How do you view the law of God? Do you think it’s old, outdated, or rigid? Is it merely a moral guideline? Or like the psalmist in Psalm 119:20, is your soul consumed with longing for God’s rules?
When I talk about the law in today’s article, I am mainly talking about God’s law, specifically the Ten Commandments and the rest of God’s Word that helps us understand God’s commandments. For more on how the law can not save us and ceremonial laws, be sure to download Lesson 4: The Law in my Anchored To Truth Bible Study.
There is so much I can say about God’s law. When writing this, I thought of a hundred different rabbit holes I could go down. However, my purpose for today’s post is to challenge you to consider how you view God’s law, and to encourage you to study Scripture with the intent to rightly view God’s law.
The Law is Not Subjective
A lot of people, believers and unbelievers, treat God’s law the way they treat government law, subjectively. I won’t steal unless I need something someone else has and doesn’t need. I will obey law enforcement unless I don’t agree with what they are doing.
Without law, chaos ensues. We saw proof of this last week in our country. For the last several years people have broken the law in order to enter our country. Instead of punishing them or denying them entry, we have rewarded them at the expense of people who did not break the law. Last week while the government was enforcing the law, a woman was killed for resisting law enforcement and attempting to run down an agent with her car. Our elected officials responded by telling law enforcement to get out of the city and urged further resistance from the people who live there. Riots ensued.
Our God is not a God of chaos. He is a God of order. We see that in His creation, design, and His law. Men and women, in our sinfulness, desire chaos and disobedience. As followers of Christ, we need to recognize that God’s law is objective. It does not change based on our feelings or what we want to believe. The examples above are not just disobedience to government law. They are disobedient to God’s law. Don’t deceive yourself, when you support these things you are not abiding in God and His Word. You are not loving your neighbor. You are following the prince of the power of the air.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2:1-3
The Law is Objective
The law is objective and reflects God’s character. It is what it looks like to be holy and without sin. When we look at the law, we should see God, and in relation to that, we should see our sinfulness. The law without Christ (which we will talk about next month) is very bad news. While we may attempt to be obedient to some of it, we fall short of being obedient to it all, all the time.
However, as followers of Christ we should love God’s perfect law. First, we have been saved from it, and we are no longer judged based on the law. Second, it reflects the very object of our love. We love the law because it shows us God. We obey it because we desire to put off the old self and put on the new self in Christ (Ephesians 4:22-24).
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter of the Bible, and it is a love poem all about God’s Word. I try to read it regularly because it challenges me to evaluate my affections. According to Psalm 119, I should have a great love for God’s Word, and I should learn, store up, and keep His commandments.
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! Psalm 119:1
The Lie
For years I believed that the Ten Commandments were just a list of thou shalt nots, and as a Christian you should seek to follow them. However, if it wasn’t clearly spelled out in the Ten Commandments then I believed it was permissible. Though I have to admit there were a few commandments I didn’t really understand. I believed they were suggestions on how to live a moral life. I didn’t realize that they laid out all the ways I sin against God and against others.
We can not live disobedient to God’s law and claim that we know God. Scripture tells us that we are no longer children of wrath, but children of righteousness (1 John 3:10). We are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18). Some of the most sobering words from Scripture come directly from Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Anchored To Truth
I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. Psalm 119:48
As followers of Christ, we should desire to know what God says is right and wrong. The world treats truth subjectively instead of rightly as objectively. For this reason, we must not listen to the world when seeking to live righteously. We must look to the Word of God. I encourage you to seek to grow in our knowledge of God, abide in His Word, so that you can live His truth, and truly understand what is righteousness and what is sin.
Be sure to download Lesson 4: The Law of Anchored to Truth. I welcome your questions and comments. Send me an email through my Contact Page.