Pilgr-image 14 - The Law

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. ...Matthew 5:17

…For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:17-19

In the righteousness department you are an epic fail, so toss out your checklists and your laws, and cast yourself on grace.…Celebratory failurism asserts that all our attempts to obey will fail, thereby making us the recipients of greater grace. But God does not exhort us to obey just to teach us that we cannot hope to obey. He exhorts us to obey to teach us that, by grace, we can obey, and therein lies hope. Through the gospel our God, whose Law and whose character do not change, changes us into those who obey in both motive and deed. Believers no longer live under the Law, but the Law lies under us as a sure path for pursuing what is good, right, and pleasing to the Lord. Contrary to the tenets of celebratory failurism, the Law is not the problem. The heart of the Law-follower is. - Jen Wilkin

Something I have noticed over the last few years are the growing use of what is known as “tactile paving.”  This is what you see (or feel) when you approach the end of a sidewalk as it meets the street - a rectangular pad of raised bumps.  These bumps are for visually impaired individuals to be able to feel when they are approaching something that could be dangerous.  These bumps are there to help those who are working to find their way to find their way safely.  Another way to think about them is that they are like ground-level guardrails.

Guardrails are there to give freedom within them, but boundaries beyond.  So on a curvy mountain road, the guardrail is there to be sure that one doesn’t slip off the side but are giving enough space for cars to be able to move normally.  There’s a golf course I often drive by on the way to a nature center that has a long boardwalk that crosses over a lake and a marshy area.  The boardwalk is bounded by small edges to help be sure that golf carts (and golfers too) don’t fall off into the water.

That’s how I feel about the intent of God’s law for our lives.  It is not about controlling us but instead protecting us and leading us.  We don’t always know the way before us - we may not be able to see (figuratively or literally) what is ahead for us.  But what God has provided for us helps to guide and keep us and others safe.  So just as we can give thanks for the simple ingenuity of tactile paving, let us give thanks for what God has given for us to guide our lives.