God’s Law for Our Good – The Kingdom Curriculum X (7)

God’s Law for Our Good

The Kingdom Curriculum X (7)

“You shall not murder.” Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17

“But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him fatally so that he dies…you shall purge the innocent blood from Israel, so that it may be well with you.” Deuteronomy 19:11

That It May Be Well with You

Don’t miss that last phrase: “that it may be well with you.” Even capital punishment, as horrible as it is, has a good purpose in the divine economy. God wants His people to prosper and flourish, but this will only be the case where His Law is honored and His grace flows through and to one and all.

In our day of multiple appeals and alternative sentencing, the application of capital punishment is fairly rare. This is a very good thing. The Law of God requires that civil magistrates be prepared to wield the sword against those who take the lives of others unjustly. But it also has a duty to make space for grace – to allow those appeals, recommend alternative sentences, and give lots of opportunities for prison ministries to bring the grace of God into the lives of the lost.

The Church also needs to be diligent to practice its own discipline, so that it may promote righteousness and discourage wickedness. When magistrates and church leaders do their jobs, keeping in mind that ours is a time of grace, life is preserved and it is well with the community.

So how can each of us make a difference for God’s Law? Certainly we should be doing more to learn it, and to encourage others to learn it. Let us study and pray to be able to say with the psalmist, “O God, I love Your Law!” When this begins to be our situation, God will show us what we must do in order to allow His holy, righteous, and good Law to further the life and wellbeing of the people in our community.

The Apostle John taught that those who would follow Jesus must walk in the commandments of God (1 John 2:1-6). Order your copy of The Law of God by going to www.MyParuchia.com and clicking on Publications, Waxed Tablet. Begin meditating on God’s Law today.

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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.