Jesus, The Law Keeper

I break things. I don’t mean to. I don’t set out to break things, but that is usually what happens.

I’ve always wanted to be handy, to be a fixer of things. Decades ago, I used to watch This Old House on TV and think, “I want to do that. I can do that. I can be Bob Vila.” Then I’d tackle something that needed to be repaired and usually end up breaking it even worse than it was when I started.

I have been told that if you look up “klutz” in the dictionary, you’ll see a picture of me holding a screwdriver.

One of the more embarrassing incidents of trying to fix something and breaking it even worse happened not long after we moved into our new house. The seat on the toilet in the master bedroom needed to be replaced. How hard can that be, right?

I went to Home Depot and bought a replacement toilet seat. I loosened the first of the two plastic nuts holding the old seat on, no problem. But I couldn’t budge the second one. It was on so tightly it might have been glued in place. After several attempts at trying and failing to turn the stuck-on nut, I went and got a wrench. I can do this.

On the second attempt to move the nut with the wrench, the wrench slipped and banged into the side of the toilet. The porcelain cracked, and then a piece about the size of a nickel fell out.

“That’s not too bad,” I thought. “That could have been worse.”

After several more failed attempts to loosen the nut, I decided to give up for the moment. By this time, however, I needed to use the toilet. After doing so, I flushed it, and water gushed out that little hole I had made.

I had not only not repaired the seat, I had broken the toilet itself. We could no longer use it.

Unfortunately, I am not only a breaker of toilets. I am a breaker of much more important things. I am a breaker of promises, of vows, of laws, and worse of all, of the law of God.

In answer to the question, “What does the law of God require?” The New City Catechism says, “Personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience…What God forbids should never be done and what God commands should always be done.”

It makes sense that I should obey the law of God. It is for my good to do so. John Yates wrote, “Because God created and loves us and knows what is best for us, he gives us moral and spiritual direction about how to live life in the best way. The Ten Commandments are a love gift to us from God. Of course, this is true of all Scripture, but the heart and soul of God’s guidance is found in the Ten Commandments.”

I should keep God’s law. But I don’t.

When Jesus came, he raised the bar in keeping the Commandments. If we harbor any bitterness, think a lustful thought, or fail to be radically generous, we’ve broken the Commandments. And according to Stephen Um, Martin Luther wrote that if you break any of the Commandments, you are breaking the very first one. “That is, if you break the commandments, you are looking at other things as your ultimate value and your god rather than God himself.”

I break God’s law every day, pretty much in every way. I can’t help it. I am unable to obey the law perfectly. I am a lawbreaker. And I know, so are you.

Is there any hope for us?

Stephen Um went on, “Jesus Christ is the second Adam, the true Israel, the individual divine corporate head and representative who has come to fulfill the obligations of the law perfectly in himself.”

Jesus lived a perfect life of obedience to the law. For those who are in Christ, that perfect life of obedience is imputed to us.

“For if, by the trespass of the one man [the first Adam], death reigned through one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).

Jesus is our substitute. He stood in our place. He took our sin and punishment so that we can have his obedience and righteousness imputed to us. In Jesus, we are law keepers, not lawbreakers. He died our death so that we can live his life. That is our hope.

After I broke the toilet, I needed help. I needed someone to step in and take my place, someone who was able to do what I could not do. Actually, I got two. Two deacons from our new church came to our house, took out the old broken toilet, and installed a new one. They did for me what I could not do for myself.  

I am not able to keep the law of God. On my own, I break it every day. But thanks be to God, Jesus has done what I could not do, he has taken my place, and through him, I have his righteousness, I am a law keeper.

Much love, Barry