In part II of this series, we reviewed the dangers of looking to the law for our justification and for treating God’s law as something we are capable of keeping.  In this installment, we will attempt to see ourselves through the lens of God’s law, giving us a glimpse of how God views our unrighteousness.

When asked the question “Are you a good person?,” most of us would answer “Yes.” Whether we are Christians, non-Christians, Adventists or non-Adventists, we believe that deep down, we are basically good, or at least better than many people we observe on a daily basis.  Spending five minutes watching the evening news or reading the paper quickly reveals the difference between us and the murderers, rapists, thieves, and terrorists who are clearly “bad.”

Unlike these “bad” people, most of us are educated, well-behaved, polite individuals.  If you are an Adventist, you also have the “advantage” of belonging to the “remnant church,” attending church on the proper day and eating the right foods (more on this in our next installment).  When compared to the dregs of society who are lying, thieving, murderous adulterers, it’s easy to see why most of us believe we’re actually quite good!  But when we see ourselves as God does, an entirely different picture emerges.

Consider these questions:

Have you ever lied? Most of us, if we’re not lying to ourselves, would readily answer “Yes” to this question. Even if you have only lied once in your life, you are guilty before God. The Bible says that those who lie will not be in God’s kindgom (Rev. 21:8).

Have you ever stolen anything? Again, if we are honest with ourselves, we will answer “Yes.” It doesn’t matter how small the item, whether it was some office supplies at work, an apple from a neighbor’s tree, or an mp3 download from the Internet.

Have you ever used God’s name as a curse word? Perhaps we are not all guilty of this, but if you even done it once in your life, you’re guilty! Think about what you have done. The God who gave you life and everything you value has been reduced in your mind to a curse word. Even the names of men who are widely hated such as Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, or Osama bin Laden are not brought down to the level God’s name is when it is used as a curse word!

Have you ever looked at someone with lust? Again, if we are honest with ourselves, most of us would admit to this. Jesus said that whoever looks at someone with lust has committed adultery in his heart (Matt. 5:28) and the Bible says that the sexually immoral will not be in heaven (Rev. 21:8).

Have you ever been angry with someone? Jesus said “everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:22 ESV). The Bible also says “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15 ESV). Most of us don’t condone hatred, considering it a character flaw, however, God sees our hatred as equivalent to murder!

If you were honest with yourself and answered yes to the questions above, by your own admission you are a lying, theiving, blasphemous, adulterer and murderer. “But wait!” you may say. “I am generally a good person, I don’t do these things very often, and I haven’t done them in a very long time!” But what does Scripture say to this? “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” (James 2:10 ESV) You see, if you’ve lived a perfect life, keeping all of God’s laws perfectly but only stumbling once, it’s as though you’ve failed to keep all of the law. Even if by sheer force of will you were able to stop sinning from now until you die, you would still be guilty of your past transgressions.

“Hold on a minute,” you may say. “If I lie, I’m not sinning against God, I’m sinning against my fellow man. Isn’t my record still ‘clean’ if I go and ask forgiveness from that person?” Again, let’s see how God views this situation. You may think you are sinning only against your fellow man, but consider David, who committed adultery with Bathsheba. Here is what he said in a moment of desperate prayer to God:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 51:1-5 ESV)

If we are honest with ourselves like David was in his prayer to God, we will acknowledge that the sins we commit against our brother, while horizontal in nature, also have a vertical component, which is against God. In fact, David goes so far as to say that he was born with a sinful nature, “brought forth in iniquity.”

Not convinced yet? How about these:

Have you always put God first in your life? God commanded the children of Israel to “serve the Lord your God With all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut. 10:12 ESV) and “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5 ESV). When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he spoke of this Old Testament command which was not found in the decalogue (ten commandments): “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30 ESV). If you are honest with yourself, you will come to the inescapable conclusion that you have not always put God first in your life. If you are like most people, you have put your career, family, friends and even your hobbies before God.

Have you always loved your neighbor as yourself? Again, Jesus quoted from outside the ten commandments when he was asked what is the greatest commandment: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:18 ESV, Mark 12:31). If you have kept this command, you have always put the interests of your friends and neighbors ahead of your own. This biblical command covers much more than just your close friends, next door neighbors or work relationships – it covers the poor, the sick and the hungry. Have you taken every opportunity to show mercy to the poor by providing clothes and shelter for them? Have you put the interests of the sick and hungry in front of your own? Jesus said “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me,” (Matt. 25:40 ESV) but how many of us have really done this?

In this short review of God’s law, it quickly becomes clear that none of us can ever measure up to its demands.  Seeing ourselves through the lens of the law helps us to see our sin problem as God sees it, and we begin to realize that we are no different than the murderers, theives, terrorists and others who are obviously “bad.” We see now how the apostle Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, could quote from the Psalms:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
(Romans 3:10-18 ESV)

By way of summary, Charles Spurgeon profoundly commented on man’s relationship to God’s law this way:

“There is a war between you and God’s Law.  The Ten Commandments are against you.  The first comes forward and says, ‘Let him be cursed.  For he denies Me.  He has another god beside Me.  His god is his belly and he yields his homage to his lust.’ All the Ten Commandments, like ten great cannons, are pointed at you today.  For you have broken all of God’s statutes and lived in daily neglect of all His commands.  Soul, thou wilt find it a hard thing to go at war with the Law.  When the Law came in peace, Sinai was altogether on a smoke and even Moses said, ‘I exceeding fear and quake!’ What will you do when the Law of God comes in terror; when the trumpet of the archangel shall tear you from your grave; when the eyes of God shall burn their way into your guilty soul; when the great books shall be opened and your sin and shame shall be punished...Can you stand against an angry Law in that Day?”

Read more in part IV.

Thank you for your series on The Law.  Romans 2 leaves little doubt in the readers mind that no one is righteous, no one understands, no one seeks God, everyone turns from God, we are all useless, and because of our lack of fear towards God, we are all arrogant and filled with pride.  We are all a bunch of losers!

We are not sinners because we sin - we sin because we are sinners.  Our efforts to obey the law shows us our depravity (as Paul expounds on further in Romans 7).

God is concerned not merely with our knowing the truth but with our obeying its precepts, which we do not and cannot do.

To become a part of the people of God - we need a Savior.  The minute we start thinking we can “keep” the law, we take our eyes off our Savior.

Denise,

Thanks for the kind words and welcome to the site!  You make an excellent point about the fact that we are all sinners by definition, born into sin.  As David lamented:

“Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 51:4-5 ESV)

We cannot ever be righteous in the eyes of our Lord by the “keeping” of the law (Galatians 2:16-21, Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 11:5-6).  If in attempting to “keep” the law we become satisfied with our ability to stay within its confines, we have yet to appreciate the utter perfection the law requires and have probably turned our performance into a legalistic exercise.

I like what theologian J. Gresham Machen says on this topic: “A new and more powerful proclamation of that law is perhaps the most pressing need of the hour; men would have little difficulty with the gospel if they had only learned the lesson of the law. So it always is: a low view of law always brings legalism in religion; a high view of law makes a man a seeker after grace. Pray God that the high view may again prevail.” -J. Gresham Machen, What is Faith?

Again, welcome Denise!

Greg

Denise, as you pointed out, Paul describes his own struggle with the law in Romans 7:18 “For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” But he doesn’t stop there, saying in the very next verse, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:19).

Lest we think that the problem is with the law, Paul goes on to say that he “delights in the law of God in his inner being” (verse 22) but that his flesh is waging war against the law, making him captive to sin (verse 23).  The only conclusion to this struggle is the realization that he is incredibly deficient in his ability to “keep” the law, describing himself as “wretched” (verse 24-26).

It’s highly significant that the very next chapter begins with one of the greatest promises in all of Scripture: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1 ESV).  To see this promise with its full weight, one must first be convinced of his own depravity and this is what the law does, acting as our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24).

I fear that many view the law in a very superficial way, seeing it as a list of relatively simple commands that can be kept with modest effort.  Such a low view of the law will never bring the sinner to see the utter sinfulness of their sin, and worse, it will prevent him from seeing his need for a Savior.

Greg

Greg,
I am so glad that you brougt up Romans 8:1 - “Therefore, there is NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” This is the theme of Romans 8.  Everything else flows from it, the rest of the chapter being mostly an exposition of this single idea.  Verse 1 is also the theme of the entire Bible, which is another way of saying that it is the gospel.  In fact, it is the gospel’s very heart.

We cannot appreciate what Paul is saying unless we recognize that we are sinners and that we have been saved only by the grace of God.

Although the law was good, it was also an overwhelming burden.  It imposed a strict colde of legalistic behavior, which was backbreaking for those who took it seriously.  The Jew had a word for it.  He called it a yoke, like those put upon animals to harness them for hard labor. 

That is what it was like to be a godly Jew.  The Jew was proud of his yoke.  It was from God; it set him apart from the godless peoples around him.  Nevertheless it was still a yoke and it was an overwhelming burden.

This is how Peter spoke of it at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15).  There were people at the council who wanted to impose the Old Testament law on Gentile believers, but Peter argued, “Why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?” His words were a candid admission that trying to live by the law of God had been impossible.

The law cannot justify us, as Paul proved early in Romans.  The law cannot sanctify us either, as he showed in Romans 7.  Still we are under it.  It is God’s eternally valid law.  What are we to do?

He tells us in Romans 7:1-6.  The solution is death.  We must die to the law in order to be free for Jesus Christ.  The law has a critical role to play.  Paul explains this carefully in Romans 7:7-13.  But his first teaching is that we must be freed from law and that the only way to be released is by death.

Death must end the old relationship so we can enter into a new, fruitful relationship to Christ.  We are no longer what we were.  “But now, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit.” (Romans 7:5)

If we are to be delivered from sin’s penalty and power, it will not be by the law.  It will be by the work of God in Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.

What good news for the tired working soul!!!

In the gospel of God’s free justification of the sinner, the law is fully honored, satisfied and upheld.  Salvation is a “fulfilling of the law.”

Welcome Denise to 4TG--I am so glad you found us here.

Great comments on Romans 8:1-4

Our PCA pastor gave a great sermon a few months ago, when he said that the way the greek text is put together, there is no room for a theology that says we can be lost after becoming saved. “There is now no condemnation” means this is an ongoing accomplished fact!

Greg,

Thanks for another great installment on this

I will say I am guilty on every point of lawbreaking, but praise God for His grace and mercy.

Stan

Denise,

Great thoughts on Romans 7 and 8, particularly when you said:

“Death must end the old relationship so we can enter into a new, fruitful relationship to Christ.”

As a parent of young children, sometimes I see them obey me due to fear of punishment rather than obeying because they love me.  In the same way, the sinner under condemnation of God’s law cannot obey out of a motivation of love, rather, he attempts to obey because of the consequences of disobedience.  As an example, many Adventists “keep” Sabbath because they are told that not keeping it disqualifies them from heaven.

When we abandon our efforts to keep the law out of fear, realizing our utter sinfulness and need for a Savior, we will find a new desire to obey God out of gratitude for what he has done on our behalf, reconciling us to himself through the blood of Jesus.  It is only after this transformation has occurred (which is completely the work of God) that we will begin to bear fruit (Galatians 5:16-26).

Greg