How Do I Know I'm in Trouble?

This is a series of brief devotional articles on The Orthodox Catechism (“OC”), a Particular Baptist document written by Baptist pastor Hercules Collins in 1680. Read the series.

No matter who you are, who your parents are, how much education you have (or don’t have), this one thing is true—God’s law tells us that we’re each in very great trouble (see Answer 3). The obvious thing is to figure out how to fix this problem.

In every trouble, there’s usually some way out. We might not like the way out, but it’s there. Money troubles? Slash the household budget to the bone (and so on). So, what does God’s law tell us we can do to fix this problem between us and God that makes our situation so miserable?

Question 4: What does God’s law require of us?

Answer 4: Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22:37-40: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.¹ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.² All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

We can use the law of Moses in at least two different (and legitimate) ways.

• The first way is for believers (including Moses’ original audience), and it’s the most natural way—we read the commandments through a prism of loving obedience. We love him because he first loved us (1 Jn 4:10, 19), so we do what he says because we love him. This is why Moses so often emphasized obedience from the heart (Deut 4:9, 5:29, 6:6, 10:12-16, 11:13, 11:18, 26:16, 29:18, 30:2, 30:6, 30:10, 30:14, 30:17).
• The second way is for unbelievers—to hold aloft the law as a condemnatory mirror into the soul.[3] It says this, and this, and that—but you don’t do that, so what does that mean? It means you’re a criminal. It means you’re in very great trouble. It means you need to be rescued.

The apostle Paul used this second strategy in his letter to the Galatian churches to remind them that legalism is a dead end (Gal 3:10-14). If you want to try legalism, Paul suggested, then try interpreting the law that way and see how well you do! The catechism uses Jesus’ words in a similar way:

1. You aren’t perfect, because you break his law.
2. Because you break his law, you’re guilty of a capital crime.
3. Because you’re guilty of a capital crime, God will sentence you appropriately.

You may object now: “What exactly have I done to break God’s law?”

Well, that’s why Jesus summed up the entire point of the Mosaic law with those two headings; (a) love God with everything you have, and (b) love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law hangs on those two commandments. You don’t have to grade your thoughts and actions on a curve. You just have to ask yourself:

1. Do I love God with everything I have? Heart? Mind? Soul? All my might?
2. Do I always love God with this intensity?
3. Do I love my neighbor as much as I love myself?
4. Do I always love my neighbors with this intensity?

Of course, the answer is no. This proves that you are indeed in very great trouble with God (Questions 2-3). You’re supposed to love God and your neighbor, but you fail. This suggests you can’t solve this problem yourself—but is that true? Is all hope lost? We’ll address that question next time.