An inmate once recalled to me the moment his world began to change. “When I was arrested, I almost cried,” he said. “I was being forcibly pulled out of an environment and lifestyle that I could not escape on my own. Inside I knew this was my chance for a new beginning, a new direction for me.”
“So, this was an inner cry of relief!” I exclaimed, amazed at his story and his perspective, in particular.
“Yes,” he replied, “it was a deep feeling of relief. I was so happy I almost cried.”
Though it has been some time now since our conversation, I find his story so stunning that, when it comes to mind, I still stop and marvel.
Sometimes “the Law”—God’s law, that is—gets a bad rap. We who embrace grace through faith well know that the Law will not save our soul, as Paul wrote, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in [God’s] sight.”1 This is not to suggest God’s law is deficient in any way; rather, people are deficient in our ability to attain its lofty standard of perfection. “We know that the Law is good,”2 maintained Paul, and to the Galatians he offered this expression of its goodness: “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”3
The inmate’s arrest was both an illustration and, in a sense, the experience of law leading to grace through faith, for incarceration did what he could not do but so desperately wanted to do: it removed him from his otherwise inescapable lifestyle, and then positioned him where he could pursue the refreshing ways of God. For God’s law points us to “the way that is good and right,”4 while simultaneously exposing our natural inclinations to part from it. Trapped, then, in this tension of God’s law, we appeal to the freedom of His gospel—the mercy, grace and new life that are found in one place, Christ Jesus, our Savior and Lord. May we surrender ourselves completely to Him today.
“It is for freedom Christ has set us free.” —Galatians 5:1 NIV
“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”5 In Christ I pray. Amen.
1 Romans 3:20 ESV
2 1 Timothy 1:8 (cf Romans 7:12 NIV)
3 Galatians 3:23-24 ESV
4 1 Samuel 12:3 NIV
5 Psalm 25:4-5 NIV
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Paul Nordman—Author 