The Truth That Sets You Free! – The Law of Liberty (1)

The Truth that Sets You Free!

The Law of Liberty (1)

With this installment of In the Gates we begin a new 49-part series on The Law of Liberty. Readers will gain a better perspective on the main teaching of this series by reading The Ground for Christian Ethics, by T. M. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, then click Waxed Tablet, and scroll down until you see this little volume.

So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. James 2:12

It boggles the mind how Christians can continue to doubt, ignore, and even outright reject the Law of God. In any polite conversation, or as part of your Sunday school class or Bible study group, casually mention that believers should keep the Law of God, and you’ll have no shortage of objections, demurrals, and outright denials.

Many believers still consider the Law of God to be a burden and a yoke on the freedom they claim to enjoy in Jesus Christ. But it’s hard to see how that could be true. After all, we’re not talking about the Law of God as the means to salvation; we’re insisting that the Law is the way to work out our salvation in concert with the Holy Spirit, Who is striving within us to teach and empower us for obedience to the Law (Phil. 2:12, 13; Ezek. 36:26, 27).

But the objections continue. OK. Let’s grant that, as one evangelical theologian wrote some years ago, Christians have no obligation to the Law of God. We can ignore it except, perhaps, as a kind of general moral framework for helping us keep our noses clean in public. Let’s agree to go through our lives paying as little attention as possible to the Law of God. Let’s not study the Law or meditate on it, even though that’s what righteous people do (Ps. 1). Let’s not try to make the Law of God anything like a working moral standard for our families and churches. And, above all, let’s not insist–or even suggest–that our unsaved neighbors and civil magistrates should be at all obligated to the Law.

But a day is coming, James says, when we will be judged by the Law of God. Indeed, that day is every day, because, as Paul notes, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven–even now, even today–against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men (Rom. 1:18ff). And, since the Law of God is holy, and righteous, and good (Rom. 7:12), they who ignore or neglect that Law can have but little prospect of living by it–as Jesus did (Matt. 5:17-19; 1 John 2:1-6). And, having thus lived, when that great Day of Judgment comes, shall we dare, who have scorned the lifestyle of the Lord all our days, point to Him and claim His righteousness as our own?

Daily meditation in the Law of God helps us along the path of holiness, righteousness, and goodness (Rom. 7:12). Order your copy of The Law of God, a compilation of the Mosaic Law for contemporary believers, by going to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.