0501 DOUBLE TROUBLE

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Here is the puzzle of the day: Why did God give us the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Law, if He knew we were not going to obey it? What is the purpose of the Law? To guide us? Or to condemn us?

It would guide us, if we were capable of keeping it. And sometimes we are capable. But ultimately, when we consider the higher standards of Jesus, as outlined in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, we realize that all of us are bound to break virtually all of the commandments, at least by the higher standard that Jesus gave.

So now I have two problems, highlighted by the law. The first problem is that from the day that I broke the first commandment, I am a lawbreaker. As James points out in his general letter, if we break just one point of the law, we have broken THE law. So we stand guilty. I am a lawbreaker. If I think I can make up for missing one commandment by doing extra well the next day, I misunderstand the point of being a lawbreaker. I CAN’T make it up by doing two good things tomorrow, because any act (or omission) that breaks one point means that I have fallen short of perfection. So now it is clear that I have broken the law, and I must pay the penalty for breaking it. The penalty goes all the way back to the Garden, when God told Adam not to eat from the tree, or he would surely die.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Verse 23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

But as I say, I am in double trouble. The first is that I am a lawbreaker. The second problem is that I am not CAPABLE of keeping the law, whether it is my first sin, or somewhere down in the quagmire of my messy self. I cannot keep the law. I can’t do it, even if I wanted to. And I don’t want to. Not really.

In short, you might say I’m in trouble with the law, and I’ve got a bad disease. I’m guilty and I’m dead. The law tells me I broke the rules. And my nature tells me that I am not capable of keeping the law, even if I wanted to.

This is why the hymn writer of “Rock of Ages” included the “double cure” line, “Save me from its guilt and power.” The guilt is for breaking the law, and the power is my inability to keep it anytime in the future. This, then, is what we need. We need to hide ourselves in the Rock of Ages, cleft for us. We need to let the water and the blood which flowed from his riven side to be the double cure for our double trouble: Save us from its guilt and its power.

“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.”  3:20‬ ‭NIV‬‬