Read with Me
1 Timothy 1:8-11 (HCSB)
But we know that the law is good, provided one uses it legitimately. We know that the law is not meant for a righteous person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral and homosexuals, for kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching based on the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was entrusted to me.
isten with Me
Paul, though once a rabid Pharisee, who could even justify the execution of those he deemed heretics, now took a different view of the law. Even though he was no longer a legalist, someone who believes that a person can be saved by their own efforts in obeying the law, he had not become an antinomian, someone who denies the need to obey the moral requirements of the law entirely.
Instead, Paul had arrived at the middle ground. He understood that the law, based as it is in God’s character, is vital in the life of a believer, not as a means of earning one’s salvation, but as a way of knowing God more fully, and of living in a more complete relationship with Him. As Paul himself noted in Romans 3:20: For no one will be justified in His sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.
Those who have been saved and whose lives have been transformed by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit living in their hearts will find themselves naturally obeying the moral requirements of the law as they are molded and shaped into the image and likeness of Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). Thus, believers don’t have to be cudgeled with the law, but simply instructed in what it requires. They will then willingly conform themselves to what God requires of them out of love for Him and a desire to live in ever deeper fellowship with Him.
The real value of the law, however, is to help sinners to recognize how far they have fallen from God’s righteousness, and how deserving they are of His judgment for their sinful actions and attitudes. This was even the case in the days of King Josiah. The book of the law had been lost for decades. It was found by workmen clearing out the temple, and when it was read to the king, he tore his clothes in an act of repentance. Through hearing the words of the law clearly stated, he could see that both he and his people were falling far short of what God required and were deserving of His judgment and His punishment (2 Kings 22:3-13).
The false teachers that Paul was warning about in the Ephesian church were guilty of misusing the law, first by refusing to evaluate their own actions and attitudes by it, then by trying to weaponize it against those whose hearts were obeying it more and more as they grew in maturity and holiness. At the same time, they were not using it to help those living apart from God to see their need, so that they could be saved.
Pray with Me
Father, I can see from this that we have two problems with the law in the Church today. The first problem is that we tend toward one extreme or the other. On the one hand, we tend toward a rigid legalism which shames those growing in their faith instead of simply educating them on Your moral requirements. Or we tend toward antonomianism, discounting entirely the value of Your law, claiming complete freedom from Your moral requirements, essentially believing that we are fine with You regardless of our obedience or disobedience to Your requirements. But Paul himself lived in the middle ground. He saw the more requirements as a reflection of Your righteous character that we are being shaped into by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, but at the same time, he avoided his former rigid legalism that tries to earn salvation through compliance with the minutia of the law. But the second problem I see today is that we are reluctant, even averse, to using the law properly, to help those living apart from You to evaluate their lives by Your character as reflected in the moral requirements of the law, so that they can see their own lostness and their need for the salvation. Without that clear view of themselves and their spiritual state before You, they do not see the need for the radical transformation of their lives that can only come in relationship with you. Help me to do better, Lord, in both areas. Amen.