This is a great starting point when approaching the Gospel, or “Good News,” as it is laid out in the Bible. Â Who is it that makes the “rules” to which we are bound, and what gives him the right to do so?
Who Makes The Rules?
While people (myself included) sometimes like to live like they are in charge, as if they make the rules, this is, in fact, make believe, like the 4-year-old who dresses up in his dad’s clothes to feel authoritative, or “like a big boy,” to borrow my son’s lingo.
This is Chad Pressing “Pause” on the Study…
Before we go any further, I want to warn you that I am entering this study with the presupposition that, 1) only one God exists, 2) that He produced and preserved for us a revelation of Himself called the Bible, and 3) that the Bible is the true, reliable and ultimate authority over every subject it addresses (For more of my presuppositions, click here and/or check my other posts under the “Discussions” tab above, and if you’d like to dialogue with me about why I believe what I believe, you can leave a comment below or send me an email).
This is Chad Pressing “Play” on the Study…
God has, in fact, been making the “rules” since the beginning.  He gave Adam and Eve two pretty simple commands: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:26), and, “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” (Gen. 2:17).  And since that time, God has continued to set the “rules of play,” for which every human must one day give account (Rom. 2:6-11, Rom. 14:12, Heb. 4:13, James 2:10).
Why Does God Get To Make The Rules?
Simply put, God gets to make the rules because He is the Creator (Gen. 1-2; Rom. 1:19-25). This truth is affirmed in great detail in, among other places, Genesis 1, John 1 and Colossians 1, but Genesis 1:1 by itself would be perfectly sufficient for the purposes of this study: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  Now, what’s the connection between God being the Creator and God getting to make the “rules”?  God reminds Asaph that, “the world is mine and all that is in it” (Ps. 50:12), which makes sense because He had all ready identified Him as Creator.  But why does that make sense?  Because anyone who uses their own materials in their own space to make their own stuff is, by default, the rightful owner of everything that is made.  So, logic follows that because God is the Creator of all things, He is also the rightful owner of all things, free to do with them as He pleases.  To explain God’s position in terms of the U.S. government, His position as Creator makes Him the ultimate legislative “branch,” able to rightly determine the rules for His creation.
Final Thoughts…
The next post will deal with the hotly (and unnecessarily) debated question, “Are God’s Rules Good?” Â Between now and then, I hope to dialogue with you about this post below.