Doing the Impossible⤒🔗

Most people don’t try to do that which they know is impossible for them to do. Men who try out for a profes­sional rugby team usually do so be­cause they believe they have a chance, even if it’s just a tiny one, of making the team. But people like me are not going to bother, because I know they won’t even let me out on the field. It would be a hopeless en­deavour.

But you know, there is something I am called to do, something every one of us is required to do, yet this some­thing is far more impossible for me than playing professional sports. There is something absolutely impos­sible for anyone alive today, no matter how smart we are, or how athletic we are, or how much money we have. And yet, we are required to do it. What is this hopeless task? Keeping God’s law. We are all obligated to strive with all our might to keep God’s law, keep it perfectly. But we can’t do it. It’s impossible.

A Hopeless Task←⤒🔗

Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” We can’t avoid sin completely. Our sinful na­ture simply has too much power over us.

The Bible exposes us for who we are: sinners who will never be able to at­tain perfection here in this life. In fact, our actions, our words, and our thoughts, they are all impure. And if we were to declare that there is no sin in us, we would be liars.

In light of this, wouldn’t you think that when faced with the task of keeping God’s law perfectly, we would have to become pessimistic? Wouldn’t it be easy to simply say, “Forget it? I can’t do it. It’s impossible. I stand a better chance of flying by flapping my arms than I do of keeping God’s law per­fectly. I’m not even going to bother trying.”

For instance, when it comes to our bodies, temples of the Holy Spirit, we know we don’t treat them as well as we should. We don’t eat properly, we don’t exercise enough, we don’t give ourselves enough time to sleep. But we can’t change, so we don’t bother trying.

When it comes to our words, we know we say things that we shouldn’t. We boast, we use vulgar language, we speak ill of our neighbour. But it’s too hard to change the way we talk. There are so many areas of our lives in which we demonstrate so much unholiness, so much sin. It would be so easy to just simply throw up our arms and give up. I can’t help it. I can’t do anything about it. It’s just the way I am. I’m only human. I’m just like everyone else. I can’t be perfect, so don’t bother asking me to even try.

A Necessary Struggle←⤒🔗

But is this the attitude we are to have when it comes to trying to live up to the law of God? Do we just sort of give up, and tell ourselves it’s hope­less? No. You see, unlike any other impossible task, this is one that we must continue to struggle with. I don’t have to bother trying to play professional rugby. But even though following God’s law perfectly is infi­nitely more impossible, I still have to struggle with it and keep on striving. I must endeavour to obey the com­mands which God gives to me in the Bible. And not just the ones I happen to like and are convenient for me, but all of them.

But doesn’t this seem a bit unfair? Isn’t God asking way too much? I mean, when you’re trying to get your children to tidy up their room, you don’t tell them that they have to make sure that every single dirt molecule is cleaned up. It’s impos­sible. They wouldn’t begin to try. So why does God try to tell us to do something impossible?

Wouldn’t it be better if he would let us break a few of his laws every now and then? “Hey, it’s OK. Don’t worry about it. If you want to cheat on your spouse every now and then, well, I understand. If you want to steal a little from your employer, that’s OK, everybody does it. No­body’s perfect.”

No, this would not be better. For one thing, this attitude does not fit in with who God is. God is a holy, righteous, perfect God. And sin is imperfection, so it stands in com­plete opposition to Him.

And besides, such an attitude is not one that the true Christian would even want to take. A true Christian thinking biblically would not want to say, “Hey, it’s all right, a little sin now and then will not hurt anybody.” Instead, he realizes what sin is. He understands that sin violates the law of God, and the Christian does not want to do that. Because of course, the Christian loves God. The Christian loves the Word of the Lord that confronts him with how he should live his life.

A Desire for Obedience←⤒🔗

So many people do not like to have any sort of law imposed on them. They think that laws are meant to have loopholes. Laws are the at­tempt of other people to force their authority on me, and I don’t want anyone having authority over me. But, this should not be the attitude of the believer. The true Christian should not say, “Where are the loop­holes?”, but instead, “I want to obey God in everything that I do.” The true Christian says, with the psalmist, “My delight is in the law of the Lord.” He sees the command, “do not kill,” and says, “I want to obey this com­mand as much as possible.” And so he comes to the conclusion, “This means abortion is wrong.”

But it also means that we must not hate our brother. So the Christian does not look at that command and think, “well, the letter of the law does not really deal with the subject of hat­ing. It just talks about unjustly taking the life of another person. Therefore, it’s OK for me to hate my neighbour.” It doesn’t work that way. The Chris­tian wants to obey the sixth command in any way possible. That means: no hatred, no envy, no vindictiveness, no insulting, none of that. The Christian says, “I don’t want to do those things. I delight in the law that tells me not to do those things. Oh, I know that while sin is in me, I will not be able to love as perfectly as I ought. But I still love the God who loved me so much that he made it possible for me to love my neighbour as much as I can.”

And so, the true Christian strives after love. He won’t give himself excuses when he doesn’t do as well as he could. He goes on and continues striving, because the Law of God is His delight.

You know, whenever we hear the law of God expressed in the Ten Com­mandments, or in any other portion of Scripture, we should not say, “Well, here we go again. The Law of God. The rules that stop me from having any fun.”

No. We should listen to God’s law with joy, saying, “This is what I want to do. I don’t want to serve other gods. I want to live in such a way that it is perfectly clear just who it is that is in charge of my life. I want others to see that my God, my Lord, is working in me.”

You know, I grew up in churches where we would read the Law of God every week during the worship ser­vice. This was not a boring ritual de­signed to fill time. Reading God’s law during the worship service gave us a chance to be reminded of just what it is that God wants us to do. We would confess our failure to keep that law, but then we would pray that the Spirit would give us the strength to keep working at it.

And after praying for the strength of God, we are called to struggle. We see perfection personified in Jesus Christ, and we are called to try as much as we can to be like him.

The Temptation to Disobey←⤒🔗

This will not be easy. Of course the world will struggle against such ef­forts. The world does not at all take delight in the law of God. If you say to people that they are responsible to their Creator for their actions, they will not like it. And so they will find God’s law disgusting, or idiotic, or out-of-date, or inappropriate.

And they will try to tempt the Christian to disobey God’s law as well. They will put pretty pictures on your TV sets, saying, “You are special, buy our products and you will be important.” They will tell you that sinning is funny. They will send you messages saying, “There is no right or wrong. It doesn’t matter what you believe.”

And the Christian will be tempted. There will be areas where he falls, because, as I’ve said, the task before us is impossible. We will never attain perfection in this life.

The Ongoing Need for Grace←⤒🔗

Now the Christian might be inclined to ask, “Why, God? Why not enable us to be perfect? Our witness to you is so limited because of our imperfec­tion. We could serve you so much better if we didn’t have to worry about this constant nagging problem of sin. You’re Almighty, you can get rid of this sin in our lives, can’t you?”

But look at it this way: there is some­thing beneficial about realizing our imperfection. We are confronted with the law of God, and we are made aware of our sin because of our failure to keep that law. And this in turn forces us to Jesus.

Our ongoing sinfulness continues to remind of what Jesus did for us. It was because of our sins that Jesus died. So when we know of our sins, this makes us turn to Jesus, because it is in him that we find forgiveness of our sins.

A rich man would hardly notice if someone were to pick up the tab for him at a restaurant. But a poor man who has no money and has had nothing to eat for days would cer­tainly notice the free meal.

We can be much more conscious of the grace of God when we are con­scious of our need for it. Isn’t this amazing? Even when it reminds of our sin, the law of God is our delight, because the law of God points us to Christ.

The Hope of Perfection←⤒🔗

We can also know that even though in this life we will not be able to obey God’s law perfectly, even though in this life the law will remind us of our sin, there will come a time when the Christian will obey the law of God perfectly.

Psalm 1 talks about how the man who delights in God’s law is blessed. It also talks about how the way of the wicked will perish. Ulti­mately, if they do not repent, the wicked will perish eternally. But the way of those who belong to God and who love his law will continue on into glory.

When Jesus Christ returns, he will separate the wicked from the right­eous, he will separate those who love God’s law from those who hate it. He will separate those who were chosen unto salvation from those who weren’t. And God’s people will go to live with him in perfection. While the goal of perfection is im­possible at this point, it will not al­ways be so. And that time of perfec­tion reaches out to us like a beacon, calling us to strive toward it.

Do you consider the law of God your delight? Do you consider the law of God your joy? Can you see that the law shows you your sin, and points you to Jesus? Do you strive after obedience? If you don’t, I would call on you to repent of your sin and look to Jesus Christ. Only in Him can we find salvation. And only in Him can you find the strength to help you be obedient.