Who Is God? (A Lawgiving Killjoy?) II

Last week, we began to address the question of whether God is a lawgiving killjoy who threw a bunch of do’s and don’ts at us to keep us from having a good time.  And as we’re going to do throughout this series about “Who Is God?”, we’re examining the life of Jesus.  As the very embodiment of God Himself, the answer to our question lies with him.  How he lived and what he said and did reveals to us exactly who God is.  So with that in mind, let’s return to the matter of whether God is a lawgiving killjoy.

Israel certainly had some advantages that other nations seemed to lack.  One of those advantages was “the receiving of the law.” (Romans 9:4)  The law – the Ten Commandments and all the rest – was a source of great pride to the people of Israel.  In fact, it became such an important part of their lives that it became a stumbling block to them.  As Paul explains, his fellow countrymen “pursued the law as the way of righteousness.” (Romans 9:31)  However, they failed to attain their goal because “they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works.” (Romans 9:32)

Among those Israelites who pursued righteousness through the law, no one compared to the Pharisees and teachers of the law.  They were rigid in their adherence to all the rules.  But as we saw last week, though they honored God with their lips, their hearts were far from Him.  Why would that be?  If God gave the Israelites the law, surely He expected them to follow it to the letter.  So shouldn’t He have been thrilled with the Pharisees?

Obviously, He wasn’t.  How many times did Jesus give them a verbal lashing by calling them hypocrites and a brood of vipers?  Clearly they weren’t as good at following the law as they and others thought they were.  But the real problem was something else entirely.

The real problem manifested itself on several occasions when Jesus encountered the Pharisees.  One of those times was when Jesus was eating with Matthew and a bunch of tax collectors and sinners joined them.  Upon seeing this, the Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples why he ate with people like that.  Jesus response was very revealing.  Addressing the Pharisees he said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12-13)

What did Jesus mean by quoting Hosea 6:6?  Why would God say that He desired mercy over sacrifice? Wasn’t sacrifice a key component of the law?  There were all kinds of sacrifices for all types of occasions, and God was the one who stipulated them.  So weren’t they important?

Of course they were.  But the Pharisees, while better than most at following the letter of the law, were missing the spirit of the law.  At the root of mercy is love.  What good does it do to follow the law without love?  That’s why God desires mercy over sacrifice, because He desires love above all else.

We see this same matter come up again when Jesus and his disciples went through a grainfield one Sabbath.  The disciples were hungry and began eating some of the heads of grain.  The Pharisees were incensed and said, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:2) Jesus replied, “If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” (Matthew 12:7)

And there it is once again – “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”  Love over law.  The Pharisees just weren’t getting it, and that really shouldn’t surprise us.  Religious folks steeped in legalism often fall short on the mercy side.  Their legalism tends to steer them towards being judgmental.  They know the law and they are going to enforce it.

It’s no different in the 21st century church.  Religious Christians know what you should or should not do to be a “good Christian,” and they will find a way to let you know and hold you accountable. Afterall, they’re a good Christian, so God has surely accepted them.  So that puts them in a position to be the “Good Christian Police” to everyone else.  

The problem is the same for the 21st century religious legalist as it was for the 1st century Pharisee. Their determination to do all the right things and their conviction that that is what God requires often leads them to be lacking in mercy and compassion, the very qualities that God really desires to find in His children.  

What the legalist misses is the same thing the Pharisees missed.  A fixation on living in obedience to the law does not lead to a loving heart, but a loving heart will lead to obedience to the law.  It’s automatic.  A person whose heart is filled with love cannot help but live in accordance to God’s law.  In fact, it’s so automatic that the person filled with love will do it without even trying, or perhaps even realizing it.  

It’s sort of like breathing.  As long as our body has life in it, we will breath.  We don’t even realize we’re doing it the vast majority of the time.  Think about how many breaths you took today.  Could you count them?  How many were you consciously aware of?  For me, I hadn’t thought about my breathing until I started typing this paragraph.  Why don’t we think about it?  Because breathing is natural.  We don’t have to try to do it or force ourselves to do it.  It just happens.  It’s automatic.

And so it is with the person whose heart is filled with the life and love of Jesus Christ.  That person doesn’t have to try to obey the law or force themselves to do it.  It just happens.  And why wouldn’t it. Isn’t love the fulfillment of the law?  Jesus said it is.  As recorded in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared, “Do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law.” (Matthew 7:12)

As we examined last week, Jesus said he came to fulfill the law.  If you were to ask the average Christian to use one word to best describe Jesus, what do you suppose that word would be?  I think it would be love.  How did Jesus fulfill the law?  With love.  He is love, just as his Father is.  So if Jesus is love and he lives in you, that means his love lives in you.  So as you abide in him, his love will flow through you and you will live a life that will automatically live according to the law.  

So I hope it’s clear that God is not a lawgiving killjoy.  I would say that He is a lovegiving lifejoy.  Just as He and His son and the Holy Spirit have enjoyed an eternity of life and love together, so He wants us to experience His life and love too through Jesus Christ.  That’s just one more glimpse into His essential grace.

It’s possible that after reading this, you may still have some unanswered questions, such as, “Why did God give the Israelites the law in the first place?”  Or perhaps you even wondered, “What place does the law have, if any, in the 21st century?”  I don’t want to leave you hanging, but you’ll have to wait until next week’s blog article.  So come back next week to find out what the purpose of the law was in the first place.