Have you ever noticed how many different laws there are to live by and that they are continually increasing? With just a quick search I found that from the 1970’s to the present there have been over 300 laws added into legislation annually.  That puts the number of laws added to legislation at over 12,000 just since the 70’s. Consider this; there is common law, federal law, state law, and local law. On top of that there are many types of law to reflect on. There is procedural law, substantive law, criminal law, contract law, and tort law. Can you imagine having to keep up with all that?

Just for fun let’s take criminal law and try to figure out where we are. In an example of a FAILED attempt to tally up the number of laws on this area, in 1982 the Justice Department tried to determine the total number of criminal laws. For two years this effort was headed by Ronald Gainer, a Justice Department official, and is considered the most exhaustive attempt to count the number of federal criminal laws. According to a July 23, 2011 Wall Street Journal article about this project, “this effort came as part of a long and ultimately failed campaign to persuade Congress to revise the criminal code, which by the 1980s was scattered among 50 titles and 23,000 pages of federal law.” Or as Mr. Gainer characterized this failed attempt: “[y]ou will have died and [been] resurrected three times,” and still not have an answer to this question.

It is exhausting trying to figure out this mess we call law! In the Bible, the Old Testament has more than 600 laws in which an individual was to keep in order to get to heaven. However, God knew something the rest of humanity couldn’t figure out. That it is impossible to adhere to all those laws all the time. The important thing to know at this point is God made it easier. He sent His One and ONLY Son to help you and I get there! It just takes FAITH in Jesus! Do you have it?

“For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16