“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:20

When most believers think of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Law of God is not a factor. As we have seen, many – perhaps most – believers today consider the Law and the Gospel to be opposed to one another. When we proclaim the Gospel it is to get away from the Law and to find forgiveness, not some onerous burden of “dos” and “don’ts” with which to be shackled.

Yet Paul insisted that God is calling all men everywhere to repent of their foolish, law-unto-themselves ways and to seek out the righteousness which pleases Him, which they can only attain through Jesus. To repent is to turn away from something unto something. When Daniel called Nebuchadnezzar to repent it was so that he would turn away from his own laws to obey the Law of God. Paul, stricken and guilty because of the Law, turned the Jesus, and then, having turned to Jesus, established the Law as a holy and righteous and good standard for all who would truly follow the Lord (Rom. 3:31; 7:12). Jesus gave His Spirit so that, as John explained (1 Jn. 2:1-6), they who believe in Jesus might walk as He did, in the path marked out by the Law of God. To separate the Law of God from our proclamation of the Gospel is thus to fail to tell all the Good News to those who so desperately need to hear it.

According to Paul’s message at Athens, crucial to the proclamation of the Gospel are three things: First, all have sinned. They may not have understood this in the past, and God was gracious in bearing with them up to now. But now, in the light of coming judgment under God’s Law, they are without excuse, and they need to face up to their sin and repent. We cannot explain the meaning of sin apart from resorting to the Law of God (Rom. 7:7). The Law of God must be included at this point in our proclamation of the Gospel. Second, we must explain to people that they need to accept what Jesus has done for them and, in gratitude, embrace Him as Lord and Christ. As we have seen, Jesus fulfilled all the righteous requirements of God’s Law and bore all its wrath, thus perfectly fulfilling the Law and providing both necessary righteousness and justice for us to be able to enter into the presence of the eternal God without fear. Believing in Jesus – into Him, as John has it – we enter into salvation through His righteousness and by right of His suffering and resurrection. Finally, in the Gospel we insist that they who believe will begin to follow in the way that Jesus indicated, the way of obedience to God’s Law (Matt. 5:17-19). Jesus is ruling the world even now according to His Law, and, by His Spirit within us, is making His people willing and able to live according to His good pleasure (Ezek. 36:26, 27; Phil. 2:12, 13). All who believe will thus take up study and obedience of God’s Law as the core curriculum in their sanctification (Jn. 17:17).

For whom is this message of Law and grace intended? All people. Everyone needs to know the Law – to know it as that which convicts them of sin, to know it as that which Jesus fulfilled on their behalf, and to know it as the standard of holiness, righteousness, and goodness that God now commands all people in all places to follow. And everyone needs to know that, in Jesus Christ, God has provided both the righteousness we require and the justice we deserve so that, justified by grace and just in the eyes of our God, we may live unto justice and goodness and love in the light of God’s Word, at the core of which is His holy and righteous and good Law.

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

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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.

For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Phillip’s wife, because John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Matthew 14:3, 4

One of the effects of consistent living and teaching about the Law of God will be to heighten the awareness of sin on the part of our contemporaries. This is one of the important purposes of the Law of God (Rom. 7:7). Just as in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, our example and instruction about the righteousness of God will cause others to consider their sin, in many cases, for the first time. Sin, after all, isn’t a malady limited to the people of God, the followers of Jesus Christ. Since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), all need to know that their behavior is offensive to God (Rom. 6:23). Whether or not people believe in Him or consider His Law to be relevant or true is irrelevant; they still need to know. A day of judgment is coming, and God has placed His people on the wall of men’s souls to cry out against unrighteousness and to urge men to turn to the Lord (Ezek. 33:1-9). This will not always be pleasant or easy duty, but it is our duty nonetheless.

John the Baptist shows us the truth of this by speaking to the pagan king, Herod. Herod had violated the Law of God, taking his brother’s wife (Lev. 20.21), and John was insistent that this was not pleasing to God. In fact, the construction of the text in Matthew 14:4 indicates that John declared this witness to Herod over and over. Sin has consequences (Herod: check with Nebuchadnezzar), and it was not out of meanness or spiritual arrogance that John preached the Law to the pagan government of his day. It was out of concern for the wrath of God.

As followers of Jesus Christ we must study and obey the Law because this is the way we grow in the righteousness we already possess in Jesus Christ. We are also called to live and proclaim the Law as a way of strengthening our witness by seeking the welfare of our nation and calling others to consider the wisdom and goodness of God. But we must not lose sight of the fact that our God will by no means clear the guilty nor wink at their persistence in sinful ways. Are we concerned that the wrath of God might fall on our nation? Probably not; or if we are concerned, we probably consider it a remote possibility. But it is not a remote possibility. The wrath of God is even now being revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men (Rom. 1:18ff), and a day of greater, even eternal wrath, is fast approaching.

If we see our nation mired in sin, we need to speak up. Our rulers and neighbors may not believe or even welcome our exhortations and admonitions, but that is quite beside the point. Like John the Baptist, for the sake of truth and out of love for our neighbors, we must not remain silent when the Law of God is being broken.

But, wait a minute, didn’t that cost John his freedom and ultimately, his head? Yes, but Jesus promised us that, just as the world hated Him for revealing their sin, so it will hate us (Jn. 15:18-25). We do not seek to provoke our neighbors, only to alert them, and to call them, by the example of our lives and the persuasiveness of our speech, to turn from disobedience and to seek the Lord with us.

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

—

“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.

…and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us to up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Micah 4:3

We don’t hear much preaching of the Law of God these days. The Law is not taught with any degree of consistency in the churches of the land. Very few of the followers of Christ include regular meditation on the Law in their daily disciplines (Ps. 1). There is a good deal of evidence that Christians do not consider living according to the Law to be a matter of central significance to the life of faith. Certainly we don’t hear Christian people chattering on about the Law and trying to explain its many virtues to their unsaved friends. Much less do considerations of the Law of God enter into discussions of public policy or political advocacy. The followers of Christ, we must believe, should be eager to bolster their witness to the Lord and to ensure the blessings of prosperity and tranquility for their neighbors. Yet in all the forums where we might expect them to be outspoken, clear, and convincing about the many benefits of following in the ways of God’s Law, what we hear instead is the shameful – even abominable (Prov. 28:9) – sound of silence.

But God says that living and teaching the Law of God – taking up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 5:17-19) – is a sure-fire way to draw people to the Church, especially in these last days. Peter declared that, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the Church, the last days of the prophets had begun (Acts 2:16, 17). What the world has witnessed throughout the course of these last days is precisely what Micah foresaw – the Church elevated, influential, and drawing the nations to itself (Mic. 4:1-5). And at the core of this incredible drawing power – at least, up to our own generation – has been the core course of the Kingdom curriculum: the Law of God.

Micah – and Isaiah as well (Is. 2:1-5) – insisted that, if we preach and teach the Law, demonstrating and explaining it as God’s blueprint for loving and just societies, people will be interested and want to know more. That is, the witness God intends His Law to be for the lost will have its powerful effect of turning the hearts of many to seek Him. We cannot coerce unbelievers to embrace the Law, nor would we want to do so; but we can try to persuade them to take up laws and practices consistent with God’s Law by our lives and our conversation. The promise of the prophets is, if we will do so, the peoples outside the Church will come around to have a look, eager to know more about how they might follow the ways of God.

This isn’t me making such statements. It’s the prophet Micah, echoing his contemporary, Isaiah, and both of them merely speaking the Word of God. Either we believe this Word – that God intends His Law as a way of drawing the nations to Himself – or we don’t. But if we don’t, then we have some heavy explaining away to do in order otherwise to explain the teaching of this text. Much better if we take up Isaiah’s concluding exhortation to this passage: “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD” (v. 5).

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

—

“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.

“Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.” Daniel 4:27

Nebuchadnezzar was no friend of God. He destroyed the temple of God and razed Jerusalem, carrying off into captivity thousands of God’s people to a pagan land. Daniel was one of them, but, by the grace of God, he was able to achieve a role as adviser to King Nebuchadnezzar. In helping the king to understand a particularly troublesome dream, Daniel warned him that it was a message from God. The king needed to repent of his sin, turn away from his iniquities, and practice righteousness, mercy, and justice in ways that were pleasing to God. Failure to do so would bring calamity.

Daniel did not hesitate to confront a pagan king with his need to submit to God and His Law. Notice that it was not enough that Nebuchadnezzar had spared multitudes of the Jews, or that he had elevated some of them to service in his court. Nor was it enough that he allowed them to continue in their own communities and to worship the God of Israel. It was not even enough that Nebuchadnezzar had borne public testimony to the greatness and wisdom of God (Dan. 2:47). What God required of Nebuchadnezzar as king was that he submit to the God of heaven and bring his reign into line with the just and righteous requirements of God’s Law.

Nebuchadnezzar, however, failing to obey, suffered tremendously under the judgment of God. But consider where he ended up: this is the conclusion to the decree Nebuchadnezzar published throughout his empire upon being graciously returned from his time of judgment to his throne: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble” (Dan. 4:37). Did God intend for Nebuchadnezzar, the very template of a pagan king and an enemy of God, to live in obedience to His Law? It seems clear that He did, and that He was prepared to do some pretty heavy leaning on the king to get him to come around and see the light.

Has God changed His mind about this? Does He still intend the rulers of the earth, whom He has raised up to serve Him for good (Rom. 13:1-4), to acknowledge Him and to submit to His Law? And if this is to be so, will it not require of the people of God today that we stand up, like Daniel, and call our rulers to turn away from every law or policy that flies in the face of God’s righteous demands and to work for statutes and civil codes more in keeping with what the Law of God outlines and explains? This is not a practice wholly foreign to the pagan governments of our day, as we have seen. However, through ignorance or rebellion, governments today are turning ever more pointedly away from the standards of righteousness, justice, and goodness encoded in the Law of God, and are implementing laws and policies which are abominations in His sight. If we fail to challenge all such laws and to point our rulers – by our lives and our words – to the holy and righteous and good standards of the Law of God, then we shall bear a portion of the blame when our rulers and our nation come under the judgment of God (cf. Ezek. 33:1-9). Such determined and consistent involvement in matters of public policy according to the Law of God – where demonstration and persuasion are our tactic, and not coercion – is not only part of our duty to seek the welfare of the nation to which God has consigned us (Jer. 29:7), but, as we have seen, an essential component of our witness to the pagan world around us.

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

—

“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.

“Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever.” Psalm 81:13-15

We have seen that the nations of the world find in the Law of God, whether or not they acknowledge it as such, a standard of justice and goodness that has much to commend itself to them for their own civil codes. God is pleased to bless the nations by His common grace to the extent that His Law is honored among them – not unto salvation, but only unto a measure of the temporal and temporary blessings of His common grace. This ongoing goodness of God is meant to entice the nations to seek out, not just the wisdom and blessings of God, but God Himself (Acts 14:17; 17:26, 27).

It stands to reason, therefore, that the people of God, eager to see their unsaved neighbors come to a saving knowledge of the Lord, would devote themselves to doing everything in their power to bring the witness of the Lord to their contemporaries, even though in doing so they may encounter obstacles, objections, opposition, or even oppression.

The NASB translates verse 15, “Those who hate the LORD would feign obedience” to Him. The promise of this passages is that, when God’s people listen to Him and are faithful in keeping His Law, and thus know the blessings of obedience and manifest the life of love for God and neighbor for which they have been redeemed (Eph. 2:8-10), God does something really interesting among their enemies. Those who hate God, and hate His people, find that they are better off obeying the Law of God than rebelling against it. And while their hearts may remain in complete rebellion against God, on the outside, at least, they are obeying God’s Law because they recognize it is in their own best interest to do so.

This is at least a partial explanation for the continuation of so much of God’s Law in the laws of our own nation today. Whereas increasing numbers of Americans have turned away from God and faith in Jesus Christ, few of those who have are advocating removal of laws against stealing, murder, perjury, and so forth. They will argue until they’re blue in the face that the source of these laws is common sense or anything other than the Law of God, but it’s just not so. They may hate God, but the presence of His people, still, in our day, somewhat faithful to Him, means that God continues to honor His Law, and even to bless those who merely feign obedience to it. They who refuse to repent will find that their eternal destiny remains unchanged; they are under the wrath of God and will be so forever (Ps. 81:15b). Yet for now, God intends to bless sinners even while they rebel against Him (Ps. 52:1), and He uses His Law, and the faithful obedience of His people, for this purpose.

Thus, not only for our own sakes as the people of God, but for the sake of God’s witness to and blessing of our neighbors, we must be a people zealous for good works as explained in the Law of God and taught by Jesus and the Apostles (Titus 2:11-14). The Kingdom curriculum which has as its core course the Law of God is an indispensable component of the Church’s witness to Jesus Christ (cf. Mic. 4:1-5).

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

—

“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.

“Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’” Deuteronomy 4:6

There is a certain beauty and attractiveness to the Law of God which, when it is fleshed out in the lives of His people, captures the attention of the world and appeals to the nations as a way of wisdom. The Lord Jesus is the best example of this. He embodied, in exhaustive detail, the life, liberty, and love which flow from obedience to God’s Law. Throughout the course of His ministry Jesus was followed by throngs and masses eager to benefit from the grace of God evident in Him. And many did, although not all of them unto salvation. Often the Lord was content to heal the sick, cast out a demon, or provide for the needy, knowing full well that these acts of common grace would be the only grace many people would ever know.

We should thus expect that, as the redeemed people of the Lord, the members of the Body of Christ, take up study of and obedience to the Law of God, they also would stand out in the eyes of their unsaved contemporaries with a moral and ethical distinctiveness unlike anything else. Such was God’s promise to the people of Israel from the beginning. Through Moses, God told the people of Israel that their obedience to His commandments would make them a people which the surrounding nations would admire. The commandments, statutes, ordinances, and rules of God, encoded in His Law, which Israel was to obey in the land of promise, would enable them to demonstrate justice, mercy, goodness, fairness, and love such as the world had never seen. The nations, observing the ways of the people of God, would regard them as wise and understanding, able to solve difficult problems and live together in peace and prosperity without the need of political power or violence.

The nations all had their own laws back then, but none of those legal codes rose to the heights of beauty, goodness, and truth that we see revealed in the Law of God, as embodied in our Lord Jesus Christ. It makes sense that the nations, seeing the fruit of Israel’s obedience, would want to emulate at least some of that obedience, so that they also might hope to prosper and be at peace. From the beginning God intended Israel to be a witness to the world as to how obedience to God could bring blessing to a nation (cf. Ps. 33:10-12). From the early days of King Solomon’s reign we find that what God promised to Israel came to pass almost exactly as He had foretold (cf. 1 Kgs. 10). This clearly indicates Gods’ intention that even the unbelieving world should gain some of the benefit – albeit not unto salvation, but as a witness thereunto – that comes from obedience to His Law.

Indeed, in our own day we see the truth of this. Many of the most taken-for-granted laws in our own country have their foundation, not in human reason, scientific research, or common sense, but in the Law of God: You shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness. And while the nation has found it convenient to back away from certain of God’s commandments, it yet clings tenaciously to statutes and civil codes which derive from the Law of God as in its own best interest to do so. And the reason for this is that the powers-that-be recognize the wisdom of those statutes and desire to gain for the nation the benefits that come from continuing to enforce them.

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

—

“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.

So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Romans 7:12

Few Christians will quibble with the Apostle Paul over his assertion that the Law of God is holy and righteous and good. We have previously seen that, not only the Apostle Paul, but the Apostles Peter, James, and John, together with the Lord Jesus Christ, embraced the Law of God and instructed their hearers and readers to abide by it as essential to living in the Kingdom of God.

In the context of his epistle to the Romans, Paul argued that the righteousness of the Law cannot save us, for the simple reason that this is a righteousness beyond what sinful people can attain. That is, we cannot, by trying to keep the Law, achieve a righteousness that will put us in favor with God (Rom. 3:1-20). And yet the Law is involved in our salvation, because the righteousness God requires for those who would dwell in His presence is that same righteousness of the Law. Because of our sin we are not capable of attaining it; however, Christ Jesus did attain that righteousness in complete and exhaustive detail, righteousness only He could achieve, which God is pleased to credit to all who trust in Jesus for salvation (2 Cor. 5:21). In Jesus Christ we are clothed with a righteousness not our own, but which comes to us as a gift of Christ, by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8, 9).

But because we are not saved by the Law does not mean we may simply disregard it, having come to faith in Christ (Rom. 3:31). Keeping the Law will not save us; however, keeping the Law is what the Spirit is working to do within us, as we have seen, and it is the way those who have believed into Jesus follow Him in the path of righteousness. For the believer, the Law is now established as a holy and righteous and good standard to guide us in learning to love God and our neighbors (Matt. 22:34-40). Safe in the and clothed with the righteousness of Jesus, we now look to God’s Word and Spirit to make us willing and able to grow into that righteousness (Jn. 17:17; Phil. 2:12,13), which we do by living in obedience to God’s Law. The Law is God’s standard of righteousness for our sanctification

But for whom is it such a standard? For Christians only? Did God intend only that His redeemed people should be bound by the Law? That seems difficult on the surface. Since the Law is holy and righteous and good, ought we not to expect that it would be such a standard for all people – not, as we have seen, for salvation, but for guidance in the ways of righteousness and love? Jesus said that a day is coming when all men will be judged by their works (John 5:28, 29). The believer, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, will survive that test unto eternal life; the unbeliever, having only his own righteousness, will disqualify himself.

Nevertheless, the same standard will be applied to both. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that the wrath of God which is even now being poured out against sinful men (Rom. 1:18-32) is grounded in that same standard of holiness and righteousness and goodness, the Law of God. Keeping the Law will not save the unbeliever; however, in any society where the Law of God provides the ground for ethics and morality, people may expect that the purposes of the Law – life, liberty, and love – will be more in evidence than if some other ground were the basis for that society’s morality. Thus, even where men reject or ignore God’s offer of saving grace, He is yet determined that they should know His goodness by means of His common grace, including enjoying many of the temporal blessings that attend to obedience to the Law (Ps. 52:1).

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

—

“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.

But the LORD sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness. Psalm 9:7, 8

The greatest promise, the one that encapsulates all the other precious and very great promises of God, is the promise Jesus held out when He said, “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk. 12:32). The Kingdom of God is the domain within which Jesus Christ rules unto righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. All who receive the Kingdom with gratitude and take up the pursuit of it as their primary calling in life can be assured that their lives will be pleasing to God and beneficial to others (Heb. 12:28; Matt. 6:33; Rom. 14:17, 18).

Central to Christ’s rule from His throne at the right hand of the Father are justice, righteousness, and uprightness, none of which can be realized apart from the Law of God. Jesus is advancing His rule on earth as it is in heaven by the power of His Spirit, working with His Word, in and through the lives of His people. Thus the power of Christ’s Kingdom (1 Cor. 4:20; Acts 1:8) expands with transforming glory wherever the people of God bring His Law, and all the rest of His Word, to bear in every area of life.

Christians are called, not to live according to the rules and rulers of this world. We practice another King, Whose name is Jesus (Acts 17:6, 7). Under His rule, in the power of His Spirit and according to the teaching of His apostles, we pursue the Kingdom by obeying the just, righteous, and upright commands of God’s Law, and by working to bring the blessings of the Law into every area of life where we have influence. The Kingdom of Christ has come, although the full expression of it awaits the new heavens and new earth; as citizens of that heavenly realm we thus fix our eyes on its King and His Law (Col. 3:1-3; Ps. 1) and pursue throughout our lives a course that seeks ever to bring holiness to completion in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1).

We pray for the Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10), and we live as though we expect to be judged by the Law of that Kingdom and to know the blessings and realize the promises that come from living according to its just, righteous, and upright ways. We will not earn our diplomas in the Kingdom curriculum in this life; nevertheless, we continue to study and learn, taking up the yoke of Jesus, in order to show ourselves workmen and citizens who need not be ashamed (Matt. 11:28-30; 2 Tim. 2:15).

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

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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.

“And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers – provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God and by walking every his ways…” Deuteronomy 19:8, 9

It is characteristic of God to lead His people to embrace His will by holding out to them precious and very great promises, the end of which is to bring them into intimate and personal communion with Himself (2 Pt. 1:4). God promised Adam and Eve life. He promised Abraham blessing and to be a blessing, as well as a seed to bless all the families of the earth. He promised Israel a land in which to unpack all the promises of God and to enjoy all the liberty and life for which He had redeemed them.

In many ways the land of Canaan stands as a symbol for all the promises of God. There is where the people would know the blessing of God. There they would increase and subdue the ground, making it abundantly fruitful and prospering themselves. In the land they would become a source of blessings to all the nations of the earth (Deut. 4:5-8). The land, for Old Testament Israel, was thus the staging-ground and symbol of the whole divine economy that God intended to implement with His people (cf. Ps. 105:7-11). In the New Testament the land serves a similar function, except that it is enlarged to represent all the earth and the filling of the earth with the better promises of Christ’s covenant (Eph. 6:3; Heb. 7-10).

But the key to possessing the precious and very great promises of God is obedience to God’s Law. God wants us to know life, liberty, love, and holiness. These are the hallmarks of the full and abundant life for which we have been redeemed in Christ Jesus. The only way to improve in each of these areas is not by following the inclinations of our hearts, or some vaguely described ethic of love, but by submitting to the heart of God, as He reveals it in His Law. The promises of God are prepared for those who have believed into Jesus and abide in and walk with Him, as both Peter and Paul insist (2 Pt. 1:2-4; Rom. 4:9-12). How then may we lay hold on these precious and very great promises? By improving our walk with the Lord, as we have seen – abiding in Him and walking in His Law, following the teaching of Christ and the Apostles and God’s original design for mankind.

If we continue ignorant of God’s Law and truant from that school of discipleship where His Kingdom curriculum obtains, we have no claim on the promises of God, and no reason to expect His blessing.

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

—

“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.

For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 5:3-5

In this episode of the young man who was sleeping with his father’s wife (not his mother, and not a member of the church), Paul gives us clear insight into how Christians in community are to practice the Law of God so as to know the full benefits, personal and corporate, of the promises of God. We also begin to gain some understanding into the working under God and within the Law of two crucial entities of the Kingdom era, the Church and the State, both of which are ultimately accountable to God.

Let us make four observations. First, it is clear that the community of Christ’s followers is to submit itself to the Law of God as its primary guide to ethical conduct. The young man in this situation had transgressed the Law (Lev. 20:11; Deut. 22:30), specifically, the seventh commandment. He must be judged. But, second, judging one another is not an individualistic activity; rather, it is a function of the community. Church discipline must be followed, as Jesus explained (Matt. 18:15-20). The assembled body must agree that the offense exists and on the judgment which must be pronounced. Third, that judgment must be shaped by the spirit of the Apostles and carried out in the power of God’s Spirit. We must look to the New Testament to guide our understanding of the Law. And we must call upon the Spirit in His power to bring agreement, conviction, and reformation as needed (Jn. 6:63). Finally, the Church must not bear the sword and thus encroach on the prerogatives God has given to the State (Rom. 13:1-4). The Church can only remove offenders from the assembly of the people (Lev. 20:1-5), a judgment – excommunication – which is as though the unrepentant sinner had died to his fellow believers (1 Cor. 5:11). The “destruction of the flesh” – judgment exacted in violent and physical forms – must come, if it is to come, from the State only, not the Church. And, since it was from the beginning God’s intention that men should live full and abundant lives before Him, we must pray for the offender that he may be recovered from his way before the judgment of death befalls him.

Thus when we come to a specific application of the Law of God the Church must consider the situation according to the commandments and statutes of the Law, in the light of the New Testament and the teaching of Christ, waiting on the Spirit to guide the judges of the people into all truth and to empower the assembly to take the necessary action. Then we must judge unrepentant offenders according to the grace of God, praying fervently for their restoration, knowing, at the same time, that God may exact more severe punishments against them if they continue in their sin (Rom. 1:18-32).

We shall examine the State’s responsibility under God and within His Law in a later section of this series.

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

—

“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.