Suggested Reading: Romans 7:7-25
One of the frustrations of parenting is that nearly all
children go through a phase where they blame their parents when they get in
trouble. Instead of looking at themselves when they face consequences for
hurting someone, they get mad at you for giving out the consequences. Rather
than dealing with the fact that they lied, they get angry with you for calling
them on it. The reaction is perfectly in keeping with human nature and,
fortunately, most of us grow out of this phase. But even when we grow beyond
this default reaction, it is a tool that we cling to when we encounter
consequences we really don’t like.
Paul responded to a similar reaction to the Old Testament
Law in Romans 7:7 saying, What should we say then? Is the law sin?
Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for
the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had
not said, Do not covet (HCSB). Some people in Paul’s experience, because of their own rebellious nature, responded to the Law with a desire to sin and then chose to
blame the law for their choice. They tried to argue that their own choices weren’t
the problem but that getting rid of the law would get rid of their sin. The mentality rested
upon a foundation of “if there are no rules to break, we can’t be punished for
breaking the rules.” They fundamentally misunderstood the nature of sin. So rather
than dealing with themselves, they chose to blame the law.
We experience a lot of that in today’s society and people
are falling away from Christ because of it. The “rules” of the Bible are more
restrictive than some people are willing to deal with and so they begin to
think that the “rules” are the problem. One person I know, addicted to
pornography, decided that his addiction wasn’t the problem and so he tossed out the relationship with God that told him it was. Another, engaged in a
sinful lifestyle, chose to keep calling himself a Christian but also decided to toss out as “flawed
and barbaric” the scriptures which called his activities sinful.
Now, if you aren’t a Christian, feel perfectly free to toss
out God and His Word. I don't expect you to live according to a system you haven't bought into. But if you are a believer, if you have experienced the
movement of God in your life and are now doubting because that relationship creates tension
with your behavior, don’t toss out the God you have known and experienced just because your actions don't measure up. Ask yourself, is it
more likely that the God you have known and experienced never really existed or
that you are trying to blame anything but yourself for what you know to be
wrong?
If you want to continue doing things you know to be wrong,
have the guts to be honest about it. Don’t suddenly pretend God doesn’t exist
or decide the scriptures which guided you to Christ must now be outdated and
barbaric. Don’t blame anyone or anything else because you want to make your own
choices.
