If You Know God's Law, There Is No Excuse

For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 4:2

There are two basic schools of thought regarding rules, both summed up by trite and fairly boring cliches. The first is the ever popular “rules are made to be broken”. The second is its polar opposite “rules are made to be followed.”

That we have both cliches, each opposing the other, tells us one thing about both cliches: they are completely wrong.

Rules are not made to be broken, nor are they made to be followed.

Rules exist for one simple reason: to define for us the boundaries of right and wrong. We are called to follow the rules when they move us in a “right” direction. We are called to break those same rules when they move us in a “wrong” direction. Regardless of the calling, rules shape our notions of what is right and what is wrong.

No matter how one apprehends God’s Law, there is no doubt but that it is the ultimate rule. God’s Law is the ultimate arbiter of what is right and what is wrong—which means there can be no higher arbiter, nor has there ever been any higher arbiter of what is right and what is wrong.

In all things, God’s Law reigns supreme.

It takes no great insight to understand that the mere knowing of God’s Law is no guarantee that we will obey God’s Law. That we have sin is more than sufficient to establish that, despite knowing God’s Law, we frequently disobey God’s Law. When we sin, we are breaking rules that were indisputably made to be followed.

Yet regardless of whether we obey or disobey, whether we keep or break God’s Law, one thing is always true: when we know God’s Law we know what is right and what is wrong, regardless of our actions. Similarly, when we know what is right and what is wrong we invariably must know God’s Law. To know the one is to know the other.

Thus we also know the awful and destructive nature of sin. If we sin despite knowing God’s Law, if we sin even though we know what is right and what is wrong, what can we say in our own defense?

What justification can there be for knowingly choosing a wrong path?

Of course, there can be no justification. As God’s Law is the ultimate arbiter of what is right and what is wrong, there is no set of circumstances, no scenario, where we can ever be called to disobey God’s Law. It is not simply that we are not called to break that rule, but that we can never be called to break that rule. God’s Law does not move us in any “wrong” direction; God’s Law can never move us in any “wrong” direction.

Because we know God’s Law, our failure to keep God’s Law is entirely on us. Whether it is because we are tired, or angry, or because we are lacking in discipline or focus, when we trangress it is entirely our doing. It must be our doing, for once God has given us the law, nothing remains but our choice to either obey or disobey.

We know that we sin. We know that we disobey God’s Law. We know God’s Law. We know everything that we need to not disobey God’s Law—and yet we time and again do exactly that. Time and again we disobey God’s Law—we sin—and we have no justification, no excuse for doing so. We know what is right and what is wrong, we simply choose that which is wrong.

Recognizing that we have no excuse for breaking God’s Law, we must therefore recognize the importance of God’s forgiveness. With no calling to break God’s Law, with no reason for our sin but our own foolish choices, forgiveness is our only hope. God must forgive us our sins or we must stand condemned by our sins.

Yet God is and has always been eternally capable of forgiveness. The Prophet Isaiah, long before Jesus came down to Earth, taught the eternal promise of God’s forgiveness.

Remember these things, O Jacob,
and Israel, for you are my servant;
I formed you, you are my servant;
O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud,
and your sins like mist;
return to me, for I have redeemed you.

We are told that, by the time of Isaiah, the people of Israel had moved away from God’s Law. Many of the things God had explicitly told the Israelites not to do they were doing. The kings of Israel were leading the nation of Israel down a very wrong road. Much of Isaiah’s prophecy was centered around warning the king and the nation of where that wrong road would lead, that disastrous consequences would attend on their refusal to follow God’s Law.

Yet Isaiah’s prophecies also teach that God forgives the nation of Israel. Even though there can be no excuse, no justification for their disobedience of God’s Law, Isaiah taught—and the Book of Isaiah teaches us still—that God does forgive their sin, has forgiven their sin, and will continue to forgive their sin. Isaiah taught—and the Book of Isaiah teaches us still—that, while there is no avoiding the consequences that must come from disobedience to God’s Law, we but have to acknowledge that error, admit that mistake, and move back toward’s God’s Law for that sin to be forgiven.

Isaiah teaches, and the Apostle Paul reminds, that the path to forgiveness and redemption is to simply stop sinning. We do not need to explain our sin, we do not need to justify our sin, and so we do not need to justify being forgiven of our sin. We do not need to explain being redeemed from our sin.

We know God’s Law. We have no excuse for breaking God’s Law. We have no justification for breaking God’s Law. We have no reason nor rationale for breaking God’s Law.

Yet having no excuse, no justification, no reason nor rationale for breaking God’s Law, we need no explaination, no justification, no reason nor rationale, for God’s forgiveness. God gave us the Law. God gives us forgiveness for when we break the Law.