WHO NEEDS THE LAW?
We also know that law is made not for good men but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious. 1 Tim. 1:9, N.I.V.
Do you think you might ever walk into an elementary school classroom and find a large poster in front of the children that reads, "It is a law that you must like ice cream"? Who needs a prominent law to tell someone to do something that already is the natural longing of one's heart?
By the same token, can you imagine large posters attached to the walls of the New Jerusalem warning the inhabitants that stealing gold from each other's mansions is strictly forbidden? Paul's letter to Timothy stirs our minds to remember that in our original condition (as well as in our restored condition) God didn't need to tell His people what to do or how to behave. It was written on our hearts.
But when human hearts went astray from their Lord, and thus from His wise will, it became necessary for Him to warn us, to guide us, even to command us, to live in certain responsible and healthful ways--to protect ourselves and others from pain and destruction. It was no longer natural for our hearts to do the loving and wise thing. Paul clearly identifies just who it is that needs the law: It is people who wouldn't otherwise live by its principles. Not that the law can change one's inner values, but it can point out the need for a Christ-wrought inner change.
Many Christians have believed that the law serves only to pass condemnation on us, and that once Jesus has given us a legal covering of "declared righteousness," the need for the law vanishes. But in reality the law changes its posture, its means of working. It moves from external to internal, from a statement of what one must do to a description of what a loving person will do when bonded to Jesus through faith. As Paul says: "Are we then undermining the Law by this insistence on faith? Not a bit of it! We put the Law in its proper place" (Rom. 3:31, Phillips).
That proper place, of course, is written in the heart. For the law is an expression of God's character, a restatement of His values. Those who adoringly behold Him will become like Him--in their hearts.
We also know that law is made not for good men but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious. 1 Tim. 1:9, N.I.V.
Do you think you might ever walk into an elementary school classroom and find a large poster in front of the children that reads, "It is a law that you must like ice cream"? Who needs a prominent law to tell someone to do something that already is the natural longing of one's heart?
By the same token, can you imagine large posters attached to the walls of the New Jerusalem warning the inhabitants that stealing gold from each other's mansions is strictly forbidden? Paul's letter to Timothy stirs our minds to remember that in our original condition (as well as in our restored condition) God didn't need to tell His people what to do or how to behave. It was written on our hearts.
But when human hearts went astray from their Lord, and thus from His wise will, it became necessary for Him to warn us, to guide us, even to command us, to live in certain responsible and healthful ways--to protect ourselves and others from pain and destruction. It was no longer natural for our hearts to do the loving and wise thing. Paul clearly identifies just who it is that needs the law: It is people who wouldn't otherwise live by its principles. Not that the law can change one's inner values, but it can point out the need for a Christ-wrought inner change.
Many Christians have believed that the law serves only to pass condemnation on us, and that once Jesus has given us a legal covering of "declared righteousness," the need for the law vanishes. But in reality the law changes its posture, its means of working. It moves from external to internal, from a statement of what one must do to a description of what a loving person will do when bonded to Jesus through faith. As Paul says: "Are we then undermining the Law by this insistence on faith? Not a bit of it! We put the Law in its proper place" (Rom. 3:31, Phillips).
That proper place, of course, is written in the heart. For the law is an expression of God's character, a restatement of His values. Those who adoringly behold Him will become like Him--in their hearts.
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