Obedience Beyond the Law

Here’s a thought-provoking question: Can rebellious believers, when fully consumed by sin, become even more depraved than those who never believed? According to Ezekiel, that’s precisely what happened to Israel. Despite being entrusted with the Law, the promises, the land, the kings, and the prophets, they descended into such profound corruption that they surpassed the wickedness of the very nations God had called them to reach.

Israel's history, from her humble beginnings to the zenith of her power under Solomon, is a tragic tale of deterioration. Ezekiel 16 paints a picture of her gradual descent over the centuries, until she resembled the very people from whom God had called her out. 

Ezekiel 16:47–48 (ESV) Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. 48 As I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.

Can you believe it? They sank even lower than Sodom, a city infamous for its wickedness that led the Lord to erase its history from the Earth. The question remains, could this happen to those who have been blessed abundantly by the Lord, only to reject His gifts? Scripture seems to affirm this. 

When Paul delves into the nature of the law in Romans 7, he does so in a fascinating manner, highlighting how the law's knowledge led to his spiritual death and even incited him to sin.

Romans 7:7-11 (ESV) What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

Paul is stipulating here a simple fact we can all agree is true when we consider our own lives: The knowledge of the law stirs our rebellious hearts. The law does not save. It cannot save. It leads us to a desperate estate where we find our insides churning in hostility to authority. The woman was shortly tempted and took the apple. The nation of Israel looked at the pagans they were called to wipe out and instead, replicated their habits.  Not only did Israel practice the sins of the nations around them, but they perfected evil in doing them! 

Again, we are brought face to face with the depths of our desperation before God. Our hearts are sick. Knowing what we should do does not lead us to do it. The commandment brings death while still being the righteous law of God. 

Ezekiel points out the root of the problem for Israel. 

Ezekiel 16:56–57 (ESV) Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride, 57 before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become an object of reproach for the daughters of Syria and all those around her, and for the daughters of the Philistines, those all around who despise you.

In other words, Israel scorned Sodom as worse sinners than herself. And in that pompous arrogance she fell into worse sin than her. What are we to learn from this as New Covenant believers? That pride can destroy our lives, of course. But more important than that, humility before God is our only response. We cannot look down at sinners before us, we must confess that we are nothing better than they. The human condition needs fixing. It needs healing. And the Lord is the One who sends the Spirit into our hearts and does it. 

Which is what Paul spoke about in Romans 6:

Romans 6:17 (ESV) But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.