Justice Demands a Law

If you have not read the post before this one then stop and read “Good or Evil?”

“Justice Demands A Law”
“Good or Evil?” Continued…

Hope still remains for all the wicked and evil that crowds our lives, invades our homes, and attacks our souls. This answer is simple to anyone who already has a glimmer of truth within them. For those who have the truth already this hope actually turns out not to be hope at all but a count down. A count down to the point when God says he has had enough and will sound the trumpets and gather his warriors and fight to have us released from our bondage that we imposed on ourselves. Now for those who have lost the way and forced the truth from your heart pay close attention for this Gospel is absolute and absolutely for you. Hope means you wish for something however it may or may not come to pass but with God, all things are absolutes.

But before I get into that take a step back and breathe. I want to talk about the simple nature of Right and wrong or good and evil. This is the most basic of basics about the simple truth. Are you aware that because good exists so does the chance of evil? Yet evil cannot come unless someone establishes goodness. Romans says, “Because law brings wrath. Where there is no law there is no transgression” (Rom 4:15) If simple goodness didn’t exist then how could there be evil? We never could have rebelled to begin with if absolute goodness never dichotomized right from wrong. And if good didn’t exist then how would you define what is evil, because what is wrong is opposite of what is right? Whenever any person says that an action or behavior is wrong or bad it is only because they base that judgment off of what they believe to be right. How do they know what is right? I turn again to Romans.

“Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the [Mosaic] Law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending” (Romans 2:14,15)
Also in Romans 1:19 “since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Many scholars wonder as to how we are made in the image of God. Some would say the ability to think or have freewill. Others might pose the idea of being able to have relationships. Yet don’t animals and critters think about where to get food next and then decide what to do in order to feed? And some animals even share the same partner for their full lives. Can you read the mind of an animal to say otherwise? Granted all these qualities are God like and obviously so, God made them and put himself in all creation. Yet what makes us different I think is that he has laid on our consciences the ability to reason and decide right from wrong? A law if you will put in place to govern over his creation. If anyone else has a better idea then please share it with me for I am continuously seeking out better ways to understand God.

So where does this law get us? As I stated in my prior post the human race was tricked into doing evil by the serpent in the beginning but now we chose it over what is right. So this law that is instilled in us slowly but surely dissolves until we can no longer recall the difference and follow our own will. We have transgressed we have sinned. No matter what magnitude of sin we rank on our scale, sin is sin. Romans 6:23, “for the wages of sin is death…” By this statement we all deserve death because we all went out from good and became evil. We weren’t born evil but we chose it. God has never done wrong so for this reason he is empowered with the right to judge what is evil because without good there would be no evil. According to the law, what is evil will die and what is good will live. We are evil. Again I return to C.S. Lewis, for he can explain our condition because of this law better then I ever could.
“This is the terrible fix we are in. If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again. We cannot do without it, and we cannot do with it. God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies.”

By being enemies of God we share the same fate as the Devil himself and the devil prides himself in his accomplishments to lead astray God’s faithful. Every day he progresses towards his goal winning souls over to darkness and deceiving the innocent. He knows his fate yet lacks understanding. I began this post with hope remains and now comes the turn of the tide.

In death comes victory. God knew that the law stated that any traitor to the law must be given over to death to be sacrificed for their sins. The Old Testament talks about the Israelites making sacrifices to atone for their sins. Those sacrifices I say did provide forgiveness of sins much like a family can forgive a murderer on trial for killing a member of their family, but even though the family forgave them the punishment still had to be paid to the courts. This draws the line that separates Christianity from all other religions or faiths. No other religion that I am aware of provides a way to redeem the peoples of the earth. This is how the Christian God did just that. God made himself flesh. John 1:1,14, “…and the word was with God and the word was God…” “And the word became flesh.” God came and revealed himself as man taking human form and by doing so limited his power and gave up his golden throne for head aches, sprained ankles, unbearably hot days, put up with human ignorance, human arrogance, and instead of being served, served everyone else. In his life on earth he defeated all temptation and did not give in to sin. Jesus was innocent of any crime. We are guilty of several crimes so a debt is due. In order for our punishment to be taken from us someone who never committed a crime would need to be willing to lift that burden from us and place it on himself. Christ fulfilled this need. 1 Corinthians 5:21 reads; “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Now, in this life people cannot achieve total righteousness, just as God cannot become sin. The idea is that for God the guilt in the end will not be placed on us but on Christ so that in God’s eyes we who are guilty are innocent and Jesus who is innocent receives the guilty verdict. For this reason Jesus died on the cross and in death served his punishment for our trespasses, and for this we are all justified, the whole world. We became automatically and immediately set free from our punishment. Every sin of every person is forgiven. Christ died for all sinners regardless if they know him or not. What the catch is we must respond to his act and those who respond will receive salvation and Jesus will take their responsibility of punishment on the Day of Judgment. If I have confused you at all know this, Christ wins and wins for you.

After our response we receive the PROMISE of salvation; salvation can only be given on the day when God judges us. So the gift of salvation is specially held for those who accept the Holy Spirit into their hearts and live out their lives in devotion to God. This is where our deaths come in. As I said, in our current state we cannot receive salvation during the living. Think about it. For this very reason God purged Adam and Eve from the garden. We must lose life to receive it. “And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever”” (Genesis 3:22). God had to send humanity into death so that we can escape the now fallen world. If Adam and Eve or any person lived forever then they could never be redeemed. We only receive salvation on the Day of Judgment because here and now our bodies are tainted; they are dirty, filthy, and tied to the fate of this world, which will be cleansed with fire. In our death we can finally receive our salvation!

So many people fear death and I can understand why, it is scary, unknown and possibly painful, but look at what greatness has come from the unknown. Christ died for you and I because of love. A love that put his glory aside so that Greatness would dwell amongst men. Yet the greatness was overlooked and instead was spit on by those who claimed righteous. In God’s death and our death we reunite and once again; all that once was, may be again. All that was blemished will be made new and righteous. Pursue the path of righteousness, and instead of the truth being forgotten the perversion of purity will be broken, now for this reason love God!

Those who live a life in devotion towards Christ and His father will live. This digs at the heart of Paul’s Gospel and the very thesis of his letter to the Romans. “The Righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:17b). So the hope of the world, all the lost souls, those without faith, those in darkness, and those who have twisted the truth into a lie, lay in the hands of all Christians. The truth that Christians hold is power, and we have a responsibility to expose the absolute truth and display for all to see. A responsibility to deliver the gospel and when we complete that mission, when every ear has heard this message then every person will be responsible for themselves. Keep the next generation from becoming a deprived generation and teach people to live by faith, for that is the path to righteousness. So you see God died for all and because of that, hope is extended to all. The hope of salvation is what to live for so go and learn to listen to the law inside you for it is your road map to righteousness. Amen.

(Sorry for it being so long, I got carried away)