Life by Design
by Michael Schutz
R
ecently I’ve added a newer phrase to my teaching toolkit: “God’s design.” It’s a way of describing God’s Law as I try to convey to people that the Law is something different (and much better) than an arbitrary list of rules. In our circles we have a solid grasp on God’s Word to us in Law and Gospel, and yet people in our culture (including in our congregations) can struggle to get beyond the idea that God’s Law—His will for the world and for our lives—is more than a set of rules to obey simply for the sake of obeying. I use the word “design” purposefully. In fact, the word is itself full of the idea of purpose. It’s the exact opposite of arbitrary. Most people think design is about how something looks. But appearance is only one small part of design; it’s much more about how something works. By using the phrase “God’s design” as one way of talking about the Law, we draw attention to the fact that God isn’t an arbitrary rule-maker; He specifically ordered the cosmos in ways that work together in harmony and peace, as we hear even from the beginning of Holy Scripture. Contrary to what many people believe today, we haven’t arrived at this point in history by chance or mutation. We’re here because God created—designed—the whole cosmos according to His goodness. Now, sin has corrupted the whole cosmos so that it no longer works together in the ways that God designed it to work. Not only have the
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THE CANADIAN LUTHERAN May/June 2021
