Paradox Number Nine: No, you can't. Yes, I can

Thou shalt not. You ought not. You shouldn't. Don't. CAN'T.

Wow. God certainly seems to have a problem with fun, doesn't He? And what is all this stuff about grace and freewill, if we can't do what we want, when we want and with who we want? After all, if once we have accepted Christ we are 'saved', then what does it matter what we do? God forgives, right? So it must be okay to do exactly what I want, and then all I have to do is ask for forgiveness. Right?

Wrong.

This is one of the heresies Paul fought in the early church. And since Paul was writing within the lifetime of the people who knew Jesus, it didn't take mankind very many years to come up with this idea. There are a lot of sophisticated names for this kind of 'religion', but, plain and simple, it illustrates the old adage of having your cake and eating it too. I want to be saved. I want to go to Heaven, but I want to do what I want to do here and now. In other words, I want to keep self on the throne of my heart until I die, and then - and only then - will I surrender it to Jesus.

Now, in case you think I don't fight this fight, or that Paul who was chastising the early church for such thoughts, didn't either - check out this scripture:

Romans 7: 14 & 15 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

No, Paul was not schizophrenic - he was human, as are we all.

When I was a little child, like a lot of little children, I believed that Adam's 'sin' was to take a bite of that apple. God said 'No!', and defiantly shaking their fists, Adam and Eve said 'Yes!' Now I know it wasn't the apple part, but the 'defiant' part that was the sin. Adam and Eve chose self over God's sovereign will. Over God. The inheritence they have left every one of their children (us) is that same defiant will. We don't like to be told what we can and can't do. We don't like rules - even when they are protective and not prohibitive.

And that is the beauty and glory of God's rules. They are for the protection of the ones He loves, and not to keep them from having fun.

Think of your own children. In my husband's grandmother's home there was a furnace grate on the floor. It was in the hall between the living room and bedroom and when the furnace was firing, it was blazing hot. I told my child time and time again not to take her shoes off and step on that grate because it would burn her. Was I trying to stop her from having the fun of being barefoot, or of running through the house carefree? No. I didn't want her to get burned. So, of course, what did she do? Took her shoes off, went into the hallway and stepped on the grate - the result or consequence of which was a very painful pattern of burns seared into the skin of her feet.

And a lot of tears.

God gives us rules to keep us from making mistakes, from sinning, and to prevent us from having to face the consequences of those choices. In other words, he holds us tightly in order to set us free. Like my daughter, most often we ignore Him and go our own way.

Thankfully, God sent Jesus to be the balm for the burns we inflict on ourselves and to free us, through His sacrifice on the cross, from suffering their eternal consequences.

Image: Creation of stars and planets, by Michelangelo, in the Sistine Chapel