15. What The Law Can & Can’t Do

LONNIE: Welcome to Exploring the Word.

JEANNIE: We’re glad you’ve joined us for a deeper look at the riches of the Bible. I promise you’re in for an exciting study today.

LONNIE: We’re going to start off this week with a question about the law of God. Jeannie, what did you find?

JEANNIE: This is something I keep running across in the questions that come into our Discover Bible Schools. One student wrote: “Did Christ’s sacrifice do away with the law? What does it mean that we’re not under law but under grace?”

And then David, from New Jersey wrote: “God used Christ to bring that Law, the law of Moses, to an end. . .We must conclude: the law is not binding on Christians today.”

I know both of us have heard questions like this asked after presentations around the country.

LONNIE: Yes, it’s related to the whole issue of law and grace. And that’s something even theologians wrestle with, try to balance. But you know what, I went to hear Billy Graham at the Rose Bowl recently. It marked fifty-five years since he launched his evangelistic ministry here in Los Angeles. We sat and listened to an 88-year-old evangelist preach with great conviction. And we heard a 95-year-old singer, George Beverly Shea, sing with power. And you know what Billy Graham preached about, what he stressed? The law of God!

This is truly a subject central to Christian teaching. And our Discover Bible Guide number fifteen, “The Secret of Happiness,” will give you additional information on this important topic.

You know, a lot of people think of the law of God as something you run up against, as this unbending, holy obstacle to freedom or fun or fulfillment. The law is how this great policeman in the sky keeps us in line. The law is something you try to get around.

Let’s face it, most of us don’t find the idea of “immutable, unchanging law” very heart-warming, very encouraging. For one thing we know we keep coming up short.

So for some time many Christians have been proclaiming what they believe to be good news, great news in fact: the law has been done away with. "We're not under law," they say, "we're under grace. We don't have to worry about all those precepts anymore." In effect people want to chop off that long arm of God's law that seems so forbidding.

But, do we end up with a distortion of God’s character? Most of us realize that the picture of God as a policeman out to get us is a distortion, a misrepresentation of who He is. But if we picture God as separated from law, is that any more accurate? Is something missing?

As we think about the fine line between protection and freedom, we have to wonder---has God's law really been done away with? What exactly does it mean to not be under the law?

First, let’s ask what people usually mean when they say the law has been done away with. What are they getting at? Well people often mean that we don't have to obey all those Old Testament regulations anymore.

Has the Old Testament law been done away with? I believe the biblical answer must be, yes and no. If we mean—Old Testament regulations--the system of sacrifices and ceremonies which pointed forward to Christ, then that certainly came to an end. It reached its fulfillment in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After Christ's sacrifice there was no further need for the symbolic sacrifices and offerings that pointed to His.

Turn to the book of Hebrews. If there was ever a book about doing away with the old, and bringing in the new, this is it. We’re going to read chapter ten, verse one:

“For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.” Hebrews. 10:1

Here the writer is talking about the law as “a shadow of things to come.” And he’s clearly talking about sacrificial regulations. Yes, this law was done away with.

But, interestingly enough, the New Testament writers also speak of another law which is eternal. Let’s go to Romans. This is the epistle about law and grace, righteousness and justification. Read Romans 7:12:

“Therefore the law is holy, and the commandments holy and just and good.”

Obviously there is a law that hasn't been done away with. And that is the law which reflects the holy, righteous and good character of our heavenly Father. It’s the moral law of God. If you want to throw out the commandments and moral precepts of the Old Testament, then you end up throwing out a great deal of the New Testament as well.

So, regarding the precepts of the Old Testament we have two answers. The
ceremonial regulations as a means of coming to God are a dead end. That's, in a sense, the wrong arm of the law in the New Testament era. But there's a right arm of the law, the one that reveals God's character. That has not been done away with.

It’s God’s moral law. And it’s simply “codified love,” love expressed in writing. God's commandments and teachings, from both the Old and the New Testaments, have value. They can help us know God’s character better—and they can help us in life. Sometimes it takes us time to see the moral value of the law.

Now let’s move to the second thing people generally mean when they say the law has been done away with. That is this: we don't have to keep the law in order to be saved. Is that true?

I would have to say that in one important sense, it isn't true. Now please let me explain. Scripture actually teaches that we must render obedience to God's law in order to be accepted by God and enter heaven. Furthermore, it teaches that we have to obey the law perfectly and completely. Listen to Paul again in his classic epistle on justification by faith, Romans. We’ll look at Romans 2:13. This is one of the Scriptures Billy Graham often refers to.

“For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.”

Those who do the law, fulfill the law, are justified. So the law of God has not been done away with as a requirement, as the standard that must be met. We all stand convicted as sinners before it.

But what’s God's solution? Just this: He fulfilled the law Himself as a man in our place. He didn't do away with the law, He fulfilled it for us. Paul explains the wonderful fact of redemption in Romans 5:19:

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

We win acceptance before a perfect God because we have a perfect Savior who stands in our place, granting us forgiveness and right standing. That’s important to keep in mind. God didn't just throw out His standards because we failed to live up to them. No, His moral law couldn't be changed any more than He could change or His character change. Instead He went to great lengths to fulfill the law. He fulfilled it through the blood, sweat and tears of the Son, Jesus Christ.

Do we have to obey the perfect law in order to be saved? Yes we do. But that perfect obedience is found in only one place: Jesus Christ.

If we still see the law as something we have to fulfill, by accumulating good works, then we’re doomed to fail. Our good works can never measure up, can never fulfill the law.

But Jesus Christ can fulfill the law; He did fulfill the law—in our place.

That's the wonderfully encouraging good news about the law. We can survey
it as a possession, not as a forbidding obstacle. It is ours in the person of the Savior Jesus Christ. We are regarded as if we’d rendered perfect obedience.

Now let's look at one more thing people mean when they say, "The law has been done away with." Sometimes this refers to the belief that we must live the Christian life by feelings only, by the promptings of the Spirit, not the letter of the law. Some sincere people even say that the truly Spirit-filled believer no longer needs the guidance of the law. That inner voice is all we require.

Is this true? Has the law been done away with in this sense?

Well, there are certainly New Testament texts that talk about the futility of trying
to progress in the Christian life by "the works of the law" alone.

Paul makes it clear that the New Covenant is not about the letter of the law, which kills, but about the Spirit, which gives life. The law by itself often functions simply as a thermometer. It measures our moral temperature; it can’t make us well.

Law without spirit, can’t help us grow.

But if the law without the Spirit is a dead end, guess what? So is the Spirit without the law. The Bible makes that clear too. Let's look at that New Covenant which Paul talks about, for example. The prophet Ezekiel actually gave us a preview. Ezekiel 36:26:

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”

What is the result of the Spirit's presence? What does the Spirit do in our hearts? He enables us to keep God's law. Spirit and law are not in opposition; they complement one another.

In 2 Corinthians Paul echoes Ezekiel's promise as he describes the results of his ministry in human lives. Look at chapter three, verse three. Here he tells the Corinthians:

“You are manifestly an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.”

Here the Spirit is pictured writing on human hearts. What does He write? What was written on tablets of stone? Yes, the commandments of God. His codified love. Love spelled out. That's what the Spirit wants to inscribe within us; He wants to etch God's moral principles in our innermost being.

What can help us grow? Law and spirit.

Law and Spirit are a dynamic process. They help us grow. We receive the Spirit through the Word, but the Spirit also helps us see more deeply into the Word. The two are mutually reinforcing.

JEANNIE: Well answering that question was good for me, too, Lonnie. Because I’ve struggled with legalism in my past. You know about the negative pictures of God I had to overcome. And it’s good to see just how everything works together. How the law can work with us for growth, instead of against it. And how it is used for us, instead of against us, even in salvation—because of how Christ fulfilled it.

LONNIE: You’re absolutely right. All these people who are running away from the law, just by instinct, ought to be running toward it. It’s something God uses for our benefit.

JEANNIE: As long as we understand its place, as long as we’re realize that the law no longer has to be an obstacle between us and God.

LONNIE: Christ has taken care of that. And Jeannie, I think to get practical, as you often urge me to do, I’d like to finish with something that can help us re-picture the law, something that can reduce our fears and give us encouragement.

JEANNIE: Sounds great.

You know Hebrew poets had a refreshingly different perspective on God’s moral precepts. Psalm 119 is the pinnacle of Hebrew admiration for something we rarely admire today: the law of God. This psalm is actually an acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet. Each little section begins with one of the letters of the alphabet.

Here in Psalm 119, the psalmist rhapsodizes on the priceless heritage of God's precepts. He longs to meditate on those statutes; he treasures every word in his heart. In the law he finds something "sweeter than honey" and more precious "than thousands of pieces of silver and gold." It is a lamp for his feet, a good counselor, and a great inheritance. Through it God sustains and revives him.

That’s the perspective I hope you will carry with you day by day. Your life can expand in the depth of God’s precepts, in the depth of codified love. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be intimidated. Just enjoy the breadth of God’s moral standards. Enjoy the heights and depths He speaks of. Appreciate the sterling character that these principles reflect.

You can be secure in the knowledge that Jesus Christ has obeyed all these precepts in your place. And so, nurtured in His love, you can grow day by day to experience more of God’s character, more of God’s qualities.

Please claim that heritage with me today. Claim your right to the law fulfilled. Claim the privilege of a higher calling. Stand with those who honor God’s eternal law from this day forward.

Dear Father, we thank You for giving us the Word that can create more in a
world of less. Its principles truly are sweeter than honey and more precious
than gold. Confirm our faith in Your Son, not only as Savior, but also as Lord of our lives. Please write Your law on the tablets of our hearts. Make us teachable disciples. Give us the confidence and energy to follow wherever You may lead. We trust that Your road always takes us to a better place, a place of abundance. In Jesus Name, amen.

JEANNIE: We’ve got an assignment for next week that will give people a head start on a very interesting topic.

LONNIE: Right. Jesus and the Sabbath day. Did He intend to do away with it—or reform it? That’s what we’ll be studying. And I’d like you to read two passages that shed light on the question. Jot these down. Mark 2:23-28 and Hebrews 4:1-11.

JEANNIE: Mark gives us a glimpse of the on-going conflict Jesus had with the Pharisees over the Sabbath. And Hebrews compares Sabbath rest with rest in Christ. So remember, Mark 2:23-28 and Hebrews 4:1-11 for our next program.

LONNIE: Until next week, God bless you. Never stop exploring the Word, and remember, God really does love you.