Laws

             Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)

 

            You’re on the horns of a trilemma. On the one hand, there’s housecleaning to do and dinner to make. On the other hand, you have a friend who isn’t feeling well emotionally. On your way home from spending time with her, you can stop at a shop and pick up yarn to make chemo caps for cancer victims. On the third hand, there’s that book you have out of the library that needs to be returned soon.  For some folks, this might not cause an issue at all, so feel free to change the choices to something more difficult for you, but the point is that maybe you might be able to squeeze two in, but not all three, and the quality of the two won’t be up to your standards. Did you know that there are laws about these things? I’m not saying the police will come after you – but there are natural consequences to them.

            If you don’t have the house clean and dinner in the oven, your family may be disappointed, irritated, or thrown off schedule. If you don’t visit your friend, your relationship might be strained, and if you don’t stop to get the yarn on sale, you won’t be able to donate the chemo caps. And, if you don’t read the library book, you won’t finish it before it’s due, which means you either don’t finish it or pay a fine. Except for the fine, none of that is listed in any rules. It’s just what happens. But the over-arching law is that actions have consequences.

            This is the same “natural law” that Paul discusses in today’s passage. Yes, God told Adam and Eve that in the day they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die. Some people think this is an arbitrary law proclaimed on the whim of a narcissistic god. According to that perspective, God said that the day Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, God would kill them. But that’s not what God said. He said they would die. If you jump off a chair, you generally land on the floor. If you drive your car into a wall, you will damage your car and maybe your body.

            In the same way, being placed under the law of the Spirit means you’re not under the law of sin and death. The Mosaic law couldn’t move us far enough because – in a sense – it collaborated with the law of sin and death. Perhaps it would be better to say that it put words to the law of sin and death. So we basically have a choice of laws, but we don’t have a choice of the consequences of our choice.