God's law, in and of itself, isn't "bad." It's good and just and holy (Romans 7:12). That's not "bad." :) The problem with it is that it's static. It has no vitality. It can only make demands, but it has no power to produce in a person what it demands. The law is not supernatural. Just like the stones that it was engraved upon, the law is non-living. It never had life. It was never alive, nor a giver of life.
Contrast this with what we have in Christ, through whom the law was nullified and made void. Christ's life in us is a supernatural life. Christ doesn't demand, but rather animates us in ways that the law could never do. Christ Himself is our vitality. Christ Himself is our life. Christ Himself has given us His life and is alive in us.
This is just the tip of the iceberg in the understanding that we are dead to the law and alive to God in Christ!
Christ spoke of "new commandments", which are, distilled down, "love God and love others". Do you think those are living laws in that they are brought about by being "alive to God in Christ"? The bible spoke of laws that are written on our hearts, maybe the two I mentioned are those. So, while we are dead to the OT law aren't we alive to a different law, love itself? Not disagreeing with you, just pondering.
ReplyDeleteGary, yep I think it's a new and different kind of "law" that we are alive to now. The legal commandments are not alive and can't give life, and can't cause a person to love, but the "law of love" that is alive in us is indeed what flows out. It's different than a legal commandment, in a similar (but not exact) way in which the "law of gravity" isn't a legal commandment, but rather is simply a force that is naturally manifested.
ReplyDeleteI've written about the "legal" commandments several times, such as a series I did called That 'Love Thy Neighbor' Thing...
In short, I pointed out how the "top two" commandments - "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength" (Deut 6:5) and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev 19:18) - are impossible to follow, and are the most legalistic statements in the Bible. :)
But Jesus gave a new command that wasn't based upon law, but was based upon His own love for His disciples. "As I have loved you, so you love one another." I think John remembered this as he wrote years later, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 1 John 4:10-11
So yeah, all that to say that I don't believe it's legal commandments that are written on our hearts, but rather this new "law of love."