Years ago, I was driving from Atlanta to Lake Rabun and traveled through Buford. The speed limit was 55 mph, but entering Buford just over and down a very steep hill it drops to 35.
I took my foot off the gas, but was still speeding past the sign when the officer in the police car turned on his blue lights.
I tried to explain it was hard to slow down that quickly going over and down a steep hill, and he explained there was a sign at the top of the hill. I told him there was not a sign at the top of the hill and offered to drive back there to prove it.
If there was a sign he could double my fine, but if there wasn’t he’d let me go. He refused and I suggested we both knew he was lying. Then I paid the $25 and drove away.
Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus:
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope to which God has called you. There is one Lord (who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), one faith (including justifying faith, saving faith, and sanctifying faith i.e. the outline of Romans), one baptism (by immersion, pouring, and/or sprinkling).”
— Ephesians 4: 4-5
Maybe you’ll see the pattern of one in three — one Lord, one faith, one baptism!
And now we’re reading Romans, looking at one chapter and one verse.
“For no one is put right in God's sight by doing what the Law requires; what the Law does is to make us know that we have sinned.”
— Romans 3: 20
The law won’t save us, but it will tell us what the limits are in any particular place or situation. The law tells us when we’ve strayed off the path.
The law tells us when we’re lost. The law tells us when our lives are out of balance.
The law reminds us that we’ve broken God’s law and then we can begin to look for ways to return to the path and regain our balance and restore our relationship with God.
Think about it: nobody (except Jesus) ever kept the law perfectly; and keeping one law doesn’t negate breaking another law.
Keeping the law is an all-or-nothing deal, i.e., Jesus’ jot and tittle.
(Matthew 5: 18)
Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Dawson Street Methodist Church in Thomasville, Ga.
