28 - The Law of Moses

The Law of Moses was the code of rules and regulations which Israel agreed to live by as people in covenant with God. Moses didn’t invent these laws, he just wrote them down as God dictated them to him. And the “heart” of these laws is the Ten Commandments which the Lord Himself wrote down on two flat tablets of stone (24:12; 31:18; 32:15, 16; 34:1–4, 28). He gave Israel these laws so they would know how to lead holy lives, and therefore God’s presence could dwell among them. His goal was to use their nation to evangelize all the other nations on earth (19:6). But, for the most part, things didn’t work out as He intended. People either ignored His laws, or looked for excuses to avoid obeying them, or used them to put others under a form of religious slavery, or tried to earn eternal life by practicing a superficial level of obedience. Of course none of these was the reason God gave His laws in the first place. But misunderstanding and misusing His laws didn’t necessarily end with the arrival of Christianity. Sadly some still misunderstand and misuse them. So today we’ll let the Apostle Paul explain why God gave the Law to Moses and how He wants to use that law in our lives. As we listen to him we’ll hear the good news of the gospel in a fresh way.