real words

“When they heard this, they praised God.  Then they said to Paul: ‘You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law.’” Acts 21:20

To put this verse in context, James and the elders were requesting that Paul demonstrate his bona fides, his street creds, by showing some observance of the ceremonial law.  Evidently some of Paul’s teachings were being twisted to discount the law.  In a cultural context talking down the law was like talking about yo’ mama.  Paul wasn’t talking down the law, but wasn’t emphasizing it as much as some of the “ol’ timers” would have preferred.  Of course Paul could have set them straight, but he realized that Kingdom relationships aren’t about being right, they’re about being reconciled.  Paul also realized that the law was powerless under the New Covenant.  It wasn’t irrelevant, just powerless, so he decided that this wasn’t a mountain to die on.  In his incomparable style Matthew Henry addresses this passage this way, “It [the law] was dead, but not buried; dead, but not yet deadly.”

When you get right down to it, the law has always been powerless.  In and of themselves laws have never made anybody do anything.  Anyone at anytime can chose to either obey or not obey a law, but the law doesn’t “make” someone exhibit a certain behavior.  Even threatened punishment can’t force someone to obey any given law.  It might cause a potential law breaker to reconsider, but ultimately obeying, or disobeying, a known law is a choice.  Sometimes laws are broken as a result of ignorance or inability, but still the law was powerless to dictate behavior.

Laws only have the power granted by those that obey them.  A law can be passed that requires everyone to stand on their head for two hours everyday (absurd, I know, but work with me here).  Some would obey willingly and some begrudgingly in order to avoid punishment.   Others would intend to obey, but would fail due to inability (this would be me).  Others would decide to blatantly disobey and refuse to do it just out of rebellion.  Another group might weigh the cost of punishment and decide it’s too ridiculous to obey such a ridiculous mandate and risk any penalties.  Regardless, the “Stand on Your Head Act of 2012″ would hold no power.*

Let’s take a look back in the Old Testament at Leviticus in general and chapters 23 and 24 in particular.  Rule after rule after rule regarding worship.  Did these rules and regulations cause the Jews to be “worshipping” people?  Only as far as they did worship.  If anything, the law resulted in them being legalistic.

So, why was the law necessary?  For one thing, it kept humanity from killing itself.  Earlier I stated that laws don’t cause behavior, but they do give some people, that might otherwise be “knuckleheads”, a chance to reconsider ill-conceived intentions.  From that perspective enough people chose to obey the law that we didn’t kill each other to the point of extinction.

Also, the law gives us a point of reference, a measuring stick.  It reveals that I “fall short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:33).  Taken out of context that’s bad news.  Without the ellipses it’s “hellfire and brimstone.”  But that’s only half of the verse, half of the story.  “And” is one of my favorite words.  “And” comes after the ellipses.  Not “but,” not “although,” not “however,” not “except.”  All of those erase what comes before.  ”And” means that what comes after is meaningless, cheap without what comes before.

We “fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.” (emphasis mine)

We all fall short, but without the measuring stick of the law we would never know it.  More accurately, we’re dead and without the law we wouldn’t know it.  In the words of Mister Henry, we’d be “dead, but not buried; dead, but not yet deadly.”  If you don’t bury a dead body it stinks up the place.  Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good or sick people well.  He came to give dead people life.  Some of us have been brought alive with a brand new self, but we drag the old dead carcass around with us.  Others are dead, but because we ignore the law we don’t know that we’re dead.  At best having that much dead, decaying stuff around stinks up the place.  At worst death breeds disease and more death.

Without the point of reference the law provides we have no idea how much we have to be thankful for.  Without knowing that I’ve “fallen short” I have no idea how precious is the price of my redemption.  When I start smelling the stench of death in my life it’s the law that helps me identify what it is that stinks and needs to go.  It’s the redemption that came by Jesus that leads me to bury it.

It’s the law that reminds me that I was meant to bring glory to God.  It’s the redemption of Jesus that compels me to do it.  And worship washes away the stench of death.

That’s why worship.

*Every analogy breaks down at some point and the “Stand on Your Head Act” breaks down in that in the context of Jesus and the law none of us are capable of standing on our heads because without Jesus’ redemption we’re dead.  Dead people can’t stand on their head, duh.