This song, with its extremely simple main riff and chorus, was released as a single from Priest's 1980 "British Steel" album, and was one of their big breakthrough songs. It is now considered one of the most famous Hard Rock/Heavy Metal songs ever. The lyrics tell of someone who gets tired of everything that comes with an ordinary life - that life has become boring. This leads the person to take a chance and start breaking the law.
The band members used to meet up at various houses to write, and they just broke into that riff one day and the song wrote itself. They wrote that song in about an hour, I think. Rob Halford just started singing, 'Breaking the law, breaking the law,' and before they knew it they had a classic Priest song."
all inside it's so frustrating as I drift from town to town
feel as though nobody cares if I live or die
so I might as well begin to put some action in my life
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
So much for the golden future, I can't even start
I've had every promise broken, there's anger in my heart
you don't know what it's like, you don't have a clue
if you did you'd find yourselves doing the same thing too
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
You don't know what it's like
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law
Rob Halford speaking of these times said: "It was a time in the UK when there was a lot of strife-a lot of government strife, the miners were on strike, the car unions were on strike, there were street riots. It was a terrible time. That was the incentive for me to write a lyric to try to connect with that feeling that was out there. We never went into a room and said, 'We've got to try and get this punk attitude into our music,' but it certainly seemed to capture some of that anarchy in its projection, musically."
It seems at times that the average person who believes in Jesus is more unhappy than the average person who does not. I'm not sure if that's the case everywhere across the globe, but I wonder why are we so unhappy at times? Isn't this the exact opposite of what followers of Jesus should be?
I think one of the reasons we can become unhappy as Jesus followers is because we still struggle with sin, and it's frustrating. When we come to accept Jesus as our Saviour, we begin to feel the prompting to change into a reflection of Christ. But, being human, we fall short. (The bible calls this lawbreaking)and we always will. Though we desire to change, we fail. Paul describes this perfectly in Roman 7:15-20:
"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."
No matter how hard we try, we fail because of the law of sin and death. We continue to break the law. God's law. We cannot keep to it's high standards. As followers of Jesus we need to often come to this point that Paul describes later in Ch. 7. “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). But sometimes we stop there in verse 24….. here we sit feeling condemned. This is the place that we set up shop and like the children of Israel, we live in this desert place. Who will rescue us?!….well, the answer lays in verse 25:
”Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord”
You see, we cannot change ourselves, and this is something we all need to come to understand. We will continue to break the law, we will continue to fail and not hit the mark. But we are not meant to sit there and sulk in self condemnation. No, we are meant to run into the loving arms of Christ, where his blood has cleansed us!!
“Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of Life set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)
This means that the grace of Jesus surpasses the law of sin and death!! this in truth means that although we are law breakers there is solution in Jesus Christ.
Law and Grace have been described as the law of gravity and the law of aerodynamics: Yes, we have sinned, broken the law and should have the consequences, much like falling off of a ladder, you always fall down due to the law of gravity. But if we accept the grace of Jesus Christ, we are taking up a different law that surpasses that of the law of sin and death, much like how if someone jumps off of a cliff and doesn’t fall, but rather flies because they have the proper equipment to use the law of aerodynamics to surpass the law of gravity. It's not a great illustration but you get the point.
Both laws are still intact, but one surpasses the other!
So this does not mean we will no longer sin (we still have the sinful nature in us), but rather that we have the tools to not sin (Galatians 5:17). He always provides a way of escape for us when we are tempted (1 Corinthians 10:13). But when we do sin, God will always pull us back up! He provides a way where there is no way. That is the workings of Grace.
So there we are. The short of it is that Jesus condemns lawbreakers, He only convicts (a prompting to change). When you feel condemned, that is not of Jesus as he does not come to condemn or judge us, but to change us. You always have hope. And God will always provide the escape for you if you count on Him and not yourself. Believe in Grace, and live in it. Jesus Christ paid for all of our iniquities! He invites all lawbreakers everywhere to fast of his life transforming grace.
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