Error-free compliance to law was certainly never intended for humans! Even in Heaven (the Christians’ famous land of perfection) Lucifer jilted the law and got himself thrown out! The first humans, Adam & Eve also had their fair share of nasty behavior when they transgressed at Eden. As a matter of fact, God even pretended as though He wasn’t aware, and came visiting at the cool of the day! Therefore, would it be an intelligent line of argument to project the idea that God being Omniscient, didn’t have a premonition that Lucifer, Adam & his gorgeous wife Eve would attempt at some point to breach the protocol? Hold that thought.. And while you’re at it, the human nature is naturally wired to do the direct opposite of what had been instructed. Isn’t it fun sometimes to just ignore the traffic light when it shows red and you have a good chance of not getting caught? (cab drivers do that a lot, and I kind of enjoy it when in a hurry! You do too!).
The 10 commandments, often referred to as the Mosaic law, has quite rigid clauses. Whereby, faithful adherence to nine but failure in one, automatically accounts for failure in all! (keeping the entire ten commandments now sounds like a whole lot of responsibility right?). In the New Testament, we’re also required to understand that all sins are equal, and regardless of the fact you’ve been a devout Christian for donkey’s years, a little lie before the Rapture and you’re going to hell! But then, “Thou shall not commit adultery,” yet the adulterous woman was protected by Jesus from her accusers(people of similar or worse weaknesses of their own!). Humans broke all the laws available, yet Christ was still sent for their redemption!
Over the years, we’ve been enslaved by judgmental church doctrines that punish members and relegate them to the back seats, or excommunicate them for a period of time for a ‘taboo’ they committed. Keep aside what an Apostle in the Bible said (which of course is always used as reference) but ask, would Jesus himself have done that? Some African ‘holier-than-thou’ churches place heavy sanctions on defaulters of certain imposed regulations, many of which include: Women putting on trousers / uncovering their hair, or the ‘abomination’ of a woman preaching on the pulpit. You can imagine how judgmental these set of Christians stare at women preaching on the altar, as though they wished they could make them drop dead right there on telepathic command!
We wrestle back and forth as Christians, trying so hard to maintain compliance to religious laws. We forget that we can NEVER be perfect! Everyone has certain weaknesses that drive us to sin and break either of those commands. That’s why we have the concept of ‘GRACE’. Even religious leaders are not guaranteed of their eternity, because as humans, they are also naturally and regularly guilty of various degrees of weaknesses in their closet that cause them to sin(whether or not you’re aware of it!) and of which they have to keep in check at all times.
Is there a law to be kept? I no longer care! I’ll do the best I can, and leave the rest to be taken care of by God. I can’t be perfect or righteous enough on my own. Grace has salvaged the massive and preconceived failure of the law. So, any supposed Christian Doctrine or Religious law (like Sharia), that subjects you to gruesome punishment for your shortcomings, is highly questionable!
Originally published at medium.com