Why We Have Been Redeemed – Uses of the Law: To Guide Us in Doing Good (1)

Why We Have Been Redeemed

Uses of the Law: To Guide Us in Doing Good (1)

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

You cannot be a Christian and be indifferent to doing good. Jesus did good, and He commanded His followers to do good. More than that, He redeemed us and gave us His Word and Spirit to enable us unto good works. And in the Law of God we find the blueprint, prepared beforehand by God, for a life of good works.

Paul reminds us that the Law of God is holy and righteous and good (Rom. 7:12). Just because we are not saved by the Law doesn’t mean that we have no relationship to it, as some theologians have taught (Rom. 3:31). In a world in which we don’t have to travel very far to encounter evil, Christians are called to let their good works be seen by all men (Matt. 5:16) so that they might overcome the evil of the world with good works (Rom. 12:21).

The good works we are called to do are defined by the Law of God. The Law defines sin, as we have seen; it also defines the good works for which we have been redeemed. This makes it extremely important that Christians include reading, study, and meditation in the Law of God as part of their daily disciplines in the Word of God. We need to understand what the Law of God contains, for it provides the framework for a life of good works. The Law is the ground for the Christian theory and practice of ethics.

But we need to understand the Law within the whole context of Scripture, because not everything that is written in the Law is to be applied today exactly as God intended ancient Israel to apply it. We live in a different day, in which the Spirit of God is at work within people in ways He was not during the days of ancient Israel. So while the Law of God is still holy and righteous and good, if we are going to be able to use the Law to guide us in doing good, we shall need to make the study of the Law a much more central aspect of the life of faith than it is today.

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.