NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

June 9

Scripture focus: But I can hear you say, "If the law code was as bad as all that, it's no better than sin itself." That's certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, "You shall not covet," I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.  Don't you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of "forbidden fruit" out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God's good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.  I can already hear your next question: "Does that mean I can't even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?" No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God's good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own. Romans 7:7-13 The Message

Almost every day I go to a particular store in my neighborhood for milk or bread or some basic food item. I run in and run out. This is not a deeply spiritual experience, it’s just a thing I do. Until recently, when this store (under new management) began hanging all sorts of signs, instructing me on what is and what is not appropriate behavior. “Please do not touch the display.” “If you break it, you buy it.” “Please do not get finger prints on the glass.” In the decades of daily shopping that I have experienced in this store, I do not think I ever touched a display, broken anything or touched the glass….but boy do I want to now! It’s torture to shop. Every display calls out to me, “Touch me!

Just once! They aren’t the boss of you!” On and on it goes, temptation upon temptation to touch, break, and leave my mark – one perfectly placed finger print. I suppose these warnings serve a purpose that benefit someone. But it feels as if someone is daring to limit my freedom – and I don’t like limits! Certainly codes are valuable in guiding us through life. Can you imagine a community without guidelines? But I don’t like guidelines, I like to make my own rules. Didn’t I behave find before the post-it-note-police showed up?

What the law is powerless to accomplish – get me to behave – grace has overcome. I choose to not touch or break because it is an appropriate way to care for my store and those who work in it. Grace provides me a perspective larger than my own. I am no longer limited to a viewpoint restricted by self-interest and feeling good. This is pretty powerful stuff. I can’t guarantee tomorrow, but I can report that for today, I have avoided my natural inclination to prove that no one is the boss of me, and instead, give consideration to the effort it would take to remove all those little finger prints left behind by me and all my friends.

Grace does a much better job of helping me love God and others than little notes and dire warnings. May your day be Grace-filled.

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