Why All the Rules? Part One

Imagine that you’re at your friends’ house, and their adorable little girl is wreaking havoc in the living room. She’s dumped her bowl of sodden Cheerios on her head, and the milk is streaming down her body onto the antique Persian rug. Legos and beheaded dolls are strewn over every surface. She’s babbling and singing at the top of her lungs, making it impossible to carry on a conversation. Worst of all, she’s diabolically pulling on the cat’s tail. Yet your friend sits there sipping her coffee, blissfully unconcerned.

If no rules are laid down, has the child misbehaved?

The Bible teacher who took my faith life from trying to understand who Jesus was and how to live the Christian life to a deep, vibrant, rock-solid trust in God was Chuck Missler. One of the things he encouraged was writing down your questions  The niggly ones. The ones that made you uncomfortable. Don’t share them, just pray and seek God’s heart about the matter and wait for him to answer in unexpected ways.

One of my questions concerned God’s only stipulation to Adam, the only thing denied to him.

And Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may surely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it; for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” – Genesis 2:16-17 LSB

Of all the things He could have said, it was, “Don’t eat from this one tree?” It seemed so random. Not, “Don’t commit murder,” or even, “Don’t lie.” No, it’s, “Don’t eat from this one tree?” And why did He give Adam access to the tree, in the first place? Besides, why did He have to give any rules at all? If He hadn’t given any commandments, Adam COULDN’T have sinned, right? Problem solved!

What about the child above? In the absence of rules, did the child misbehave?

If you believe in a moral lawgiver, I’m guessing your answer is yes. There are certain, innate principles that, whether stated or not, govern our lives. But for them to be enforced, for any discipline, repentance, or restoration to happen, the rules must be given FIRST.

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. – Romans 5:12-13, LSB

Sin is not imputed (ascribed, charged against someone) when there is no law.

• When was sin imputed for the FIRST time? The Fall, Genesis 3
• When was the FIRST law given? BEFORE the Fall, Genesis 2 (The law had to be given for any sin to be imputed.)
• When was the FIRST sin? BEFORE the Law was given. “For until the Law, SIN WAS IN THE WORLD.”

Let that sink in. Sin was in the world BEFORE God forbade Adam to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Giving the Law was GRACE in action. Because sin had to be dealt with for restoration to happen.

We’ll dig a little deeper next time.