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“I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.” Jeremiah 31.33
The Bible teaches that, in their heart of hearts, people are bent toward knowing and doing the works of God’s Law. It is written on the spiritual fabric of their souls to carry out the commandments of God. Only when they refuse to do so do they begin to run into trouble. They’re trying to be something they aren’t.
But the Law of God can help us to be what God has created us to be. Indeed, one of the primary features of the New Covenant is that God writes the Law – not just the works of the Law, but the Law itself – on the hearts of those who believe. Once a person comes to saving faith, what he “knew” instinctively, but largely suppressed and frequently ignored, now comes stunningly to light – he is made, and has been redeemed, to live out the good works of the Law of God.
The Law of God gets us in touch with our hearts because it lays over our inherent sense of the works of the Law (Rom. 2.14, 15) both the righteousness of Jesus Christ – Who fulfilled all the Law of God (Matt. 5.17-19) – and the holiness, righteousness, and goodness of the very text of God’s Law as well (Rom. 7.12).
So as we take up the Law of God, under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, we begin to sense, “Yes, this is what I was made for. This is right and true and good. This is me!” We are liberated from confusion, doubt, and anxiety into the glorious light and liberty of the sons and daughters of God.
This is the work of God’s Spirit, as He sculpts and transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ, according the teaching of God’s Law.
The psalmist says that the righteous person meditates day and night in God’s Law (Ps. 1). Would like to get started in this discipline? Order a copy of The Ground for Christian Ethics and The Law of God. The first will explain the importance3 of God’s Law, and guide you in taking up the practice of daily reading and meditation. The second provides all the statutes, precepts, and rules of God’s Law organized under their proper number of the Ten Commandments