A while back I was riding my bike to church and got stopped by some "bici-policias."They pointed out that I didn't have a helmet on, but that I should've, because that's what the law says, and that by the way - since they are the enforcers of the law (and since I wasn't obeying it), they had all the right in the world to take my bike away.
I was like, "you gotta be kidding me right now," but they weren't, and so I told them that at least I had lights.
... Big deal. Pedro from Napolean Dynamite has shocks and pegs.
...The cops and I kind of stood around for a while, and I kept trying to tell them that I was a really great person... That I was on my way to church; that I worked with drug addicts and homeless people (which indirectly made their work easier); and that they should be grateful to me that I obviously respected them enough to at least stop for them when they told me to...
They weren't impressed; and they said that "law so-and-so" clearly states that all cyclists transiting the streets of Bogota must wear a helmet while doing so, and that clearly I wasn't (irregardless of all my good works, and despite having partially obeyed the law by carrying both front and back night lights).
...We kept standing around, and eventually they told me that I could go with a warning, but that if they ever caught me again, well, I was going to be in big trouble.
I was like "thanks so much," but in my heart I was like "for nothing," and I kept on my way, thinking about all the tons of other people that never wear helmets and never get caught; and yet here somehow I was the only unlucky one to get picked on by the police probably because I look American...
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| Juan wearing a helmet like he's supposed to |
...I wanted to go back to the days when I was blissfully ignorant of such ludicrous mandates, and I wanted to avoid getting caught ever again in my whole life.
In fact, the very next day I rode my bike again, and instead of riding on the bike path which is safer - I actually rode my bike on the right side of the road just so I could more easily elude and avoid the same old law-happy "bici-policias" if I ever saw them again, looming ahead in the distance.
...It was like something that was supposed to prolong my life (namely the helpful helmet law), was actually just producing in me a higher probability of death (because I was rebelling against it).
I decided I hated the law, and it was right then and there that I remembered Paul's words in Romans 7 where he says, "we know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin" (v.14).
So yeah, I know - wearing helmets or not wearing them in the grand scheme of things is a pretty trite issue, granted. But the example of what took place that day serves as a great illustration of every human being's struggle with sin at a deeper level... And as we see in the next few verses, Paul describes a vicious cycle in which we don't understand what we do... That the very things we want to do we don't, and the very things we hate, those we keep doing (v.15)... That we have the desire to do what is good, but we can't carry it out; and that the evil we do not want to do - this we keep doing (v.19).
It's a really gnarly situation, and even the band One Republic knows about this very well as they explain it in their song 'Counting Stars' which you can see my friend Juanes and I dancing and singing along to in the video below haha:
So how do we escape this terrible tendency to always sin? ...To stop feeling something so right while doing the wrong thing, and to stop feeling something so wrong while doing the right thing? ...Well, in our own strength we can't, and so the only solution is to die to ourselves... We need to die to ourselves, because it is only through death that we may be released from the law... And once we are dead to the law through the body of Christ, we can now be united to another - to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God (v. 4).
See, I think that Paul says it even better in Romans 5:20-21 when he concludes:
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
...The law had to exist so that we would understand sin, but understanding sin is pointless unless there were such a thing as grace... and let me tell you that there is! It exists in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord, and it reigns through righteousness to bring us eternal life.
Romans 7:24-25 says, "who will rescue us from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers us through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Yes!
And as the very next few verses in chapter 8 declare:
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set us free from the law of sin and death (v.1-2).
Kawabunga dude!
...It would be as if the "bici-policias" who stopped me and told me about the law immediately provided a remedy to keep me from breaking that law by just giving me a helmet to wear free of charge. And if they did that, well, the only thing that I would have to do is just put it on, that's all... See, that's what the Holy Spirit does for us! He becomes a law to ourselves, and all we have to do is put him on and let him take control.
And as verses 10-11 say...
If Christ is in us, then even though our bodies are subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in us, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in us...
Do you understand that the very same power that rose Christ from the dead is now living in us so that we can have victory over sin?
Well it is, if in fact we have put our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Now, in taking this illustration even further, want to hear something really awesome?
...It's that in Ephesians 6:17 Paul names off the different components of the armor of God, and it's precisely the helmet which we're supposed to put on that stands for salvation!
So how do you like that?
I hope you like it; because salvation is what gets us into heaven... And I bet you're not even going to believe this - but about a week later I joined a bike-club of about 60 "bici-parceros" (in other words, "bike-buddies"), and they invited me to a bike-club party that they were going to put on, and can you imagine what they said the only requisite was that I needed to fulfill for them to let me into the gig?
... Mmm, if you imagined "wearing a helmet" you nailed it haha... [which is all we need to get into heaven as well (wearing the helmet of salvation that is)]...
Picture cited "bici-policias": http://goo.gl/ZCgOJR
