“Since no one can keep the law perfectly, everyone needs a Savior.”

     “At nine, you’re fine; at ten, you’re mine.” This saying might bring a wry smile to any driver who thinks highway speed limit signs are merely recommendations rather than laws. The saying refers to a common expectation that police officers will not stop and ticket drivers for speeding unless they are clocked at least ten miles per hour over the posted limit.
     Technically, driving one mile per hour over the posted limit amounts to breaking the law and is thus sufficient to condemn the offender as a lawbreaker. Even if a police officer witnesses the offense yet chooses to give the driver a break, the law itself has already declared the offender guilty. We might argue that the offense was not that serious or that the law was too burdensome in the first place for good drivers such as ourselves. But those arguments are irrelevant.

     The speed limit was established for the safety and well-being of all; ignoring the law to any degree jeopardizes this well-being. Sadly, our attitude regarding traffic laws too often depicts the same attitude we have about God’s law found in the Scriptures. We condemn lying until we feel the need to tell a so-called “harmless white lie.” We condemn stealing but think it’s OK to take company office supplies home or fudge the numbers on our tax returns. We condemn murder but have no qualms about spreading malicious gossip about another individual. In these and many other ways we try to apply the same leeway to moral law that we do to traffic laws. Tragically, this is a grave misunderstanding of a life-and-death matter!
     God’s holy law of life does not contain some rules that are optional and others that are rigid. The same Ten Commandments that forbid murder also forbid coveting. To be sure, murder is a heinous sin (and crime). Yet coveting just as surely destroys our right relation-ship with God and others. If I do not murder but practice coveting, I am as guilty of being a lawbreaker and sinner as the one who commits murder but never covets.
     God’s standard for His people is nothing less than perfect holiness, because He is perfect and holy. The fact that human beings cannot and do not keep God’s law perfectly means one thing: everyone needs a Savior. The gospel that Paul preached declares that God Himself provided the Savior we need.

   

                Gene Evans is a retired minister and resides in Georgetown, TX.