Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Jan/92

Contributor - Scott Molebean

Title - Compelled By Law

Topic - Church In Canada

This year many immigrants, also of Dutch extraction, will remember that they arrived in this country forty years ago. I am one of them. What was the country like, back then? I remember the heavy overcast days in the train from Halifax to Southern Ontario. But those are really the only overcast days I can recall. The general picture is bright sunshine in the summer and the glistening snow in the winter. But I am suspicious that the brightness of the picture has almost more to do with the way the country was than with the weather. We did not hear of problems about staying together as a country. We were not regularly bombarded with statistics about rape, about child abuse, about family violence, about increase of guns, about abortion, about GATT negotiations, about farmers going broke, and so on, and so on. In my memory at least, Canada was basically a sunshine country. Rightly or wrongly, that is how I remember those first years.

That is not to say that people today are not trying to make this a happy land. There are many laudable efforts by many volunteers and there are many social programs funded with millions and millions of dollars to do just that. More and more laws are passed to make this happen. More and more pressure is exerted to attach stiff penalties to these laws in order that people will be forced to comply with them. But this is exactly where the difficulty arises: Not penalties, nor political pressure but "Love is the fulfillment of the law" because "love does no wrong to a neighbour" (Romans 13:10). A sunshine land depends on the right attitudes in its people. Laws cannot bring those right attitudes about. Laws are like the wind. The stronger the wind, the more everything in its path bends in its direction. But as soon as the pressure ceases everything returns to its previous stand. We see that when the traffic flow encounters a parked police cruiser. Suddenly everybody slows down but as soon as the cruiser is out of sight everybody goes back to their former speed.

There is an explanation for this. But this explanation is not found in the knowledge gathered by humankind. It is found in the revelation about ourselves given us by the LORD God in His Word. This explanation is that the law is weakened by the flesh (Romans 8:3). When the LORD God created man, man's "will and heart were upright, all his affections pure". But through his rebellion against the LORD man "deprived himself of these excellent gifts, and instead brought upon himself blindness, horrible darkness, vanity, and perverseness of judgment in his mind: malice, rebelliousness, and stubbornness in his will and heart; and impurity in all his affections" (Canons of Dort, III/IV, art. 1). As a result Scripture teaches us that we are by nature inclined to hate God and our neighbour (Romans 3:10, 1 John 1:8, 10, Genesis 6:5; 8:21, Jeremiah 17:9, Romans 7:23, Ephesians 2:3, Titus 3:3, Heidelberg Catechism Q. 5) Not even the law of God is able to bring any lasting change in this bend of humankind. Therefore the laws of our land surely are impotent.

The sad thing with which we are confronted is that on the one hand humankind still has some memories of the Garden of Eden, of how things really ought to be. Examples of this abound in the desire for a better society. Take for instance the Goal and Vision Statement of the Ontario Association for Community Living.* Its goal is "That all persons live in a state of dignity, share in all elements of living in the community, and have opportunity to participate effectively." It further states: "This goal envisions a society in which the innate value of each one of its people is honoured and protected. The dignity and self-respect that its people enjoy in their respective communities are the result of sharing and shouldering the responsibility of welcoming and supporting all members of the community without discrimination." Yet at this very time people who, because of their intellectual handicap have behavioural problems, are dealt with through the use of . . . cattle prods, which are rods giving off electrical shocks upon contact. Children are not allowed to be touched today, but other people in our enlightened society continue to be treated as beasts. No amount of persuasion helps. The Ministry of Community ans Social Services has been approached to outlaw this usage. But will the law bring about a basic change in human attitude?

The sky over Canada has progressively darkened as the rejection of the Christian understanding of life has lessened in our land. The longing for Paradise remains. But with the-rejection of the truth of God's Word, and there with the absolute need of renewal through the Holy Spirit there remains no way to change the attitude of man. The only alternative is to force an apparent change through penalties. People love to read I Corinthians 13 about the more excellent way. But it is only through repentance before the LORD God that the way of love can be reached. And there once again the work of the Holy Spirit is indispensable. It is sad to see my sunshine country go this way. The way back remains. But it shall never be by legislation. In our daily life it is as true as for our eternal salvation: We are saved by grace, not by law.

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