The Law of Liberty (24)

…the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart... Psalm 19.8

The devil loves to sow perplexity into the ranks of men. He creates confusion and uncertainty concerning our purpose in life – why we are here and what we can expect to accomplish – and leaves many people thrashing against the unknown in search of something meaningful. So frustrating can this quest for purpose be that many have concluded that life has no purpose at all. It’s absurd and meaningless; nevertheless, people are of such a nature that we just have to lash out against that and dash ourselves on the rocks of meaninglessness (think: Fox TV’s Gregory House).

The Law of God delivers us from a purposeless life. The precepts of the Lord, David tells us, are “right.” The Hebrew word here is actually, “upright,” and matches Solomon’s observation in Ecclesiastes 7.29, in which he describes “upright” as the original condition in which God made human beings. People were made to know God and to live in harmonious, just, and loving community before Him – upright. Sin and our many selfish schemes have caused us to bend away from that original condition, but the Law of God has power to set us back on our proper course.

The Law, in other words, liberates us into a meaningful life. By giving us insight into God’s original intentions for human life in society, the Law resonates with that deep-seated need in our souls to know why we’re here and what we’re supposed to be doing. We don’t have to ponder every faddish philosophical scheme or experiment with every new system of ethics that comes along in order to know what’s best for our lives. In the Law of God we have a “blueprint for uprightness,” for living, that is, as God made us to live.

Order your copy of The Law of God, a compilation of the Mosaic Law for contemporary believers, and The Ground for Christian Ethics, by T. M.