Tuesday: Law Within the Covenant
Deuteronomy 10:12-13
What are your first thoughts when you think of law? Police officers, traffic tickets, judges, and jail? Or do you think of restrictions, rules, authoritarian parents, and punishment? Or, perhaps, do you think of order, harmony, stability? Or maybe even … love?
Image © Krieg Barrie at Goodsalt.com
The Hebrew word torah, translated “law” in our Bibles, means “teaching” or “instruction.” The term can be used to refer to all God’s instructions, whether moral, civil, social, or religious. It implies all the wise counsels God has graciously given His people, so they may experience an abundant life both physically and spiritually. No wonder the psalmist could call the man blessed whose “delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2).
As we read the law or Torah — the instructions and teachings recorded in the books of Moses that became a part of Israel’s covenant — we are impressed with the wide range of instruction. The law touches upon every part of Israel’s lifestyle — agriculture, civil government, social relationships, and worship.
Why do you suppose God provided so much instruction for Israel? (See Deuteronomy 10:13.) In what ways were these instructions for their “good”?
The work of the “law” within the covenant was to provide guidelines to the new life of the human-covenant partner. The law introduces the member of the covenant to the will of God, whom one comes to know in the fullest sense through obedience by faith to His commandments and other expressions of His will.
The part played by the law within the living reality of the covenant relationship showed that Israel could not follow the ways of other nations. They could not live by natural law, human needs, desires, or even social, political, and economic necessities alone. They could continue as God’s holy nation, priestly kingdom, and special treasure only through uncompromising obedience to the revealed will of the covenant-making God in all areas of life.
| Like ancient Israel, Seventh-day Adventists have received a wide range of counsels pertaining to every phase of Christian living through a modern manifestation of the prophetic gift. Why should we view these counsels as a gift from God rather than a detriment to independent thought and action? At the same time, what dangers do we face of turning that gift into something legalistic, as the Israelites did with their gifts? (See Romans 9:32.) |
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Part of the problem we have with law keeping is that we treat it as a sort of measuring stick as to how sanctified we are. We use the lifestyle instructions we have been given as a sort of covert measure as to how good we, or others are. Having been involved in lifestyle programs such as CHIP, I have heard it said that person A still eats chicken now and then and is not as advanced as person B who now eats tofu.
Lets be clear about one thing. God is not going to inspect your stomach contents to see if you are fit for heaven. Lifestyle choices may affect how long you live and how healthily you live, but it is not a measure of how saved you are.
I have told the story before of a wonderful Christian gentleman in my childhood church who had a battle with smoking. He used to nick out between Sabbath School and Church Service to have a smoke downwind from the church building. He wasn't allowed to be baptised or hold church office, but he was an active participant in lesson study and church activities. Several years after I left my home church to come to Australia, I learned that he had finally managed to give up smoking and was baptised. Did he go all those years without being saved? Should he have prayed harder for the Holy Spirit to help him overcome his habit? Can I suggest that he was saved when he gave his heart to Jesus. He did not have to wait until he gave up smoking in order to be saved. The fact that it took years to give it up is not an issue. Yes, I know there are stories of people who have prayed and miraculously had the desire to smoke taken away from them. They were not better at being saved. They just had a different experience.
That is how we are saved. What we do is because we are saved.
You are absolutely right. We do not completely change until we fully give our hearts to Jesus! We focus on our works, and not on our hearts! What am I willing to give up for Christ? Our prayer must always contain the desire for the Holy Spirit to come in and change whatever is needed within us. But we fight this, our hearts are as stones for a lot of things. We want to change, although we can't suceed! God is the only one who can change hearts! But He can only change when we allow Jesus to come in...
What does it mean to be saved? It means to be saved from our sins to become holy/perfect/blameless/to be transformed/ to have a character like the LORD while still on this earth and at His Coming to be given eternal life.
How do we know what His character is like? By the instructions He has given His people on how to live, His Principles of a holy life.
In summary Ex 19-23 and Matt 5-7
Matt 1:21
She will give birth to a Son; and you shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Rom 6:22
But now since you have been set free from sin and have become [willing] slaves to God, you have your benefit, resulting in sanctification [being made holy and set apart for God’s purpose], and the outcome [of this] is eternal life.
Matt 5:48
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
1Peter 1:13-16
13Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14As obedient children, do not conform to the passions of your former ignorance. 15But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, 16for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Lev 19:2
Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
Deut 18:13
You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.
Gen 6:9
This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.
Gen 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.
Job 1:1,8
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and shunned evil…
Joshua 24:14
Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; cast aside the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
1Kings 8:58,61
58May He incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways and to keep the commandments and statutes and ordinances He commanded our fathers.
61So let your heart be fully devoted to the LORD our God, as it is this day, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments."
Shirley, when the Phillipian jailer asked Paul, "What must I do to be saved," Paul replies, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." (Acts 16:30-31) And that's exactly how the jailer was saved. (See also Eph 2:8)
From that point on, I'm sure the Holy Spirit worked in His life to transform him to be like Jesus.
I appreciate your reference to the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7). In it, Jesus pronounces blessings on the "poor in spirit" (those who recognize their spiritual needs) and then goes on to pronounce blessings on His followers on each step of their journey. We are justified/saved immediately when we accept Christ as Savior by faith. (Rom 3:28) And then Christ works His righteousness out in us through His Spirit so that our lives are changed to be "holy/perfect/blameless." Gal. 5:22-23
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Rom 8:7
Law Within the Covenant
'Why should we view these counsels as a gift from God rather than a detriment to independent thought and action.'
It is the sins in us humans. The sinful man is at enmity against God. The sinful heart cant please a Holy Father. Satan and the father of all sins is on one spectrum. Jesus and the law/covenant is on another spectrum. The two can occupy in the same space, the are always at war with each other. But where sin abound, grace more abound. Light and darkness cant occupy the same space at the same time.
Many people living in sin/darkness does not, can not just leave the darkness of sin and move to the light of Christ. At that time when they are in boundage to sin sin captivates people/humans/us/we. But Jesus liberates sinners/us. Many who drives break the speed limits everyday with good intentions. We drive within the speed limits only when we are early. When we are late we make a dash.
We, humans like more the merrier. We like to make more and more rules which we ourselves cant keep. The law by itself can only be kept through Jesus. It liberates, rightly practice it brings joy and happiness to sinners.
Galatians 3:24-26
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
We have to remember that there is the letter of the law (the literal) and the spirit of the law (the principle or meaning behind it). Until we have the law in our hearts, the letter of the law acts as a guide for us. Once the spirit of the law, or love is in our hearts, we will be naturally prompted by that. The law will no longer be a burden to us. We will live by the Spirit and not the flesh. Obeying the law without faith is of the flesh and is burdensome.
Annette - thank you for saying so much with so few words!
Any agreement between two parties must have terms upon which to agree, so the law(Torah) of the Lord defines these terms. If we dwell on them prayerfully, we will notice they are all summed up by the 10 commandments spoken by the Lord and written stone. These 10 commandments are summed up by the two great commandments. In essence, the covenant will lead us away from sin and teach us how to live “sober, righteous, and Godly in this present world”(Titus 2:12). The law is simply the Sovereign expressing His will to His creatures whom He delights to nurture and bless.
The instructions of the Lord were/are good for all sinners in every way one could imagine. Our conception of holiness is vague at best, and for most, is rarely considered. It is impossible to know ourselves as sinners, and this gracious offer from God should be every sinner's highest priority. Nothing else can compare in this temporal life, and only eternity will allow us to see the blessedness of this wonderful Gift of grace given in the Law and God's covenant with "whosoever believeth".
Any who remain unconverted will look at the counsel from the Lord as a restriction upon their individual freedom, and the reality is that many put little importance on what is often looked upon as legalism or even fanatical. The love of the world and the things of the world still rules the in the heart of many professed believers. Few understand their own true condition or the true condition that prevails in many of our churches. Many have become very good at stifling the conviction of both God's Word and Spirit.
Yesterday I asked “What does the Law represent, what is its purpose?”, today I want to add the question: "What does the Spirit of the Law represent".
Psalm 51:10KJV – to: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right (a constant) spirit within me” - is in my opinion the purpose of the Law.
2Cor.3:2-6KJV - "Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit:for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth (quickeneth) life.> This is the spirit of the law - it gives life!
Faith and adherence to the Will of God accomplishes in man that which cannot be accomplished any other way.
With the ‘clean’ heart and the ‘right (constant)’ spirit within us, we are well equipped to live our lives according to the spirit of the Law – LOVE; love between the Father and His children, and love between each other – 1John:4:20-21KJV.
And yes, Matt.5:1-12KJV lays out how this by the Holy Spirit empowered life becomes evident.
And yes, Deut.10:12-15KJV – v.13 ” ….. which I command thee this day for your *own good*” has our Creator tell us His Truth, and the clean and therefore receptive heart perks up and listens.
Ultimately, the law becomes more than a guideline – the law represents the Will of God, becoming the manifestation of the Glory of God within man. Therefore, there is no more spiritual separation between God and man.
Rom.8:1-9KJV
- v.2 ”For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”.
- v.4 ”That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”.
- v.7 ”Because the carnal mind (the minding of the flesh) is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be”.
- v. 9 ”But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”.
I guess I have to look back upon the life of Daniel and his 3 friends, or Joseph who was in a similar situation. Their unwavering obedience made them an effective witness for God. Joseph saved a nation, which paved the way for Christ to be born. Daniel and his 3 friends witnessed to one of the mightiest kings on earth, and because of their unwavering obedience, I believe we will get to meet Nebuchadnezzar. Unwavering obedience by Eve would have made this discussion unnecessary. Before sin, the angels had no idea their was a law to obey, it was just the way they lived. By discounting obedience we are denying the power of Jesus to transform our lives. 2 Timothy 3:5 comes to mind. Obedience does not save us, it allows God to change us, but we have to be willing to be changed.