The Law is Good
The Bible makes clear that the Law is good and that there are blessings associated with it:
Deu 30:14-20 But the word is very near you. It is in
your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. "See, I have set
before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the
commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving
the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his
commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and
multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are
entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and
you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve
them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall
not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter
and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that
I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore
choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your
God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and
length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to
your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."
Rom 7:12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
The question that naturally arises is: if the law is so good, then why do people have such a big problem with it?
The problem is, as Paul concludes, that no one can fulfill the Law in a
way that is acceptable to God. Remember the definition we have arrived
at concerning the meaning of the word “righteousness” from 1:17:
God works to the fullest extent of his holiness and love simultaneously
in any given situation, especially as it relates to Jesus Christ and
his completed work on the Cross.
The Law points the way to God’s righteousness, it is a perfect roadmap.
Unfortunately, we fail on both counts, holiness and love, to fulfill
the law. In terms of holiness, the Law defines God’s expectations of us
and leaves people without any excuses. In other words, the Law reveals
God’s character to us, with no room for us to add anything according to
our imaginations. But simply giving people a list of do’s and don’ts is
not sufficient because it is in the aspect of Love that we fail most
completely. It is the lack of love that keeps us from going the
distance as we consider everything a law implies. Love is the dimension
of the Law that the Jews missed. Our example would be the Jews and the
Ten Commandments. What was the problem with the way they viewed the
Law? The problem was that the Jews narrowly defined the law in its
holiness, only in dry terms of what was permitted and not permitted and
left out its relational aspects, both with God and with each other.
This lack of love is evident in their interactions with Jesus, who
understood the true purpose of the Law. Walking according to the flesh,
they looked only to the fleshly results: whether or not they could
justify their actions. But Jesus who was walking according to the
Spirit, however, not only saw the actions but the motives behind the
actions and what God thought of those motives...
Mar 3:1-5 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man
was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether
he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he
said to the man with the withered hand, "Come here." And he said to
them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save
life or to kill?" But they were silent. And he looked around at them
with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man,
"Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
The Jews were both unconcerned with what the man was going through
(they did not love him) and what God thought about it (they did not
love God). They reduced righteousness down to a set of rules and forgot
that the whole point of righteousness is the ability to see what the
right thing is and to care enough to do it! Here are a few verses that
directly tie love to the fulfilling of the Law.
Luk 10:26-28 He said to him, "What is written in the
Law? How do you read it?" And he answered, "You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." And he
said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live."
Rom 13:10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Love, by definition, cannot do wrong because it arises out of the Holiness of God. Love points us back to its source.
Gal 5:14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
If these verses are true, then let’s apply Love to the Ten
Commandments, making them positive commands instead of negative ones,
looking at them the same way Jesus did:
Exo 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall have God completely
Eph 3:16-19 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being
rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all
the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to
know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be
filled with all the fullness of God.
Exo 20:4-6 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any
likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow
down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and
the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love
to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall see the image of God fully formed in you.
Rom 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed
to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among
many brothers.
Exo 20:7 "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for
the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
When you speak it will be in the Name of the Lord.
Exo 20:8-11 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you
shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to
the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son,
or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your
livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days
the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and
rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and
made it holy.
Keep everyday holy by no longer working, (in order to please God) by resting in Jesus.
Exo 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
No Change!
Exo 20:13 "You shall not murder.
You shall be a source of life to people.
Exo 20:14 "You shall not commit adultery.
You shall be one flesh with your spouse.
Exo 20:15 "You shall not steal.
You shall give away your life.
Exo 20:16 "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall be always uplifting towards your neighbor.
Exo 20:17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not
covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant,
or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."
You shall be satisfied with what the Lord provides you, and most of all, in Him.
The most striking thing about looking at the Ten Commandments in this
way is that we have now defined the Law in terms of what we CAN do
instead of what we CANNOT do. All good things are permitted and even a
quick look down through the list shows just how vast our horizons are.
The law points to freedom, not restriction. It is in fact when we
ignore the Law that we bind ourselves into small places that restrict
us. Think in your own life where not following the Law has led to this.
By ignoring the Spirit (literally!) of the Law, we become like the Jews
were.
This, is the bridge between the Law and Grace, I believe. The Law is
still in effect but it is redefined and, because of Jesus, no longer
out of reach.
Chris
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