The Law Of The Lord

The law of the Lord is Perfect, converting the soul Psalm 19:7

How do we in this generation view our accountability to the Law of God? Has God’s moral law, His Ten Commandments, been done away with? Are they as binding today as when they thundered forth from Mt. Sinai centuries ago? Do we actually look upon The Decalogue as the eternal law by which all will be judged? (Ecclesiastes 12:13,14). Today as moral values seem to be spiraling out of control, where do we place God and His Law in our life?

Many feel today that “the law” has been nailed to the cross, that it is no longer binding upon mankind, that we are now under Grace, free from any obligation to obey the law. But Romans 6:1, 2 states: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. What is “grace”, how do we define “sin” and what “law” is spoken of in Colossians 2:14 as being nailed to the cross?

Grace....we hear much today about grace, but what is it? God’s grace, His marvelous grace, extends to mankind the unmerited favor that they in their sin do not deserve. We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The penalty of the broken law is upon each of us, but through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus we are justified and set free from the curse of the law (Romans 3:24), covered by His sacrifice, His death upon Calvary. By this grace, this unmerited favor, we are saved, washed by the blood of the Lamb. There is nothing that we of ourselves can do to merit this grace. It is a gift of God to all who believe, who have faith in what Christ has done for us. (Ephesians 2:8).

Sin......how we do we define this evil that plagues mankind? Sin is love, love of self, a turning away from God to follow our own inclinations. Sin is pride, sin is lust, sin is disobedience, sin is anything that steps between you and your relationship with God. 1 John 3:4 states that “Whosoever committeth sin trangresseth the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. But if the law is no longer binding then how do we know sin? Romans 3:20 states, for by the law is the knowledge of sin . Paul states in Romans 7:7: “I had not know sin, except by the law”. Therefore, do we continue in sin that God’s grace may abound? We cannot use God’s abundant grace as a shield for our sinful nature. Christ died to save us “in” our sins, but He also died to save us “from” its power in our life. The law does not save. No matter how hard we try, we cannot gain the victory over the power of sin by the works of the law. It is only through faith in Jesus Christ and His victory over sin and Satan that the battle will be won. It is what Christ did on Calvary and what He does now through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can defeat the powers of darkness. Sin only has power in our life as we allow it to have its way, that we surrender to its working in our life. Sin is a desire to exalt our independence from God. The law mirrors the character of God, His unconditional love, His sacrifice, His care for His children and is in total contrast to the selfishness of sin. Therefore, as the scripture states, we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments (1 John 3:3). Obedience will be the fruit of our faith. Here is the true test....if we abide in Christ, if the love of God dwells in us, our feelings, our thoughts, our purposes, our actions, will be in harmony with the will of God as expressed in the precepts of His holy law. If God’s law is truly written in the heart, will it not shape and reform our life? When we obey God out of love, this is the true sign that we are His disciples. Christ himself found it a delight to do the will of His Father and keep His commandments. Psalm 40:8; John 15:10

If the moral law is still binding upon mankind, what law then was nailed to the cross? What law was done away with? Was it the everlasting, eternal, moral law written by the mighty hand of God on Mt Sinai, or was it the ceremonial laws that foreshadowed the sacrifice of the Lamb of God? The ceremonial laws of types and shadows which pointed forward to the death of the true Lamb, had no meaning after the cross. The rent veil in the temple at the death of Christ (Matthew 27:51) indicated the end of the animal sacrifice system. These annual feasts, the handwriting of ordinances no longer necessary after Christ’s death, were nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14), but the law of God, the law of liberty, of happiness and peace, written for the benefit of mankind, remains The first four show our relationship to our creator and the last six our relationship to our fellowman. We must obey the law in all points, for he who offends in one point, is guilty of all (James 2:10), and the wages of the broken law is death (Romans 6:23). Those who say we are not under the law but under grace do err, for Christ Himself stated that He came not to destroy the law but to fulfill (Matthew 5:17). By His own obedience to the law, Christ testified to its immutable character and proved that through His grace it could be perfectly obeyed by every son and daughter of Adam. So long as heaven and earth exist, the holy principles of God’s law will remain as a blessing to all who choose to hear and obey out of love for Him. Thus the Scripture says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:3). Instead of releasing man from obedience, it is faith, and faith only, that makes us partakers of the grace of Christ, which enables us to render obedience.

There are two errors that we as the children of God need to guard against. The first is looking to our own works for salvation. Trying to keep the law in our own righteousness will avail nothing. The second error is equally dangerous....that belief in Christ releases men from keeping the law of God; our works have nothing to do with our redemption. If our hearts have been truly renewed in the likeness of our divine Creator, obedience will be out of love not duty, fear or formalism. Love will be the guiding force in a heart truly regenerated by the indwelling power of The Holy Spirit.

We are living in a very crucial time of the world’s history. As we near the year 2000 many feel an awesome awareness of prophetic fulfillment. Many prophecies of end-time proportions seem ready to burst upon the scene as the world suffers endlessly from moral, spiritual and social decay. The insidious disease of sin with its mistrust, depravity and apathy tears away at the very fiber of our society. We have become a godless people with no rules, no guidelines, no responsibility but to self. Even some churches today are teaching that God’s standard of right and wrong no longer applies. His commandments, they say, have been abolished, or they are no longer relevant, or they are impossible to keep. Society today, however, is learning the hard way that we don’t find freedom by throwing out the rules. Once the standard of right and wrong is removed, chaos follows. As the apostle Paul put it in the first chapter of Romans, when man does not see fit to acknowledge God, he is given up to wallow in his own depravity. Page after page of human history shows the destruction that has befallen a world who has set aside the divine principles of their Creator. One of the major issues that will split the world into two camps in the coming tribulation is over the law of God versus the doctrines of man. Revelation 14:6-11, one of the most solemn and urgent messages in scripture, calls mankind to fear God and give Him glory, worshipping Him who created heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of water. Here we see a portion of the fourth commandment showing God as the sovereign Lord of all the earth, He who desires all honor, glory and worship. Vs 8 calls us away from the intoxicating wine of false teachings and humanistic ideas that may seem right in our own thinking but subtly and surely draws us away from true allegiance to the will of God in our life. How far have we fallen from the grace of God, following instead the desires of our own heart, justifying our path with weak and selfish excuses? What will be the final result of our choice, our willful desire, our human pride, our disobedience to God? Vs 9,10 of Revelation gives the answer. Those who refuse God will receive Hs wrath, poured out without mercy. They will receive the very thing they desire.....complete and final separation from Almighty God! In the midst of this terrible scene of destruction we find the faithful who through patient endurance remain steadfast. Revelation 14:12 states: Here is the patience of the saints: Here are they that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus, a spirit controlled life that was obedient to the will of His Father.

Satan is a great deceiver. All throughout the history of man his prime objective has been to destroy man’s loyalty to Christ. Through counterfeits, lies, false teachings, false images and anything that would divert attention from the truth, he has waged His war against God, even to the changing of God’s holy law, His Ten Commandments. The scripture attest to such a change. Daniel 7:25 states that the “little horn” or beast power (a satanic power allied to the false religion symbolized by Babylon) would think to changes times and laws, tampering with the very law of God, casting the truth to the ground, replacing it with the traditions and teaching of man. Has the law been changed, does history reveal a breach in the wall of the Decalogue? Satan’s strategy is clear. He attempts to introduce a counterfeit so close to the truth that God’s people will be deceived. Part of the gospel message is worship of our Creator, reminding us who created all things. Fortunately, God has given us in the Sabbath a weekly reminder of our relationship with Him: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy....for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the Seventh Day” Exodus 20:8,11. It isn't a coincidence that the observance and worship of God have changed dramatically. Prophecy predicted such a change. Therefore, our only safety will always be to know and understand God’s truth and follow it.

The condition of eternal life is now just what it always had been—just what it was in Paradise before the fall of man—perfect obedience to the law of God. God never meant the law to be a burden, but a blessing. He never meant for it to be changed, abolished, forgotten or distorted to fit the whims of humanity. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13