Can't Touch This - 1 Timothy 1:1-11

Paul is writing to Timothy, and the first thing he does is charge him to remain in Ephesus so that no unsound doctrine leaks in. Humans are very fickle, and many times we will take something sacred and tweak it until it fits what we like. That is what is happening in Ephesus, and Paul is not happy about it. What is happening is that they are letting old stories and superstitions from their culture and from Judaism to seep in to their new found faith, and a lot of it was hurting the Gospel. The main one - the Law.

Now, we know (and Paul says it here, too!) that the Law is not a bad thing! God created the Law, and it is the whole foundation of the Christian faith. It is not bad indeed! However, it is how the people were using the Law that was bad. Verse 8 says that the "law is good if one uses it lawfully". Well, what is the lawful way? We get more of a sense of this in the next verse where Paul says, "knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for..." and then he goes into a long list of sinners.

So, who was the Law made for?

It was made for people to see their sin, not to work their way to Heaven! What Paul meant by it not being made for sinners is that the people were reading the Law, and thinking they were good because they kept most of it - and therefore didn't think they needed Christ! Paul wants to show them that this is totally wrong! The Law was to show you just how utterably sinful you really are! There is no way anyone could keep the whole Law for their whole life - and because of this we need Christ!

So, what does this do to the Law?

I don't think God wanted us to rid the Law completely. Yes, we live by Grace, but that does not mean we can go out and sin all we want! God wants our hearts and wants us to repent from sin so that we can focus on Him and focus on doing what He wants. You are going to fail, and you will fall from the top, but Christ is always there to catch you every single time you fall!