The Rule of Law: First Things (11)

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“You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6.8, 9

The third component of the soul is the conscience. The conscience is the seat of the will, the locus of our highest values and priorities. The conscience thus functions something like a “referee” of the soul, arbitrating between affections and thinking, mediating impulses of the heart and ideas of the mind in order to achieve a response of the soul consistent with the teaching of God’s Law.

So important is the conscience to the right functioning of the soul that God has, by some mysterious means, written the works of the Law on the consciences of men – even the unredeemed. His Spirit works to cleanse our conscience from dead works and to renew it for right willing (Heb. 9.14; Phil. 2.13). By so doing God has, out of the enormity of His grace, provided a means for us to know a measure of His blessings even before we acquire the new heart which is essential for covenant renewal (Rom. 2.14, 15).

But even in the redeemed of the Lord the conscience is vulnerable to the law of sin. It must be guarded, reviewed, honed, tuned, and exercised according to the Law of God and the priorities of His Kingdom, or it will become hardened, seared, and encrusted with wicked values. We must “bind” ourselves to the Law of God, both in every aspect of our outlook and all the works of our hands. The Law of God must be put in place as the determining value of our home life and culture, as well as of the communities in which we live. We must “bind” the Law and “write” it, intentional acts designed to establish, declare, and defend the priorities by which we are called to live.

When the teaching of God’s Law is the determinative force in our consciences, it will keep in check the fickle sentiments of the heart and the flighty soaring of the mind, so that we may truly submit to God’s rule for our lives from the inside-out.

Next steps – Preparation: Pray through the Ten Commandments again today, this time listening for the Spirit to show you any values or priorities that are not in line with loving God and our neighbors with all our heart and mind.

The Law of God is the soil which, fertilized by the rest of God’s Word and watered by His Spirit, brings forth the fruit of the Christian life. If you’d like to understand this process better, and how to make best use of the Law in your walk with and work for the Lord, order the book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.