All Your Conscience--

The third component of the soul is the conscience.

The Rule of Law: Government of the Soul (4)

Living by God’s Law must be our highest priority.

“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. By so doing He 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.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

All Your Mind--Just as nowhere do we find the Scriptures speaking explicitly concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, neither do we find it addressing the components of the soul conveniently all together in one place

The Rule of Law: Government of the Soul (3)

We must submit all our thinking to God’s Law.

“Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul…” Deuteronomy 6.5

Just as nowhere do we find the Scriptures speaking explicitly concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, neither do we find it addressing the components of the soul conveniently all together in one place. The nature and function of the soul must be deduced, like the doctrine of the Trinity, by comparing Scripture with Scripture from various places as the Holy Spirit leads and enables (1 Cor. 2.12, 13).

While the Hebrew word for “mind” does not appear in Deuteronomy 6, it is sufficiently well implied, so that, when in other places the “renewing of the mind” is called for, we should have no problem in anchoring such work to this text. The soul, we have seen, consists of heart, mind, and conscience. Only the heart is specifically mentioned in this text. We may assume, therefore, that the term, “soul”, intends to embrace the other two components.

This seems evident from the fact that the Law of God consists of certain intellectual content which is to be taught and discussed (vv. 6, 7). Moses anticipates that children will have questions about the Law begin to form in their thinking, and that they will turn to their parents for further elaboration and to clarify their understanding (vv. 20-25). We are to love the Lord and be ruled by His Law in all our minds, just as in all our hearts.

In the soul the mind performs the various functions of thought: it receives, analyzes, processes, and stores information; it puts together ideas and plans; it employs the rules of reason and logic to draw inferences and conclusions; and it recalls data and prepares it for orderly presentation or use. All these functions, and all the information on which they act, are to be subordinated to the Law of God. Only thus can the mind fulfill its intended function of bringing us to the blessings of God.

To submit our minds to the rule of God’s Law we shall have to apply ourselves to reading, study, and discussion of the Law, so that we become persuaded in our thinking, as well as in our hearts, that this rule is, indeed, the way to blessings.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

All Your Heart--Love for God, which is God’s intention in giving us His Law, as we have seen, begins in the heart.

The Rule of Law: Government of the Soul (2)

The heart is the heart of the matter in the life of faith.

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart…” Deuteronomy 6.5

Love for God, which is God’s intention in giving us His Law, as we have seen, begins in the heart. The heart is the primary component of the soul, for from it, Solomon explained, flow all the issues of life (Prov. 4.23). In Scripture “the heart” sometimes stands for the whole soul; more often, though, it speaks to a particular aspect of the soul, that region which generates and discharges the affections.

The soul consists of heart, mind, and conscience – three distinct regions or components with three distinct functions, each overlapping and interacting with the other in a continuous dialog, the fruit of which is the actions that come out in our words and deeds. The heart is that part of the soul which inclines us toward something or which leads us to avoid or resist something. Its dossier includes nurturing and deploying the various feelings, attitudes, sentiments, aspirations, and hopes which give definition and direction to our lives. In its natural, unredeemed, state, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, so that we desire, love, and pursue all the wrong things in life (Jer. 17.9). In redeeming us, the Lord, by His Word and Spirit, according to the Gospel, gives us a “new heart”, so that we might begin to love Him as He intends (Ezek. 36.26, 27).

Unless we have such a “circumcised” heart, we shall not be able to keep the Law of God according to His design (Deut. 30.1-10). Hence, the importance of “keeping watch” over our hearts and of allowing the Law of God to instruct us concerning what to love and what to hate. We must focus our love, first and foremost, on God, in gratitude for His redemption, and with a determination to please Him as our ongoing expression of such gratitude.

The Law thus appropriately begins by instructing us to have only this God and no others as our focus of devotion. Moreover, not only must we strive to keep the focus of our hearts clear and constant; we must also work to improve the intensity of our affections, until we are increasingly learning to love God with all our hearts, all our affections oriented to Him and moving us ever more continuously to seek His Kingdom and righteousness in all things.

Loving God with all our hearts means not only continuous vigilance over our affections, but willingness for God to search our hearts by His Word and Spirit, as we wait on Him in prayer, and to renew our hearts wherever necessary, so that He might rule our souls by His Law unto our benefit and His glory (Ps.139.23, 24; Ps.51.10).

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

Inside-out--The rule that God prescribes for His people, and which He enforces by promises and sanctions, is a prescription for a pious and just society,

The Rule of Law: Government of the Soul (1)

The benefits of God’s Law are realized inside-out.

“And the LORD said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!” Deuteronomy 5.28, 29

The rule that God prescribes for His people, and which He enforces by promises and sanctions, is a prescription for a pious and just society, in which love for God and neighbor are the defining characteristics. But, as Jesus complained with respect to the religious leaders of His day, this is not a government that can be achieved merely superficially (Matt. 23.25-26). The rule of Law and the benefits of that rule are realized inside-out, or not at all.

Hence God’s complaint against His people, even as He prepared to lead them into the land of promise: they did not have the kind of internal fortitude and character that would long abide by His covenant and rule. They lacked a heart for God; their souls were inadequate to the task and blessings He had marked out for them.

The ESV’s choice of “mind” to translate the Hebrew, lev, “heart,” reveals an editorial bias – often associated with reformed theology – with respect to the nature and function of the soul. Nevertheless, the translation does serve to point us inward, where God looks on the hearts of men in order to determine their true worth (1 Sam. 16.7 – curiously, the ESV translates lev here with “heart”).

For the Law of God to perform its intended purpose of bringing the blessings of God to men, those who would enjoy those blessings must take the Law of God to heart. The rule of God begins with the government of the soul. Only where God is feared, loved, served, and obeyed from the inside-out will He grant the fullness of His blessings to those who seek them.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

The Duty of God’s People--We are beginning to see that submitting to the rule of God’s Law is much to be preferred to submitting to any other law.

The Rule of Law: First Things (7)

The rule of God’s Law entails three duties.

T. M. Moore

“Pay attention to all that I have said to you…” Exodus 23.13

We are beginning to see that submitting to the rule of God’s Law is much to be preferred to submitting to any other law. The Ten Commandments, and the attending civil statutes which elaborate their meaning, are a foundation for becoming holy and learning to love God and our neighbor as God intends for us. As we learn to fear and love God, submitting to His Law will follow from thanksgiving and a desire to please and honor Him.

And this entails on our part three duties which we must embrace as the key components of our submission to the rule of God’s Law: learn the Law, obey the Law, and teach the Law to others (cf. Ezra 7.10).

The Law of God is encoded in written revelation consisting of commandments, statutes, precepts, and rules. The Prophets of the Old Testament, together with the teaching of Jesus Christ and His Apostles, enable us to understand how those laws are to function in our lives. We must be students of all the Word of God if we would understand the Law, and of the Law of God in particular if we are going to be able to make sense out of the rest of Scripture. We must read, meditate in, and study the Law, and all the counsel of God, if we would fulfill the first of our duties in submitting to it.

We must also work hard to obey the Law. We have been redeemed for good works, the works outlined for us in the Law of God (Eph. 2.8-10; 1 Jn. 2.1-6). We cannot read and study the Law of God in isolation from the rest of Scripture; this is a certain route to misunderstanding and failures of obedience. Instead, by reading all the Scripture, reflecting backward and forward throughout the Word of God, as the Spirit leads (1 Cor. 2.12, 13), we will be able to understand how the Law applies to our daily lives, and how to access the power of God’s Spirit for obedience.

And then we must teach and encourage one another with the Law of God (Matt. 5.17-19). In this series we shall be considering the many benefits that accrue to those who submit to the rule of God’s Law. These are so many and so affirming that we should eagerly want others to learn them as well. We teach the Law truly when we teach it in the light of Jesus Christ (Jn. 5.39): He fulfilled the Law for us; He bore the Law’s wrath in our place; He rose again to teach us the Law’s application in a Kingdom context, and to give us His Spirit to instruct and empower us; and He is at work within us, bringing His own character to life and light in and through us to the praise of the glory of God’s grace.

If we would submit to the rule of God’s Law, and thus enjoy all the benefits such submission affords, we must devote ourselves to learning, obeying, and teaching the Law of God for every aspect of our lives.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

Brendan O'Neill is not happy with his fellow atheists.

I don't think there's any such thing as "nature."

Know the Lord, and bear lasting fruit.

Are we feeding on the Lord?

The only way to break through people's settled beliefs is to expose them to the Gospel.

The Outworking of the Law--What does obedience to the rule of God’s Law yield? What benefit may we expect to gain if, properly motivated out of fear of and love for God, we take up the yoke of obedience to His Law in every aspect of our lives?

The Rule of Law: First Things (6)

This answer may seem simplistic, but it is not mean.

T. M. Moore

“You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.” Leviticus 20.26

What does obedience to the rule of God’s Law yield? What benefit may we expect to gain if, properly motivated out of fear of and love for God, we take up the yoke of obedience to His Law in every aspect of our lives?

All the benefits of God’s Law are summed up in this one good: we will be His holy people. We will be like Him!

This answer may seem simplistic, but it is not mean. God is full of majesty, glory, splendor, might, goodness, wisdom, joy, love, life, and strength. Wouldn’t it be nice to be more consistently like that ourselves? God does not experience fear or disappointment, defeat, discouragement, setback, self-doubt, or any of the other negative affections and consequences of our sinful state. Would we not truly enjoy our lives if they could be made free of such unpleasantness?

God uses His Law to make us like Himself – holy, set apart for the purposes of eternal glory. His Law is the gateway to His promises, by which we may partake of the divine nature, when we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Pet. 1.4). As the Spirit of God leads us through the Law into the presence of God’s glory, we are there transformed, made to conform a bit more to the image of Jesus Christ, so that His righteousness lives through us, and His holiness comes to expression in all our words and deeds (2 Cor. 3.12-18).

Thus, as we grow in holiness, into the image of Jesus Christ, every aspect of our lives, even the most mundane, everyday activities, become platforms for the glory of God to display Him to the world around us (1 Cor. 10.31). The consequence, therefore, of rightly submitting to the rule of God’s Law is that we become holy, as He is holy, in the holiness only He can bring out through us, so that we are blessed beyond description and He is glorified in the world.

It would be difficult, I think, to describe a more desirable agenda for human life.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

The Motive for Obedience--The meaning of God’s Law also provides the motive for our obedience. This should be especially so for the believer in Jesus Christ.

The Rule of Law: First Things (1)

The meaning of God’s Law also provides the motive for our obedience.

T. M. Moore

“When your son asks in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.’” Deuteronomy 6.20, 21

The meaning of God’s Law also provides the motive for our obedience. This should be especially so for the believer in Jesus Christ.

What does the Law of God mean? It means that God has set His love on a people whom He has redeemed from slavery and degradation. He is determined to renew and restore this people, so that they make His glory known to the ends of the earth. The Law of God provides the moral and spiritual renovation God’s people require in order to fulfill His Kingdom purposes.

When we understand God’s meaning in giving us His Law we should be motivated to embrace that meaning, particularly if we have come to know and benefit from the redemption He has accomplished for us through our Lord Jesus Christ. The motive to obey God’s Law is inherent in the meaning of that Law. God means for us to glorify Him. He has saved us and is equipping us for that grand and lofty calling. Our motive in obeying His Law is thus to enter into His holy and righteous and good meaning for our lives, so that we might realize His eternal purposes and blessings as fully as possible.

We do not submit to the rule of God’s Law in order to be saved. Having been saved, redeemed from sin and death by our Lord Jesus Christ, we surrender to the rule of Law in order that we may love God and our neighbor in good works that glorify Him.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.