Be careful about dismissing God's Law
CHAPTER 19: Of the Law of God
(Parts One through Three)
God gave Adam and Eve laws in Genesis 1:28 while they were in the Garden of Eden, before the Fall. The first was a command to be fruitful and multiply. The second was to take dominion over the creation (not as owners, but as managers over what was God’s.)
God gave another command in Genesis 2:16-17 which included a positive and a negative. The positive was His provision of everything they needed to eat (and that it was good!). The negative was a prohibition not to eat the fruit of one particular tree in the garden. To add teeth to the prohibition, God wrapped the command, not to eat, in a consequential threat. “In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die!” (v.17)
There was nothing about the fruit of that tree that was poisonous. The issue was not unsafe food. The issue was about how unsafe it is to disobey God!
Adam and Eve broke the law regarding consumption of the prohibited fruit (Genesis 3:6). As a result, though they did not physically die on the day they ate, they began to die. (God graciously allowed them to live, giving them opportunity to repent.) They did die spiritually on that day. All of their posterity died along with them and has been doing so ever since (Romans 5:12). Every time anyone dies, God is reminding us about the penalty for breaking His law.
This law regarding obedience to God was placed in the heart of every man after the fall. It still is.
(Part Two)
God first wrote His Law on the hearts of all mankind (Romans 2:15), and He continues to do so to this day.
Later, God wrote His Law in stone at Mount Sinai in the form of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17).
The Ten Commandments are not different, but expanded.
The first four of the Ten Commandments are about our relationship with God, namely, worshiping God acceptably: (1) There is only one true and living God and He is the only One to worship. (2) We must not worship idols, or use idols to worship the true and living God. (3) We must not take the Lord’s name in vain—which is far more than a prohibition against using God’s name as a swear word. It means we must not worship God in a vain manner, or dare to claim to be His if we are not following Him. (4) Honoring the Sabbath means that in addition to worshiping God every day, we are to set one day in seven aside specifically to worship God.
Why does God begin with these four? Because our relationship with God is the basis of everything else in our lives. We were created to worship God. Those who refuse to worship God worship something else. Who or what are you worshiping—and how?
(Part Three)
The next six of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:12-17) are about our relationships with fellow human beings. (5) Honoring one’s parents is first because it is the only human relationship that every human being has. Everyone has biological parents, regardless of what kind of parents they were, or if one ever even knew one’s parents. (6) The prohibition against murder is a reminder of the sanctity of human life, since humans beings are created in the image of God. Murder is a sin against the One in whose image we are created. (7) The prohibition against adultery is a reminder of the importance of faithfulness in marriage and sexual purity—not to mention that believers are the Bride of Christ. (8) The prohibition against stealing affirms respect for other people’s property, just as we would have others respect ours. (9) The prohibition against bearing false witness, or lying, in any matter is a reminder of the importance of truth. After all, God is not merely truthful, He is truth. (10) The prohibition against coveting zeros in on the fact that sins originate in the heart long before they are acted upon. God not only legislates morality, but even morality in our hearts.
We must begin with our relationship with God, but we must not end there. Being right with God demands that we be right with one another. God’s moral law found in the Ten Commandments covers all the necessary bases. Perfectly.
Who is saved by keeping God's Law?
CHAPTER 19: Of the LAW OF GOD
(Parts Four and Five)
According to Jesus (Mark 12:28-31) the Ten Commandments and the whole of God’s Law can be summarized in the two greatest commandments. Number One: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and Number Two: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Note the following about these two commandments that capture God’s Law:
The first and greatest commandment is to love God with every fiber of one’s being. Therefore the greatest sin is to fail to love God with every fiber of one’s being. Who among us has always loved God above all? None.
The second commandment is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Please note that there are two commandments, not three. It is a complete misreading of the Bible to adopt the modern psychological interpretation that says: (a) we must learn to love ourselves so that we can love others; (b) therefore the second commandment is to love ourselves and the third is to love others. Jesus said there are two commandments, not three. He said we must learn to love others as we already naturally love ourselves. The essence of sin is to love ourselves ahead of God and others.
The person who loves God will worship and obey Him. The person who loves his neighbor will honor his parents and refrain from doing harm to his neighbor, will be faithful to his marriage vows, will not take his neighbor’s goods, lie to or about him, and he will not even desire his neighbor’s possessions in his heart.
(Part Five)
In addition to the moral law (that is timeless and binding on all people), God gave Israel ceremonial and civil laws to direct them religiously and nationally. When Christ fulfilled the ceremonial laws in His life, death, and resurrection, and when Israel ceased to exist as a nation (ultimately in 70 AD), those ceremonial and civil laws became obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).
That those laws are obsolete does not mean they have no significance. They still contain many moral principles. The moral law and the moral principles in the ceremonial and civil law are valuable and binding for all people at all times. Breaking those laws or the moral principles in those laws is the essence of sin, as stated in 1 John 3:4. “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”
Keeping the Law was never a means of salvation, since no one (excepting Jesus) ever has, or even can, keep God’s Law perfectly. Even if one could successfully keep all the Law starting today, that would not undo that person’s guilt for having broken the Law before today.
The good news is that Jesus has kept and fulfilled the Law for those He came to save.
The role of the Law in salvation. Huh?
CHAPTER 19: Of the Law of God
(Parts Six & Seven)
The Law, though in no way a means for salvation (Romans 3:20), is not to be discarded by believers (Romans 12:7, 12). Paul’s words that we are not “under the law” but “under grace” (Romans 6:14) is referring to our deliverance from the condemnation of the law (Romans 8:1), not the standard of holiness revealed by the law.
Believers must look to the law (a) to see Christ who is the only perfect law Keeper, and (b) as a standard of holiness to strive for in the power of the Holy Spirit—not for salvation but because we have received salvation by God’s grace alone, received through faith alone, in Christ alone. Believers must look to Christ, the gospel, and the indwelling Holy Spirit are the motive and means by which me may obey the law, even though none of us does so flawlessly this side of Heaven.
Let New Testament believers join David in joyfully declaring “Oh, how I love Your Law. It is my meditation day and night!” (Psalm 119:97), and may we thereby enjoy the peace that results from loving God’s law (Psalm 119:65).
(Part Seven)
While it is true that the law can only condemn and it is the Spirit, through the Gospel, who gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6), the Law and the Gospel are not contrary to one another. We might even say that the Law is the first part of the Gospel since “people need to be lost before they can be saved.” It is the Law that evangelistically condemns sinners so that in desperation they might cry out to God for the mercy that is found exclusively in Christ and the Gospel (Galatians 3-4).
And once a person is saved, the Law does not become obsolete (Romans 7:7). Rather, once born again, believers have a new love for God’s law (Ps. 119:97). Believers are motivated by the Gospel to want to obey God’s moral law. Believers are also empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit to be able to obey God’s law (though because of the corruption that remains, believers obey God’s law imperfectly at best).
Think of it: it is our breaking of God’s law that condemns us (1 John 3:4). Being forgiven does not make disobeying God’s law of no importance! (Romans 6:1) Instead, being forgiven transforms us from law-breakers into grateful and joyful law-keepers.
Let the redeemed understand and love God’s Law!
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