For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. (James 2:10)
Lord, I cannot keep the law. I can’t. On the outside I may look good, but I still violate your commands. Have mercy on me.
Kendall was driving down Oak Street one afternoon when he saw flashing lights in his rear view mirror. He pulled over to let the police car pass, but the lights pulled behind him and parked.
“Oh great!” Kendall thought, and he began to wonder what he had done wrong. He knew he had not been speeding, and there had been no stop signs or lights to run.
The officer walked up to Kendall’s window and asked him, “Do you know why I pulled you over?”
“No sir,” Kendall said.
“You were going forty in a school zone. The speed limit back there is twenty between 2 and 3pm.”
“Officer, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I’m really a safe driver. I conscientiously try to keep all of the laws of the road. This is not normal for me.”
“I need to see your license and insurance.”
The policeman then took the documents and walked back to his car, where he stayed for about ten minutes. When he returned to Kendall’s window, he handed Kendall a speeding ticket for $250.
Now let’s assume Kendall was telling the truth when he said he was a safe driver who conscientiously tried to keep all the laws of the road. And let’s assume that the policeman found a squeaky clean driving record when he looked up Kendall’s name in his database.
Was the ticket just?
Of course, everyone knows that it was. We may debate whether the policeman should have shown Kendall some mercy, but we cannot legitimately argue that he was being unjust. Based on the law, Kendall fully deserved what he got. That is how law works. Law commands certain behaviors and stipulates punishments for violations of those behaviors. When we violate the law, we cannot say, “Most of the time I keep it,” for punishments do not deal with those times we keep it but with that one time we violated it. My good driving on Tuesday will not get me out of the ticket I received on Friday.
This phenomenon is true of perhaps every law that has ever been. When people murder, it is generally a rare behavior for them. They cannot defend their murder by saying “for 60 years I never killed anyone.” The question at hand is not “How did you behave the past 60 years?” The question is “How did you behave on the night of July 19th, 2014?” That is how law works.
So why am I saying all this about law? I am saying it because God has made laws, and when we violate God’s laws, most of us still consider ourselves pretty good folks who generally keep God’s laws. Do we keep all of God’s laws all of the time? If we’re honest, we have to say “No,” but we don’t consider that fact to be so bad because we think we usually try to follow God’s law. In this respect, we are Kendall. And after all, God wouldn’t punish us for violating his law only once when we actually keep it 1,000 other times, would he? This is how many people think.
The problem is that such thinking does not reflect how law actually works, and we all know it. If we obey a law 1,000 times and disobey it the 1,001st, we are subject to its punishment. And if we obey 1,000 different laws but disobey the 1001st, we are subject to its punishment. This is justice, it is normal, and we all know it. But somehow we don’t think this way when we deal with God’s laws.
My point is this. We all have a just punishment that is due us for violating God’s laws. God said, “Do not lie,” but we have lied. God said, “Do not commit adultery” and then said that lust is nothing more than adultery in the heart. But we have lusted. God said, “Do not covet your neighbor’s things,” but we have coveted our neighbor’s things. At different times each one of us has been greedy or selfish. We have treated something that is not God as if it were. We have said cruel things to others or have failed to speak when we should have stood for what is right. All these actions, thoughts, or attitudes are violations of God’s law. Now we may not have done all of these things all of the time, but we need only to have done one of these things once to incur the just punishment of the law. That is how law works. The truth of the matter, however, is that we have likely violated all of these laws (and more) many times. In other words, we are repeat offenders.
Therefore, based on the law, you and I deserve the full consequences for violating God’s law. Those consequences are more serious than we think. We are not violating the commands of a human government but the words of a holy God. These laws have eternal consequences because they deal with an eternal kingdom. The moral laws of God stipulate the behavior and character God expects for the kingdom of God. To violate these laws is to disqualify ourselves from the kingdom of God. When we lie, lust or covet possessions or power, when we manipulate to get our way, we bring upon our souls a deep stain that cannot live where holiness dwells. God says that our sins have separated us from Him (Is 59:2). Sin and holiness do not belong together. Thus, the normal consequence of violating God’s law is eternity without God. The very purpose for which we were made is gone. We are without hope and without God in this world. Those consequences are completely just, for we have broken God’s law, and that is how law works. All of us shall stand before the Great Judge and be tried for our deeds, for our thoughts, and for the attitudes of our hearts. And the one thing we can never, ever say is, “I’m usually a pretty good person.” That will get us nowhere.
