The Gospel in Real Life

There is a good sized cafeteria where I work. But a few years ago, it was downsized. Today, it is probably 2/3 the size it was before the big remodel. I remember the day the remodel started. The construction workers hung a black plastic curtain around the perimeter of their work area and everywhere there was a seam, they taped it shut and hung hand-made signs that said “Keep Out.” It was so well closed off that the obvious intention was to discourage anyone from even stopping and looking in to see what was going on behind the curtain.  Unfortunately, this plastic wall was inches away from the edge of the newly formed walkway that went past it, so every time you walked by it, the Keep Out signs hanging on the taped seams in the curtain would taunt you.  There was one seam in the plastic wall where one of the signs hung that wasn’t taped shut very well and there was a gap in it a couple of inches long. So guess what we all did. Every time we stopped at that spot, we pried the plastic wall open, and peered in to see what was going on. We violated the rule. We broke the law.

It’s in our nature to do that. We are by nature, law-breakers. When we see a sign that says “Keep Out”, it makes us want to go in. When we we see a sign that says “Keep Off The Grass”, what’s the first thing we want to do? We want to get on the grass. If it’s really nice grass, we want to roll around on it and enjoy its smell and soft, cool feel. If the sign weren’t there, we wouldn’t give the grass a second thought and going into that forbidden room or area would be no big deal. But because there is a sign that says “Don’t Do That”, we immediately want to do the forbidden thing. The same holds true for that troublesome “Wet Paint” sign. “Is it really wet?” I immediately ask myself, followed by a probing touch, only to find out that the sign was correct. Then off I go to wash the paint off of my hands.

When it comes to God’s law, we are no different, but the consequences of breaking God’s law are far greater than getting a smudge of paint on my hands. God’s law will have one of two affects on us. It will either stir up more sin in our lives, making an already bad situation worse, or it will be our delight and something that we can’t seem to get enough of. The difference lies not in God’s law, but in the condition of our hearts. When God’s law bumps up against an unbelieving heart, the result is always the same. It stirs up more sin and I become guilty of transgressing, or breaking God’s law. I become a transgressor of God’s righteous law. This Paul’s meaning to the Romans:

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21)

In this section of Romans, Paul is talking about our guilt in Adam as the representative of the human race. Because Adam sinned, all have sinned (Romans 5:12). We are guilty of sinning by our association and identification with Adam and the sin he committed in the garden.  Enter the Law. In our verse above, the Law came in to increase our guilt. The New International Version (NIV) puts it this way, “the law was added so that the trespass might increase.”  In other words, when God’s law bumps up against an unbelieving heart, I become a law-breaker just like Adam and I become guilty of personally breaking God’s law, just like Adam did. I become a trespasser of God’s law and sin is increased. I become guilty of breaking God’s law myself, regardless of my guilty association in  Adam.

But the good news is expressed in the rest of the passage. Where sin and law-breaking increased, grace increased all the more. Sin and law-breaking can never outpace God’s grace and mercy! This is the good news; this is the gospel. When an unbelieving heart is transformed by the saving grace of God, God’s law is no longer condemning, but a delight. King David in ancient Israel serves as a good example for us when he said,

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me.  I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. (Psalm 119:97-99)

David is referencing the same law that Paul is talking about in Romans (the Law of Moses), but the effects and experience of David are quite different than what Paul described. They are the experiences of a believing heart. When God’s law is applied to a believing heart, it doesn’t stir up more sin, but it becomes a comfort and a delight because a believing heart has experienced God’s saving and transforming grace. David could proclaim that he loved God’s law because the God of the law loved him in a saving way.

Empty Law-Keeping or Grace?
There is an amazing passage in Paul’s letter to Titus that fits well into this discussion.  Here it is:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. (Titus 2:11-12)

Trying to do the things prescribed in God’s law without experiencing the grace of God in our lives, results in empty and frustrating law-keeping. We find ourselves attempting to do by works, what can only be done by grace; we find ourselves trying to work hard for God’s acceptance instead of seeking him by faith alone through grace alone. When we seek his acceptance by what we do or by keeping his laws and commands, the opposite occurs. Instead of gaining his acceptance, I am further alienated from him, sin increases and I become guilty of breaking God’s law. I become a law-breaker. This is why Paul’s words to Titus are so important, because grace, not works or law-keeping, teaches us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live a life that pleases him. If we remove grace from the equation, then trying to obey his law becomes weighty and burdensome and in the context of grace, his commands are not burdensome. (1 John 5:3), but a delight (Psalm 19:7-11).