Who's at Bat?

Warning, this contains lots of baseball jargon…

Recently I got stuck. I was stuck on the passage in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus said He did not come to “abolish the law but to fulfill it.” I know Jesus ushered in a “New Covenant” between God and people, purchased by His blood and sealed by His Spirit. But what role does the Law that God gave Moses play in the life of a follower of Jesus?

I found some words by a scholar named Jonathan Pennington, who has wrestled with this same challenge:

“The compactness of Matthew 5:17–20 is at once its power and its difficulty. By virtue of its pithy, contrastive statements we get a large-scale snapshot of the issue. But its brevity and super-concentrated collection of weighty terms and ideas mean that every sentence is a spark that sets off a fire in a different direction. Like good poetry, this short passage is thick with meaning and in need of deep reflection.” 

Jonathan’s words made me feel less alone in my “stuckness,” but I didn’t get “unstuck” until I played in a softball game.

There I was, standing in the on-deck circle of an old man softball league. Our team, which is not super good, was down eleven points in what was basically the bottom of the ninth. Each game lasts fifty minutes. For some wonderful reason our team hit really well in this inning and had already scored nine runs. After scoring those nine runs we were still down two points with two outs against us. We had two runners on base and my teammate was up to bat.

In the “on-deck” circle, my mind went through different scenarios. Each scenario raised my blood pressure and made my hands feel warm. If the guy in front of me gets a hit, the bases will be loaded, which is good for my team, but intense for me.

In case you are lost in all the baseball terminology, this means that, if my teammate were to get a hit, my at-bat could either win the game for us, get us closer to winning the game, or totally shatter all the hope my team was bubbling over with.

As I watched my teammate wait for the right pitch, the pressure intensified. Then a scenario I had not considered unfolded before my eyes. He hit a home run! No one on our team had hit a home run before. We hadn’t even come close. His hit sent the ball sailing over the fence and we scored three runs, putting us in the lead. Immediately, all the pressure was gone. Now my at bat was not a life or death situation, but an” icing on the cake” possibility. I ended up getting a base hit and so did the next few guys behind me. We got enough hits to run out the fifty-minute clock and we won the game. 

So, how does this have anything to do with the Law that God gave Moses, and the life of a follower of Jesus? Glad you asked.

Some of us are trying very hard to be good. It is like we keep coming to the plate trying to hit a home run. On our best days we do some good, but not all days are best days, and we find ourselves doing a lot of bad. Now, crazy enough, in baseball you are considered a great hitter if you get a hit one-third of the time.

The bad we do wouldn’t be a such a big problem except that it comes with a cost. And the cost is that it usually hurts the ones we love. For instance, anger can be kept in check sometimes, but when it comes out it creates pain and fear and, in some cases, lasting damage to the ones we love.

Another example would be lust. It seems like pornography wouldn’t hurt anyone because it can be personal and private. But as we know, it deeply affects a person’s ability to be intimate with a loved one in more ways than just sexual. In addition to that, every time someone looks at porn they are contributing to the sex slave industry which is tearing apart families, as well as little boys’ and girls’ souls.

I could go on with pertinent examples, but this is not what got me unstuck. What did get me unstuck was the reality that, just like the guy who batted before me, Jesus wants to go to bat for us. 

The Law God gave Moses helps us know the score.  His law points us in the right direction and shows us what is truly good. In our lives, every decision we make is like an at-bat. If we decide in line with God’s Law, it is like a hit. If we go against God’s Law it is like an out.

The problem is, many of us don’t know God’s Law. Our culture is trying to tell us that God’s Law is bad. And even worse, those of us familiar with God’s Law still get it wrong so often. When face-to-face with the righteousness described in God’s Law, we all are down eleven in the bottom of the ninth and, really, much worse. 

But if you are willing to see it, Jesus is standing at the door of your heart, knocking, with bat in hand, waiting for you to invite Him in. If you do, He will go to bat for you. 

You see, Jesus came from heaven to earth to fulfill God’s Law. He was tempted in every way we are — anger, lust, and everything else — yet He never sinned. He never got out of line with God’s Law, but fulfilled it perfectly. Then, in a wild move no one saw coming, He offered His sinless life as a sacrifice to pay the price for all of humanity’s sin-filled lives. He knew we could not do it on our own. He knew that, without His help, we would continue to be defeated by anger and lust. He knew we could not fulfill the Law on our own. So, on the cross, He went to bat for us. And when He rose from the dead, it was clear the sin debt was paid and forgiveness had come. Jesus’ righteousness was more powerful than all our unrighteousness. His life, death, and resurrection were a home run that washed all our sins away.

Before Jesus, the Law condemned us. But since Christ fulfilled the Law, there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ. TheLlaw in the life of a Christ follower is now a helpful guide to knowing God deeper and accomplishing the kind of righteousness that rights the wrongs in the world. 

I pray you will not fall into the trap of legalism, where you believe it is up to you alone to overcome anger, lust, and all their friends.

I pray you will not fall into the trap of Antinomianism, where you ignore God’s Law, leaving yourself and others in a state of spiritual infancy.

I pray you will allow the work that Jesus did on the cross go to bat for you.

I pray His love, forgiveness, and example will compel you and empower you to overcome your anger and lust and go to bat for others.  

David