There’s a phrase I keep hearing these days that brings to mind something my gran’pa used to say. Whenever he encountered something so exasperating that it rendered his frustration tolerance totally inoperative, he’d say something like, “That just makes me want to take a runnin’ fit.” That reaction gets a two-generation download when I hear some political hack posing as a journalist or some narcissistic bureaucrat pause in their usual regurgitation of the day’s list of “talking points,” assume the most concerned and authoritative expression they can muster, and declare, “No one’s above the law.”
Understandable Frustrations ~
Even a brief glimpse at the anarchy and violence being perpetrated every day in our inner
cities and the unprecedented depth and extent of the corruption permeating our nation’s Capital exposes that statement as a farce of monumental proportions. The frustration that some of us feel when hearing it is especially pronounced because the only way that phrase can be remotely construed as true these days is if it’s revised to read something like this: “No one’s above the law – as the current administration chooses to interpret and apply it.”
But sometimes God can use even exasperating things like political corruption and blatant media dishonesty to redirect us toward truth that is unshakeable and eternal. For me, the legal shenanigans and mockeries of justice going on in some of the highest offices in the land prompted me to take another look at what the original “Lawgiver” had to say about the laws He delivered. It was an enlightening and inspiring endeavor, and devoting a brief post to sharing some of the highlights seemed appropriate.
A Divine Foundation ~
To begin with, I was struck with a rediscovery of one of the foundational truths about God’s laws. That is that every one of them is a direct extension of His character and an expression of 
His heart. God isn’t a dictatorial tyrant or a spiritual terrorist. His commandments were not established because He delights in frightening people and punishing those who violate His rules. God didn’t create and populate Eden in order just to subjugate and torture its inhabitants – quite the opposite. The key to understanding who God is and what He wants from us is concisely revealed in a declaration He gave through Moses. His words eventually became a prayer that Jews have prayed daily for thousands of years. The prayer is called “the Shema,” and it basically recites this familiar passage:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:4–5 NKJV)
The express purpose that motivated God to deliver the commandments and establish the requirements that He did can be condensed into two sentences. The first is quoted above and the second adds this: … you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18b). Both Jesus Himself and the New Testament writers He inspired were clear that together, these two directives encapsulate the entire Mosaic legal system. Here’s what Jesus said when asked about it.
… A lawyer asked Him [Jesus] a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great [Greek mégas – word from which we get “mega” – largest, most encompassing] commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:35–40 NKJV)
And the Apostle Paul further encapsulates the “law of God” like this:
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments… are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Romans 13:8-9 NKJV).
Negative Instincts Emerge ~
But that’s not news to us, is it? We may not join the Jews in expressing any of these passages as a regular prayer, but Jesus’ followers are exposed to them repeatedly. We read them in our Bibles, we hear them in sermons, and they find their way into podcasts and devotional articles. But in spite of our familiarity, love isn’t the first thing we generally think about when the subject of the “law of God” comes up. Instead, the tendency for many, if not most, is to think about the implications they hold for us, and the consequences those laws represent.
Given our status as guilty sinners, thinking about His commandments can be a disturbing reminder of our own transgressions and the impact those violations have had on our lives. Being confronted with an array of regulations that begin with “Thou shalt not” doesn’t seem
like an uplifting revelation of the kind of relationship God intended for us. Our fallen nature can make God’s rules feel more like challenges to our sinful creativity than a form of protective armor, more like an adversary than an advocate. But what if we set our negative tendencies aside for a minute and viewed God’s law through the lens of His purpose in creating it?
Protective Benefits Intended ~
If God’s law was given to encourage us to love Him and one another, maybe we ought to work on seeing His commandments more like the benefit they actually are. God’s commandments were given to impede our persistent compulsion to engage in things that cause us pain and sabotage our welfare. God wanted to help us stop destroying our peace and disrupting our harmony. He wanted us to stop hating and victimizing one another. He wanted what He’s always wanted – He wants us to experience the atmosphere of “shalom” He designed us to live in.
In a time when we’re seeing laws mocked, enforcement viewed as oppression, and justice handcuffed more often than perpetrators, embracing a set of laws that’s more beneficial than burdensome can be a breath of fresh air. There’s a passage I find helpful in that quest, and I’d like to share it. I suggest reading it slowly and thinking about each benefit the Psalmist mentions. Try doing that as you consider the segment below:
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting [restoring] the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them Your servant is warned,
And in keeping them there is great reward.
(Psalm 19:7–11 NKJV)
This is what the God who created us wants for every one of us. He wants our damaged soul to 
be restored, our anxious minds to know wisdom, our broken hearts to rejoice, and our blinded eyes to be enlightened. He wants us to be clean and free from the dirt and defilement we’re prone to wallow in. He wants us to see the devil’s lies for what they are and to know the truth that endures. God wants us to turn from the bitter dregs of sin and enjoy the sweet things He provides. He wants us to be wealthy with riches that can’t be stolen.
A Profound Question ~
How can we not love a God who legislates desires for us like that? But even more, how can we not love a God who made a plan for us to have all those things, even though we’ve broken the very laws that ensure them? The crucified and risen Son of God is the fulfillment of everything the law represents and that it guarantees. In Him, all who turn from their sins and follow Him stand before the Great Lawgiver as free, as justified, as one of His children.
So, the next time the news makes me want to “take that runnin’ fit,” I think I’ll just run back to the Bible and rejoice in the Good News that Jesus fulfilled God’s amazing law and secured all its incredible benefits for all who repent of their sins and follow Him.
“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to Tweet & Share from the pull quotes below. Each quote links directly to this article through Twitter.
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- “Our fallen nature can make God’s rules feel adversarial – more like challenges to our sinful creativity than a form of protective armor. But what if we set our negative tendencies aside for a minute & viewed God’s law thru the lens of His purpose in creating it?” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
- “If God’s law was given to encourage us to love Him & one another, maybe we ought to work on seeing His commandments more like the benefit that they are. He wanted what He’s always wanted – for us to experience the atmosphere of “shalom” He designed us to live in.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
- “In a time when we’re seeing laws mocked, enforcement viewed as oppression, and justice handcuffed more often than perpetrators, embracing a set of laws that’s more beneficial than burdensome can be a breath of fresh air.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) https://ctt.ec/224fa
- “God wants our damaged soul to be restored, our anxious minds to know wisdom, our broken hearts to rejoice, and our blinded eyes to be enlightened. He wants us to be clean and free from the dirt and defilement we’re prone to wallow in.” @GallaghersPen(Click here to Tweet)
- “God wants us to see the devil’s lies for what they are and to know the truth that endures. God wants us to turn from the bitter dregs of sin and enjoy the sweet things He provides. He wants us to be wealthy with riches that can’t be stolen.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
Check out Ron’s book, “Right Side Up Thinking in an Upside Down World ~ Looking at the World through the Lens of Biblical Truth” 
Gallagher's Pen ~ 
Such truth: God is where the joy is. He is for us, He wants the best for us, and He loves us in spite of ourselves.
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Thank you so much for taking the time to bless us with your gracious and encouraging response, Julie. It brightens our day to hear from you in any regard, but does give us an extra boost when it’s in response to one of our posts. I love the fact that you highlighted that He is where the joy is. In a culture wallowing in all kinds of anxiety and with a fresh wave of bad news every day, knowing where we can find joy that isn’t subject to some governmental regulation is priceless. God bless you for your faithful stand for him, and for the uplifting note.
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Sorry to be late to the party, Ron, but we’ve been with the grands and I have neither blogged or read the recent blogs of others. I should be back in full swing by the end of the week.
Unlike J. D., I’m a news junkie! But I do take it all in stride knowing that God is the only One who is truly in control. I believe wholeheartedly that He will judge the wicked who refuse to repent. They may get their rewards in this life, but their eternal souls will suffer. I pray that so many lost folks, choosing wickedness over God’s goodness, will come to their senses sooner than later. And may a Republican take the White House!
Blessings!
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Wonderful to see your comment as always, my friend, and I con’t not smile when I think about you being with the “grands.” Diane and I love every opportunity to be with ours, and grab one whenever we can. Ours are older now and busy with different levels of school, work, romantic entanglements (ugh), and assorted hobbies. Still, it’s exciting watching them move through the various stages of development and to tryD to instill the particular spiritual values that the devil tends to target in each of them.
I know some folks, not speaking about our mutual friend, J.D. here, but they have just turned away from the news altogether. Personally, I feel an obligation not to be ignorant of the devil’s tactics or blindsided by the kinds of demonic attacks being launched against us. But on the other hand, I don’t let it become an obsession so that I can’t talk about anything else. Our challenge, I think, is to know enough of what’s going on to be able to be able to counter those attacks with God’s Truth in ways that are relevant. I’m sure I’m not always as proficient in doing that as I’d like to be, but i take my shots when I can.
Once again, you’ve brightened my day and encouraged my heart, and I pray that God will bless you for taking the time to do that. I did notice that your usual edition was missing last week and I look forward to seeing the next one.
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You just teed this one up for me, didn’t you, my friend? 🙂 Have long shared in these same frustrations, to the point that I won’t even watch network news. I try to catch the weather now and again, then turn that box off. Your insightful post, as they always seem to do, had me reaching for my notepad to capture my many thoughts as I’m reading. Because I want to hop up there beside you on this particular soapbox, I’ll just mention a few here.
I thought about how God’s laws were created before He created man. He knew that with free will came the opportunity to rebel. His laws of nature and laws of man are sort of like “Bumper Bowling”, they’re designed to keep us from going in the gutter.
God’s laws were given to promote harmony, love, and peace among the people and with Him.
His goal was to raise up a moral people that reflected His character and sought a relationship with Him, and through Him with those around us.
His goal for His laws was, I believe, to compel us to follow them not because He’s a tyrant or dictator, but because they are the right thing to do. I think this the
“Burden and Benefit” of our free will. We are free to choose. We can benefit by adhering to His law and living in a right relationship with Him or we will carry the burden of rejecting Him. Few seem to see that today, even in our churches, because Satan has done such a masterful job of convincing the world that God is not real.
I had to stop and thank God before responding to your encouraging post because I know that this mess we’re in is coming to an end soon. What is “soon”? I can’t know, but whether it happens while I’m still on this sewage tank called earth or I’m awaiting the reunification of my soul with my raptured and glorified body (sure hope it doesn’t creak and ache as much as this one does now), it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that those of us who do our best to understand and obey His law, are going HOME!
I’m guessing you and your Ms. Diane are back home in TN and all are doing well. Remember that you two and your family are in our prayers daily. God’s blessings precious brother-in-Christ. When I think of you, the words of Proverbs 27:17 always comes to mind, as a smile crosses my face.
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As usual, you’re so right about God’s law preceding His creation of us. After all, they just reflect who He is and the kind of heart He has. And the free will idea is necessary for love to work the way it does. He didn’t make a bunch of robots and program “love actions” into us. He gave us that same incredible capacity that He has and set us free to use it like He intended or listen to the devil’s lies and turn it into a tool for abusing ourselves and those around us.
I love that picture of the bumper bowling. Having ignored too many of God’s bumpers too often, I’m familiar with how easy it is to find a gutter on one side of the lane or another. Praise God for the grace that pulls us out and gives us another shot at being who He created us to be, and for the blessing of learning from those times we’d like to erase. This anti-Christian culture surrounding us is obsessed with making the gutters deeper and wider and promoting the notion that the gutter is normal and the desirable place to be. But sooner or later, it will become obvious that the law of God isn’t subject to being mutilated or manipulated by some bloated, arrogant and spiritually blind product of an Ivy League law school. Just as God is to be both loved and feared, so is His law.
The only advocate that enable us to survive a confrontation with God’s immutable and all encompassing law is the One who took it all on Himself. He fulfilled its requirements and then willingly absorbed all its condemnation and then set us guilty sinners free from its penalties and made us recipients of all its benefits. Like I said, who could not love a God like that? See what kinds of thoughts your comments kick in? No wonder the day gets brighter when we hear from you. 🙂
And speaking of that Proverbs passage, I’m a lot sharper since discovering the Wininger School of Long Distance Friendship. Diane and I did get safely back to TN in spite of all the knuckleheads with cars we encountered along the way. It was a great time seeing some of our relatives and spiritual brothers and sisters we hadn’t seen in a long time, but it was great getting back home. I was complaining about our mattress before we left, but a few of the nights we spent on the trip broke me of that.
You and your Diane are in our prayers continually as well, and we love keeping up with you through whatever means works best at any given moment. We’re confident that God will continue the fruitful work He started in both of you and that some of the best of our days are yet to come.
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Oh buddy, that’ll PREACH right there! Well said my friend. Thank you for your always encouraging words.
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