Introduction

With a goal of expanding a little further on a biblical philosophy of government, we must orient ourselves clearly on the question and nature of the abiding validity of the law of God epitomized in the Ten Commandments. That is a mouthful that we need to ponder (critical).

Last time I gave an overview of the case for the abiding validity of the famous Ten Words. Central in this case is Matthew 5:17 where Jesus tells us how to think about His relation to law by telling us how not to think about it. As we read the text notice how our Lord states the matter. In a word, He tells us not to think that He came to abolish the whole law (law and prophets), to do away with it. So with all the changes that He has brought, we are not to think that He simply set it aside. What are we to think? We are to think fulfillment. He came to bring the law to a new covenant fulfillment form. Thus even with all the changes we are to think continuity not discontinuity as our first foot forward in viewing the shift from the OT to the NT.

In the wineskin illustration this means that the old wineskin cannot handle the new wine so there must be a new wineskin. But we do not have a situation where there is no wineskin whatever! The wineskin is the law, the structure, which holds the new wine in place. The law abides but it has newness, a new form that results from the new wine of fulfillment in Christ.

Again the lesson is that we should look at the law from the OT with an eye to find continuity despite all the changes that have in fact occurred with the coming of Christ. Look for it, think in this direction, is what our Lord instructs us to do. Thus, the continuity that we find amidst the changes is the new covenant form of the law. Obviously, we have to balance continuity and discontinuity but we are to do so with a very favorable eye to continuity (cf. a balancing act on a high wire—keep your eye on the wire, the wire of fulfillment law).

From our Lord’s teaching in Matthew 5:17 we get a posture, a mindset, a way of thinking. This way of thinking carries with it certain implications. I want to consider three of them today. This way of thinking addresses the negative grids, it speaks to the fulfillment objection, and it sets a high and noble tone. (Later I still want to take up the antithetic language)

1A. This way of thinking addresses all the negative grids

I mentioned these grids before but I want to review them because the impact of these grids is as deep as it is subtle. They are so gripping that they prevent what I claim ought to be a very positive view of God’s law, especially the Ten Commandments, on the part of Christians.

Some of you may have been raised in a religious context where the commandments were stressed in order to merit God's favor. Others may have the backdrop of a legalism in which all kinds of church rules were imposed on you that bound your conscience to commandments of men (at least tried to or had that effect). We might resist some positive relation to the law because we know that the merit idea is so wrong. We might resist the law because we know that the conscience must not be bound to the commandments of men, because we know that such constraint smothers and debilitates. We might resist the law for the added reason that we fear its high and holy demands as those demands throw a bright search light on our sin (a truly ugly sight, one we may loath).

Furthermore, the law may be resisted because of a biblical theology that relegates the law to the distant past. That may be done to such a degree that the law is rendered irrelevant to the saint today (we are not Israel and this is not Mt. Sinai). Or, the Sermon on the Mount with its stress on the law may be made irrelevant by relegating its demands to the future (say, as laws of a future millennial age).

We might have difficulty with the rigor of the law even if we leave the issue of legalism aside for the moment. It is just very demanding. Or, one may simply be impressed with the abundance of antithetic language in the NT, language that speaks in very opposing or contrasting terms about the law of God (we are not under law but under grace, etc; it is undeniable that there are many passages that express strong contrast).

The words of our Lord should be applied to all of these feelings and perspectives, "do not think that I came to abolish the law." Instead, He says, "think of the law in the context of fulfillment." The law and its classic summary, the Ten Commandments, have an abiding validity until the end of all things: "until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." This is not stressing a point as to when the Law will pass away. Rather, it stresses the point that as long as the history of the heavens and the earth continue the law will remain in effect; it will abide with validity as long as history continues right up to the very end of all things.

In the last phrase we have literally "until all comes to be." As many scholars point out "accomplished" is a mistranslation and suggests that "all" refers to the law and prophets. But that is incorrect. The word "all" has no particularization in the context (cf. Bahnsen, Theonomy, 79). So it should be taken as meaning all things. Thus the law abides until all things come to pass, until history unfolds to its end when "heaven and earth pass away." The law abides as long as human history continues.

Happiness and joy are associated with this walk in righteous deeds defined by the law (it is that your joy may be made full, Jn. 15:10-11; by keeping and instructing others in keeping the law, we find greatness in the kingdom come in Christ, Matt. 5:18-19).

These things (not abolish but fulfill, joy, and greatness) address and shatter the negative grids. Former habits of thought and imbedded emotional responses must be judged in our hearts in order to counter them. This is the grid that ought to control how we view the law. We should think the way our Lord told us to think.

2A. This way of thinking speaks to the fulfillment objection to the law

Perhaps this is another negative grid of a sort but it comes in the form of an argument.

My claim is that how Jesus told us to think about His coming in relation to the law exposes the remarkable error of claiming that we are no longer bound by the law because love is the fulfillment of the law. Thus, it is argued, under the new commandment of Christ to love one another as He loves us, we no longer need external commandments. We do not need the law because it is now written on our hearts.

In reply let me say the following. 1) Granted love is a summary of the Ten. But it is important to keep in mind that a summary does not eliminate that which it summarizes. The fact that love summarizes the law does not eliminate the relevance of the Ten Commandments just as the fact that the Ten summarize all of God’s commandments and that does not eliminate all of them.

Think of three circles of different sizes and in a line from the largest to the smallest. The largest represents all of God’s commands that are summarized by the next circle representing the Ten Words, which in turn are represented by the commandments of love (either two: love God and the neighbor, or one: love). They descend from many, to ten, to two, and perhaps ultimately to one. To have the second circle does not mean the first is eliminated and to have the third does not mean that the second is eliminated. Also, the diagram could have only two circles one inside the other (the Ten within all commands). Here consider the circles a coin with a circle on it: one side is called commandments (all summarized in the ten). If you flip the coin over what is the title? It is love. Commandments and love are simply two sides of the same coin.

Again, a summary does not eliminate or render invalid that which it summarizes. If anything, it does just the opposite. The summary points to the larger whole and guides us to it. Thus, how to love God and our neighbor is given succinct and helpful summary in the Ten Commandments. What love fulfills is spelled out in the Ten. You have to ask, "what is it that love fulfills?" And the answer is obvious: it fulfills the Ten Commandments as they summarize all of God’s commandments.

2) To claim that the law of love eliminates the need for law is self-contradictory. Love is commanded. It is a law. To love is a duty, a lawful duty. It is an external command.

3) With respect to the fact that the law is written on our hearts, it should be duly noted that in Jeremiah 31 the law that is written on the heart is God’s commandments defined by Moses. It is not a "blank" law of love that is written there. The covenant Israel broke included the law; it is the same law that is written on the hearts in the new covenant (Jer. 31:32-33).

4) We also have to acknowledge our struggle (each Christian’s struggle) with indwelling sin. As we saw in Romans 7, the believer has been freed from sin but not completely. There is a now and a not yet to the Christian’s sanctification. He is a sinner-saint or if you prefer, a saintly-sinner. He can say with Paul, "what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing…. I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work…waging war…making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members" (7:23). Therefore, as Christians being led by the Spirit, we need an objective guide, a guide that is external to us and that guides us on the path of righteousness. That guide is the law, which is a light unto our path and a lamp unto our feet (Ps. 119:105, lamp; 111, the joy of my heart).

I find this "fulfillment objection" to the law to be decidedly erroneous. But it helps us to see just how important it is for us to have the commandments of God to guide our steps, and the summary ten solid steps across the swirling river of life.

3A. This way of thinking sets a high tone (to get to the heart of things)

I am trying to find the expletives to state this in the strongest terms possible. We should view the law like the Psalmist as an object of affection, gratitude, joy, delight, and pleasure from the depths of our souls so that we say, we shout, and we sing: "O how I love your law" my Sovereign Lord and King, my Savior and my God." As Christians, this means we think this way and express these thoughts to Jesus Christ our risen Lord. Our affection for His law derives from our affection for Him who purchased our life and forgiveness by His death on the cross in our place.

It arises from sanctifying Him in our hearts. It arises from the fact that our eternal safety is due to Christ alone.

In Christ Alone

I place my trust

And find my glory in the power of the cross

In every victory

Let it be said of me

My source of strength

My source of hope

Is Christ Alone

Jesus says, "Don’t think negatively about the law but think positively about it." This is the tone and tenor of Matthew 11:28-30. There Jesus summons us to take His yoke. A yoke is literally the collar that guides an animal in plowing a field. Figuratively it refers to the commandments of Christ as His firm directives that obligate us in all that we do. These are firm guides that are collars around our necks that yoke us to Him.

As a yoke about the neck, we might think negatively again. But that cannot be the case. Why not? Because we are yoked to Him. He is gentle and humble. Think about each of these qualities.

He is humble

In humility, yes in utter humiliation, He endured the shame of the cross and there on our behalf He satisfied the demands of God’s just law. Our risen Savior endured the punishment due to us for all our law breaking past, present, and future. This is so marvelous that it sounds scandalous. It sounds like a license to sin beyond compare. Consider the thought, by the grace of God and through faith in Jesus Christ, we have been forgiven in the fullest possible sense, justified and counted as glorified in the mind of God. The Judge, the supreme Judge of earth and heaven declares it so.

So people say, "but surely we must do something, we must live a good life to receive such access with certainty to heaven." But the cross of Christ says, the humiliation of Christ says, "Absolutely not, you cannot do a single good thing that could ever merit this access. It can only be accomplished by the work of Christ alone. You are sinners through and through but He is the Savior that frees from the condemnation of the law " (cf. "no condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine, Bold I approach th’ eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own. Amazing love! How can it be That Thou my God, shouldst die for me!").

He is gentle

Jesus frees us from all condemnation before the perfect law of God as the gentle Sovereign. And in that context, in light of that good news par excellence, He summons us to live under the yoke of His law. He tells us to walk in that path, to cut that furrow in the field. He tells us to expose ourselves to the shining brightness of His holiness expressed in His law. This means to be exposed by the law, to acknowledge our failures, to keep aiming at obedience with determined resolve in love and gratitude to Him. It is determined people that seize the kingdom and the laws of the King as a prize (Matt. 11:11-13). How can this be? How can we seize that which exposes the thoughts and intents of the heart, which shows us our sinfulness before God?

This can be because Jesus is gentle with us as we take up His law in all its fullness, as we do so with repentant hearts of love and gratitude. Knowing His gentleness enhances our love and gratitude that moves us to repentance as a way of life. We are moved to repentance with tears of joy!

This is remarkable. It is extraordinary. This is good news. And there is no opposition for the Christian between law and gospel. Law is not an opponent to gospel. The gospel is not opponent to law. The gospel is no more opposed to the Ten Commandments than love is opposed to the Ten Commandments. We know how to love by means of the Ten Commandments and the gospel inflames our hearts with love for the Lord Jesus and His

Ten Commandments. We love the commandments because we love Him and because by the commandments He guides us on the path of safety, righteousness, and life. And that causes us to love Him all the more! In this spirit, we have to say, shout, and sing: "O, Lord Jesus, how I love your law."

Illustration of the wedding vows

This is a precious part of the wedding vows I love to use (brought up to me this week by a student dealing with challenges to love and marriage in a college class setting). To the groom it is said, "__will you have this woman to be your wedded wife, to live with her by God's commandments in the holy estate of marriage? And will you love her, honor and cherish her, so long as you both shall live?" It is similar to the bride: "_will you have this man to be your wedded husband, to live with him by God's commandments in the holy estate of marriage? And will you love him, cherish and obey him, so long as you both shall live?" I cannot help but think: What safety is ahead for a couple beginning their life’s journey together as husband and wife when they build their lives on the word, precepts, commandments, and gospel of the risen Sovereign Lord Jesus. So I like to tie the commandments with the deep love of Jesus. This is so fitting as we look forward regarding a life long journey.

So wherever we are on this journey, "this is the way, walk ye in it." May the Lord bless you in your thinking and meditating about the law with the goal of living before and for Jesus Christ the risen Lord and Savior. Amen!