The Law of Liberty (23)

 …the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple... Psalm 19.7

Fundamental to the tactics of the devil is casting doubt on God’s Word. So we see him in the Garden, challenging the certainty with which Eve explained God’s laws. He does the same thing yet today, causing believers to question the reliability of Scripture by a number of ways. You will hear his voice whispering in your soul, “No one else believes this.” “Does this jive with what science teaches?” “Don’t you think that’s a little extreme?” “Oh, God surely could not want me to do that!”

In these and a hundred other ways the devil seeks to challenge the truth and authority of Scripture in the mind of the believer, causing us to hesitate in obedience or to walk a path contrary to the plain teaching of the Lord. The Law of liberty comes to our aid at this point. For it is sure and can make us wise when we approach it in simplicity and faith.

The Law is a kind of cornerstone of revelation. It is the touchstone to which we return whenever we aren’t sure about the teaching of Scripture elsewhere. Thus, when Jesus was confronted by the devil in the wilderness, He fell back on the Law of God three times – including one time when He used the Law to correct the devil’s attempt to wrest the psalms to his own advantage (Matt. 4.1-11).

By consulting the Law of God – the commandments and statutes, in the redemptive context in which they were given – we may know for sure what the teaching of Scripture is in any other place. Thus we may refute the devil’s many questions and challenges and stand secure in the plain teaching of the Word of God. We do not need to be in doubt about the teaching of Scripture. “To the Law and the testimonies” must be our cry as we return to the foundations of divine revelation to discern the truth and meaning of all the rest.

But we must come humbly to the Law, in faith that God can make it plain to us and help us to understand how we must apply it in our own lives. As we do, we will find all doubts about the teaching of other Scriptures beginning to subside, and our confidence in God and His wisdom growing more and more.

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.