God's Law

7 February 2016

Dear Phyllis,

The most profound question I ever faced was when Dave Hanson asked me, “Are the Ten Commandments a prohibition or a promise?”. That one stumped me and it took years before I knew the answer.

It has been arguably said that the Ten Commandments are the most profound words ever written. When God delivered His people from Egypt and led them into the desert to make a covenant with them, the first thing He did was to give them His Law on the two tablets. Then He told them to make a Tabernacle (tent) for Him so He could live with His people. Then the next thing He told them was for them to make Ark (box) in which they were to place the Law (Deut. 10:1-5).

There is no question but what the Law of God is the foundation of the Covenant, but there is considerable confusion in the minds of Christians as to what the Law is. The NT clearly tells us in several places that we are not under the Law (Rom.6:14). But there is a basic difference between the Moral Law of God (Ten Commandments) and the Levitical law. The Levitical law are regulations covering a broad spectrum of areas ranging from sacrifices, cleansing, dietary foods, clothing, agriculture, etc. Certainly, those regulations do not apply to NT Christians. This was a difficult issue in the 1^st century church and Acts 15 settled that argument. But we are not excused from obeying the Moral Law of God. It is abundantly clear that if God is to have a people they must be morally clean just like Himself (1 Pet. 1:15, 16; Heb. 12:14). Therefore the Ten Commandments are very definitely a fundamental part of the Christian life.

In discussing laws there are again two different types of governing laws. There are laws that restrict action and there are laws that cause action. Civil laws keep citizen behavior in check. It covers traffic laws, tax laws, immigration laws, etc. Natural laws determine what will happen. There are laws of physics – gravity, heat, light, etc. There are a tremendous amount of laws in botany and zoology. You can have a jar of different seeds. Each seed has within it the law that will determine what the plant will be. It will determine whether a seed will become a pine tree, an apple tree, a corn stock, or a rose bush. All those laws are hidden in the seed. Scientists have discovered that in all humans and animals there is DNA. There are billions of cells that determine whether he will be Caucasian or Negroid, if he is male or female, the color of his eyes, and thousands of other detailed features. Adam was crated a perfect innocent being, but as a result of his sin something fundamental happened in his spiritual DNA that is called the law of sin (Rom. 3:23,25; 8:2). Tragically that sinful DNA has been transmitted to every descendant of Adam since then. The reason we sin is because of the law of sin inside us. Sinful behavior is the outward expression of the law of sin in us.

May I suggest that the Ten Commandments are the expression of the character of God. The Ten Commandments are a moral code that covers ten different areas ranging from no other god, a break from idolatry, respect for parental authority, respect for the property of others, sexual purity, respect for human life, truth, and a few others. 

When Isaiah and John saw the Throne of God what they saw was exactly the same thing – seraphims worshiping God crying ceaselessly, “Holy, holy, holy” (Isa. 6:1-3; Rev. 4:8). Why? To answer that we must first determine what they mean by holy. Obviously this is the character of God. But how are they going to determine whether or not God is holy. There must be some standard to judge Him by. If there is no moral standard to judge Him by it cannot be said that He is holy. Paul was correct when he said without the law there is no sin (Rom. 7:8). The only thing we can judge God by is His own moral Law. Jesus told us that the law has two sides – negative and positive. The negative side of the Law is the prohibitive side – don't do it. But the positive side of the Law is love. Jesus summed up all the law by saying it is totally covered by two things, loving God and loving others (Mt. 22:36-40). And this is repeated in several other places in the NT. The moral Law of God is the code governing our conduct to things external from ourselves. When the seraphims watch God and see His conduct towards sinful. undeserving, humans, and see the love of God expressed to them, that blows their mind. They see God's performance in love towards mankind and they cry “Holy, holy, holy”. His character is the expression of His Law. It is the law is inside of Him that makes Him what He is.

God made three vehicles in which to place His law. The first was a box called the Ark of the Covenant. The Law was placed in the Ark. But 1500 years later God made another vehicle in which to place His Law. In speaking of Jesus, Hebrews 10:5 says, “In sacrifice and offerings Thou wouldest not, but a BODY hast Thou prepared Me”. This is quoting Psalm 40:6-8, which says, “Thy Law is within My heart”. One of the reasons why God prepared a Body for His Son was to make a vehicle in which to place His Law. The Law of God was in the heart of Jesus.And that determined what He did. The reason Jesus was sinless was because the very law of God was in His heart governing His conduct.

But then God has made a third place to place his law. The first tenant of the New Covenant is that, “I will write My Law in their heart” (Heb. 8:10). How does He do that? The very Spirit of Christ with the law of God has come to live in my heart. The very Law of God that distinguished Him as holy was in the heart of Jesus, And now that Law has come to live in my heart. 

We have a funny view of salvation. Most people believe that salvation means I won't go to hell. But the Bible says that “He will save his people from their sin” (Mt. 1:21). Salvation means deliverance from sin. Paul expressed that in Romans 8:2 when he said, “The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death”. He expressed this another time in explaining that we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, but we are saved (from sin) by His life (Rom. 5:10). This is the answer to the question, “Is the law a prohibition or a promise?” Oh praise God, Jesus has come to live in me. His Law is in my heart. This is my assurance; “Don't worry, you won't steal, you won't kill, you won't commit adultery, etc”. Jesus is living in me. God first placed His law in the Ark of the Covenant, then secondly in the heart of Jesus, and now in me. Oh hallelujah, Thank You, thank You, thank You, Jesus!

                                       bill