Question: Who must obey the Law of God?

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. Leviticus 18.1-5

The question perhaps arises concerning who, in particular, should be careful to obey the Law of God. Recall that when we talk about the “Law of God” we mean all the counsel of God in His Word, beginning with the Ten Commandments and including all the teaching of the Prophets and the Apostles. Here, however, we focus especially on the Law of God as expressed in the Ten Commandments and the rules, precepts, statutes, and testimonies that support and explain those basic directives.

From the beginning God intended all the people of Israel to hear and obey His Law, as is clear from the text above. The Law was not merely for priests or prophets or judges or theologians, had there been any theologians in Israel at the time. All the people of God were expected to obey the Law as an expression of the fact that they were the people – as distinct from the Egyptians and Canaanites – on whom the Lord had set His grace unto redemption. Parents were to teach their children in the home, priests were commissioned to teach the Law in local gatherings and at annual feasts; and judges and elders were to instruct the community by word, deed, and adjudication in the gates of the local community. Even the kings of Israel were to copy, study, and follow the Law of God in their callings as rulers of the nation. All the people were expected to hear the Law of God and to “walk in” it, “follow” it, “keep” it and “do” the commandments of the Lord.

The reason for this is clear. God had saved His people from certain death. The Egyptians had inaugurated a policy that would have ended up killing off all the people of Israel within a generation or two (cf. Ex. 1). That was the kind of “justice” that prevailed in Egypt. They were headed to a land where parents routinely sacrificed their children and practiced rampant fornication to placate their gods. Such was “justice” among the pagan nations of Canaan.

Thus God saved His people from death unto life, and the Law of God, expressing the character and will of God, was given to guide the redeemed people of the Lord into the ways of life, of loving God and neighbors, and doing justice and mercy.

God’s will for His people, chosen and called by grace, was that they might live. The Law of God, obeyed out of gratitude for the saving mercy of the Lord, directed the steps of God’s people as they followed Him in the ways of life. All God’s chosen, redeemed, called, and saved people were expected to obey the Law of God, not unto salvation, but for the sake of it.

T. M. Moore

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