Saturday, May 16, 2009

The Law Internalized

During my teaching of Romans (specifically chapters 5-7) in Rwanda, I had a thought which I want to develop here. Some people write because they have a clear thought to express, others, like me, write to clarify and crystallize thoughts that they have only half-formed in their minds. So we’ll have to see how this goes, but here it is.
First, God’s law is internal to Himself, because He is Faithful and True, He cannot of His nature command differently than He does in His Word. His Word is a self-revelation of Himself, thus for example stealing is a sin not only because it goes against His command, but it is against His command because it is against Who He in fact is in Himself. God as revealed in the Bible is a satisfied God, the three persons of the Godhead need nothing to complete them, they are complete in their love and enjoyment of each other. They chose to create, so that They might have others to bring into fellowship with Them, and freely bestow all that is needful for life and happiness upon Their creation. Theft is the result of several attitudes and actions contrary to godliness. Firstly it lacks trust in God, which the Godhead has within itself (fear and distrust cannot be in the perfect love of the Godhead for Itself). Christ manifested complete trust both in the ability and intention of His Father while He was on earth. Secondly it reveals an exaltation of one’s own wants over another’s, contrary to the beautiful flowing together of the Trinity, where the Son’s desire is to bring glory to the Father, the Spirit glorifies the Son and both Father and Son will defend the Spirit against any slights done against Him.
In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were sinless, but this was a state of innocency. The law was solely external to them, it was given by God but their nature was capable of obedience or disobedience. They disobeyed and through Adam’s transgression we received a nature of sin. This nature needs only a law to transgress to become a transgressor. It is a nature that stands opposite to the character of God, having been infected with the nature of the serpent. It has a threefold root which produces all actual actions of sin – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (Gen. 3:6; 1 John 2:16). These three roots will are contrary to the very nature of God, and only await for the law to manifest themselves in disobedience. However, until the law was there, sin was not manifest (Rom. 5:12-15). The law was given so that we would see the nature of God and His commands and realize our own inability to follow them. For that purpose the law worked very well… The next 1500 years or so of Biblical history are records of Israel’s failed attempts to keep the covenant of the law.
God then promised a new covenant. Jeremiah 31:31-34, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Often we major on the last part of this covenant – the forgiveness of our sins, because that is great news, but no less great news is the first part. God is going to internalize the law, so that we can be like Him. We do not have to always be up and down as we read in Romans chapter 7, Romans 8:2 speaks of the law of the Spirit of Life. This law deals with the other two laws which are found in chapter 7. The law of sin is the law of Adam’s failure being repeated. God’s law as given to us shows us what to do, but we are powerless to do that in the flesh. However, the law of the Spirit of Life empowers us to do that which we are unable to do in ourselves.

This is the internalized law. It is placed in us when we are born again (born from above). The very nature of Christ is placed within us at that moment so that we may nurture it and allow it to grow. We become partakers of the divine nature. This new nature cannot sin (1 John 3:9). However, we still have the old nature in us which can sin. This means that we can yield to the old nature and sin, but the new nature is stronger. If we follow the new nature, the law of God will be imprinted on our hearts, our character will change. In a certain sense the external law ceases to bind us (it is still morally binding, but it does not go against your renewed will, 1 Timothy 1:8-10). God gives us a willing heart that desires to walk in His ways. This is what God wanted even before Eden, a group of men and women who become consistent like Him, whose thoughts, motives and deeds flow from His goodness placed in them through the divine nature of which they are partakers. This is only fully realized in heaven, but it is a lifelong process. Praise God for His full salvation!

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