I
have attempted to establish that our righteousness, at its very peak
performance, fails miserably at reaching Gods expectations. If this is
true, then, there must be another way, right? There is. First we must
acknowledge our failure and must understand and completely comply with
the new system that God has put in place for us to be righteous.
I
will review what the old system originally looked like. It was a
structure of numerous rules that had to be carried out perfectly. It also
entailed carrying out numerous types of sacrifices in order to atone
for the lack of perfection in carrying out the rules. These rules are called the "law" handed
down through Moses from God. The law can be found in the book of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy in the Old Testament of the Bible. Romans is a book in
the New Testament that speaks almost exclusively about the law. Part of
the message in Romans says, in a very small nut shell, that the law was
too heavy of a burden. We are unable to carry out its commands according the expectation of God. Humans
simply can not do it. The most logical next question: why did God give
us a law if he knew that we could not carry it out? The answer, in a
very small nutshell: BECAUSE THE LAW DEFINES SIN.
Romans 7:8
But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
Without the law, the word "sin" is meaningless. What
is sin? Sin means to miss the expectation of God in our actions, words
and thoughts. Literally, it means to miss the target when shooting an
arrow. The sport of archery is the perfect analogy for explaining the
law. For analogy sake let's agree that the arrow represents our
actions, words and thoughts. The target represents the law. At that
time, it became God's expectation for every human hearing the law to then
adjust his actions, thoughts, and words according to the law. The law
provides a target for every hearer at which to shoot. Because it is so
detailed, concise and thorough it is a very small target which makes
aiming at it challenging and hitting it impossible. If sin means
missing the target and the target is so difficult to hit, where does
that leave us? It leaves us understanding what we did wrong but nothing we can do about it. So why did God provide such a small target...why have a target at all? Without the target (the law) sin exists but humans have no definition. This, then, would be analogous to shooting an arrow into
the air aimlessly. What's the point in that?
At
the beginning, after God created Adam and Eve, He gave them one single
command, "Don't eat from this tree, the Tree of the knowledge of good
and evil! You can eat from every other one in the garden but not this
one." God gave them a gigantic target. In my own imagination, this
target would look like the size of a barn with a bulls eye the same size
as the target. It appears to me that they aimed rather carelessly and
missed horrifically. All they had to do was hit that one rather large
target....don't eat from this one tree. When they did this, God no
longer held onto the reigns of the knowledge of good and evil. This
knowledge was then transferred to humans as well. Humans, whom God had
created not to handle such information. Maybe there would have been a
day when we could have but we will never know. But this knowledge was
undefined and murky to humans. They did not know how to make use of it.
In
a way, I can say that Adam and Eve bent that proverbial arrow which,
remember, represents our actions, thoughts and words. Even if the
target is of manageable size and distance, if the arrow is not straight,
we will not hit the target. Now, let me summarize. Adam and Eve
bent the arrow that God gave them to shoot at His rather large target.
In response to this, several generations later, God gave the law to the
Israelite nation (the Jews). So using our analogy, we have a bent
arrow with no aim until the very small target was furnished, the law. Tell me,
if it's hard to shoot at a target with a straight arrow how much harder
would it be to shoot at a target with a small target and a crooked
arrow? Is this God's fault that this all happened? One may think so
but, in reality, it isn't. Adam and Eve made that choice. Did He know that they would fail? He did but
He also knew that when they failed He had another plan. This plan has
taken thousands of years to unfold and so I think that speaks to it's
worth-whileness.
The
next logical question: there are so many who have never laid eyes on
this law that I speak of? What about them? How can God hold to account something that has never been seen? When God dispensed the law,
He did so to the Israelites/Jews only. Anybody who was not a Jew is
called a Gentile. The Gentiles did not receive the law from Moses. The
rest of us received the law in another way.
Romans 2:14-15
For
when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of
the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that
they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience
bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else
defending them.
Everyone else, no matter who you
are, where you live, whether it be in the remotest part of the untouched
jungles of Africa, received God's indelible expectation on the
heart....THE CONSCIENCE. Our conscience is the answer to that question. And, our conscience is not much different than the ten
commandments. The Jews received a law, part of which, was literally
written in stone and the other part preserved through written
tradition in great detail. That, therefore, leaves us all accountable to
HIM, who created each of us. One of the reasons why the world does not
want to acknowledge that there is a God. If they acknowledge,
then His expectations for His created go right with it.
Romans 1:20-22
For
since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal
power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood
through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even
though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but
they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was
darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools...
I am here to tell you that we have failed,
every one of us, to follow our consciences. Gentiles have
failed along with the Jews to hit the proverbial target that God gave to them. We have all
ignored our conscience at least once.
How does anyone ever hope to be holy and righteous which is the requirement of God?
Knowing
full well that humans could not live up to the standard...which was
never his intent, he supplied the once and for all sacrificial atonement
for our consistent failure. Atonement is an odd word that is not much
used in the USA. It means: satisfaction
or reparation for a wrong or injury; amends. According to the old
system, atonement or reparation for wrong doing (sin) was performed
through various animal sacrifices and by releasing a scape goat into the
wilderness (Leviticus 1-7, 16,17,22). The scape goat was ceremonially prepared to carry the sins
of the people into the wilderness where they would be forgotten (Leviticus 16:8-10). This
system, as I have stated, did not entirely fulfill God’s desire of
having a righteous people. He knew that it would not fulfill his desire
but He went ahead with this primary plan anyway….why? So that the plan
He would reveal in time would be appreciated that much more. Here is
an analogy.
Let’s
say that a child daughter does not regularly do her household chores. The
desire is for her to do her chores. Her chores are good for
her and these chores will teach her responsibility for the
time when she is an adult. But, no matter what is done or said she won’t
do them. So a system is set up. For every chore that she does not do,
she owes 30 min on her bed doing nothing but reading a book. If she
fails at every one of her chores…the next day she owes 2 hours on her
bed plus she has to do all of her chores for that day. And it goes on
and on for months like this. This becomes a very heavy burden to her
and the parent. She is losing out on her favorite past times and
time with her friends. The burden, after several months
of this, is excruciating so it’s time to bring forth grace. This probably wasn't going to work but she needed to see that
there are consequences for wrong doing. One day the parent says, “Ok
Gertrude, you still didn’t do your chores yesterday so I am going to do
them for you and I will spend time on your bed for the chores that you
did not do yesterday.” What do you think her response is going to be? If she is very lazy child who simply does not care about me or chores I
might get, “I don’t care” for a time. But most likely after a few days of this she
is going to say eventually, “Mom, I will do my own chores” and she does
them from that day forward.
God
in His graciousness, understood that the law, the failure of following
it, and the numerous sacrifices were too much…but they were His way, in
His complete omniscience, of showing us that there was only way to fix
the problem….the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Not only was He the
ultimate sacrifice for every sin committed by every person, He was the
scape goat which removed those sins forever from the presence of God.
But, it is a gift of forgiveness that must be accepted and He asks
nothing in return. He does not force anything on to anyone…If you want
to receive His forgiveness He will give it to you through acknowledging
that you are in need of it and by acknowledging that the penalty for
your sin has been paid. And after this you need to repent or turn away from the things that you, in your heart, know were offensive to a loving God. In this you can be righteous in His eyes
too. Start reading the Bible and start learning about the Savior who
gave His life that you could have life.
