Q 10: Why did God give this Law to His people through Moses?

A 10: God gave His Law to His people so that they might love and fear Him, dwell together in the fullness of life and love, and bear witness to the nations. (Deut. 6.4-6; Lev. 18.1-5; Lev. 19.18, 19; Deut. 4.1-8)

The Law of God has “vertical” and “horizontal” applications. First, the Law teaches us how to love God with all our soul and strength. It puts forth the kinds of affections believers should nurture toward their God – fear, love, wonder, and so forth. It guides them in how to serve Him and to carry out His will.

As believers are faithful in this vertical aspect of the Law, they begin to refract the divine essence, which is love, in their relationships with one another. What Jesus tendered as the “new” commandment, the requirement of loving one another with the love wherewith God Himself loves us (Jn. 13.1-15), is really not a new commandment at all, but the same we have had from the beginning (1 Jn. 2.7, 8). It is “new” in the sense that now, in the power of God’s Spirit, and on the basis of the finished work of Christ, we are actually able to perform that which God intended “from the beginning.”

Such manifestations of self-denying love are almost entirely unknown among those beyond the pale of faith. Thus, the Church bears witness to the resurrection and indwelling power of Christ as she faithfully fulfills the Law which is written on the hearts of even those who have no faith in God (Rom. 2.14, 15).

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