The Foundation of Law and The Hope of Humanity
At some point in my distant past, two brothers were engaged in their respective industries. Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil. In due time, Cain, the one who kept the soil, became jealous of Abel, the one who kept the flock, and in his jealousy, killed his brother. At that time there was no formal legal system or system of judges ready to adjudicate the facts of this case. No previous cases of murder had been tried, so there was no precedence to appeal to. Who was right and who was wrong?
The task I wish to take on is to understand the basis of a legal system the can accurately decide between right and wrong. Either Cain is right, establishing Might as the foundation of law, or Abel is right, naming another basis. If Cain is right, I must establish this as the law of my life, allowing pure might to determine the outcomes of my existence. If Abel is right, I must establish that principle in my life. If Abel is right, however, I must also understand how the righteous can suffer at the hands of the unrighteous. And if Abel is right, I must understand how to resolve the struggle between the law and criminals.If the unjust can get away with murder, what appeal can there be for the one murdered? If there is no appeal possible beyond the grave, what is the reason the unrighteous should not live by the Law of Might?
These are the question I intend to answer here. In doing so, I will attempt to appeal to nothing other than my own intuition. Every principle must be established without assumption. Thus, we will start from the beginning.
Question #1: Who am I?
I ask this question since “I” am the source of all my thoughts. No matter what I say, think, or do, it is I who am acting. Therefore, my first step in understanding the foundation of Law is to answer the question “Who am I?”.
I could start by appealing to my memory. For as long as I can remember, I have existed as a person called Zachary Moore. I have a body a various features which has changed overtime. I am 37 years old as of the time of this writing and have experienced many events over these years. This telling, however, is insufficient since I am who I am regardless of experience, body, or age. I was who I was when I was 3 and I will be who I will be when I am 50. If I lose an arm or forget an experience, I will still be who I am. Therefore, I am something distinctive from my body, my memory, my experiences, my age, or my name.
I struggle to confidently say that I was before I was born or that I will be after I am dead. I also struggle to confidently say that I wasn’t before I was born or that I won’t be after I am dead. I am capable of believing, however, that I am eternal just as much as I am capable of believing that I did not exist prior to my birth and won’t exist after my death. I am someone who posses this capability of belief. Regardless of evidence or experience, it seems there exists within me this capacity for faith that I can choose to exercise or not. This capacity exists even as I am writing this, since I struggle to confidently provide any evidence that I am capable of knowing who I am or effectively even using language to understand such a thing. Even now I am the one who believes in something called truth and knowledge, even though I cannot present any evidence whatsoever to prove such an assertion, since evidence itself rests on a foundation of belief in truth and knowledge.
Here I see a discovery. I am not someone who knows the truth nor someone who can provide evidence of the truth. I am someone who believes in Truth and Knowledge. I am also someone capable of denying Truth and Knowledge. Everything that I think, therefore, is either in accordance with this belief or this denial.
Question 2: What is Truth?
This is the natural question to ponder after believing in Truth. What is it that I am believing in? I could say that Truth is something like an accurate portrayal of events as they unfold. The problem with this definition is that any event can be told in an infinite number of ways because every event contains an infinite number of facts. Stories, by their nature, exclude some facts for the sake of others. The exact hue of a man’s shoe may be a fact that will be told when describing him walking across the street. The molecular composition of those shoes and the diet of the cow whose hide provided the leather likely will not be included in the story, however.
Regardless, it seems that Truth is tied to the accurate representation of facts, regardless of how irrelevant they are to any given story. I can only call a story false if facts are misrepresented, such as if I said “the man was wearing black shoes” when in fact he was wearing brown shoes. Therefore, telling the truth seems to be a capability I posses that aligns my words to my sense experiences. Truth is a kind of reflection of reality.
Question 3: What is Falsehood?
I ask this question because there seems to be a capability in me also to not tell the truth. I am capable of saying “the shoes are black” when in fact they are brown. Falsehood, therefore, is a kind of hiding, forgetting, or misrepresenting my own experiences through my own thoughts and words..
Question 4: How do I make a distinction between truth and falsehood?
I believe this question introduces the need for evidence or something which can prove that one’s words are aligned with the truth or not. In this assertion, however, I struggle to be able to place weight onto evidence without first believing that everything has a cause. For if things can exist without cause, then how can I draw any conclusion from the evidence itself? If I find a half-eaten apple, one what basis can I believe that someone ate it without first believing in cause? It may be true that I have seen apples eaten before, but how can I believe an apple has been eaten if I have not seen it being eaten? If observation is that basis of knowledge, then wouldn’t the absence of observation be the prevention of knowledge?
Here I once again find within me a capable of believing in Cause and a capability or rejecting Cause. If I believe in cause, I am immediately allowed to see connections between events and use a host of tools to gather evidence in support of a particular narrative. If I reject cause, I am left without these connections or these tools. With belief in Cause, I can construct a narrative for myself that can explain the past and predict the future. By rejecting Cause, I am cut off from both. By rejecting Cause, I am unable to know anything, since knowing something presumes a causal connection between events. If I am unable to know anything, I am paralyzed in motion, since all motion is an attempt to cause something to happen. Without knowledge, I am also unable to use words, catching myself in a contradiction for in my denouncement of Cause and Knowledge I am claiming to know something. This is absurd.
Not only, then, do I find within myself a capable of believing in Cause, I find that I am constantly believing in Cause and Truth and Knowledge. Indeed I see everyone around me exercising this capacity for faith in these categories as well. It is only in certain situations, where believing in Truth seems to be a Cause of my misery, do I find myself torn between Truth and Cause, tempted to falsehood.
Therefore, there seems to be two powers working within me. On the one hand, I see a desire for the truth which moves me to live and on the other hand, I see a desire to lie because the truth condemns me. In my mortal body, I see no way to resolve these two forces. My life depends on living by the truth and yet I am capable of lying. I wouldn’t know I had this capability if I had not exercised it. Therefore, I am a liar, even though I only selectively lie. After I lie, how can I live? I must die for I have betrayed the truth and my lying will lead me to death. I have cut myself off from that path of life.
Question 5: What is the foundation of law?
So far I have proven the following:
1. I am capable of believing I am eternal, more than this mortal body.
2. I am capable of believing in the truth while also capable of believing in falsehoods
3. I am capable of believing in cause
4. I am incapable of ignoring the effects between believing in truth and falsehoods. I can say poison is nourishing. I cannot avoid the consequences of treating poison and nourishment the same.
5. I am incapable of being an impartial judge of myself since I both want to live and yet cannot live by the truth since I myself am condemned by it.
What then is the foundation of the law?
In the foyer of the Colorado Supreme Court there is an inscription by Martin Luther King, Jr that reads “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” That is certainly true but it seems to me that justice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere is also true. The two cannot exist together.
How then can unjust and imperfect men establish justice? How are men supposed to willingly live under the law knowing it condemns them? If the motivation to live by the law is life, how could someone want to live by the law if the law condemns them? What motivation or desire would cause me to want to turn myself in when I could try to run away instead? And if no desire or motivation exists, then what is the basis of the law? Who could possibly establish it and uphold it?
Indeed I see in this predicament a desire for me to delay and to use the tools of deception to escape punishment, knowing that I will die by the tools themselves or be caught by the truth. For in my original example, Cain established a Law of Might because he offered a displeasing sacrifice. Instead of accepting this judgement, Cain murdered his brother. How then can the Law of Cain prevent him from being murdered too? By establishing this Law of Might, Cain is in a constant arms race with the whole world, a helpless victim at the hands of anyone stronger than him. Since his God is the mightiest, the Law of Might has sentenced Cain to death. He will surely die in his early weakness, being overtaken by someone or something stronger, whether it be another man, a beast, or a disease. This is the first death. He will also surely die at the hands of the Heavenly Judge. This is the second death. This is why men are so afraid of death or those things that resemble death like hunger, disease, or violence. Men are reminded of their present judgment under the Law of Cain and their future judgment under the Law of God.
Is there any hope for Cain or me under this law?
The answer is no. For I have made myself an enemy of the mightiest Being in the universe. Indeed I have cut myself off from my Cause and condemned myself to a life of paralysis, falsehood, darkness, and torture. I have done this willingly by choosing to reject truth. This is the end of my inquiry and the complete analysis of my life. I do not deserve the law nor can I establish its foundations without being destroyed by it. I am a hopeless criminal awaiting execution unless somehow I am forgiven, the punishments for my crimes are removed from me, and the injury of my victims have been made whole. Only then can I have hope, if only somehow God’s law could be established without me being condemned by it.
Question 6: Is there any hope for me?
I ask this question because I have yet to die. I still have my mind and have experienced life in a way that is incomprehensible to me. If I am a sinner, a rebel to the law, deserving of death, then how is it that I am still alive? How is it that I can feel love and know things about this world? For this there is only one answer. There must be mercy for me. Somewhere in the court of heaven there must be the desire to forgive and indeed that forgiveness must have already been secured for me. If this were not the case, how come I was not struck down the moment of my first violation of the law? Is God not everywhere that he could not see me? Is he not all powerful that He could not easily throw me into prison? Surely He is all these things which means He must also be merciful and forgiving.
What then of my victims? I can believe that all have sinned and all are deserving of death. The only innocent victim of my story is God himself. It is God himself who must be damned in order for me to be free. God himself must bear my punishment if I am to be redeemed back into the kingdom of God under the Law of God. Indeed this is the promise of God and the only logical resolution to my life. Whether you have heard the story of Jesus Christ or not, you may logically come to this conclusion yourself and believe in the forgiveness of sins.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
This is the basis of a new law, one that establishes righteousness while forgiving the unrighteous. This is the foundation of my hope, that God, in his mercy, has not punished me for my crimes nor has he banished me from the Kingdom of His Law. Instead, he has forgiven me of my crimes and tells me to sin no more. He continues to be merciful to me, always inviting me to ask and receive forgiveness. In this way, I am freed from the temptation of falsehood, knowing that I can once again live imperfectly under the law. In this way, I am able to grow more and more in conformity with the truthyy, unafraid of making mistakes. I am able to say, without any evidence, “I am loved. I am forgiven. I am lovable. I am eternal. I am capable of being wise. I am capable of telling the truth. I am capable of admitting my mistakes. I am able to love my neighbor as myself.” And finally, I am able to believe that I will have eternal life for just as my sin was the cause of my death, so too will the free gift of forgiveness be the cause of my life forever.
In the words of Paul, a former teacher of the Jewish law and converted follower of Jesus Christ:
Question 7: How then shall I live?
Question 8: Is there any reason to reject God’s mercy?
Post-Script To My Readers:
The St. Augustine Prayer
Before Thy eyes, O Lord, we bring our offenses, and we compare them with the stripes we have received.
If we consider the evil we have wrought, what we suffer is little, what we deserve is great.
What we have committed is very grave, what we have suffered is very slight.
We feel the punishment of sin, yet withdraw not from the obstinacy of sinning.
Under Thy lash our inconstancy is visited, but our sinfulness is not changed. Our suffering soul is tormented, but our neck is not bent. Our life groans under sorrow, yet mends not in deed.
If Thou spare us, we correct not our ways; if Thou punish we cannot endure it.
In time of correction we confess our wrong-doing; after Thy visitation we forget we have wept.
If Thou stretchest forth Thy hand we promise amendment; if Thou withholdest the sword we keep not our promise.
If Thou strikest we cry out for mercy: if Thou sparest we again provoke Thee to strike.
Here we are before Thee, O Lord, shameless criminals: we know that unless Thou pardon we shall deservedly perish.
Grant then, almighty Father, without our deserving it, the pardon we ask for; Thou who madest out of nothing those who ask Thee.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Before the Throne of God Above
1 Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea,
a great High Priest whose name is "Love,"
who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands;
my name is written on His heart;
I know that while in heav'n He stands,
no tongue can bid me thence depart;
no tongue can bid me thence depart.
2 When Satan tempts me to despair,
and tells me of the guilt within,
upward I look and see Him there
who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
my sinful soul is counted free;
for God the Just is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me;
to look on Him and pardon me.
3 Behold Him there, the risen Lamb!
My perfect, spotless Righteousness;
the great unchangeable I AM,
the King of glory and of grace!
One with Himself I cannot die;
my soul is purchased with His blood;
my life is hid with Christ on high,
with Christ my Savior and my God;
with Christ my Savior and my God!
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