If we are driving a delivery truck and we see a speed limit sign. We can look around and if there is no cop we can break the speed limit. Then we see a bridge. The bridge says 9 foot clearance. We get out and measure our truck and it is 10 foot. Do we look around and see there are no cops and decide: lets go for it, we will not get caught? What is the difference?
The offender is trying to break two different sets of laws in this example. One is trying to break a physical law (colliding with the bridge), the other is trying to break a moral law (speeding because no cop seems to be present).
In the case of the physical laws, retribution is immediate. The delivery truck will get stuck under the bridge, and will remain firmly wedged there, until the use of other physical laws occasions it's removal (eg. a tow truck).
The moral laws are different. We
never break them - we disobey them. Retribution comes later. For the sake of the argument, lets assume there was a hidden speed camera nearby. We think we've gotten away with speeding, but a week or two later a notice turns up in the mail with a photo of the truck and the number plate clearly shown, with a demand for reparation.
The truck driver hasn't "broken" the moral law (or speeding limit). What he has tried to do is disobey it. But the speed limit still stands, and will remain standing, long after he's paid his fine.
In the case of God, he's got a divine speed camera watching us all the time, and it records the lot. When we front up for the judgement, we'll find that all those times we thought we'd gotten away with disobeying His moral laws have been recorded, and now we'll have to answer for them - every single one.
Even our words will have been heard and weighed in the balance - Matthew 12:36 NIV -
But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgement for every empty word they have spoken.
We think we've gotten away with breaking the moral laws, but we're going to be in for a shock when we face the divine judgement seat. We'll find to our eternal horror that they haven't been broken at all, and will be as brass-bound as the law of gravity is to someone stepping off the edge of a cliff.
