sentence cause other potential criminals pause before committing a crime; this helps to deter crime more efficiently than seen in other countries. Not long ago an eighteen year old man, John Malvo, hid in the trunk of his partner in crime's car. With a tiny hole, just big enough for a rifle bullet to pass through drilled in the trunk, he shot innocent people in a large city back east. His accomplice at the wheel would speed away from the scene of the shooting, making it very hard for police to find them. Since no one ever saw the shooter, it took months and several of these shootings before the police finally figured out who the perpetrators of these crimes were and were able to arrest them. It took months of trial at a huge cost to the government before Malvo and his accomplice, an older man, were finally convicted. The older man was given the death penalty and is now probably on death row in prison. These death row inmates normally are there for about 14 years, with a number of legal attempts to get their sentences commuted before the death penalty is ever carried out. This too costs the state a huge amount of money. In Malvo's case, he was given life in prison. I suspect that someone capable of committing this kind of premeditated murder has only one regret-that he was caught. In any event, Malvo is now a "guest" with free room and board at the state's expense. If I sound cynical, it is not because I'm bloodthirsty; it's because so little is done for the surviving victims of these crimes and the families of those cut down.
GA 3: 22-25 reveals the purpose of the Law. "But the Scripture says that the whole world is under the power of sin; and so the gift which is promised on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ is given to those who believe. But before the time for faith came, the Law kept us all locked up as prisoners until this coming faith should be revealed. And so the Law was in charge of us until Christ came, in order that we mighty then be put right with God through faith. Now that the time for faith is here, the Law is no longer in charge of us." Further illumination is given with RO 6: 23, "For sin pays its wage-death; but God's free gift is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord." This is the heart of what is true intent of the Law. How can a believer miss the love that is foundational to the Law and God's giving of the Law? Certainly, we can't miss the love of God that is the basis of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
The point of all of this is that the law of retribution as given by God is good, like everything else He gives us. The problem with it has been the way that mankind has perverted it -the way the Pharisees and Scribes insisted on making it personal. People who live righteously are controlled by a higher law, that which comes from God. People who become self-righteous and hypocritical, as these Jewish leaders of old did, take the Law into their own hands and alter or interpret it to carry out their own agendas. God's agenda gets lost in the shuffle. This is the heart of what bothered our Lord Jesus when He agued with the Pharisees in the temple the last week of His earthly life [MT 23: 23-28]. LV 19: 18, "Do not take revenge on anyone or continue to hate him, but love your neighbor as yourself," is the first of several places in the Bible where this notion is taught. DT 6: 4-5 is the formal statement of God's will for monotheism along with His heart on what our heart-attitude toward Him should be. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord our God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might." MK 12: 28-34 is the Great Commandment, a repetition of the previous two citations, and a reminder that those obeying these principles are not far from the Kingdom of God. We must be on our knees that those involved in adjudicating civil and criminal law in our own society will somehow remember these godly principles, despite the fact that all mention of God is being removed from our schools and other institutions.
PRAYER: O Lord, Your love for us cannot be measured, nor can the love of any person match it. And yet, we do not understand how to always remain in sync with your original intent for Your Law. To the human mind with its limited and often-faulty perspective, these Ten Commandments come across confused in their applications. We have the habit of taking something straight-forward and complicating it so badly that it's meaning is completely perverted. This is the wily devil bringing evil who clouds our minds acting on us and then mocking us with glee. When this happens, what Peter warned in 1 PET 5: 8 comes true. "Be alert, be on watch! Your enemy the devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour." Too many of us do not realize that when we came to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and repented of our sins, we were given the same power You used to raise Christ from death to life eternal to battle the devil to victory in Your Son's name [EPH 1: 18-20]. Dearest Abba, this is one more blessing that You gave us at the time, along with the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, justification, and salvation. Your sense of justice and fairness along with Your love for us is at the basis of Your crafting the Law so as to protect faithfully obedient law abiders from the lawless. We owe it to you to be on our knees in thanks and praise of Your constant, loving presence in our lives. And yet, some of us miss the point entirely. Instead, we interpret Your Law to mean something which carries out the opposite of Your intentions. All of society pays an enormous price for this, and so many are unaware that they are engaged in rejecting Your Law, rather than in protecting it and carrying it out as You prescribe. We stand before You today, to confess our wrongdoing and to ask for Your guidance and forgiveness. We worship You, Dearest Lord, with awe, praise, and reverence. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
I stand in utter awe of the way that being faithful to Jesus Christ changes lives. My own is only one small example. This has been particularly true as people spend years studying Your word directly. I will be forever grateful to those teachers who blessed my life by saying, "let Scripture interpret Scripture," "be sure to study God's word in context," "be in the word daily," and "Faith + Nothing = Salvation." Our need for doing this is shown by what has happened to the interpretation of God's Law by people who do not. Joshua writes this mandate for Scriptural mediation. JS 1: 8, "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything within it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." David writes PS 1: 1, which takes this theory and puts it into practice. "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night." Next week, I will continue on this "God's theory and man's practice" theme. We'll look at some key Scriptures that will give us more understanding of why listening to and obeying God is so essential to our lives and wellbeing. Bear in mind how blessed we are that the Father sacrificed His only begotten Son, so that we may have the chance to live eternally and not please the evil one by succumbing to spiritual death.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn