Uses of the Law: Unlawful Uses (6)

John 7.49

“But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

I suspect that one reason, perhaps the primary reason, most Christians today want little or nothing to do with the Law of God, and practice a studied ignorance of it, is that the Pharisees knew it so well. We do not want to be legalists and hypocrites like them.

This little dressing-down, in John 7, of the officers who failed to arrest Jesus shows the slip of the Pharisees quite well. They used their position as guardians of the Law of God to keep the people under control, to rule their lives and ensure their own place as leaders in Jewish society.

We see how many times they tried to trap Jesus in some transgression or conundrum of the Law. They were in charge, and the Law – at least, their interpretation of the Law – was the means whereby they kept the people in line under their authority, and ensured their place in the Roman world of the day (cf. Jn. 11.47, 48).

We use the Law of God unlawfully when we wield it as a means to control others or secure our place of authority over them. We must not vaunt our knowledge of the Law or suppose that we have any righteousness of our own through obedience to it. Nor must we substitute teaching the Law per se for teaching the Law to promote love for God and neighbor. And we must not use the Law to keep people in line under our authority.

The Law of God is a Law of Liberty, not of subjection.

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 Book Store.