“I don’t think I’m going to Heaven” said the student as she sat fidgeting in my classroom. “Why do you say that?” I asked. “Well,” she continued, “I ‘ve broken eight of the Ten Commandments.”
This real exchange was only symptomatic of a far deeper issue that I hope you will pray for God’s guidance as I continue to counsel this child but it made me ponder the whole concept of the church’s understanding of the purpose of the Law.
The reality is that we have all broken all ten of the Ten Commandments—and this we do BY NATURE. In other words, I cannot NOT break the Law. I will break the Commandments and there is no amount of strength I can exert to prevent it.
A dear relative once shot back at me after I made the above statement, “God doesn’t give commandments that he doesn’t expect to be kept. Why would God tell you to do something if he knew full well that you couldn’t do it? Why would he hold anyone accountable for the sin of disobedience if you couldn’t be obedient in the first place?”
To this person, the Law is “keepable.” It was the same in the 5th Century in the great debate between Augustine and the British monk, Pelagius. The heresy of the Pelagians was a failure to recognize the true nature of fallen humanity. We are, as Paul says, “by nature children of wrath”. It couldn’t be any more clear.
The world and its philosophers deem mankind to be the highest form of life and esteem mankind as “good” by nature. Consider every time that some child does something cruel or evil. The pundits and experts claim that children have to be taught to hate, taught to resort to violence, taught to express greed and avarice. This philosophical reasoning is fertile soil for neo-Pelagianism in the church. In other words, the spirit of the age has informed the church that man is basically good and that he is perfectly capable of keeping the rules God gives him. The Pharisees in Jesus day devised an incredibly intricate system of rules based on the Law that were designed to assure one that he was, in fact, keeping the Law. The problem was that the rules never even came close to the righteous demands of the spirit of the Law. The Pharisees had concocted a series of “keepable” laws by which they gauged the righteousness of themselves and their followers.
Modern-day Pharisees have concocted similar “keepable” laws to gauge the righteousness of Christians. They take good things like holy living and spiritual exercises (prayer, study, fasting, etc.) and say “do these things and you will be righteous”. This is the true definition of legalism. We do the same with our children when they “follow the rules” and we then say “you are a good boy.”
Paul says, “by observing the law no one will be justified” (Gal. 2:16). When we live by faith/trust in the righteousness of Christ, then instead of “do this and then you will be righteous” we will worship God with the life that proclaims, “I have been made righteous, therefore I will do these things” (holy living, spiritual exercises).
I asked my student “if you were to stand before a Holy God in judgement today, and he were to ask you ‘why should I let you into Heaven’, what would your response be?” She didn’t know. Friends, don’t let your child reach his teen years and not be able to correctly answer that question.
Either my kids are really fast learners, I’m a great teacher, or the “pundits and experts” are just flat wrong.
Parents – isn’t it interesting how much work it takes to teach our children to sin? It’s almost as hard as pouring water out of a boot with the directions printed on the heel.
Well put Hugh. If I could sum up Tedd Tripp’s book Shepherding a Child’s Heart it would be this:
Show your child the Law. Show your child they can’t keep the Law. Show your child Christ.
Our calling to our children and adults is is the same. Not to make laws that can be kept for righteousness, but point to the one who is righteousness for them.
Ah’ the rub! I’ve never been taught how to steal, but when my ears heard my dad empty his change onto his dresser after a long day at work, my heart began to devise a way to make what was his mine. I was born a thief by nature. I did not need a model nor was an invitation, my heart bent to it like the “Great Eye” to the Ring.
BTW. We will be looking at this issue on Sunday – what sin is in its base form. We will also examine how Christ taught (Matt. 5-7) the Law to the Pharisees and the people in order to enforce His authority as Messiah while making their sin, sinful!
Nice post, Ken. I’d love to see a post (and subsequent discussion) on the related subject of our sin nature and how it relates to regeneration. For example, after regeneration, are we able to not sin?