No Distractions--The Law of God alone must guide our thinking and living.

Study to Learn--We must apply our minds to the study of God’s Law.

God’s Promises--The promises of God provide the incentive for obeying God’s Law.

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

“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.”

God’s redemption of His people is grounded in the covenant He declared to Abraham (Ex. 2.24, 25). The promises to Abraham (Abram) were “precious and very great” (2 Pet. 1.4). They included being blessed by God and being a blessing to the peoples of the world, and may be summarized by the phrase, “I will be your God, and You will be My people” (Gen. 12.1-3).

The land of Canaan was intended as the preliminary staging-ground for the unfolding drama of God’s blessing His people. Thus, the Law of God continually points the people of Israel forward to their occupation of that land with hints and glimpses of the fulfillment of all that God has promised them. In the land, Israel was to understand, it would go well with them, they would live long and be protected from enemies, and the blessings of God would abound in everything to which they put their hands.

Thus, in addition to the knowledge of God as Lord, Redeemer, and Sovereign, the Law also keeps the promises of God before the minds of His people as the reward they can expect to enjoy for obedience.

But the promises are merely a token of Israel’s true reward: God Himself is Israel’s great reward, as He had promised to Abram (Gen 15.1). As they enjoyed the blessings that came from obedience, Israel would know the even greater joy of the presence of God in their midst (Ps. 16.11). By their obedience they could claim the promises and thus “partake of God” Himself in a unique and wonderful way (2 Pet. 1.4).

These promises, like the Law God gave for their attaining, also point to our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of all the hopes and desires of the people of God, the perfect embodiment of all His precious and very great promises (2 Cor. 1.20).

Thus the Law of God intends to fill the minds of God’s people with a vision of God and reminders of His promises – each of these fully realized in Jesus Christ – so that, with their minds, they might instruct their hearts to fear and love this gracious and generous God supremely.

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.

Know the Lord--The Law of God teaches us to know the Lord.

Study to be like Jesus.

The Kingdom of God makes progress on many fronts.

Look around you right now, right where you are.

The devil is powerful, mostly because he's subtle.

Immigration is back on the table again.

We become what we look at.

God knows the way to a life of grateful devotion, obedience, and blessing.

Always Vigilant--The heart, as we have seen, is deceitful and desperately wicked. Yet we must love God with all our heart, and to aid us in this calling He has provided His Law.

The Rule of Law: Government of the Heart (7)

We must keep a close watch on our hearts.

“Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do.” Deuteronomy 12.32

The heart, as we have seen, is deceitful and desperately wicked. Yet we must love God with all our heart, and to aid us in this calling He has provided His Law. But we must “be careful” with respect to what the Law teaches, so that we allow it to exercise its full power to shape our hearts in the way of love for God and our neighbors. And, since on our own we have no heart for God or His Law, we must rely on the indwelling Spirit of Christ to help us in carrying out this call to vigilance.

The Law of God anticipates the day when God would “circumcise” the hearts of His people so that they would understand and obey His Law (Deut. 30.1-10). That day, as we have previously explained, dawns upon us with the coming of the Spirit of God to dwell within us. He will teach us the Law of God, and all the Word of God, but we must “show up for class” if we would benefit from His instruction. And we must also cultivate the ability to listen for the convicting voice of the Spirit as He searches our hearts and minds against the presence of any evil there (Jn. 16.8-11; Ps. 139.23, 24).

The more we learn how to be filled with the Spirit of God and to walk in Him, the more we will strengthen our hearts to bring forth the fruit of His presence and to realize the promises of God in our lives. We must be careful not to quench the Spirit by failing to submit to His curriculum. And we must not grieve the Spirit by not seeking to fulfill the purposes for which He has been given to us (1 Thess. 5.19; Eph.4.30).

The Spirit of God is the Guardian and Teacher of God’s Law. When He is also the Guardian and Teacher of our hearts, then we will grow in love for God and neighbor from this deepest and most important recess of our souls.

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.