Football needs Rules and so does Life

‘The beautiful game’ has to have rules and regulations in place otherwise chaos would ensue. These rules are overseen by the referee and his final decision stands. When God spoke his beautiful creation into being, he introduced rules to govern the way things were to proceed and thereby not dissolve into chaos. Just as footballers sometimes ‘try it on’ with the referee and hope to get away with it, so we may think that we can stretch the boundaries of God’s law and he’ll turn a blind eye.

Contravening the rules of the game is called a foul. Transgressing God’s rules is called sin. In football, a foul may result in the referee issuing a caution, a sending off or a penalty. His decisions will not always be perfect. God, on the other hand, is all-seeing, all-knowing and perfectly just in his pronouncements. Nothing that we think, say or do is hidden from him. As a foul may result in a penalty kick or banishment from the pitch, so our breaking of God’s laws will ultimately result in the penalty of banishment from God himself.

Still relevant today

Now at this point, you may be thinking, “This is all very well but haven’t we moved on from thinking that God made everything, that he lays down impossible rules, (which we can’t keep) and then punishes us, even threatening us with hell? Anyway, what happened to the God of love?”

God is perfect in all of his ways. We cannot play off his love against his justice, since both are essential elements of his character. Indeed, God is compassionate, kind and loving but each of us will only know this by experiencing the way that he rescues us from the penalty that comes from our flouting of his laws. How does this rescue happen?

Consider the notion of a substitute. In football, a player may be withdrawn from the scene and a substitute will take his place. When Jesus died on the cross, he was taking, in our place, the punishment/ penalty due to our rule breaking.

Getting onside

The Christian message is a call to turn away from our wanting to push the boundaries, from disregarding God’s ways and to stop questioning his right to rule. Then we should hold onto Jesus as our substitute. In this way, we can know God’s love has forgiven and saved us.