Thoughts on God's Law

God’s law, or the Law of Moses is a very interesting topic of debate. I have a hard time understanding why so many people believe that following the commands of God is the incorrect way to live. I understand that the majority belief is that men cannot keep the law of God. I do not agree with this, but, let’s just say for arguments sake that it is true and men in no way are able to keep the laws that were given by the Creator.

Psalm 119:7, 20, 30, 52, 160

I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws.

My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.

I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I have set my heart on your laws.

I remember, Lord, your ancient laws, and I find comfort in them.

All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal H5769

What we can see from this is that His Laws are righteous, the way of faithfulness, comforting, and eternal. The Hebrew word for eternal is `owlam H5769 and it literally means forever. This is the very same word that God uses when He tells Noah about never flooding the Earth again. Therefore, if we believe that He changed His mind about His people keeping His Law, we must also entertain the idea that He can change His mind about flooding the world again.

Genesis 9: 16

And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting H5769 covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

Just because we cannot keep His commandments and His given ways of life, does that mean we should avoid them altogether? Does that mean that we are able to create our own ideas for what living a godly life should look like? Does this mean that we can create our own, new definition for what sin is? The simple answer for all three of these questions is a resounding NO. God is the only one that can make the choice about what He considers Holy and unholy, righteous and unrighteous. He defines sin.

1 John 3:4

Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.

Deuteronomy 6: 25

And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”

Ezekiel 18:9

He follows my decrees and faithfully keeps my laws. That man is righteous; he will surely live, declares the Sovereign Lord.

Romans 2: 13

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.

God shows us that His Law is righteous, and our following of it shows our righteousness. I am not claiming that the law makes us righteous however, but rather just sets us apart from the rest of the world.

Romans 3:20

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

Based on verse 20 in Romans 3, we absolutely still need the law. How can we become conscious of our sin, if we don’t have the law as part of our daily life? As I said, I do not, in any way, believe that the law plays a role in our salvation, in terms of obeying it in order for salvation. However, I do believe that once we become Believers in the resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus), we should want to obey God’s Laws in order to show our love for Him.

1 John 5:2-3

This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome

As we can see, we are supposed to carry out the commands of God, the Father. In doing so, we are showing our love for not only His children, but also Him. These are just a few examples of why I have such a hard time understanding what people are preaching about the word of God.

I understand and agree with the FACT that no man has the ability to be saved by his works of the God given law. That is not what I am trying to say in terms of keeping and following the commands from the Father. What I do want to say is that God gave His people a set of laws, or instructions intended to guide their way of living. These instructions are the cheat sheet for living a perfect godly life. 

Therefore, even if we fall short from living them out perfectly, wouldn’t it mean that we would still

1. Have a closer relationship to the Father,

2. Be able to live a life set apart from the world as the New Testament tells us, and

3. Not looking like a bunch of hypocrites to non-believers?

I believe that if we try to follow Gods given instructions we will undoubtedly get closer to Him, and if and when we fall short, we will have GRACE to catch us. Think about it, God gave us His instructions because He wanted us to follow them and bask in the blessing that accompany them. When we, men, chose not to keep them and were doomed to the curses that come with failure to comply. Now the New Testament comes along and the Messiah saves His people from the curses that accompany not following God’s commands. Nowhere do we ever get told not to continue to follow these commands, but simply if we continue to try and fall short, we need not worry about suffering the curses for falling short.

1 John 2:1

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

Let me rewrite this or at least give you my breakdown of this verse.

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not break God’s Law. But if anyone does break God’s law, we have an advocate with the Father- Yeshua Ha Machiac, the Righteous One. So, we are supposed to try to keep the law, the best we can, in order to show our love to the Father, and to show that we are not of this world. We are His children and not partakers of fleshly desires. We are abstaining from the things God has declared unclean or unrighteous, and denying ourselves certain worldly pleasures. God’s Law is good, holy, and Righteous. Why would we ever want to deny it? In fact, Jesus IS the word of God, therefore, it seems likely that denying the Torah, or the law of God, is in fact denying Christ Himself.