Feb 25

Written by: Mike Smith
2/25/2008 1:51 PM

I have thought a lot about obedience and law keeping. In one sense I am compliant and dutiful. In other ways I am one that stretches the law or rules to the breaking point. My wife, Rinda, gets frustrated with me when I do this. We are playing a board game together and I make some creative move. She responds, “You cannot do that.” I say, “Why not?” She answers, “The rules don’t say you can.” I respond, “The rules don’t say you can’t either.” I am one of these you have to tell what not to do. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. It was “very good” to quote God in Genesis 1:31. They were not fallen in the least. They morally reflected God. They had one rule to keep in the garden. They had to avoid eating from the tree in the center of the garden. It was a test to see if they would obey their creator. They did not obey the one law. As a result they lost much of the image of God, but not all of it. Whenever I am tempted to think that I am capable of keeping God’s laws on my own I remind myself of Adam’s inability. My only hope of being found right before God as a law keeper is one who is in Jesus Christ by faith. Paul puts it this way: “7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Philippians 3:7-9).

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