The Law

We are on a 3-year journey through the Bible. And this Sunday we reach the ‘high-water-mark’ of the Old Testament – the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. When you see or hear the word ‘law’, what other words come readily to your mind? Are they negative words? Eight of the Ten Commandments are stated in prohibitive form. And yet, in the Jewish mind they were a beautiful thing to behold; to be loved and cherished and valued above all else. Is it possible the commandments have just gotten a bad rap in more recent thought? Our tendency to see prohibitions as a negative thing with negative consequences says a lot more about the psychology of our day than it does about the reality of our situation. That reality includes the sin and guilt that we experience and the temptation we face continually. And this is the reality revealed to us by the perfect Law of God. The law was not given to save us. Saving is what God does through the Gospel. But God uses the revelation of the Law to show us our desperate need for the Gospel. That makes the Law of God a beautiful thing to behold.