Once upon a time there was a child who had to learn everything the hard way. His parents, because they loved him, would try to warn, to show where danger lay. “See that fire ant mound? Don’t touch that because you will get stung and it will really hurt.” “See this hot candy I just poured into the lollipop mold? Wait for it to cool. If you touch it, it will burn you really badly and it will be hard to wash off, too.” This child would look his parents right in the eye and do immediately and exactly what they said not to. And then he would be covered with ant bites, or burned by hot candy. As I read Paul’s verses about the law being used by sin to dupe and sucker us, I think of that poor child and all the things he learned from painful experience, the hard way. He heard what he should not do, and even the reasons he should not do it, shared by those he knew loved him best in the world, and then did it anyway. And oh: I do the very same thing. And so do you, and so does Paul! We look at the rules God set for us, we look God right in the eye, and we do exactly what God said not to do. He loves us better than anyone in the world, and whatever boundaries God sets, we trample right over them. It hurts us, it hurts our relationship with others, and it hurts our relationship with God.
What can we do? Paul says, we can’t do anything about this ourselves. As hard as we might try, and Paul and the other Pharisees tried very hard, we can’t live properly even when zealously devoted to the Law. Sin operates freely in and through us. (If you remember our study of Matthew, in chapter 23, Jesus sharply criticized the Pharisees and the way they sinned in and through the Law!) God gave the Law to show us the way to live in right relationship with others and with Him. But like the child who had to learn everything the hard way, we let sin into our life even under the law. Sin finds a way to get at us even through the shield of the law. We have a problem with sin that even the Law cannot fix. But help is coming! Jesus has found a way to relieve our burden. As Christians, we must depend on God’s help to deal with sin in Jesus Christ.