Never Forsaken: Under the Law?

 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”  Exodus 20:2-3

 In today’s passage (Exodus 20) we read about the law that God gave to the Israelites. This was intended to teach them how to live rightly as well as to show them their sin (Galatians 3:19). Until God told the Israelites that they were to observe the Sabbath, for example, they were not held accountable for it. But once they knew, they knew. Now they were aware that what they were doing was wrong in sleeping with another man’s wife, taking their neighbor’s tool, or not quite telling the truth when testifying. And alongside them, we too are now aware. The Law was given that we might see and know our sin for what it is. So that we could see our desperate need for Jesus and our hopelessness without Him.

 Through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, when we believe in Him we, too, are dead to sin and alive in Christ (Romans 6:11). We are no longer judged by the Law, “But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.” (Romans 7:6) Does this imply that the Law means nothing to us? That we can run around murdering and dishonoring our parents and coveting all that our neighbor has? No! Jesus said in Matthew 5:18, “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” And then we read in Romans 3:31, “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.”

 I believe that the Law still has the ability to show us right and wrong, to help us know, as Jesus said, how to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…[and] Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-40). The great joy and freedom we live in is that we are no longer judged by the Law, but we live in the grace afforded to us by Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. The Law very much has value today, but it no longer holds us hostage to sin.

Here’s the Thing: No, we are not “Under the Law” anymore as Christians, but Jesus certainly taught us that it is important to Love God and Love Your Neighbor! We can rejoice in the knowledge that our righteousness is not based on our ability to follow the Law perfectly, while still learning from the Law.