Finding the Loop Hole

Mr Loophole

Where there is a law, there is a loophole. Or so it would seem.

There is lawyer in England by the name of Nick Freeman, but he has gained the nickname of Mr Loophole.

He has had a number of high profile celebrities and has managed to get them off various charges, mostly driving charges, on technicalities.

He apparently got the English soccer star, David Beckham, off a speeding fine because the notice of intended prosecution arrived one day after the 14-day limit that was required.

The Manchester United Head Coach, Sir Alex Ferguson, also used Mr Loophole when he had been charged with illegally driving down the hard shoulder of the motorway. He got off because he successfully argued he had an upset tummy and needed the toilet.

The reality is, we would all like to have someone like Mr Loophole around to get us off the hook when we’ve made a mess of things.

I’m sure quite a few of you have had speeding fines you wish you could have got out of. I remember once getting caught doing 58km/h in a school zone in Sydney, but it occured only minutes before the end of the allotted time. I would have loved to have My Loophole.

I’m also thinking that Mr Loophole might be a good person to have at home too.

You know when your wife asks you to do something and then she comes home and it hasn’t been done. It’d be nice if Mr Loophole was around to find that reason why technically, I’m actually not in the wrong, it was just… insert loophole here!

We have a rule in our house. The dog is not allowed in the bedrooms. Well, one of my daughters discovered the loophole. If she turned a blind eye and didn’t notice the dog come in, then she wouldn’t have to tell it to leave.

This morning I’m continuing on that topic that is going to keep us squirming in our seats just a little longer. It’s a topic we’d prefer to scoot over in our rush to hear about forgiveness - and believe me, there is a good story coming.

And maybe you felt that we did a good job covering it last week - surely that should be enough for us to now jump to the next bit.

Recap

Now let me give a quick recap of what we looked at last week for the benefit of those who weren’t here (or for that matter, to remind those who were here as well).

I explored three different exchanges that Paul notices that people make which leads us to sin.

Firstly, the exchange of the glory of God for an image - and I looked at that idea that this image he is talking about, while specifically about the physical idols that people of the time would have carved, is essence what he’s saying is that we’re exchanging this God who is above all things, to something we control ourselves.

The second exchange is then to switch the truth of God for a lie.

And the third exchange is to take natural relationships and switch them for unnatural ones.

Inviting Mr Loophole

Now I argued last week, that actually, each and every one of us is guilty of this to some degree. And I stand by that assertion. But yet, this is where we like to invite Mr Loophole into the conversation and say, well yes, maybe there are a few areas of guilt, but with the help of Mr Loophole, I’m going to fiddle things around a little and show that actually, you know what, I’m actually pretty good thank you very much.

Well, I’m going to suggest that it is for this sort of thinking that Paul has included this second chapter.

We’re going to see him look at two main approaches that people take to make them feel that somehow they can escape this whole discussion.

The moraliser

So let’s say you were listening to my message last week, and you started to feel a little guilty. You’ve realised that you have started to let selfishness in. You’ve realised that some of the ways you act is not honouring to God, but is serving your own purposes.

But, the feeling of guilt is not nice, so we get Mr Loophole on the line, because surely he’ll help us to find a way around this sticky little situation.

Well, Mr Loophole is good at what he does, and so he’s quick to offer a good defense.

The defence is: well, you’re better than most other people.

And what a good defence! You see, he’s right. You look around and you will most certainly find people who have a lower moral compass. You will find people who gloat over their sinfulness. That’s not us.

And so we’re in the clear.

So what are we doing? We’re judging others. We’re making them the standard, so we look good.

I wonder how many of you listening last week thought - gosh, I wish my cousin Bob could hear this. He really needs to hear this. He has so gone down this path. He needs to be brought to his senses.

Well, maybe cousin Bob could do well to hear it, but you know what? The message wasn’t for cousin Bob. It was for you! It was for me too. We all need to hear it.

Do you see what we’ve done when we’ve projected that message on to someone else? We’ve taken the focus off ourselves and onto someone else. And that makes us feel better because the problem isn’t with me.

So let’s see what the Apostle Paul has to say to such a defense.

No excuse

Well actually, Paul is quite quick to the point and says in verse 1 to those who pass judgement on other, you have no excuse. Why? Well he goes on to say, because “at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgement do the same things”.

You see, just because you can find someone else sinning doesn’t mean that you’re not sinning.

Over the speed limit

This is something we’ll often do on the roads. Let’s say the speed limit is 80km/h. You sit on about 85, everyone else around you is doing the same speed. So you’re all good.

(And look, I’ll be honest - I do this)

Well guess what - you’re still speeding. Even if the other cars are doing 95, you’re still speeding.

You see, it doesn’t make any difference at all about what other people are doing. If you’re doing wrong, you’re doing wrong.

We all do wrong

You almost certainly haven’t pulled the trigger for someone’s murder. Probably you’ve never been married and had sex with someone other than your spouse.

But even before we consider Jesus’ re-interpretation where anger is equated to murder and lust equated with adultery… even before this, can we honestly say we haven’t been deceitful and arrogant? Have we never gossiped, or slandered someone? That we have never acted in ways that are unloving and hurtful to others?

Because, let’s get this straight. Once you start dishonouring God but not giving him the glory, and by not loving those around us. We are sinning.

Just because you can find someone worse than you, this is not a legitimate loophole. Maybe it might help with your guilt - maybe… but it doesn’t really change anything.

Our actions matter

As Paul continues his argument, he makes the strong stance that your actions matter, regardless of what others are doing. This actually relates to God’s justice.

Verse 6 - God will repay each person according to what they have done. Notice, it’s not how they act in comparison with others.

In verse 9, there is trouble and distress for every human being who does evil. Notice again, the stress on every human, regardless of whether you’ve judged yourself better than another or not.

Is this salvation by works?

Now it’s worth pausing here a moment because it could very easily appear that in these verses, Paul is suggesting some sort of work’s based salvation. That is to say, you can get to heaven by being good. Well, the surrounding context would blow any such notion out of the water, but even in this passage, that’s not what he’s saying.

What it’s actually saying is that God is completely just in punishing those who have done wrong. And the point in this paragraph is that when we try to hide our sin by acting as judge, we are just becoming more and more stubborn and unrepentant, our sin doesn’t get any less, rather it increases. and so we fall more and more into God’s wrath.

So, Mr Loophole hasn’t proved very useful just yet. He might have caused a diversion, but it’s not a diversion that is going to be of much use.

We’ll all be judged

Now, Paul takes us on an interesting side note at the end of this section.

You see, while arguing that judging others isn’t at all effective in keeping free of sin, he does something that he does quite a bit throughout this letter.

He uses a phrase that we saw back in chapter 1 verse 16: ‘first for the Jew, then for the Gentile’. You see, an ongoing theme throughout this letter is the place that the Jews have in the whole scheme of salvation. A matter that Paul will really bring home in chapter 11.

The Jews play a very special place, but Paul is quick to add in verse 11 that God doesn’t show favouritism.

And he goes on to explain himself starting in verse 12, in some words which at first glance can seem a little confusing.

You see, he tells us that those who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.

Now while this at first glance seems to be highlighting a difference, I want to suggest that actually it is doing quite the opposite.

You see, whether you’re perishing apart from the law, or being judged by the law, the outcome is still the same.

In other words, whether you’ve seen the rules written down or not, if you do wrong, your still going to face the consequences of that wrong doing.

When Mr Loophole tried to tell you that you can somehow put yourself above all those other sinners, perhaps because you know the rules better then them, well, it makes no difference at all.

This loophole is not going to work at all.

So we better give him another call and see if he can find another loophole for us.

Our status

Well, Mr Loophole is good at his job. he might have failed with that first attempt to get us off the hook, but he’s not done yet.

All you need to do is rely on your status.

I know some of you haven’t come from Christian families, but many of you, including myself, come from a long line of Christians.

My parents were Christians. My mum’s parents were Christian. Their parents were Christian. I can even trace back a few more generations where there is evidence of a strong Christian faith. I come from good Christian stock.

But I have even more status. I get to call myself Pastor, and I’m even the son of a pastor.

I was baptised when I was 17. I’ve been to Bible College.

Surely all of this has to count for something doesn’t it?

Mr Loophole will be able to put the case forward so that I can just waltz into heaven.

The Jew

Well, for Paul, he’s not about to show the man from good Christian stock that this loophole is a dead end - rather, he’s going to make the point to someone who has even greater claim - the Jew.

You see, I just spoke about the Jews before - speaking of their special place in the scheme of salvation - something which Paul is very much aware of.

Let’s just get this straight. The Jews were the ones that the promise of salvation was first revealed to. The Jews have already been redeemed, that is to say, they’ve already been brought out of the bonds of slavery and made into a special people. The Jews has been shown how to live, and they have developed ways to uphold these laws. Not only do they know the law, they are in a position to show others.

Forget the Christian from good stock - the Jew is in the perfect place to waltz on into heaven because of their status.

But Paul points out for us the problem with this loophole.

Regardless of your status, you keep on sinning.

Paul asks a series of very pointed questions:

(v21) You who preach against stealing, do you steal?

(v22) You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

You who boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law?

It’s the same problem as before. This loophole is little more than a diversion from the reality that we do wrong.

I might come from a long line of Christians. I might have qualifications and titles. But I still fall short.

Circumcision

Paul brings the matter of circumcision into the equation as well, which helps to clarify the issue.

The only way that circumcision is going to have any value, is if it comes with observing the law.

We could insert a some alternatives to circumcision here.

Being baptised - it’s only of value if followed with obedience.

Having communion. Being a member of a church. Going to bible study.

There all great things to do. But they will not save you.

Application

Mr Loophole’s work might be great in getting celebrities out of speeding fines, but let me tell you now that when it comes to sin, you are not able to scoot around the edge.

The reality is that we all fall short.

Now hopefully if you have been a Christian for some time, with the help of the Holy Spirit you should have been able to develop some self-control around our behaviour.

With the help of the Spirit, we can to some degree control our evil desires. You can get on top of your addiction to pornography. You can begin to control those lustful looks of the attractive people we see. We can get a handle on our greed and envy.

But let me tell you that this is much more about the role of the Spirit in our lives rather than our own ability to control such things.

Now as I said last week, I’m not going over this like I am just to make you feel bad. Remember, the message of forgiveness is coming.

But the big idea I want you to leave with this morning is that rather than trying to hide our sinfulness, recognise that what we do does offend God.

Because coming to God must start with a recognition that we have done wrong.

It can take a lot of courage to be really honest with ourselves. But it is only as we are honest that we can take the next step. Without that honest, we become stuck, because we somehow seem to think we can do it in our own strength.

Guilt

Now will this just result in us feeling guilty?

Well, you know what? Maybe guilt doesn’t always have to be a bad thing.

Guilt often gets a bad rap - and sometimes rightfully so, like when you beat yourself up over stupid things that were out of your control.

But, when guilt is the result of honest reflection of our lives, then it can be very useful to spur us onto what we really need to do. And this is to repent and seek after God.

Conclusion

It can sometimes seem that Christians are obsessed with sin.

The reality is, everyone is obsessed with sin, it’s just that Christians are the ones who are ready to admit it.

When we do this right, it’s not about being hypocrites where we point out the sin in others and fail to see it in ourselves. It’s actually the opposite to hypocrisy, because it is the honest self-reflection that we have offended God by not honouring him and not loving others.

Pretending that it’s not really there isn’t the way to make it go away.

But that’s not to say where necessarily stuck with it, in fact, this is the whole Christian message, that there is a path forward.

Through the work of Jesus, there is forgiveness, but it starts with repentance.

I’ve now spent two weeks looking at sin, and as we’ve done so, it is very important that we realise that this is not aimed at highlighting the sin in others. In fact, if this message is causing you to think how bad others are, then you’ve really missed the point.

Rather, it’s for you. Based on your own actions, you are a sinner.

So allow yourself to be honest and not think that Mr Loophole is going to get us through.

Let me pray...