No Loophole In God’s Law
—You can't dodge God’s righteous wrath
There are people who study a body of law very carefully, but not to find out what their obligations are. Rather they seek some weakness in the law whereby they can avoid their obligations.
Tax law is an example. Some people study the tax law, not to see what tax they should pay, but to see how they might avoid paying the tax they should.
Some people look at God’s law in a similar way. They are the...
1 Loophole Seekers
There are those who think they can find loopholes even in God’s law. They interpret the kindness of God as a weakness they can exploit. "The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world..." (Titus 2:11-12).
If "the eyes of your heart be enlightened" (Ephesians 1:18-19), the grace of God will have appeared to you in its true light. But if you have let your spiritual sight become distorted and darkened, the grace of God will have appeared to you in a different and false light. You will see it as something that lets you trick God, and you will make...
2 A Foolish Plan
People sometimes make a plan like this:
"I want to be saved, but I want to do something sinful too. So here’s how I'll do both. First I will fall from grace for a season by entering into sin. After I have enjoyed my season of sin, then I will restore myself to grace by repentance and prayer. That way, I get to do the sin I wish, and then I get to escape the punishment for it.
That’s a clever plan isn't it? The grace of God has appeared to me, teaching me that I can live in ungodliness and worldly lusts, and not live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world, yet still be saved."
Such a plan to seek "the pleasures of sin for a season" (Hebrews 11:24-25) is very foolish, because there is...
3 No Loophole In God’s Law
The Bible answer to the "clever" plan has a simple Bible answer: "God Is not mocked" (Galatians 6:7). The Bible is straight about the results of the clever plan. It will go horribly wrong.
(Hebrews 10:26-31)
"If we go on sinning wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying fear of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries... It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
When people sin so deliberately and wilfully, "it is impossible to renew them again to (genuine) repentance because to themselves they crucify the Son of God again, and put him to an open shame" (Hebrews 6:4-6 10:26-31).
The Bible is so clear about how people ought to live. For example...
Ephesians 4:17-24
¶“17I bear witness in the Lord that you must no longer walk in the way that heathen do. Their thinking is futile. 18Their understanding is darkened. They are alienated from God’s life. All this because of the ignorance in them through their hardness of heart. 19They've become unfeeling, given to sensuality, impurity and of course greed. 20That is not the way you have learned Christ” (Ephesians 4:17-20).
¶“21And certainly you have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. He tells you 22to put off your old person who didn't live right and grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. 23Instead, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. 24You must put on the new person, who is created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:21-24).
4 Make No Mistake
In the face of such clear teaching we should make no mistake. John writes, "My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin" (1John 2:1). He goes on to say that if we do sin, "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1John 2:1-2). It is clear that Christ is the Advocate of those who try not to sin but who slip back unintentionally and unwillingly. This is what John calls "sin not unto death" (1John 5:16-17). On the other hand, those who sin deliberately and wilfully have no advocate and in their case "there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins" (Hebrews 10:26). This is what John calls "sin unto death" (1John 5:16).
Make no mistake about this. Those who believe they have found a loophole in God’s law are deceived.
2Peter 2:20-22
¶“20People escape the pollutions of the world by knowing the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But suppose they get mixed up in those pullutions again and are overcome. They end up worse off than before they escaped. 21It would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment that was delivered to them. 22What has happened to them is true to the proverb: 'The dog is turned to its own vomit, and the sow who was washed to her wallowing in the mud.'” (2Peter 2:20-22).