Do what you want.

Have you had those moments where you do what you don't want to do?  Again and again?  We all have.  If you say you haven't, then you are full of lies, obviously.  We are people who do the same things again and again, returning back to what we shouldn't do.  As the Proverbs of Solomon say, 'as a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.'  Something that is strange about the massive list of rules that are in the Bible is that a great deal of them probably don't apply to you.  There's a lot in there that you're going to find that just straight up doesn't apply to you at all.  And that's okay.

What isn't okay, though, is how much time we spend worrying about the parts of the Bible that don't apply to us.  We spend time, ink, and effort worrying about the decisions involving Hobby Lobby, or
Chick Fil-A, which are businesses that we don't even get in this country.  And we spend comparatively little time thinking and looking at the truths that we get in Paul's words to the Romans, saying about himself, and about all of us as well,

I have the desire to do what is right, but not the 

ability to carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want,

but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 

Romans 7:19

This is one of those things that Christians should probably talk more about.  We should talk more about it for a couple of reasons, first of which that it affects all of us all the time, and secondly, because it's one of those things that ends up being pleasantly universally true.  If you're a Christian trying to witness to the world outside the doors of the church, you'll find a hard time unless you realize that people outside the church are sometimes looking for wisdom that is universal.  This is one of them.  Everyone on earth has this problem, that they want to do good, righteous things, and can't seem to pull them off.  We all want to do things, we want to work hard, we want to do the right, and yet we can't work that out.  It's a trait that haunts us, that we end up, five seconds after doing something, saying either internally or externally, "boy, that was stupid." Left to our own devices, we screw a lot of stuff up.  We make a ton of mistakes, and all the more mistakes the more we do what is right in our own hearts.  

This may seem strange, but it shouldn't, at least not if you know your Bible.  Your Bible will tell you that in the times of the Judges, and of the kings of Israel, the people of Israel kept on doing 'what was right in their own eyes,' ending up in all kinds of trouble, worshiping other gods and falling into all sorts of worship of Baal and Asherah and Moloch.  How are they so stupid?  It always goes the same way, back to God's punishment all over them.'

of sins.  And these are the parts of the Bible that we tend to skip over, thinking that it's all just so much blah blah blah, but it's incredibly important.  It's important because of the cycle that shows up.  If you read through the Old Testament, you'll find that it's a cycle of falling back into familiar patterns, being corrected, doing okay for a while, and then falling back into those patterns again.  And if you're reading it, it's pefectly easy to sit there, and say to yourself 'Boy, that sure is dumb that they kept on falling back into worshiping

Yes, how could they be so stupid to keep on doing the same things again and again?  It's almost as though it's our own lives writ large.  The story of the Bible is the story of human beings, and the story of human beings, is the story of you.  You have this same problem that Paul has, where there are things you want to do, and you don't do.  Just like the ancient Israelites, who knew what they ought to do, but didn't do it, you are living in a world in which you need to do things, but can't figure out how to do it.  

This is where the law of God comes into things, the law of God that tells us that there are lots of things we ought to do, how we ought to do just things, to avoid theft, adultery, murder, swindling, lying and so on.  And when those laws come up, the more we know about them, the less and less we find we are able to keep them.  How on earth do we manage to get worked over by this bunk even though we know the law and know that it is good?  It's because we have that essential flaw in our lives that is sin, the flaw that plagues us.  Sin is what makes this dissonance in our lives, though we know what we ought to do, we don't manage to do it.  

That would mean that the laws of God would get worse and worse for us.  There is nothing quite so bad in your life as the right thing that you didn't do.  Knowing what the right thing to do is, and then looking back at you not doing it, well, that's a hurtful thing.  Looking back at your past, and seeing the gulf of wasted time, missed opportunities, drumming fingers on countertops, all that.  And musing on why it was your fault to begin with, well, it's a freakout to be sure.  It's a bad feeling, to look back on blown chances, and knowing more about them, and knowing more about the good thing to do, the right thing to do, will only drive you crazy.  

There are only really two solutions to this - first, to know nothing whatsoever about the law, to avoid it, to not know what the right thing to do is, and that won't really get you anywhere.  Not knowing what right and wrong is will allow you to feel good, but won't make you any better.  The only other thing to do is to have this law fulfilled for you.  Then the law can be what it is, you can respect its goodness, yet do not have to suffer under its weight.  

This seems like it shouldn't work, but it does.  It works because of the way the law works, and the way we work.  Whether the law is required or not, we won't fulfill it because of our sin.  If the law is presented as something that we have to do to get into heaven, then we will do whatever we can to find

loopholes to get out of it.  We will do our best to fudge the laws, create loopholes, add stuff to make the stuff we do look not so bad, and generally do our best to avoid what we end up in.  But if we don't have to fulfill the law for rewards, then we are free to deal with it for what it is, rather than what we wish it it wasn't.  We are able to look at the law and say that it is good, we are able to look at the law of God, and say that it is good, right and proper, and if it isn't fulfilled by us, it's not a problem with the law, it's a problem with us.  And the law is for our good, it's not so we might not have fun.  Any of the laws that God has given us, it's so that we may have life, and have it abundantly.  Then seeing that for what it is, you understand that your sin makes you worse, then knowing about Christ is the great liberty.  The one who made the laws also keeps them on your behalf.  When you fail, it's not a time for surrender to your weaknesses, it's not a time to fudge the laws, and change the laws, but time for repentance, and a turning of our hearts.  If the law is required, then we will change the law.  If the law has been fulfilled, then we can be changed.  When we fail to fulfill a required law, then we change that law to suit what we have already done.  When we fail to meet up to a law fulfilled, then we can be honest, freed from the consequences, and follow the law of Christ out of love and walking in grace.

This is important, and relatively self evident.  When you find yourself not doing what you want to do, stop lying to yourself, stop trying to convince yourself that it's right all along, and begin a constant life of repentace, turning away from what you were doing, and give it to God.  He has fulfilled the law on your behalf, freeing you to live the law because it is good.

PJ.