Law
The heart of the matter
Do you know that Jesus loved the law?
He grew up a Jewish boy and was schooled in all aspects of the law. He loved the law, because it was given by the perfect lawgiver – His Father.
Why did God give the law? His motivation was love – He wanted to show His children the best way to live.
All of the law, so specifically detailed in the Old Testament, is summed up in two parts: love God with all you are, and love your neighbour.
The thing that made Jesus angry was the way the Pharisees added to the law:
He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” (Matt 15:3)
The only negative thing about the law, is man’s interference: adding man-made rules and traditions to God’s perfect law, and enforcing these as a means of salvation.
The Pharisees did not love God or His law (verse 7-9). They only wanted to control people by means of the law. We have no place trying to control another person. Each person will give an account of his/her own life before God.
Let our focus be to please God, not people. Let us love God with all our hearts, our minds and our strength, and love our neighbour as ourselves.
by Lise Oosthuizen
The Problem with Law and Bacon
Growing up and finding my footing with God, I often struggled with how to not live under law. I struggled merging the Old Testament rules with the New Testament and frequently found myself in debates around this.
Paul says in Galatians 5:3-4 “again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace” (my emphasis).
Two things stand out here for me; Grace is one. Law is the other.
I feel the message in this verse is “it’s all or nothing”.
However, choosing sides has been made easy for us; we were never actually meant to live according to law! Romans 3:20 “therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin”.
My thoughts and debates around law often took the following shape:
“Tattoos are wrong because it says in Leviticus 19:28 ‘do not cut your bodies for the dead, or put tattoo marks on yourself””. Now, this isn’t an argument about tattoos, rather, it’s an argument that I have found us picking and choosing what parts of the Bible we want to live by. If we are going to go with the law about tattoos being wrong, then we need to go with all the others too (just like Paul says); and some of them are:
- you can’t plant your fields with two different seeds
- you can’t wear clothing woven of two different materials
- you can’t cut your hair or shave your beard
- you can’t sit near a woman who is menstruating
but worst of all, no bacon for you.
Unfortunately, we cannot pick which parts of the Bible we want to live by and which we don’t. But praise God that He sent Jesus to die, and in so doing, did away with law which means we can now freely eat bacon!!
We no longer need to strive to ensure we’re living up to a list of rules to satisfy God. He is satisfied with us because he is satisfied with Christ (Timothy Lane). If anything, the law was set up to show us just how sinful and flawed we are and how we would never actually succeed in obeying all the rules. Obedience to the law in its entirety was destined to fail.
However, with the law being done away with, this still does not mean we can live however we want. There is still a standard expected from us which Paul goes on to describe; “…live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature…if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law”.
What we are expected to put aside are things like sexual immorality, idolarty, hatred, jealousy and selfish ambition.
Again, we must remember that this is not a new law-list to abide by. There is grace to make mistakes but our love for God drives us to not make the same mistakes over and over again. It is a daily renewing of the heart and mind where the Holy Spirit shapes and forms us, making us more and more like Him every day.
One of my favourite verses is 1 Corinthians 10:23; “Everything is permissible – but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible – but not everything is constructive”.
I love that I serve a God who allows me the freedom to make my own choices on a day to day basis, along with His Spirit as I figure out how I should or shouldn’t be living. There is no longer a list of rules to obey – I have the freedom to do what I want. But the precious thing is that I hold in my heart the Spirit – my helper, guiding me as I learn to understand what God wants for me; which choices are beneficial and constructive to me living a pure and righteous life.
Forget about law and rules. Shake it off you. Leave it behind you. Live in the Spirit and learn His voice. Walk closely with Him and you will not wander where He doesn’t want you.
By Samantha Schreiner
Two words that matter 