The Self-Revealing God – Uses of the Law: Make Known the Character of God (1)

The Self-Revealing God

Uses of the Law: Make Known the Character of God (1)

Then Moses said, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them? God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.’” Exodus 3:13, 14

The Law of God defines sin, as we have seen; thus, it is lawful to use the Law of God to help us pursue lives of holiness, righteousness, and goodness and to eschew those paths that lead us in the way of wickedness and evil (Rom. 7:12).

In the light of the Law’s clarity concerning sin, however, all human beings stand condemned, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Our plight would be bad enough if all we ever learned from the Law is that we are sinners.  However, the desperation of our condition is multiplied infinitely by the fact that, at the same time the Law exposes us as sinners, it makes known the very character of God.

First among the things the Law makes known to us about God is that He is a God Who reveals Himself. He is not a God hidden and capricious; rather, He makes Himself known to sinful humankind. And not in vague, generic terms, but specifically: He is the eternal, self-existing God (the sense of “I AM”) and is in need of nothing outside Himself. He is completely self-contained, self-existing, and self-fulfilled. God is the eternally present One Who relates to time and creation as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Sovereign.

God reveals Himself to men; however, He does not reveal Himself completely, for no man could bear the presence of that glory (Exod. 33:18-20). The Law of God reveals the character of God so that we know that He exists and that He intends for us to know Him. This is the essence of life (Lev. 18:1-5; John 17:3). But the Law shows us much more about the character of God as well.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Bookstore, then Church Issues.

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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.