Laws and the Perpetual Problem of Evil

We’re a nation of laws, maybe more than any other country. When we elect men and women to the House and Senate, we refer to them as ‘lawmakers,’ and that’s exactly what they do – make laws.

 

We have traffic laws, zoning laws, housing laws, parking laws, and education laws. Laws for banking, food and drugs, marriage and families, animals, noise, and advertising. Even laws for enforcing laws. We have criminal laws for dealing with people that insist on breaking the law. 

 

You’d think that with all our laws and regulations, society would be orderly and law-abiding. ‘Here are our expectations. Here are the boundaries. Now do as you’re told.’ That’s hardly the case. 

 

Despite laws against operating motor vehicles under the influence of intoxicating substances, almost every day we hear about people killed by vehicles steered by drunk drivers. Laws have banned texting while driving, but we still notice drivers with their eyes down, focusing on the latest message rather than what’s happening on the road right in front of them.

Child abuse. Domestic abuse. Burglary. Robbery. Murder. Scamming. Lying. We have countless laws concerning these and other forms of bad behavior, but they persist.

 

Whenever I hear someone saying something like, “We need stricter gun laws,” I wonder about the copious laws we already have regulating the use of guns. The problem is the folks who pay no attention to them. The late Charlton Heston, when he was president of NRA, observed: “There is no such thing as a good gun. There is no such thing as a bad gun. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a very dangerous thing. A gun in the hands of a good person is no danger to anyone except the bad guys.”

 

If we want to consider the power of laws to control behavior, all we need to do is look to ancient Israel. Besides the Ten Commandments (listed in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5), God gave His chosen people many other laws. Reading through the Old Testament, it seems the Israelites delighted in how many of the laws they could ignore and how frequently they did.

 

Even “heroes” of the Old Testament, people like Jacob, Moses, Samson, King David, King Solomon and Hezekiah, had an amazing propensity for disobedience. They knew the laws yet defied them in many ways.

 

This isn’t to say we shouldn’t have laws. They’re important and we need them. Without speed limits on our roads, some drivers would exhibit reckless disregard for the safety of others and themselves. There’s a reason we have laws against taking merchandise from stores without paying for them. But no matter how stringent, those determined to break laws will continue doing so.

 

The problem isn’t that laws aren’t clear enough, or we don’t have enough of them. It’s more basic than that. The problem is the perpetual presence of evil, as it’s been from the beginning of history. Adam and Eve were given one simple law, “…you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17).

 

It wasn’t that there were too many laws to keep up with. They had one law, just one. God said they could eat of any other tree in the Garden of Eden. So, what did they do? They ate fruit from the one that was off limits.

 

Since then, every individual born into this world has been doing what seems to come naturally: Rebelling against God, His laws, precepts and statutes. “But we’re only human!” is the excuse. In one sense that’s true. We read in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Perhaps there’s a spiritual component to our genetic makeup and we’re behaving according to a ‘sin gene.’

 

In the words of the old hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” we’re “prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” This wandering is a result of the perplexing appeal of evil. As has been stated more than once, “If sin wasn’t fun, we wouldn’t want to do it.”

 

How do we respond? Forget about making laws? Resign ourselves to people just doing what they’re going to do? From what I hear, that’s kind of the conclusion some states have made. But there’s a better answer.

 

In Jesus Christ, who called Himself “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), we find the capacity to turn away from evil, to say no to sin. When we become born again as new creations in Christ (John 3:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17) we step outside the “I’m only human” box. The Lord not only gives us new life spiritually but also the desire to pursue right and reject wrong.

 

The apostle Paul expressed it this way in Romans 8:2-4, “…through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering…that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”

 

This isn’t saying we should cease making laws since our “sinful nature” doesn’t like obeying them. But it also doesn’t say the only reason for pointing people to Jesus is to get them “saved” and assured of going to heaven when they die. He wants us to become living, breathing, law-keeping examples of what a life transformed by the power of Christ looks like. 

 

Other stanzas from “Come Thou Fount…” say it well:

“Jesus sought me when a stranger,
  Wand’ring from the face of God;
He, to save my soul from danger,
  Interposed His precious blood….

 

Take my heart, oh, take and seal it
  With Thy Spirit from above.
Rescued thus from sin and danger,
  Purchased by the Savior’s blood,
May I walk on earth a stranger,  

As a son and heir of God.” 

Two Fathers, Two Families and Two Fates

Suppose you suffered a severely broken leg and upon arrival at the emergency room, a doctor came up to you with a large bandage and said, “This ought to fix it.” You’d probably either think the physician was out of his mind or you’d grab your smartphone and dial one of those TV lawyers to file a malpractice suit.

And yet, that’s what many of the “experts” seem to be doing in addressing the overarching ills afflicting our society today. We’ve got violence in the streets, chaos in the classrooms, anarchy wherever we look. What’s the answer? Many leaders think it’s just a matter of passing more laws, as if our country doesn’t already have enough laws to which people pay little or no attention.

 

I’m not opposed to laws. We need them, obviously. But if the nature of humankind could have been changed by laws, that would have happened long ago. The ancient Israelites had more than 1,000 laws to which they were expected to abide. That didn’t deter them from committing all manner of illegal, immoral and unethical acts of rebellion and disobedience.

 

What we don’t need are simple-minded solutions. One thing I’ve learned about everyday life is that it’s complicated. But is it unreasonable to think that with gang violence continuing to escalate in cities with the toughest gun laws, and unruly students still disrupting their classes even with the threat of expulsion hanging over their heads, maybe we need to look in a different direction for answers?

 

One place I’d suggest looking is in the home. Years ago, Hillary Clinton coined the phrase, “It takes a village,” but for raising responsible, disciplined and productive young people, history has shown that what’s even more important is a stable, caring home with parents working together.

 

Recently a friend sent out an email called “Two Fathers, Two Families, Two Fates” that showed a startling comparison of families from the same era. Consider:

 

Jonathan Edwards, one of the wisest individuals God has given America, lived in the state of New York. He was a Christian and a strong advocate of Christian training. He married a young woman of like character. From this union, a study was done of 729 of their descendants. Out of this number came 300 preachers, 65 college professors, 13 university presidents, 60 authors of good books, three U.S. congressmen, and one vice president of the United States.

 

Max Jukes also lived in New York around the same time. He did not believe in Christian training and married a woman who thought the same way. From their union the lives of 1,026 descendants were traced. Three hundred of them died prematurely. One hundred were sent to prison for an average of 13 years each, and 190 were public prostitutes. There were 100 drunkards. The expense to society for their wayward living was substantial.

 

Could it be that the difference between the two fathers, their families and the fates of their descendants was largely shaped by their disparate values, beliefs and practices? The Bible admonishes, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

 

In the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, Moses described the learning environment that fathers and families should establish for their children. He wrote:

“These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe…so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all His decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life…. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 6:1-7).

 

Does this guarantee that if we surround our children with biblical principles and live consistently as followers of Christ that they will turn out to be model citizens? No. It’s a principle the Bible presents and not an absolute promise. I’m sure that Mr. and Mrs. Edwards’ offspring and descendants had flaws just as everyone does. But they were taught timeless, godly standards for faithful, fruitful living.

 

The Scriptures also show us the contrast. Proverbs 29:18 observes, “Where there is no [prophetic] revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.” And the book of Judges concludes with this description of the people of Israel, who had rebelled against God and abandoned His teachings: “In those days Israel had no king; all the people did what seemed right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

Maybe the time has come for us to forget about bandages and remedies that are temporary at best, and return to the one sure cure, prescribed by the Great Physician. 

What Are Laws Good For, Anyway?

We’re a nation of laws. There are laws for almost everything. Consider, for instance, laws just for travel: from speed limits on our streets and highways to jaywalking; to the use of smartphones to talk and text while driving; to operating a vehicle while impaired, to where we can park and for how long. We have laws for traveling by air, water, even by bicycle, scooter and skateboard. 

We also have laws concerning the food we eat; things we drink; medicines we take; stuff to smoke if we wish to do so. There are laws about buying, selling and trading. Copyright and trademark laws for what we can copy or replicate. We’ve got laws to regulate hiring, firing, employment and compensation, vacations and leaves of absence. Laws tell us how to enforce contractual agreements.

Then we have the basic laws for common sense things, like not killing or injuring people, stealing things that aren’t ours, telling the truth (or not), borrowing, renting and leasing. When people are accused of breaking one or more laws, we even have laws directing how we’re to prosecute alleged lawbreakers. And laws for what to do with them if convicted. When someone says, “There ought to be a law,” lawmakers eagerly respond, “Okay!”

But what good are laws anyway? Speed limits, clearly visible on most roadways, don’t stop people from speeding. Every state has laws against driving under the influence, but some folks do it anyway. We have laws against shoplifting, but it still happens. Laws against murder, robbery, kidnapping, spousal abuse and every other wrong thing we can imagine have been enacted; yet those heinous crimes continue. 

So again – what good are laws? We find an answer in the book of Romans. Speaking of the Ten Commandments as well as all other laws, the apostle Paul writes, “for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account where there is no law” (Romans 5:13). He’s saying even before formal laws were established, people were doing wrong – and they knew they were doing wrong.

Consider this analogy: A heavily traveled road in our part of town has a legal, posted speed limit of 40 miles per hour. Signs are visible at various intervals, and if a law enforcement officer catches you driving above that limit, you risk receiving a citation (or worse, depending on how fast you’re traveling).

One might say that if signs weren’t present and a speed limit hadn’t been set, we could drive the road 100 miles an hour or faster. But that’s not true. With the high density of traffic, along with the concentration of businesses and homes, it doesn’t take genius to realize driving 100 mph there is neither safe nor wise.

In this case the law serves as a reminder that driving well in excess of 40 mph puts ourselves and everyone around us at risk. Yes, had the laws not been created and signs posted, we couldn’t be prosecuted for breaking them. But common sense would still tell us, “Hey, stupid, it’s really not safe driving this fast.”

When God handed the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai – in the process originating the phrase, “Take two tablets and call Me in the morning” – the Lord was putting into writing what deep down mankind already knew: We shouldn’t murder. We shouldn’t steal. We shouldn’t be dishonest. We shouldn’t have sexual relations with someone we’re not married to. We shouldn’t covet or be envious of other people’s stuff. 

Paul stated it this way: “…when Gentiles, who do not have the 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…” (Romans 2:14-15). Somehow it seems, from the moment of birth or even before, the understanding of what’s right and what’s wrong has already been impressed indelibly on our hearts.

The other benefit of God’s laws, from a spiritual perspective, is they point us to Him. The first four Commandments presented in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, for example, speak directly of our relationship with the Lord: We’re not to worship other gods; not to create and worship idols of false gods; not to use God’s name in a disrespectful or blasphemous way; and we’re to set apart a Sabbath day for worship and refraining from our usual work.

Knowing God’s laws also enables us to arrive at a profound realization. Being born with what we might term the “sin gene,” a natural inclination toward rebellion against the Lord, we discover it’s impossible to “clean up our own act” and make ourselves right with Him. No matter how hard we try, we always fall short – missing the mark of God’s perfect standard.

I can identify with Paul when he wrote, “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within [me]. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:21-24).

Almost immediately, however, Paul tells us “who” can rescue him – and us: “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25). Elsewhere he writes that we have a choice; we don’t have to break the law, just as we don’t have to break the speed limit. “…count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus…. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace” (Romans 6:11-14).

No matter how many laws are written and enforced, amended and reinforced, they can’t force us to abide by the law if we choose not to do so. But through God’s provision, we not only recognize Him as the ultimate Lawgiver, but He also provides us the capacity for willingly and joyfully keeping His laws.

Benefits of Boundaries

We have been remodeling our kitchen, and last week we replaced the old, rickety guardrail around the stairwell leading to our garage. Of course, it had to be removed first, which left an unprotected hole while the new railing was being erected.

Even as unstable as the old guardrail was, its mere presence offered protection – especially compared to the yawning opening that remained once it had been taken down. There were no mishaps during the brief transition time, but it struck me how important barriers – or boundaries – can be.

This reminded me of a study of elementary school children years ago that showed if there was no fence around the school, during recess the kids would congregate near the building. But once a fence was put up, they felt freedom to roam right up to the fence line. A friend of mine used to raise sheep and these timid animals also appreciated the security of a fenced enclosure.

To me, this is the purpose of God’s precepts, statutes, laws, commands, word and decrees (as they are variously described in Psalm 119). It’s not that He is some divine spoilsport, saying, “You can’t do this; you can’t do that.” Rather, as our Designer, God knows what’s best for us – and cared enough to offer us a manual (the Bible) and give us protective boundaries.

As someone has said, “If sin wasn’t any fun, we wouldn’t want to do it.” But just because it’s fun, that doesn’t mean it’s good for us – or right. Lust, greed, dishonesty and various other vices may appease the psyche, but we’re none the better for any of them. And whenever we participate in them, we damage others in the process.

That’s why, “All Scripture…is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Smile, You’re on Candid Traffic-Cam

Recently I watched a news story about traffic cameras installed at key intersections to capture images of people speeding or failing to stop at red lights. The police chief noted, “The law is the same as it always has been. But because people see the cameras, they are more aware of it.”

You could make a similar observation about commandments we find in the Bible. Many people regard the laws and commands in the Scriptures as merely a collection of do’s and don’ts, established by a cosmic killjoy intent on restricting our freedom. But if God is indeed our Creator, as the Bible declares, He knows how we function most effectively.

Take the everyday example of a heavily traveled street in a medium-sized town. If there were no posted speed limits, one could assume it’s permissible to drive down the street at any speed. Intuitively, however, we understand that’s foolishness.

With other vehicles also on the road, not to mention pedestrians and intersections where oncoming vehicles might suddenly appear, we recognize even without a speed limit sign that we should drive carefully and wisely. However, once a speed limit is posted, we know authorities have determined what speed is safe for that street – assuming other conditions, such as rain, snow or ice, are not added to the equation.

In the same way, the Bible says that the law was given for our instruction. Proverbs 4:13 says, “Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.”

We don’t resent the manufacturer of a car, an appliance, even a video game, for providing a manual that tells us how to properly operate the equipment. In the same way, the Bible simply teaches us how we can best conduct our lives as our Maker intended.