Posted on 07/28/2017 6:03:21 AM PDT by Gamecock
Let’s continue the experiment we began in the previous meditation. Study the excerpts from the apostle Paul that accompany this reading. Does this sound like a man who believed the law of God has no place in the Christian life? Read Paul’s writings carefully and you will find a man whose heart longed for the law of God as much as David’s.
The law drives us to the gospel. The gospel saves us from the curse of the law, but in turn directs us back to the law to search its spirit. The law of God is still a lamp to our feet. Without it we stumble and trip and grope in darkness.
For the Christian, the greatest benefit of the law of God is its revelatory character. The law reveals to us the Lawgiver. It teaches us what is pleasing in His sight. We need to seek the law of God—to pant after it—and to delight in it. Anything less is an offense against the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Coram Deo
Pray this prayer: “Thank You for Your law, which is a lamp to my feet. Give me a heart that longs for and delights in Your law.”
Passages for Further Study
Romans 7:8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
Romans 7:12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Romans 7:22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
Ping
Friday Hymn Sing
Anne Steele
Dear Refuge Of My Weary Soul
1. Dear refuge of my weary soul,
On Thee, when sorrows rise
On Thee, when waves of trouble roll,
My fainting hope relies
To Thee I tell each rising grief,
For Thou alone canst heal
Thy Word can bring a sweet relief,
For every pain I feel
2. But oh! When gloomy doubts prevail,
I fear to call Thee mine
The springs of comfort seem to fail,
And all my hopes decline
Yet gracious God, where shall I flee?
Thou art my only trust
And still my soul would cleave to Thee
Though prostrate in the dust
3. Hast Thou not bid me seek Thy face,
And shall I seek in vain?
And can the ear of sovereign grace,
Be deaf when I complain?
No still the ear of sovereign grace,
Attends the mourner’s prayer
Oh may I ever find access,
To breathe my sorrows there
4. Thy mercy seat is open still,
Here let my soul retreat
With humble hope attend Thy will,
And wait beneath Thy feet,
Thy mercy seat is open still,
Here let my soul retreat
With humble hope attend Thy will,
And wait beneath Thy feet
Thank you for posting this short but helpful teaching on “Law and Grace”.
Romans 6:14-15 "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Gal 3:24-25 "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."
Col 2:13-4 "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the circumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
In the following passage, Paul calls the law a ministry of death:
2 Cor 3:7-11 “But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.”
The Law was not destroyed or abolished as some believe but if we are saved we will not come under its condemnation. We are still to follow the Ten Commandments (not suggestions) but we will not be condemned under grace. Faith without works is dead.
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