The Nature of God’s Laws
The laws and commandments of God as revealed in both the Old Testament and the New Testament are a holy and perfect set of principles based on the love of God. God’s laws and commandments are designed to teach man how to love and worship God and how to love his neighbor. God has made known His laws and commandments to the world from the beginning and requires all mankind to keep them. The laws and commandments of God define what sin is, and where there is no law there is no sin. No one could be counted as a sinner, or under sin, if God did not require all the people of the world to keep His laws and commandments. The Scriptures show that God judges all nations according to their obedience or disobedience to His laws, bringing blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience or sin. Because of sin and wickedness in Noah’s time, God destroyed the world with the Flood. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because they were sinners before God. The Ninevites were a Gentile nation not in covenant with God, but God warned them through His prophet Jonah of His impending judgment for their sins. The inhabitants of the land of Canaan were expelled because of their religious and sexual sins. The people of Israel, God’s chosen nation, also sinned grievously against God and were sent into captivity. Through sin and disobedience to God’s laws and commandments, the whole world has become guilty before Him. Generation after generation has yielded to the sinfulness of human nature and has utterly failed to meet even the minimum requirements of the letter of the Law.
While God has always required mankind to keep His laws and commandments in the letter of the Law, He desires that every human being learn to worship Him in the spirit of the Law. The full spiritual intent of God’s laws is that each one learn to love God with all the heart, mind, soul, being and strength; and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. The Scriptures reveal that obedience to God’s laws in the spirit is a condition for receiving eternal life. Only through the gift of the Holy Spirit is this obedience made possible. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, each Christian can have the laws and commandments of God written in his or her heart and mind and can learn to walk daily in the spiritual obedience that God desires. The laws and commandments of God are not contrary to grace and faith but are truly“ established by faith.
Scriptural References
Gen. 3:11-13; 4:7-11 | Gen 6:5- 13; 15:16 | Lev. l8:5
Jer. 18:7-10 | Ezek. 20:11,13,21 | Prov 4:4 | Deut. 28:1-13 | Deut. 4:1-13; 6:1-4 | Gal. 3:11
Rom. 10:5 | Rom. 3:9-22; 4:13-16 | Rom. 2:11-13
Matt. 22:36-40 | Psa. 19:1-7 | Psa. 111:10
John 14:15-24 | Psa. 119 | 1 John 2:4-6
Matt. 4:4 | Isa. 42:21 | 1 John 3:4
Mat. 5:17-20 | 1 John 5:2-3 | 11 Tim. 3:16
Heb. 8:10-12; 10:16-22 | Rev. 22:14 | Rev. 12:17; 14:12