Take for example how this idea of His ‘Law’ is always coming up in both OT and NT. When we think of or hear mention of ‘the law’, our default setting is to immediately assume that was ‘done away with’ or that ‘we no longer have to deal with or be concerned with the law’.
Oh, we are fine with the ten commandments and like the idea of them being displayed in public. Some wish they were taught in public schools. But when it comes to our ‘salvation’ or being ‘made righteous’, all that is separate and apart from any law. We’ve been taught that throughout most of our Christian upbringing.
And let’s face it...when we hear mention of the ‘law’, our other default setting is to immediately think of this conglomeration of rules and ordinances and dietary restrictions and severe punishments for such little things that make God out to be some grumpy old deity who wants to impose misery on anyone who claims to believe in Him.
Yet...God thought pretty highly of this law He gave us and set in to place. A law, I might add, that whether you believe in it or not, affects every single one of us; much like the law of gravity.
For all you ‘die-hard’ NT believers who hang your hat on ‘grace and faith’ alone, always deflecting and dismissing this idea of God’s law playing a role in any way with our walk of faith, I would invite you to revisit the subject as I think many of us have been duped into believing something else that God never intended for us to believe. Paul refers to it (the law) regularly in statements like these:
“The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” (Rom. 7:12)
“We know the law is good if one uses it lawfully...” ( 1 Tim. 1:9)
“Circumcised or not is irrelevant (paraphrased)...but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.” (1 Cor. 7:19)
Or how about this one: “For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” (Rom. 2:13)
And for all that Paul wrote about regarding faith and grace alone, you might find his comment on trying to link faith and the law together interesting as he ask: “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish or uphold or confirm the law.” (Rom. 3:21)
I would be curious to know if any of those passages are highlighted in your bible?
Then there are those things that Jesus said in regards to the law.
“Don’t think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” (Matt. 5:17) And when a lawyer approached Jesus asking what he needed to do to inherit this eternal life Jesus came preaching about, he was immediately directed back to...the law. “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” Jesus asked him. (Luke 10:25-26)
When the lawyer summed it up, Jesus affirmed to him this was the correct answer by saying “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” As in- you will have eternal life; or as we like to say...’you’ll be saved’.
Here is where I would submit to you that ‘other gospels’ came in and hijacked God’s message that we were warned by Paul would happen. (2 Cor. 11:2-4). I mean, that old serpent still pops up in our heads all the time asking “Hath God really said?” (Gen. 3:1-3)
You might have heard something along these lines - We were all a bunch of wretched sinners (which I agree with) and none of us were anywhere close to being able to keep and obey God’s laws. Jesus was the ONLY one who could ever do it (keep God’s law) and since He was perfect, and then put to death for all our sins to pay our penalty for breaking His laws because God loved us, all we have to do is ‘put our faith in Him’ and ‘trust Him’ and ‘simply believe’ that He died on a cross for us. And if we do or say that and really believe it in our hearts, then we too will have eternal life.
That was pretty much the way I always heard and believed it. And if that is how you have always seen and believed it, I’m not asking you to change up or disregard anything here that I’m about to share. All I would ask of you is to examine some more scripture (because we all agree that God’s word is good, yes? Even when it might not ‘fit’ with the way we have been taught it?). And if we really love Jesus, then we need not be anxious or fear His word because Jesus IS the Word. (John 1:1;14). Now...where all the ‘forks in the road’ appeared was when all the various doctrines and denominations veered off giving their take on what it ‘really meant to trust and believe’ in Jesus. We can discuss all that some other time.
Let’s get back to the law. And just to drive home a point as to why you might want to re-evaluate your interpretation on all this, I’d like to point out the second part of a familiar verse that tends to overlooked when we always mention the first part of it. It’s that one in Hosea 4:6 about how God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. IF you are a parent who loves their kids and ‘wants the best for them’, you might sit up and go make note of this.
Speaking as a parent here, we do pray for our kids and want them to have good lives and ‘follow God’ and we point them to God and drag them to church and do all those things we were told to do or see others do. I think as we grow as parents, we begin to recognize our own failures and limitations and plead for God’s help in raising them and ‘getting them on the right path’. Parenting is not for the faint of heart...Can I get an ‘Amen’ somebody? ;- )
So here is the last line of that verse in Hos. 4:6 – “....because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
I will never forget the morning that line jumped out at me. It was like a hot knife pierced my heart...and I ended up getting up from the counter and took a long walk down my road with tears flowing down my cheeks in repentance. And not to add salt to any similar jab you may have felt when reading that, I feel compelled to point you to look at Lev. 26:22 and Deut. 28:32 as well where God warned His people of the consequences of taking His law lightly.
Friends...When did God change? (Mal. 3:6)
So if/when we are going to re-examine this theme of God’s ‘law’, where do we start? How about a conversation Jesus had with some religious leaders who were so entrenched with their man made doctrines and traditions that they were blinded from seeing who Jesus really was. (That certainly could not happen to us now, could it?!).
He had just silenced the Sadducees when they were together and a certain Pharisee who happened to be a lawyer asked Jesus wanting to ‘test’ Him...”What is the great commandment in the law?” (Matt. 22:37-40). Jesus answered it directly and head on: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Still with me here? Anyone have a problem with that? Are we all in agreement with Jesus?
So let’s get to the ‘heart of the matter’ and please go circle or underline that phrase about loving the Lord our God with ‘ALL OUR HEART’.
This lines up with another one of those ‘themes’ I mentioned at the start that God has a thing about repeating. He repeats Himself often because we have proven to be a bit slow in catching on to what He is trying to teach us. It’s this idea of loving Him with our whole heart.
I can speak personally here and am comfortable with also adding that many others have been in the same boat...or place of ‘captivity’ that I was in for so long. Much like God’s people who were taken captive by Babylon back in the OT. (You also read of another ‘Babylon’ found in the book or Revelation as well...but more on that later).
When people disregard, dismiss, lose sight of, or flat our reject God’s laws, it never ends well for them. But God...who is slow in anger and full of mercy, never stops trying to bring us back to Him. The story of God’s redemption in bringing His people back from the Babylonian captivity is like a foreshadow of what He is wanting to do today for so many of His people who ‘always go astray in their hearts’. (Heb. 3:10). Look what He promised through the prophet Jeremiah in 24:6-7...promising to bring them back to a good land where He will give us a heart to know Him...and that we shall be His people and He will be our God...”for they shall return to Me with their...whole heart”.
Can we talk about this idea of what that really means...to ‘love God with All our hearts?”
Join me tomorrow?
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