Faith, Grace and the Law

.... In this module we’ve discussed faith and grace in their most practical terms, in the effective role they play in our daily walk with the Lord. But this, in turn, brings us to a special Christian perspective on the law and it’s proper place and usage:

.... "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

(Jeremiah 31:33-34)

.... This prophecy from Jeremiah, as well as three similar prophecies, foretold how we would become a new creation in Christ, what this would look like, and what it would mean (Jeremiah 24:7; 32:39-40; Ezekiel 11:19-20; 36:25-27; 2 Corinthians 5:17). As we can see, a new creation still resembles the law very closely in some vital yet more heartfelt and spiritual way, that through it we may know the Lord Himself. To explain this special sense, let’s go back to the beginning and use God Himself as the best example:

.... God has always existed, and everything that was created has been derived from Him. The mark of His wisdom, creativity, and thought is inherent within each aspect of His creation because He made all these things through purposeful decisions and designs. Therefore, they include a glimpse of His innermost thoughts if we will earnestly trace them back to His character as the source.

.... Such, too, is His work in authoring the Scrip- tures. Through them we see evidence of His personality as He spoke on different subjects, and this is also the case with the law that He gave through Moses -- and that is something you may need to think about carefully. For the law itself was derived from the same principle as every other passage in Scripture:

.... "For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

(Luke 6:45)

.... In other words, the law was not simply an abstract rule book for mankind. But each individual law, with the decisions, guidance and wisdom it contained, reflected the abundance of God’s heart or character in some essential way. Basically, He was telling us what He would have done in those situations, and this offers us an amazing insight into His heart and mind! So let’s summarize, making certain we keep things in perspective, to insure we’ve gotten it right:

.... God’s character and the righteous requirements of the law are utterly identical. But His character is the true and original standard, and the law is merely a reflection of Him. It is not the other way around! He is not under the law, but the law is under Him. And in the sense that the law reflects His sense of righteous conduct, it still contains many vital lessons for the Christian who will use it lawfully today, that is, when we look beyond the 'rule book' mentality to glimpse the underlying lessons of God’s character, at the source (1 Timothy 1:8).

.... "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith."

(Galatians 3:24)

.... We will continue this discussion in our next posting.

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Daily Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 3