Pastor's pen: What good is the Law?

In years gone by, one of the most well-known parts of the Bible was the Ten Commandments, found in Deuteronomy 5:7-21. It is the foundation upon which much of the Western rule of law is based. A system that has seen the Western world prosper and maintain order for many hundreds of years. The rise of secularism and the growing irrelevance of the Christian church in modern society however means many people today, especially young people wouldn’t know who Moses was, let alone believe God revealed a holy standard to Him for the guidance of the ancient people of Israel. And alongside this, modern teachings on grace in the church has also meant many people in church aren’t real sure how it applies to them either.

But there are a number of reasons we should see value in the Commandments given by God to the nation of Israel for our lives today. Firstly, in 2 Timothy 3:16 we read, “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…” Alongside this in Romans 7:22 the Apostle Paul, through whom we have received much of the New Testament doctrines of the church, says, “…in my inner being I delight in God’s law...”  On this second scripture, author Ray Comfort writes the following: “Why should we delight in God’s Law, even though we are not saved by our obedience to it? It is because the Law reveals God’s holiness, His righteousness, His justice and truth. It is the very instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to convert the soul…[and] the means by which the sinner’s heart is prepared to receive the grace of God.”

In Romans, Paul explains he wouldn’t know what sin was unless he knew God’s law, and he wouldn’t know he needed to be saved from those sins in order to be in relationship with God and rescued from eternal punishment. So even though the Ten Commandments are out of fashion these days, we can be sure that humanity need to know them and be reminded of them often, if we are going to have a sense of right and wrong, holiness and sin. The world has rejected God. It stands to reason then that the world also rejects the code of instructions that remind us about right and wrong, and reminds us we need a Saviour. But as Christians we must remain aware of God’s holy standards. They are impossible to fulfil in our own strength, but that knowledge drives us back again and again to the throne of God’s grace, where we can receive power though the Holy Spirit to be delivered from the power of sin and to live a life that honours God. The world needs to see that God’s Law still exists and they need to see that it is good. They are going to see it as they see Christians taking sin seriously, and living by the grace that our good God affords to us.