God’s Law Is a Scary Thing!

The Law reflects the fact that the world is broken due to Sin, and that such a Law is necessary at all is a bleak reminder of the horror that is sin.

In the perfect world that God created, there was no need for the Law. Man walked with God, and man was naked and there was no shame. It was not until man accepted Satan’s challenge to put himself on a level with God that shame, sin, and death entered the picture. And what was it that man did that put him “on par with God”? He ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, when God had said, “Eat anything you want except that.”

If I understand that lesson correctly, then, man did not have an understanding of good and evil prior to the consumption of that fruit. Man was purely innocent in a way that we, with our fallen nature, cannot really comprehend. The closest we can come is to observe someone like a very small child, who runs around naked without shame, because he does not know that it is immodest. He explores the world without fear, because he does not know that there is anything to be afraid of. He asks all sorts of questions without embarrassment, because he does not know that there are some things that are embarrassing. But as the child grows older, he learns that the snake will bite him if he picks it up, the mommy will turn red and stammer if he asks how the baby got into her tummy, and the grownups will shout and cover him if he runs naked through the house.

So man, after eating the Fruit, began to know shame, and evil, and wrong. And then the Law was necessary, so that Man could see how very far he had fallen. If you cannot see the target, you cannot properly aim your arrows at it. If you cannot see the target, you will never know just how far short your shots actually fall. So God gave us the Law so that we could see just how great was our failure to meet the mark that would be required for us to reach Heaven, were we able to work our way there. So that we would, then, understand that without a Saviour, there would be no possible way of getting there. That’s what Paul meant by the law being “a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.”

We must understand the idea of sinless creation. God had no need to give any law to the creatures He designed, for they were perfect and had no need for a Law. Law is required only when imperfection (sin) enters the picture.

The Law, then, is God’s attempt to show man that there is no human way to achieve Godly perfection. Why, there are 613 precepts in the Torah! 613! I can’t even keep track of that many rules … much less KEEP them all. All that list of do’s and don’ts? NO WAY!

Should we think highly of the Law? Yes. In the same way that we think highly of Mary. She was a tool that God used to bring the Saviour to the world. So, too, was the Law. For without the Law, none of us would realise how very far from perfection we fall. And how impossible it is for our puny efforts to achieve real righteousness.

Tags: Bible interpretation, Christianity, Religion