Freedom Through Law

Tuesday Night Truth (T.N.T.) starts up tonight at Campus Life (7:00 - 8:30 pm). Throughout this fall we will be exploring the truth about God's law and the freedom we can experience through it.

Some might say, "'Freedom' and 'Law' don't go together! 'Freedom' means I get to do what I want and rules just get in the way of that." I'm not going to say that following God's law is always easy (actually, it's rarely easy), but let me ask this question: which is better, life with rules or life without rules?

But before anyone says, "I would much rather live without any rules holding me back," stop and think for a moment. If there are no rules, who is to say what is right and what is wrong? For instance, who's to say that it's wrong for someone to take something that's yours? Who is going to stop someone else from beating you up (or worse) just because they don't like you?

How much fun would it be to live in fear of what someone else might do to you? Yeah, you will be able to do whatever you want . . . as long as someone bigger and stronger doesn't come along and do whatever he wants to you.

That's why we don't live in anarchy. We make rules and laws and assign people to enforce them so we can sleep at night knowing that there is some sense of justice in the society.

I would also add that God doesn't really stop people from doing what they want. Obviously, if God immediately punished everyone who broke one of His commandments, none of us would probably be around anymore. God may give us laws, but we always have a choice about whether we'll follow them or not. So if you want to go and do your own thing, you have that option . . . but there will be consequences.

Just like parents give their kids rules to guide them, God's law is meant to guide us away from things that can hurt us. However, the guide can always be ignored. Parents tell their kids not to eat too much junk food, but they do it anyway and get a stomach ache. Some continue to do it their whole lives and have heart attacks or other health problems. Or parents may say not to play in the street, but kids do it anyway and get hit by cars.In the same way, God tells us not to lie. But people do it anyway and wonder why nobody trusts them. He tells us not to covet or steal. But people do it anyway and wonder why they always want more. He tells us not to have sex outside of marriage. But people do it anyway and wonder why they have dysfunctional families.

As C. S. Lewis puts it, "There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right then, have it your way.'" While "bad" things still happen to "good" people, there are all kinds of problems that can be avoided in life by simply following God's commands.

If you look closely at God's laws, you'll see that He's simply telling us the best possible way to live while protecting us from a life that we really don't want. If you don't believe me, let me ask you another question: how are things working out for you doing things your way?