Understanding the Law
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Introduction.
We’re almost through our series in Moses, but we’re also at a critical jucture in the story of Moses and the Israelites - the 10 commandments.
Now, I know Paul spoke about them last week. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what he said, so I apologise in advance if I cover some of the ground that he covered.
But I thought it would be good to take one more week on this and kinda break from the series slightly to understand what exactly was the purpose of the law of Moses - not just the 10 commandments, but the rest of the law as we see in Exodus, Leivicus and through the rest of the torah.
So that’s what we’re going to try to do in an epilogue service, which really won’t do it justice. But we’ll get a flavour of what the law is about.
So how do we view the law of Moses? I mean the 10 commandments are pretty straightforward. They kinda stand the test of time. But the other laws that are given… For example what do we make of this...
11 If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, 12 you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.
or what about this?
19 “ ‘Keep my decrees.
“ ‘Do not mate different kinds of animals.
“ ‘Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.
“ ‘Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.
Now, thankfully we aren’t going to get into those today. But it’s clear that today that law on the screen doesn’t apply, otherwise many of us here today are probably sinning. If you’re wearing a cotton-polyester blend then you’re sinning…which of course isn’t the case.
So how do we get our heads around the laws in the old testament?
Pause
Well, think of them like this...
We’ve got to remember that the law of Moses are the conditions to the covenant that God makes with his people.
God has just rescued them out of egypt. He has promised to be their God, to bless them and protect them. And he’s promised to lead them into the promised land. But it’s not a promise that he has made…it’s a covenant.
And A covenant is a promise with a condition - and the law is the terms and conditions of the promise.
Just like when you have terms and conditions when hiring a car, or taking out insurance. The car hire place will promise to give you a car, provided you follow the terms and conditions of the contract.
Well, think of the law like that - God is saying, I will do all this for you, but here are the terms and conditons of that…and it was for a specific time. So these laws weren’t for all nations and for all times…they were for the Israelites for a specific length of time.
And the purpose of the law was that it would separate the Israelites from the other nations, who didn’t have a moral code. It was to set them apart from them - or, another word that means set-apart - it would keep them holy.
Pause
So these laws were the terms and conditions of the covenant that God made with his people, in order to keep them set apart from the other nations - to keep them holy. If they obeyed them then they would be right with God.
And that’s what they believed - if we keep these commandments then we will be right with God - or to put it another way…righteous.
Now, the problem is that these guys didn’t keep the law very well. They tried, but they never succeeded…and so, as Paul highlights in Romans, nobody is righteous by keeping the law...
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
So what now?
Well, look at what Paul says…the law makes us conscious of our sin. Now, how does it do that?
Well, it makes us conscious of our sin because the minute we break these laws, we realise that we have sinned…and nobody can keep the law fully - there is no perfect Israelite.
And that’s Paul’s point in the first few chapters or Romans…we don’t have a perfect Isrealite who has followed the terms and conditions of the covenant.
...
Enter Jesus, the Son of God, who IS the perfect Isrealite…who DID keep every letter of the law…the one in whom there was NO SIN.
And Jesus is our representative. He is our ticket to rigtheousness.
Because Paul says that righteousness is through faith alone in Christ alone…nothing else.
Keeping the law, being good, doing good doesn’t cut it - those things don’t make us right with God because we all fall somwhere along the line.
And so we put our faith in Jesus - the one perfect law-keeper, and it is our faith in Jesus that makes us right with God.
Pause
Think of it like this...
I’m sure you’ve all heard of fake IDs. You know, when teenagers want to get into bars or clubs, they find someone who will make them a fake ID. And it will have a fake date of birth, but a picture of the underaged person on the card.
How these are made is that someone who IS over 18, photocopies their ID card - driving licesnse, student card, whatever. So the photocopy will have that person’s details on it, but the artist who makes the fake IDs puts a different photo in place of the original.
So if I wanted a fake ID, I might have to be Sean O’Rafferty for the night, a 21 year old from Poleglass…but it’s MY photo in the box so that’s what the bouncer needs to see - that and the date of birth…and I’m in.
Well, when it comes to Jesus - it’s like we’re the underage teenagers wanting to get into heaven, but we can’t because we can’t keep the law.
And Jesus is like the person who IS the right age - he can enter into heaven because he’s actually fulfilled the requirements of the law - he’s kept the law, so he can get in.
And it’s like Jesus has taken a photocopy of HIS ID and put our photo in his place so that we can enter too.
That’s what our faith in Jesus does.
Pause
It is our faith in Jesus and nothing else that makes us right with God. So what’s the point of the law?
Well, it’s still on the screen…It’s to make us aware that we still sin and need God’s help in every aspect of our life. Because we can get complacent and think that we can do this life on our own.
The law reminds us that we can’t, because we fail every day at keeping it. And so that law should bring us to Jesus in dependance.
The law should make us realise that we SO need his help because we can’t cut it on our own - we really need HIS salvation and grace and mercy every single day.
Pause
So what about the law? Do we just keep on sinning because that’s the point of the law?
Well, Paul has anticipated this question...
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Paul says, ‘no’.
Let’s go back to Exodus for a second...
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
I’ve mentioned this before, and maybe Paul mentioned it last week.
But look at the verse just before the commandments are given...
I am the LORD - YOUR GOD… You are mine. I am YOUR God, who has brought you out of Egypt.
In other words - I’ve already saved you.
God didn’t say, obey these laws then I’ll save you. He said, I have saved you, now obey these so that you will stand out as being differnet to those around you.
You see the law doesn’t save us - it’s the other way around. We are saved FIRST, but we still have commands to follow so that we will stand out against the corruption of the world...
...so that the world notices that we are different by the way we act and think and by what we say and our attitudes…and so that the world might see the difference in us and ask us about it.
So we are saved first. So why bother keeping the commandments?
Well, we do it out of love.
Jesus said...
15 “If you love me, keep my commands.
Not to be made right with God - that’s through our faith.
We obey Jesus and the words of the bible out of an attitude of love and gratitude for what Jesus has done for us, by taking our sin on himself and giving us access to the Father through his death on the cross.
That’s why we obey the law…but it won’t make God love us any more. He loves us as much as he can.
And when we fail, he won’t love us any less, but…we’ll be more aware of our sin and our need for Jesus and, it will increase OUR love and our awareness of our need of him.
That’s the point of the law, in a nutshell.
There is so much more to it than that.
But here’s how you can apply this to your life and your situation...
We can take comfort in the fact that God has given us his law so that we will be aware that we can’t do this life on our own - we need help. And God has given us that help by sending his son, Jesus, to live and die for us and he’s sent us the Holy Spirit to help us to life a life that is different - not to get into God’s goodbooks, but to live a life that is pleasing to the one we worship.
So it means we can stop slaving away at trying to work our way into heaven, and we can relax and rest in the work that Jesus did for us.
But also, and equally important, and perhaps more relevant…when we do mess up, which we will do some time this week - which is why this IS relevant - when we DO slip up, we know that God still loves us and his grace is abundant and it doesn’t affect our status before God because Jesus paid it all!
But at the same time, we also need to take that opportunity to come back to Jesus on our knees in repentance, acknolwdging our need of him.
So let’s give thanks for God’s grace in this. We don’t deserve any of this, but God in his grace and love has given this for us.
Thank you Father. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Holy Spirit.
Let’s pray.