Grace & The Law (A Study in Romans) No. 7- The Law Is Good

As you know, I’m a rule follower. I could talk company policies for hours! I love instruction booklets & directions. Actually, I hate instruction manuals. If I buy something that needs assembly, I’m not flipping through pages of tiny print. I’d rather just look at the picture on the box, assume I can figure it out, and start putting it together. And if something doesn’t fit? That’s what duct tape is for! Leftover parts? Toss them in the junk drawer! But imagine a rule follower, an instruction booklet reader carefully following each step, only to see this on the last page: “Oh, by the way, no matter how closely you followed these steps, you are never going to put this together correctly." “These instructions weren’t written to help you succeed; they’re designed to reveal that you can’t do it on your own.” "The only way is to have someone else do it for you.” The 1st question would be, “Then what’s the point of these instructions at all?” Well, without them you would never realize how desperately you need someone to put this thing together for you. You would just keep trying to do it on your own, and you would never be able to get it done. That’s exactly what many Jewish Christians in Rome were feeling when Paul told them the Law couldn’t save them.