We live in a world of rules. Rules apply to every part of our lives. They insist that good behaviour is rewarded and bad is punished. The keeping of rules instilled into us from childhood becomes the inherent vocation of every person until “death do us part” from this rule driven life. Every culture has its own set of rules, every part of society that we engage in have their particular permissions or prohibitions, all of humanity live within the written and unwritten codes of what is right and wrong.
Our world system cannot function without rules, the anarchy that would ensue would be the end of us, but, life with all its rules often feels stifling and suffocating. We get tired of being rule-keepers but it seems social disorder is the only alternative to their absence because, “where there is no law there is no transgression” Romans 4:15, and everyone would do what was right in their own eyes. The relentless order that the keeping of rules insists upon, is like a watchdog, a big brother, always policing our thoughts, actions, motives, even dreams, and is quick to condemn and declare us punishable for when we cross the line.
The guidebook of do’s and don’t’s is so large, its volumes so numerous, that it is impossible to learn all let alone conform to all, but we go about life constantly and unconsciously determining, Is this right or wrong? Can I do this or not? What will happen if I don’t do this, or if I do? Romans 2:15. So burdened down are we with laws, that even Jesus said in His day, “You experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry” Luke 11:46.
If the rules work to our advantage to have a good and successful life, we keep them. If not, we justify the breaking of them – it is a monotonous keeping or breaking of rules and the associated consequences. We fit harmoniously with society by keeping the rules but are put away if we don’t. We are accepted, praised and rewarded if we are good; we are punished, shamed and shunned if we are bad. The punishment issued for our rule-breaking is designed to bring us back under the control and order of the established rules. We incorrectly think that rule-keepers are good-godly people, and rule-breakers are bad, so we generally choose to align ourselves with the keepers, and avoid those who aren’t.
It is a different set of rules when it comes to having an intimate relationship with God, and being part of His Kingdom. The keeping of the rules that we live by in order to get on in our world, do not count with God. The truth is, we cannot keep the rules which make us good enough to live guiltless here on earth, let alone in the Kingdom of Heaven where no rule-breakers will live, so a different law or way exists there. It looks like this: any good behaviour does not count towards God’s favour and any bad does not result in condemnation or punishment, Romans 8:1. It’s completely different from life here. Our choices to behave or not, to be good or not, do not determine our position or place with God. In fact, He declares us fit to live with Him, and He says of us that we are not guilty for the wrong we have done. A mantle that declares we are unpunishable is placed on us and says we never can be or will be, punished – in the case that an accuser may try to suggest otherwise, Revelation 12:10. We can do bad and have to face the punishment of those actions in the culture and world we live in, but before God there’s none! His way is not chaotic, anarchic, or dystopian, rather, different. It is where one person, Jesus, took the punishment – from those who could not accept any other way than rule-keeping – for us all, and in doing so, we would not need to be punished for our wrong, Hebrews 7:18-28. It was One for all, and for all time, “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed…” Isaiah 53:5. How it works, how one person can have the punishment of all placed on him, I can not understand.
It seems ridiculous that I can do wrong – even the same thing over and over, be the greatest hypocrite, fall so far – even if I can’t control or change myself, and before God there is no withholding of His love, no diminishing of my value, love in all its perfection is always available to me, and I am completely welcome in His world. My unpunishable state is constant and irrevocable, even if I sin seventy-seven times seven, Matthew 18:21-22. And even more ludicrous is that God doesn’t step aside when I am contemplating sin and giving in to its temptation, (but nor is He oblivious to it) – He sees it, in all its ugliness, guilt and failure, and remains there alongside, loving me, declaring me unpunishable, while I’m right in the middle of it!
I get my worlds confused. In the physical world I live in, I must keep the rules and am under the punishment of the authorities if I step out of line. When I break the rules I feel guilty, those around me point the finger in judgment, and law-enforcers condemn in order to bring me back in line, under the control of the rules. In the spiritual world, where I reside as a welcome member of the Kingdom of Heaven, and under God’s governing love, I am neither accepted or judged by my behaviour. The punishment option is not part of God’s kingdom.
It’s easy to muddle these worlds, the two worlds where I have dual citizenship. I get to thinking that God loves me only if I am good and that equally He punishes me when I am bad. I see the blessings in my life as reward for good behaviour and the things that go wrong as God punishing me by withholding His love and allowing things to go against me. But according to grace (that ridiculous generosity of favour) I am declared unpunishable and I am accepted without any measure of self-goodness. To continue to wrongly think that I will be punished by God is wrong. The threat of punishment creates fear, because that’s how this world’s system works, but to be declared unpunishable means there is no fear in my relationship with God because in His world there is no punishment for my sin, 1 John 4:18. It means can come to Him boldly, into His throne room, within the Kingdom of His love, anytime I need help, or if I simply want to be in His presence, knowing that there is no punishment to be received, Hebrews 4:16. Ridiculous!!!
When I do something wrong, even if no one else knows, the punishment that I inflict on myself is bad enough. I will condemn myself as a failure, undeserving of love, but deserving of all that’s coming at me, I’ll carry the burden of guilt, and think that no one would love me if they knew. Then I will vow to myself to never do it again, to be good from now on, to follow the rules and to get myself back under their control. And if others do find out, they may put distance in the relationship, they may judge, they may condemn, I often see the sideways glances and I hear the gossip. Yet in God’s kingdom, I don’t need to show a record of good behaviour to receive His love, and to live here! Nobody, absolutely nobody would love me if I didn’t act with kindness and goodness and fairness, keep the rules – and all those things. Yet God says He loves me, and I am fully welcome, despite my failure to keep the rules! I have complete access to a relationship with God without fear – that has no ounce of it – if I were to take Him at His word on this.
Were I to truly let God love me in this way, unpunishable, I could well be a spoiled brat – knowing that I could do as I please and then waltz on into His presence and sit on His knee, delighted in. He would not be blind to my mistakes (because He is not!) but He would be so welcoming that any rule-breaking I did would not cause any apprehension or fear of punishment. I would be received there as His precious child, given love abundantly from His immeasurable wealth of it, and a full declaration of “not guilty!” I almost feel like I dare try it someday – to deliberately sin (whoa!) – then to skip on in, sit on His knee, and test to see that the delight in His eye would never cloud over in judgment, but it would widen because of the pleasure He has in me being there! It is the preposterous teaching of Romans 6! “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” Romans 6:1. “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?” Romans 6:15. By no means! No, I shouldn’t do this. And I do not wish to insult the Spirit of grace, but the point
How upside down His kingdom is! I live spiritually in one world – and physically in another. One that has only one rule, and the other that has so many.
God’s
There is in truth no guilt, nor threat of condemnation, the inherent rule-keeping and its associated guilt is absolved in God’s Kingdom, and, instead is simply a personal request from Him, “Let me love you and I will love you”: welcomed, unpunishable, not guilty, free to live, loved.