Three days ago on the 1st, looking toward the 4th of July, Louisa and I were out walking Jack late at night. As we passed the turn toward the beach, a big explosion sounded, not like traditional fireworks, but hole-in-the-ground big. Like dynamite.
It took me back to the days when our 4 sons were young and still living at home. Like most boys, they loved motors, weapons, and fire. Closely linked with fire were fireworks, and over the years they lit more than their share. Thankfully they reached adulthood intact, but I do remember a time when they caused enough neighborhood commotion with their explosions to bring the police to our house.
Apparently not much has changed with today’s boys, and as Weezi and I walked on, a police car sped past us, headed toward the beach. No doubt as they arrived, several youngsters were rapidly on the run.
Police departments have always winked at fireworks being exploded on the 4th of July, even in states where they’re illegal. Here in Michigan the rule has been that they’re “ok” on July 3, 4, and 5, but “not ok” any other days, a nice mix of grace and law. Still, there have been those who can’t quite comply, i.e. explosions on the 1st of July and the police pursuit that resulted.
If any society is to function well, laws and penalties have to be part of it. In the Bible we see the same thing, God setting up parameters but leaving it up to us to stay within them.
The most difficult of his rules involve invisible parameters. For example, Scripture says, “Put love of God ahead of love for anything or anyone else.” We might live lives that look like that, but what’s happening on the inside? That part is a lot harder.
We think, “Well, I’m doing pretty good at the Christian life. Besides, nobody’s perfect.” That’s like setting off explosions on July 1st. Close, but not quite right. The upshot finds us outside of God’s parameters and possibly even on the run the way the beach exploders probably were. Breaking the rules is sometimes fun, but paying the consequences never is.
The good news is that God does heart checks. It matters whether or not we’re making an effort to comply with him or working to dodge his rules. He knows we can’t be perfect, but that doesn’t coax him to lower his high standards, and he hopes we’ll stretch toward them. Doing so requires his help, though, and when we ask him for it, he’s pleased to give it. It also brings us out from under the impossible pressure of trying to be perfect and puts us under God’s generous grace where he chooses to give it.
Salvation itself is the best example of this, a perfect God requiring perfection from us but willingly accepting Christ’s perfection instead of ours. This means we can run toward him and not away from him, even if we break the rules. Maybe especially then.
And that’s an explosion of grace that should bring us all running.
“All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24)
