Question: Who must obey the Law of God?

“And now, Israel, what does the LORDrequire of you, but to fear the LORDyour God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORDyour God with all your heart and all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?” Deuteronomy 10.12, 13

The favor of God is to be experienced within His will, for He inhabits His will, and He is all blessing and goodness and light and love. Those who obey the Law of God do not earn the favor of the Lord; they enter it. And we may enter the favor of the Lord by degrees.

The favor of God, which comes with obedience to God’s Law, exists along a spectrum roughly marked out by our passage above, through a text like Matthew 23.23, and ending in, let’s say, Psalm 81.15. That is, obedience leading to blessing and favor is strongest where that obedience is from the heart, stronger to strong depending on the thoroughness of our obedience, and weakest – real but fleeting and not saving – when given grudgingly.

The ideal of full obedience represents the poll toward which all should strive. In order to know – to enter – the greatest portion of the “good” of the Lord, we must obey out of fear and love, from the heart, with all good intention and sincerely (Deut. 10.12, 13). Such obedience requires “day and night” immersion in the law of God, until that Law becomes a delight (Ps. 1; Ps. 119.97).

Partial obedience, as the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day showed, brought the favor of the Lord, but not as much as full obedience or obedience that includes more of the Law of God (Matt. 23.23; cf. Rom. 3.1, 2; 9.4, 5).

When God’s people are dwelling within the favor of God through their obedience, the wisdom and justice and love of such a way of life will capture the notice even of the enemies of God, who will bring their lives into line with what they see in the commandments of God – “feigned obedience” (Ps. 81.15 NASB) – because they understand this to be in their best interests.

This should encourage believers to work for obedience of the Law of God in their own lives, in the lives of those around them, and in all aspects of their society and culture. The favor of God – the “good” He intends for His people – may be known, even by those who deny and despise Him, but it falls to the people of God, through their own obedience, to show the way into such blessedness.

T. M. Moore

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