Keeping the Law
I ran across this from Thomas Manton’s sermon on Psalm 119:1. I thought I would share:
"But now you must know, there is a twofold keeping of
God's testimonies--legal and evangelical. Legal keeping is in a way of perfect
and absolute obedience, without the least failing; so none of us can be
blessed. Moses will accuse us; there will be failings in the best. But now
evangelical keeping--that is, a filial and sincere obedience is accepted, and
the imperfections Christ pardoneth. If God's pardon help us not, we are forever
miserable. The apostles had many failings; sometimes they manifested a weak
faith, sometimes hardness of heart, sometimes passionateness when they met with
disrespect, Luke 9; yet Christ returns this general acknowledgment of them when
he was pleading with his Father, 'Holy Father, they have kept my word.' When
the heart is sincere, God will pass by our failings, James 5:11, 'Ye have heard
of the patience of Job.' Ay! and of his impatience too, his cursing the day of
his birth; but the Spirit of God puts a finger upon the scar, and takes notice
of what is good. So long as we bewail sin, seek remission of sin, strive after
perfection, endeavour to keep close and be tender of a command, though a
naughty heart will carry us aside sometimes, we keep the testimony of the Lord
in a gospel sense."
**
I appreciate this from Manton. It is a helpful distinction.
I have for long wrestled to understand the law of God as New Covenant believer. When I come across
Deuteronomy or Psalm 119 in my Bible reading, I am often left wondering how to
properly apply its injunctions to a New Testament, gospel understanding. Do we
disregard the warnings and parameters God has set out in a former age because
we have gospel grace? Do we give a half-hearted assent to its precepts, remembering all the while we have deeper fountains elsewhere? Do we read, but reservedly,
out of fear of entertaining a "legalistic" frame of mind? But Manton
elsewhere is helpful even here: "If the law might be disannulled as to new
creatures, then why doth the Spirit of God write it with such legible characters
in their hearts?" Jesus says in Matthew 5:18, "For truly I tell you,
until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke
of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is
accomplished." Clearly the law is here to stay.
Psalm 119 affirms the law is good. "Blessed are those
whose way is blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord." The
law of the Lord is the way in which God has called his image bearers to live. And
it is a good thing to strive to adhere to and even delight in its standards. "Blessed is the
man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of
sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the
LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night." That we are now under a
New Covenant does not change this blessing the law offers, only
that we now enjoy a different and better relationship to it than before.
When previously reading the Psalmist words above, I would
often conclude: "Well, yes whoever's walk is blameless is indeed
blessed." There is no disputing that! But there is no one who is
blameless! All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; a faithful man
who can find? While the law is a good thing to strive to obey, the blessings
are out of reach us because of our imperfections. It is only through Christ
that we can be declared blameless in a legal way before God. While this is a
proper interpretation, I was nevertheless limiting myself to understanding the
law in only a legal way, completely disregarding the gospel or evangelical
understanding of law. I was understanding "law" only in terms of
man's natural relation to it, not the new relation we have to it through Jesus
Christ.
Where before we were filled with fear of great wrath over
the transgression of one law, under Christ we have no such fears. Where our
desires and internal motivations could not get us to follow the right way, the
new covenant writes these injunctions on our hearts--that we now may desire and
long to walk in them. And where before the law's heavy yoke would make us
stagger, crushing us under its load, Christ's yoke is easy and light. It is
still a burden, but where we are unable to go another step, Christ carries the
load. When we fall short, Christ's blood covers our faults. Where before, the
law was a hard master, Christ is a gentle and humble-hearted one, slow to
anger, abounding in steadfast love. And though we never will attain perfection
in the legal sense on earth, if we are in Christ and we persevere in these
things, we can be said to keep the law in a gospel sense, just as the disciples
with all their flaws were said to have "kept my word."
So next time you find yourself plodding through Exodus,
wondering how to see these commandments in a proper sense, be encouraged to
obey them and receive the blessings they give. These moral commands are good. They are for you to obey! If you are in Christ, know that what was once
burdensome is now sweet. There is no looming threat of everlasting judgment if
you err. What was formerly worked out of fear is now worked out of love for “I give
them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of
my hand.”
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