October 29 LD 44, Day 1: The Place of the Law
by Pastor Steven Key
Romans 7:14: For we
know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold
under sin.
What a difference between
the non-Christian and believer, when facing the law of God, the well-known Ten
Commandments. For the unbeliever, the law is only the unchangeable demand of
the righteous and holy God as Creator and Sovereign. For you who believe, that
same law has become, in and through Jesus Christ, the loving precept, the guide
for a thankful life. It comes from the same righteous and holy God as Father
and Redeemer. For the unbeliever, that law can only be a matter of crushing responsibility, because he has no relationship to the Christ
Who alone fulfills that law. For the natural man, that law
points to everlasting condemnation, because he must obey that law
perfectly, yet he does not obey it because he cannot, and will not. "Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please
God" (Rom 8:7,8).
But that same law points
the Christian to life eternal. It does so because Christ has fulfilled that law
for us. We do not have to keep that law in order to be redeemed. By His blood,
Christ blotted out all our transgressions; in His life He fulfilled all
obedience for us. Therefore, we are no longer under the law, but under grace.
We are justified by faith, without the works of the law.
Yet, on the other hand,
we who believe keep the law by the power of God's mighty grace and the work of
His Spirit in our lives. Though only small in beginning and not yet in
perfectness, we strive to walk in obedience to the whole law out of
thankfulness for all that God has done for us in Christ Jesus. Because Christ
lives in us by His indwelling Spirit, because we are thankful Christians, we
are compelled to walk in obedience to that law and shall not enter into glory
without it. That is the way it must be, if we are to have any comfort in life
and death. For the law does not merely gloss over certain aspects of our
outward conduct, but reaches into the very depths of our being. That is
emphasized in the tenth commandment.