God’s Law immutable, inescapable

“For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.” (2Cor. 13:8).

We cannot even dare to think to change God’s Law. All we can do is accept His Law and conform to its requirements, or its consequences.

Throughout our short probation of 70, 80, 90, 100 years the human race has tried endlessly to skirt the great Law of God. And our little experiments only proved one thing—we have committed extreme foolishness and ended up with nothing but egg all over our faces. The consequences to disobedience are our public declarations, regardless whether we ever publicly admit to the consequences from our mouths. We wear our consequences. Our facial expressions exude them. Consequences hang from our bodies every time we look in the mirror. We can’t find enough fig leaves to make them disappear. The consequences to disobeying the universal Law of God are immutable and inescapable.

I am a speck in this world, called Earth. Our world is an invisible dot in our galaxy, called the Milky Way. Our gargantuan Milky Way galaxy is but an invisible speck in the rest of the Father’s universe, the home of immense space.

“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained;

What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?” (Ps. 8:3,4).

What am I to the laws that govern the universe? Nothing? Less than nothing? What can I do to alter any law of the Creator? It’s humorous to think it. It would be daunting to try; yet the rebellious keep thinking they can accomplish it with impunity. Isn’t that the definition of insanity?

The Law of God, the Ten Commandments, have a depth that will take eternity to study, because of the complexity of the human being and of creation. But the Ten Commandments are also so very basic that children understand them. They are boiled down to the simple principle:

“All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matt. 7:12).

As we go along in life we are rewarded for how we treat others. Are we considerate of their needs? Are we merciful? At the same time are we truthful, with our own faults as well as theirs? Jesus has much to say about mercy and truth. They are the perfect combination, the perfect expression of God’s character, His Law, and His ways.

“For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.” (Ps. 100:5).

“All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.” (Ps. 25:10).

“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” (Ps. 85:10).

“I will cry unto God Most High; unto God that performeth all things for me.

He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.” (Ps. 57:2,3).

“Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before Thy face.

Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Thy countenance.” (Ps. 89:14,15).

“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.” (Prov. 16:6).

“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.” (Prov. 3:3).

God’s mercy, Christ’s mercy endure forever. And so does Their truth. Those two overarching principles are the basis for all laws that govern our psychological, emotional, and spiritual health, which in turn affect our physical health. Mercy and truth. Never truth without mercy; and never mercy without truth. Our Creators illustrate these principles in the give and take, and the take and give, seen on our planet and in the cosmos.

Whenever we transgress any law there are repercussions. Breaking laws of nature, i.e. gravity, illustrates the most obvious consequences of injury and death. But breaking civil laws also eventually end in like punishments. Then there is the moral Law, the Ten Commandments. Besides the aspects of stealing and killing overlapping civil and moral law, there is honoring the wisdom and appreciating the love of our parents. There is adultery and fornication, coveting and lusting. Disobeying these has devastating consequences to the disobedient and to their victims.

“Destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known.” (Rom. 3:16,17).

“Sin is the transgression of the law.” (1Jn. 3:4).

God must deal with our sin. But, sin also corrupts every fiber of our being. Sin is like the hormones that affect every nerve in our body, driving us to do what we can’t control. Truth and mercy are the only cure. Solid, unvarnished truth, stinging our conscience and pride, must be laid against the thick roots of our sinfulness. But our initial response to being stung is rebellion. We cannot discern the mercy and love behind the sting. It always takes time to resolve the sting of reproof. Job, whose punishment was literally stinging him, is an example of us all.

Certainly, his moral friends exacerbated his problem by not mixing mercy with their truth. This only perpetuated his determination in self-justification, self-preservation, and self-exaltation, which no doubt were the cause of his afflictions.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23).

Yet, the Lord Jesus had mercy on Job, but must wait for a break in his determined rationalizations.

Moses, who wrote the Job account, did not deny that Job justified himself, and even glorified himself.

“Job … justified himself rather than God.” (Job 32:2).

“…The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.

The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.

The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me.” (Job 29:8-11).

“If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;

Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.

If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;

Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door;

Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.” (Job 31:5-10).

“If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb;)

If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;

If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:

Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.” (Job 31:16-22).

So the Lord sent Elihu to help His servant Job. Elihu spoke with great eloquence and humility, explaining what Job already knew of the ways that God works, only to save His children. Mercy and truth—love at its finest— Elihu showed Job, who was still smarting from his bodily condition. Yet, even when this messenger of the Lord brought mercy and truth to Job he maintained his perfect innocence in the matter of his affliction. What Job needed was repentance, which should eventually have been forthcoming. But sin was preventing it. A massive humbling was needed to make the opening in his converted heart, and then repentance could come forth. But, a prophet, such as Elihu in an ancient caste system, still could not get through to his elder.

So, not being infinitely more perfect than Job and not giving up on him, the Lord got involved. Personal involvement equates to personal attention; and personal attention equates to love. And this Person’s involvement and attention came with a thunderous volume that Job could not shut his mind to. Jesus shut down His servant. Job allowed for the resolution of his physical and spiritual stinging. He was humbled, accepting of reproof, and turned around. And others eventually also admit to their error and their sting is resolved.

“He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” (John 3:21).

But, unlike Job, “multitudes, multitudes” (Joel 3:14) ultimately do reject the truth. With all their heart, to the very end they deny any wrong-doing. Jesus’ Spirit of truth and comfort cannot penetrate their thick walls of denial.

“Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” (John 3:19,20).

All sinners are the same. They are born equally, stubbornly resistant to reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. What makes the difference between those who accept the truth and those who won’t? The difference is in who sees or doesn’t see God’s efforts to come from the heart of an earthly friend, and ultimately the Friend from heaven. The difference is in who chooses to look and live.

“For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:17,18).

Only the comprehension of love brings down the high walls of pride of supposed right-doing and denial of any wrong-doing. And the combination of mercy and truth is love. Will the sinner see this? Will accelerating Job-like repercussions permit him or her to peek out of fused eyelids and to perk up ear-plugged ears? Will they allow for the Lord’s representatives—His people, His animal kingdom, His flowers and trees and mountains and sky, His written word—to speak for Him and be His involvement and attention? Or, will they wait until He descends from heaven in crashing bedlam and destruction? “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.” (Isa. 13:9).

“This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life” (John 6:40).

“All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out…. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” (John 6:37,39).

Will they see Jesus’ love surrounding every word of merciful truth, and be saved from themselves forever, in this life and throughout all of eternity?