Can I Ask That? – Part Nine – What Was the Purpose of the Law?
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205%3A13-16&version=NIV
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Head/Mind – The Helpful Information
What is the Old Testament Law? Well, the Hebrew name for it is Torah and the Torah is made up of the first five books of the Old Testament, which God gave to us through Moses. The Torah is the story of how God created the human race to be his partner in reigning over the world and how, again and again, the human race failed to respond in love and obedience to the God who created us to share in his work on earth.
The story really gets going when God finds a family that is willing to be a part of what God is doing in our world. This family is headed by a man named Abraham and a woman named Sarah. They enter into a special relationship with God through an agreement called a covenant. In this covenant, God promises to be their God and they promise to be his people.
But there is one big problem. The human race is broken by sin and the world is all out of sorts. God’s desire is to change all of this, to renew the human race, and to use this renewed human race to restore creation.
So within the Torah is something we often call the Law. Really the Law is a moral description of what God’s character is like. God is Holy. Unlike the pagan gods, he is not just a personification of power, wealth, money, and sex. He is a deeply good creator who calls on his people to be Holy. So, the Law is also a set of instructions given to the people on how to be a holy and good people.
The last portion of the Torah/Law, Deuteronomy 26-30 – says that the decision to be God’s people is about making a decision between the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death. Ultimately, one must decide which direction to follow.
The people say to God that they are willing to do whatever it takes to be his people and they promise to obey him in every way. But this is where the story takes a very sad turn.
Moses tells them that despite their good intentions, they will not end up keeping their end of the bargain. They will turn from the path of life and pursue sin and death. They will make choices that break their community, fracture themselves, and ultimately end their covenant with God.
But then, the story takes a turn back toward life with a promise from God. Though the people will fail to be obedient to God and will turn away from him in rebellion, someday God will gather his people back together and he will renew his covenant with them. He will give them hearts that long to love and obey God, and he will make them capable of being faithful covenant partners.
So, what was this all for? What was the purpose of the Law/Torah?
Heart – The Personal Connection
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, said that the Law has three roles. The first is that it gives us a look at the moral core of the universe. It tells us who God is and what human kind is supposed to be. It projects for us the highest level of moral attainment. Second, it demonstrates just how broken we are, by showing us that we cannot live up to that which the moral law points. This reality makes it painfully clear why we need a savior, which drives us into the arms of Jesus. Third, all of the commandments which we were unable to live up to change in the light of Jesus. Before Jesus, they were words of condemnation, because we felt the weight of judgment under them. But now that we have been given new life in Christ, Jesus is restoring and renovating our hearts, so that we can become the people we were always meant to be.
https://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/sermons.v.xxxvi.html
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” – Jeremiah 31:33 #Jermemiah31
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
The Works of the Flesh.
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The Fruit of the Spirit
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another. – Galatians 5:13-26 #Galatians5
New Revised Standard Version
In Galatians, Paul Speaks of Going Beyond the Law/Torah. #torah. #Law. #tanak
By this, Paul does not mean that Judaism is no longer of value. Judaism is a beautiful cultural and religious expression given by God The details of the Torah teach us about God and about what it means to be human. Gentile Christianity has not replaced or superseded Judaism. Nor has God asked us to throw away the Old Testament or the Tanak as something outdated and no longer valuable.
Many Jewish Christians keep the practices of the Torah because doing so is an eternal witness to God and his plan to redeem the world. So, I want to be very careful not to make it sound like Paul is abandoning Judaism to the dustbin of history. That is not what I mean when I say that Paul would have us to move beyond the Torah.
One of the tragedies of Christian history is that too often we have gone off and left our Jewish brothers and sister behind. What a terrible thing is to be abandoned in this way. By moving beyond the Law, we do not mean abandoning the Jewish roots of Christianity.
But the Law was not the final stopping point in God’s story nor even its highest goal. The Law itself tells us this, pointing beyond itself to God’s goal for his people. This brings us to the heart of our understanding of salvation. What does it mean for God to save us? We are saved from sin and death, but what are we saved for? What is the story of salvation about?
It is about the renewal of the humanity. It is about renewing is us the image of God. That is why Paul can even say to his Jewish audience that they are to strive to move beyond the Torah.
Even the Torah itself teaches this. The Torah is the way toward the goal but not the goal itself. That is why the prophets looked forward to a day when God would write the law upon the hearts of his people. What that means is that some day the Holy Spirit would cause the all of the truth and principals of the Torah to be internalized. When that happened, it would be like the training wheels coming off the bike. #salvation. #wesley
Hands – The Practical Application
The Wesleys talked about this in their hymn, I Want a Principal Within.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNXZlQuonBU
I want a principle within of watchful, godly fear, a sensibility of sin, a pain to feel it near…
From thee that I no more may stray, no more thy goodness grieve, grant me a heart of love and awe, I pray, the tender conscience give…
Almighty God of truth and love, to me thy power impart; the mountain from my soul remove, the hardness from my heart. O may the least omission pain my re-awakened soul, and drive me to that blood again, which makes the wounded whole.
The Wesley’s urged their people to seek sanctifying grace, which is the power to be truly free. People who are not capable of governing themselves need lots of rules and laws. They need external constraints to keep them from wrecking their lives and harming others. But those who are governed from within, are no longer in need of external constraints.
Those who have developed such a principal within are truly free.
But, how does this happen? #spiritualdevelopment
We develop according to the company we keep. And despite whatever our external circumstances, the best company to keep is presence of the Holy Spirit. Just as young children pick up the habits, mannerisms, and speech patterns of those who they are around the most; we will be shaped by the Holy Spirit to the extent that we yield access to our lives to him.
To the extent that we live openly under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we will begin to see the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s influence – what Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are the evidence that we have been spending time with the Holy Spirit. They are the evidence that sanctifying grace is at work in our lives. And, they are that which the Torah and all other spiritual guidance points. The Torah, along with all of the spiritual disciplines and practices of the church point beyond themselves. They are the tools, but they are not the goal. The goal is the renewal of the human heart.
The ancient Church Father, Ireneaus said, “The glory of God is when a human being becomes fully alive.” Friends, what would it it look like for you and for me to become fully alive? #Ireneaus