Only in the Spirit – Interpreting the Law of God (13)

Only in the Spirit

Interpreting the Law of God (13)

The Spirit applies the Law for the Lord’s agenda.

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to talk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Ezekiel 36:26, 27

We saw in the first part of this series that the Law of God represents a kind of “core curriculum” of the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has been given to us so that we might understand and be able to live according to the Law of God. The Spirit is the key to rightly interpreting the Law of God.

Now the Spirit is not going to teach us the Law except insofar as He is able to use the Law for His purpose in the redemptive work of God. And what is that purpose? To convict and convert the lost, sanctify the redeemed, build the church, and glorify God in all things.

However we may seek to understand the Law, therefore, we must be mindful of the fact that the Spirit is the final Interpreter and that He will always teach us the Law in ways consistent with His purpose in the divine economy.

So the Law should have a place in the work of evangelism—in order that witnesses may be empowered and emboldened and sinners might be convicted and converted.

The Law should be a central component of all our disciple-making, so that the redeemed of the Lord can learn to live in the salvation they have received as a free gift.

The Law should be applied to the task of building the local church, bringing into being a community of people who love God and their neighbors, a common and corporate witness which will shine like a light within the larger community (cf. Deut. 4:1-8).

And the Law should always be applied unto the greater glory of God, not for any lesser purpose, such as reforming a nation or padding our personal piety résumé.

We can know that our interpretations of the Law are in line with the Spirit’s teaching when we see the perfect Law of God coming to completion in ways consistent with the Spirit’s mission and agenda.

Order a copy of The Law of God from our online store, and begin daily reading in the commandments, statutes, testimonies, precepts, and rules of God, which are the cornerstone of divine revelation. Sign up at our website to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, written by T. M. Moore.

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