The Spirit Versus the Letter

In the spirit of Ash Wednesday, and with some thoughts regarding one of those "good lawyer's" response to my post yesterday...

We human beings have an amazing capacity to find the loopholes in everything--including the law.

One of the best examples I have heard on this comes courtesy of the Senior Pastor I worked with in my first call as he taught our "Principles of Christianity" adult class.  He spoke of the spirit versus the letter of the law.

"How many of you have ever dealt with children jumping on furniture?" he'd ask.

Most parents would raise their hands.

"So you know that most of the time, you'll tell your child, 'Stop jumping on the couch!' and then 15 minutes later you will discover them jumping on the love seat."

Chuckles all around.

"And when you tell them, 'What are you doing?  I told you not to jump on the couch!', how do they respond?"

They say, "You told us not to jump on the couch, but you didn't say anything about the love seat."

And they will say it as innocently as doves.

Those kids jumping on various pieces of furniture illustrate very clearly the difference between following the spirit of the law and the letter of the law.  The letter of the law was clear--don't jump on the couch.  There for the loophole is: I won't jump on the couch, but I can jump on the love seat.  However, the spirit of the law was--don't jump on the furniture.  Most of us are intelligent enough to discern the difference.

But, there are times when we choose not too--just like the kid who decides to go and jump on the love seat anyway.  We willingly choose to split hairs just to see what we can get away with, and for Christians, this all goes back to the Garden of Eden.

After God created the man and the woman, he gave them one rule: one law.  Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  "For if you eat of it," God said, "you will die."

Well, a sly, little turd of a beast called the serpent came along who was quite subtle.  He had a way of looking for and finding loopholes in the rules.  He had a way of coaching things in just the right manner so that they sounded good, when in reality they were highly problematic.

The serpent approached the woman first and invited her to eat of the fruit. 

But the woman was pretty astute at first.  She responded, "Can't do that.  God said if you even touch it, you will die."

Just a side note on that.  God never said, "If you touch it, you will die."  He said, "If you eat of it..."  The woman wasn't around when God talked to the man about the fruit in the first place, and the man passed on the rule to the woman.  Ever wonder why the man told her, "Even if you touch it, you will die."?  Just a little food for thought.

But, that detracts us from the story.  The serpent puts on his good splitting hairs argument.  "If you eat of the fruit, you will not die (unspoken words that should have been spoken if the serpent were totally honest: "Right away."); instead, you will be like God knowing the difference between good and evil."

This is where the original sin enters the picture.  Some argue the original sin was the actual eating of the fruit; however, some theologians--this one included--believe the original sin was the temptation to be like God.  It wasn't the act of eating the fruit which has provided the downfall for humanity.  Everyone makes mistakes and can be easily forgiven; however, when we put our desires above God's will; when we want to call all the shots; when we want to think we have the same capability as God, we put ourselves in God's place.  Yes, we begin to think we are God, and we are far too limited in knowledge, scope, and ability to be able to claim that place.

Now, I have heard some interesting arguments favoring the man and woman's actions for wanting to know the difference between good and evil.  "Is this a bad thing?" they ask.  Knowing the difference between good and evil allows for knowledge.  It allows us to make positive choices.  The man and woman's choice actually gave humankind freedom.

Really?

I think these folks miss the point.  Because the point really is: the man and woman didn't have to worry about such things because God already had it taken care of.  God was giving them protection.  God was giving them food.  God was giving them shelter.  They had absolutely nothing to worry about.  God was and would provide for every possible need.  All they needed to do was trust Him.  Follow the one rule, and everything would be taken care of.

Therefore, the spirit of that one law given by God was based upon trust--trust that God would take care of all things.  The letter of the law was, "Don't eat the fruit," but the spirit of that law ran much, much deeper.

But the man and the woman were not content to trust God.  They wanted to rely upon themselves.  They wanted the capacity of judge between good and evil, and in the end, all hell broke loose.

I don't know of a single person in this life who at some point or another doesn't want to call his or her own shots.  Every one of us does.  No exceptions.  We are still under the hold of that original sin.  It's part of our condition, and we cannot escape it this side of eternity.

And we have proven ourselves lacking the capacity to truly discern the difference between good and evil.  Oftentimes, something that looks so good on paper turns out to be a disaster later.  Oftentimes something that seems evil turns out for the best.  Our ability to see consequences is far too limited to truly know what is good and what is truly evil.  We are many times left confused and wondering why certain things happen in the manner they do.

And so, as Christians, we are called to turn to God.  Even though the man and woman sinned.  Even though they decided not to trust God, God didn't abandon them.  He decided to provide for them.  He clothed them.  He promised to look out for them, but things would not, could not be the same.

"But He's God," you might say, "He could just make everything better if He wanted to."

Perhaps.  If He wanted us to be puppets on a string.  He could have repaired the broken relationship and acted like nothing ever happened.  But God is not the great cosmic puppeteer.  He gives us freedom, and we made our choice.  We still make that choice.  And God gives it to us. 

Sometimes, we wake up enough to see our limitations.  Sometimes we wake up enough to realize we still try to call the shots and make a mess of things.  Sometimes we wake up enough to realize we keep searching for those loopholes--for those times we can jump on the love seat when we're told to stop jumping on the couch.  And then we realize what could have been, and we long for the day which, Christ promised, when all things will be restored.  We ask for forgiveness.  We promise to do better.  We fall again.

But in, with, and under it all, God continues to show the way and lift us up.  He doesn't give up on us.  He freely offers forgiveness.  He continues to point out to us the spirit of His law.  He continues to encourage us to allow Him to be God and to humble ourselves.  In spite of our willingness to spit in His face, do it our own way, rebel against His goodness; He never walks away.  Such is His goodness.  Such is His love.

Tonight, many Christians around the world will be marked with the sign of the cross.  Ashes will be placed on our foreheads to remind us "we were dust, and to dust we shall return."  We will remember our fallen nature, our original sin to want to be like God, and we will ask for forgiveness. 

And we will be reassured that God gives it.