October 26 I Friday

Jeremiah 9-11

1 Timothy 6

“And God spoke all these words: ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.’”  —Exodus 20:1-2

The Ten Commandments are one of history’s most well-known law codes, but they were not given in a vacuum. Before God gave the law to His people, He gave them two important identifiers: that He was their God and their deliverer. He reminds Israel that He was the one who liberated them from their slavery in Egypt, who held Pharaoh’s armies at bay while they walked through the Red Sea, and who now led them to Mount
Sinai to receive the law. The law was given in the context of relationship between God and His people, and it is only in relationship with God that we will properly understand it.

The law of God is consistent with the character of God. When God gave the law, He was telling human beings what He is like and what they were supposed to be like as people created in His image. Just as He is loving, kind and just, we were created to be loving, kind and just. However, when sin entered the world after Adam and Eve fell, humanity ceased to properly show what God is like. Paul explains, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We sin when we fail to meet the law’s standard, which is God’s glory—His character.

The conclusions we hold are usually based on presuppositions that lead to those conclusions. What we believe about God, or whether we believe in Him at all, will inform what we think about His law. Those who do not believe in God might find biblical law to be unreasonable and illogical because they do not know Him. They may see His law as one option out of many, but God does not need our belief or a relationship with us to reveal, enforce or hold us accountable to it. Outside of relationship with Him, the law remains true and intact.

Christians, on the other hand, believe in the rightness of God’s law because they believe in God. The wisdom and rightness of the law are derived from God who, as our Creator, has the right to tell us how to live. Our relationship with Him even informs how we view moral behaviour that the law does not directly address. For instance, Christians believe all human life is created by God and is sacred from conception to the grave, which is why many Christians are against practices like abortion and euthanasia. It is relationship with God that gives substance to the law, and it is in relationship with God, by the working of His Spirit in us, that we understand the law and implement it into our lives.

Prayer: Sovereign Lord, thank You for Your law that reveals Your character and how I should live as someone created in Your image. By Your Spirit in me, continue to shape me into a doer of Your law.