Don't hang on the dishwasher

Last night as I was unloading the dishwasher I walked across the kitchen and put some plates away.  When I turned around my son Lee had pulled out the top drawer of the dishwasher and was hanging on it like it was a jungle-gym.  Afraid he would bend it I yelled, "Lee, don't do that!"  Of course, Lee is less than two-years-old and so hanging on the drawer seemed like the fun thing to do.  As a parent I've come to realize I cannot blame my child for doing something wrong if I never told him it was wrong.  How else would he know?

The experience made me think about Paul's explanation about the purpose of the law given to the Israelites in the Old Testament.  There are a couple things I want to mention about the law and then apply it practically.

First, the law revealed what sin is.  If I had instructed Lee "Do not hang on the dishwasher" then he would know that behavior was wrong.  Without my instruction Lee wouldn't know.  Paul said, "if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.' " (Romans 7:7)  What he means is God gave Israel the law to show them how they should live; to show them what is appropriate behavior and what is inappropriate behavior.  Paul calls the Law Israel's "guardian" (Galatians 3:24-26).  It functioned as a parent to a child:  instructing, guiding, and disciplining.

Paul also said the Law was given to increase sin (Romans 5:20).  If I drive 85 mph in a 25 mph zone I will probably get a massive speeding ticket.  I may even lose my license to drive.  Why is that?  Because people in my state's legislature passed a law that says speeding is illegal and speeders will suffer punishment.  However, if I drive 85 mph on the autobahn in Germany where there is no speed limit I don't have to worry about getting a ticket.  Where there is no law there is no transgression (Romans 4:15).  Consider the 430 years between Abraham and Moses.  For 430 years the Israelites did not have the Mosaic Law and so there were lots of bad things that happened that did not have consequences.  A teenager may have bad-mouthed their parent and people knew it was generally problematic but there was no specific commandment not to bad-mouth your parent.  Then the Mosaic Law is given with the commandment "Honor your father and your mother" and all of a sudden bad-mouthing your parent has consequences.  The sin of bad-mouthing one's parent became more sinful when it happened after the commandment was given.

Why would God want to increase sin?  Because He wanted to show us that we could not attain His promises through our own obedience.  It was only through faith that God's promises were available to us.  The law was given to show us our deficiency by increasing our sin.  That why Paul says,

12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.  (Romans 7:12-13)

I recently visited a paint store to buy some white paint to re-paint the molding and trim around my house.  I was amazed at how many variations of the color white there are.  There was an entire wall of paint chips with probably 40 or 50 different shades of white.  I picked up "Eggshell White", which looked white to me, but then I saw "Extra White" which was even whiter.  In fact, when I held "Eggshell White" and "Extra White" side-by-side, "Eggshell" looked yellow.  Then my eye caught "Bright White" which was even whiter than "Extra White".  "Bright White" made "Extra White" look yellow.  When I held one color up against the other I could immediately see the difference.  Likewise, when we hold our lives up against the law we can see our sin more clearly than ever before. The law is intended to give us a reference point to show us we're not as perfect as we think we are.  Paul said the law was "holy and righteous and good."  If the law rubs us the wrong way that's not an indictment of the law, it's an indictment of our heart.  And that reality will humble us and remind us to put our hope in Christ who perfectly fulfilled the law for us.  We are not righteous because of anything we do but because of what Christ did.  That is exactly why Paul says, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24-25)

That is the gospel.