What Law?

February 14

I assume everyone struggles with the question about which laws we have to keep. And the answer is really quite simple. We have to keep all of them (Matt. 5:18). I’m forever amazed and seldom impressed with contemporary teaching on this topic. Pray tell me, which law do you think we might neglect? Don’t worship other gods; don’t place any idols before God; don’t covet; don’t murder; don’t honor our parents. Gosh, it seems they are all just as important for us today as they were over four thousand years ago. Actually, the only laws we are not, in any way obligated to keep, are those sacrificial laws Jesus fulfilled when He came in the flesh and became the sacrificial lamb for the sins of the world. That simply means the sacrificial laws were fulfilled in Christ.

Lest we think keeping the law would ever make us righteous before God, we need to make sure we read Chapters 1 through 3 of Romans. In those chapters we discover it is not possible for us to earn our salvation by doing good deeds. That said, it is important we also understand such truths don’t mean we are not expected to practice righteousness. Several have put it this way, “While good works don’t save us, those who have been saved always do good works.” Good works are the evidence, not the path, of salvation. So let us finish this study with these parting thoughts.

The law came to guide us to Jesus. No one is justified by it (Gal. 3:11). We are saved solely on the basis of faith in His completed work at the cross (Eph. 2:8, 9). When we repent of our personal sins, get baptized for the forgiveness of our sine, confess Him as Lord, and believe God raised Him from the dead, his word tells us we get born-again (Acts 2:38; Romans 10:9; II Cor. 5:17; John 3:5). All of these things are true. They are the bonafide teaching of scripture. However, that does not excuse us from keeping the law. It simply means we are not justified by doing so. To suggest we can continue living lives that bring dishonor to our God once we have been redeemed by His blood is like teaching that salvation is based on nothing. Jesus died and rose again so we may do the same. However, any who are not willing to die daily as He did, are not worthy to enter His kingdom (Luke 9:23).