19 that they were not responsible agents. Rather all humans are responsible agents, but all sinful (hence, the reason why we act irresponsibly). It was for that very reason that the Mosaic legal code in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy established the particular legal precepts. In fact in two texts, Genesis 9:6 and Romans 13, we see implied that government exists in part to make laws and to punish wrongdoing when those laws are broken. This in turn implies that human nature will inevitably be sinful — or the law would not be necessary. The study and thinking about law must therefore take account of human nature or fail to achieve any ultimate good. In addition, it is worth stressing that, unlike some modern thinkers, Christians do not believe that law perfects humans or moves them toward perfection, as if an “environmental change” can effect a change in the internal disposition of human beings. While it is true that humans are also made in the image of God, and retain some vestige of that image, the sin problem is too great to overcome without grace. But law cannot provide grace, an internal working of the Holy Spirit producing a “habit” of living that is based on a changed nature. Law in the end can at best only restrain external acts. It can also point forward to grace, but by itself it has no power to make an inward change. This also means that law cannot and ought not to attempt to address internal motives, as it has recently begun to attempt (so-called “hate crimes” for example). These must be left for the working of God in the individual as the Word of God is proclaimed and the church is involved. True internal change is impossible through law. Finally, the ultimate purpose of law is justice.10 This concept means that one receives under law what he or she is due. If an offense has been perpetrated, then punishment of some kind results. Law must be administered impartially and universally for justice to apply at all. Otherwise justice cannot ensue. The temptation is to allow mercy to encroach too far on justice, and this error is partially rooted in a faulty view of human nature (and of course a faulty view of God). Humans are considered to be inherently good or perfectible, and so it is thought that mercy is necessary to promote that process of perfection. But if the state gives only mercy, then not only has no punishment been meted, but the other party has not received a just outcome and God’s standards have been violated. 10 Nicholas Wolterstorff, Justice: Rights and Wrongs. Princeton University, 2010.
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