Romans 7:7-12
On a Sunday morning Jan and I helped out in a first grade
class at church, one very special man had twelve children in his class, and I want to share
my observations, “they” using that term to cover a good number of the children
acted as if they had never been taught anything. Now this may surprise you, it did me, the
ones that were home schooled would look at you when ask to stop running or
talking and continue doing whatever.
When asked if they did that at school when the teacher gave them a
command, two young girls said, we are home schooled and the light came on, they
are telling me they are in charge, they are the authority. (Note: In no way am I attacking home schooled, I’m a fan of
parents who do so, but without schedules and rules, you have a mess.)
Now there is hope for these children, it’s called the law
and it is needed in the life of children today as it was for the Jewish people
coming out of Egypt. The law cannot be
attained for, Scripture is clear, if you break one law it is as if you have
broken all. (James 2:10-11)
Beginning in Romans 7:7-11, “What
then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for
the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to
covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an
opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.
For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but
when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that
promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through
the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” Note: the death
is not of the flesh, but of the spirit, we show up on planet earth with a dead
spirit to the ways of God. No child had
to learn to say no or not to care about anyone but number one, that is flesh,
and it is the law that exposes the sinfulness of our lives.
Rebellion is common to the flesh, it goes back to I will do
it my way, and without laws, rules, and authority, the world would be living in
chaos. I’ve been to Cairo Egypt and was
amazed at the pandemonium of traffic, it was total disorder, five lanes of
traffic turned into seven lanes, cops everywhere blowing whistles and no one
seemed to pay attention. And now I can
report three adults in a room with first graders, almost experiencing the same
thing. Without obedience to the law and
to authority you have total anarchy!
You have heard the law is much like a mirror, it exposes sin
and evil in our lives, one of the key sins is rebellion to authority, both
God’s and man’s. Yet Scripture is very
clear the law is good; “So the law is holy, and
the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” (Romans 7:12)
In my early 50’s Jan and I backpacked in Germany
and Austria, and we had
scheduled time to spend with Val & Mark in Austria who were there as
missionaries. Mark’s mission was to go
behind the iron curtain into Romania and teach pastors. Each trip had major risk and often Val would
be home with the children for weeks, never sure if Mark would return or be
imprisoned. It was on that trip, God
used Val to teach me a wonderful truth, we were in the car going to see the
sights and she asked the children to stop doing something, and yet they did not
respond. These words came out of her
mouth and were life changing for me; Children, do you recall what obedience is? “Obedience
is doing what you are told to do when you are told to do it. Anything else is not Obedience.
That
very moment the Holy Spirit had used Val to speak into my life a truth that I
needed then and now. Anything less than
acting on what God’s word has said to me is an act of disobedience, an act of
rebellion!
From
the Back Porch,
Bob
Rice
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