Lesson 3: God’s Law, His Word, the Commandments
Thy law O God is eternal. God’s law, by which he created, maintains and upholds all things is trustworthy and eternal. It stands firm in the heavens; the secure order of the heavens and the earth proclaim the reassuring truth that God’s word, by which he maintains and upholds all things, is trustworthy and eternal. Your faithfulness extends to all generations. You established the earth and it endures. Your laws endure to this day for all things serve you. If your law had not been my delight I would have perished in my affliction; would not have found the way of life which is in your word. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have established my life. Save me for I am yours; I have sought out your precepts. Just as a surgeons scalpel can cut into the body to expose sickness and disease so the Lord’s word can expose the heart, the mind, and the feelings and the sickness therein, so that by His word we may be healed. There are people who would deny reading the Bible, claiming it was written by man and so is fallible. Yet these same people accept history and current events, even though they were recorded by men. God’s word is even more reliable; as we see in 2 Timothy 3:16: all scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.
Lord I long to see your salvation, and your law is my delight. Let me live that I may praise your name, and may your laws sustain me. Like a sheep, I have gone astray. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands. The Psalmist, for all his devotion to God’s word, making it his guide and most treasured possession, still falls into paths of waywardness and needs to be brought back by the heavenly shepherd. All of us need a similar prayer; and a similar confession.
God’s law, his commands, are good. If we could follow them we’d have peace and happiness throughout our lives. But we can’t; as Paul said in Romans 7: “In my inner being I delight in God’s law but in my members I see another law at work which wages war against the law of my mind and makes me prisoner to my sinful nature. Who will save me from this body of sin and death, (which Paul felt hung upon him like a corpse). Thanks be to God that it has been done by Jesus Christ; so now in my mind I’m able to serve the righteous law of God while in my body I still serve the sinful nature.” As long as we Christians are human, we need to reckon with the fact that we have a sinful nature. But we needn’t be controlled by that sinful nature; for the law of the spirit of life, which is the Holy Spirit within us, sets us free from the law of sin and death, which is our sinful nature. The controlling power of the Holy Spirit sets us free from the controlling power of our sinful nature. The influence of the Holy Spirit draws us from a life of sinfulness to a life of obedience.
We are not under the law in the same manner that people in the OT era were, depending upon it as a means of salvation. The law in itself provides no enablement to resist sin; in fact, it stimulates sin. As Paul said in Romans 7 “If the law had not said thou shalt not covet, I’d not have known what it was to covet; but since the law says thou shalt not covet, every covetous desire within me is awakened.” The law in itself is good and is intended for our good, but because of our hostility and rebellion toward God, all that we know that we shouldn’t do we are drawn to do even more.
So, what the law could not do, in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did, by sending his son in likeness of sinful man to serve as a sin offering and to condemn sin in sinful man. The sin is condemned in us because we are justified by faith in Christ and led to a life of holiness. So now we are able to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law by living not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
The law still has a role in the life of the believer; not as a means of salvation but as a moral and ethical guide obeyed out of love for God and by the power of the Holy Spirit. God’s purpose for sending his son was to provide enablement for us to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law by not allowing the sinful nature to hold sway, but to yield to the directing and empowering ministry of the Holy Spirit within us.