The Law of God: Questions and Answers
God’s Law is good even for those who don’t think so!
How shall we understand and apply the Law of God today?
“Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever. Psalm 81.13-15
This is one of the most amazing promises of Scripture.
If the people of God, those to whom the Law and Spirit of God have been given, will daily walk according to path marked out by His Law, God will cause even those who hate Him to “feign obedience” (NASB) to Him. They will accept the Law of God, whether or not they understand it to be such, because (a) they will see the evidence of righteousness, peace, and joy this brings to those who keep it, and (b) they will sense, somehow, that doing so is in their own best interest.
This does not bring them to salvation, of course; their condemnation continues (“their fate would last forever”). However, where the Law of God is obeyed the evidence of His Kingdom and pleasure will abound, and even those who hate Him will benefit from it.
Just as unbelievers today benefit from the leftover effects of the Law of God in Western culture, so they would benefit even more if God’s people would take seriously their duty to understand and apply the Law of God to their daily lives.
It is not too much to believe that laws could be passed regulating the behavior of a nation in ways that would reflect the Law of God in ways the utilitarian, pragmatic, and secular statutes of our day do not. School curricula could recover many of the Scriptural underpinnings which have been jettisoned over the past generation. This nation was founded on a platform rich with the teaching of God’s Law, and many of the echoes of that original intent linger today.
God’s people will want to work for laws and reforms that honor God and His Word because they know these are in the best interest of justice and human wellbeing. And when we once again become a community – a nation – of people who walk the paths of God’s Law, delighting in it and in Him, we may expect that our faithful God will begin to reform the morals and laws of our nation so that they are more in line with what is pleasing to Him.
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