Dwight Fletcher | What is the purpose of God’s law?

IN LAST week’s article, I shared that trying to obey God by self-effort, using the Law of Moses, does not make us stronger Christians; it makes us weaker ones. We are more likely to sin when we attempt to use the law as our basis to live the Christian life.

However, this begs the question: if the law cannot save us or make us righteous, what is its purpose? Why would God give the Israelites the law if it could not transform their lives?

THE LAW WAS GIVEN TO SHOW US OUR SIN

There is no sin without a law. When someone drives on the wrong side of a road, the reason we know it’s wrong is because there is a law that says so. Look at Galatians 3:19a (NLT), “Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised.” On our own, what flows out of our lives is sin. Yet, we’ve all been guilty of missing the sin in our own lives and focusing only on the evil in others. That was why we need the law, to show us our depravity. So that we would know that there is no one righteous, because all of us have sinned (Romans 3:10-12 and 23).

However, notice that the law was designed to be temporary: “to last only until the coming of the child who was promised.” Without the law, we would not recognise that there is a problem in our lives. That problem is sin. But thanks be to God, there is a solution to the sin problem! His name is Jesus.

THE LAW WAS GIVEN TO LEAD US TO CHRIST

“Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith.” Galatians 3:23-24 (NIV).

The Law helps us to identify our wrong, and it creates boundaries beyond which we should not drift. In this way, the law is our guardian, a servant responsible for a child until adulthood, to keep him from physical and moral evil. But in Christ, we reach the fullness of that maturity, where the Law has fulfilled its purpose, and we are led not by obligation, but by the Spirit who writes God’s will on our hearts.

After I receive Jesus, I am justified – just as if I have never sinned. The Law is not relevant in the way that it was, because I can now triumph over sin.

No wonder Hebrews 8:13 states, “When God speaks of a ‘new’ covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete.” It does not have the same value it used to have. It is like comparing a 1985 phone with the latest smartphone. If you got that phone to turn on, it would be able to do simple tasks, but it would be obsolete. There would be a better version that could do much more than that phone could do.

The Law is obsolete, but it does not make it irrelevant. Our faith is built on that foundation. We have to still interact with the Law, see the truth in it, but recognise that it should no longer be our guide for life.

Instead, we must be guided by the new covenant mentioned in Hebrews 8. This covenant is not like the first. In this covenant, mankind is enabled to satisfy its requirements because of grace. It creates intimacy with the Father like never before. It’s this covenant that we will discuss next week. Blessings until then.

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