The Law in the Kingdom of God – The Kingdom Curriculum I (1)

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The Law in the Kingdom of God

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The Kingdom Curriculum I (1)

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“Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:19

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When theologian and Christian educator Lawrence O. Richards wrote, back in the 70s, that “the Christian has no relationship to the law…for the Christian, the law is a dead and a useless thing”, he was not so much instructing the Christian community as reflecting it. While most Christians back then affirmed the validity of the Ten Commandments – as they do still today – the study and practice of the Law of God were not considered essential to full and abundant life in Christ. After all, people would explain, “we’re not under law, but under grace”, by which they meant much more than Paul ever intended when he wrote that statement (Rom. 6:14).

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The rise of the “theonomy” movement in the 70s and 80s – which argued passionately for the abiding validity of the Law of God in exhaustive detail – complicated the matter, for theonomical writers were not always as clear, nuanced, or, frankly, gracious as they might have been in making their very important argument. Most believers were not persuaded by their writings – when they took the time to read them – and it’s not uncommon to find Christian leaders today still trying to distance themselves from anything that suggests a theonomist position.

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Habakkuk lamented the fact that, in his day, before the judgment of God fell on Judah and Jerusalem, the Law of God was languishing (Hab. 1:4, Hebrew). We can just about say the same for our own day. The Law of God is no more important in the preaching and teaching of today’s churches than it was 30 years ago. Now not only is our nation languishing for lack of a clear moral North Star; the Church is languishing as well, consigned to the margins of society and content with a faith experience that many church leaders describe as shallow and lacking in power. The reason for this, at least to me, is abundantly clear.

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As a community the followers of Christ have neglected, ignored, and in some cases, despised the curriculum Jesus recommended for greatness in the Kingdom of God. We have allowed the Law of God to languish, and we are reaping the bitter fruit of moral decline, social decay, cultural corruption, ecclesiastical frivolity, and spiritual insipidity which are the dominant features of the American social and religious landscape.

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It’s time to get back to the Law of God, and join the Lord, His Spirit, and the Apostles in the only curriculum that can bring abiding righteousness, peace, and joy to the Church and the world.

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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.