The Worldview of God’s Law: The Law in the Biblical Worldview (1)

God’s Law points beyond itself to the greater Word and promise of God.

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” Genesis 49.10

The Law of God presents a worldview. It sets forth a way of seeing and living in the world which is designed to promote love for God and create communities of justice, righteousness, and peace. It sets forth a vision, defines the way that vision is to be pursued, and explains how that vision must come to expression in the lives of God’s people.

But the Law of God, while it presents abiding norms of holiness, righteousness, goodness, and truth, is an historical document, intended for a particular people and a particular place and time. The Law was preceded in the revelation of God by His promises, and the Law cannot, therefore, cancel or supplant those promises (Gal. 3.17). The Law was intended for Israel as the means whereby, in her particular historical situation, she might lay hold on as much of God’s promises as could be realized, given the fallen condition of humankind and the progress of God’s redemptive plan.

It is thus a mistake to see the worldview of God’s Law as in any way final or salvific. The Law of God was for a stage of the covenantal history between God and His people; it was not given to save Israel then, and it has no saving benefit for the people of God today.

That said, the Law of God continues to have much benefit in the age of the Kingdom in which we presently live (Matt. 5.17-19). But we need to understand the role of the Law, and the worldview it presents, in their proper context – not as an end in itself or a means to salvation, and not as intended solely for the people descended from Abraham, whether by physical or spiritual descent.

From the earliest pages of divine revelation, God can be seen to be mapping out a plan for all humankind – all peoples and nations in every culture and time. This is evident in His declaration that One would come to undo the work of Satan in having deceived Adam and Eve (Gen. 3.15). It is clear in God’s promises to Abram that through the patriarch God was planning to reach all nations and generations with His blessings (Gen. 12.1-3). And we can see, in Jacob’s blessing and prophecy concerning his son, Judah, that God was already thinking about a way of extending the benefits of His Covenant to all the peoples of the earth through His chosen people.

Thus, as compelling as the worldview of God’s Law is – its glorious promise of knowing God and enjoying His blessings, its prescriptions concerning how we must seek those promises, and its explicit instructions respecting how they who seek the promises of God must live – that worldview can only be properly understood within the framework of all the revelation of God in His Word. The Law itself points forward, as we shall see, to further revelation and greater developments in God’s Covenant yet to come. Thus, since we live in that “yet to come” time, it behooves us to consider carefully the worldview of God’s Law against the larger backdrop of the things to which it pointed, and which we are now coming to know.

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