Before there was law...

During the UVa - Tech game ('er... debacle) I saw a commercial which intrigued me. The commercial was for a new video game and the premise of the commercial led to a question posed toward or at the end... "If there is no law, do we do anything wrong?" (my paraphrase - I don't care to see the commercial again to check, nor am I naming the game) But this has intrigued me... partly because for days I have wanted to post something, but also because I am gearing up for my annual trip through Romans. So what about it... before law was there anything wrong? Which I think leads us to the question, is there right and wrong? Why do we have laws? Why are some things okay and others are not? I think the questions are important to think about... Why do we need law? Because we do things that hurt others... Why do we hurt others? Well, I don't know about you, but when I hurt others, it is because I am thinking about myself first, I'm being selfish. You know, when I said that thing that hurt that person because I was being thoughtless... Selfish. I was putting myself first. I was not thinking about the other person. And the crazy thing is that sometimes I am right, but I am selfish in not considering how I might say something. So--- why am I selfish? I am selfish because I am fallen, I am separated from God by the fall. I am broken, a cracked pot... And I do this bad stuff by nature, because I am selfish by nature... Because I am not the way I was intended by He who made me... But, thankfully, that's not the end of the story, because He who made me in His image and gave me/us the freedom to choose has not given up on me/us, He has made the way toward understanding and healing possible through Jesus whose resurrection proves who He is as He who came to make things right, and He sent His Spirit to help us know better... You remember when an adult would say "You should know better"? Well, they were right, but usually its not about not knowing better, its about choosing wrong... So that is why we have laws, to point out to people like me (who should know better) what they should and shouldn't do... I think that's why God gave Moses the law, to point out to the Hebrews that which they should know, but didn't do... He gave us the law to guide us... C.S. Lewis says theology is like a map, if theology is like a map, then the Law is the compass. Pointing us to that which God wants, the direction that he intends for me. The law isn't the way, it just points me to the way, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life... The law isn't the way, it just shows me I need Him. So He is greater than the law, so yes, there is real right and wrong because God is right, I may be wierd, but that comforts me to know that there really is something greater than I am to which I can look, upon which I can depend, thanks be to God.