The laws of God are forever. They cannot be nullified by humans, who are accustomed to substituting them with their own. There are many laws in the Bible that God gave for a moral living. They remind us of how He wants us to live. They keep us closer to Him. To know and keep them is to fear Him; they enable us to serve Him with a pure heart. His laws are not burdensome. Real burden appears when men are without laws. God’s laws are meant to teach us that we are not eternally burdened with punishment. Every law He spoke carries significance for our eternity with Him. For example, when He said, “You shall not bear a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a malicious witness” (Exod. 23:1) it is for the sake of keeping His righteousness in us that avails the ultimate gift.
Many are they that dismiss the principles (laws) in the Law that promulgate God’s morality, because they deemed the Law as obsolete. But note the following affirmations. Jesus said He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. He said that not a single word from the Law will be nullified until all is accomplished. He further said that whoever annuls the commandments and teaches others to do the same will be least in the Kingdom, but those who teach and keep them will be called the greatest in the Kingdom. It is amazing how far He went to uphold the credibility of God’s laws. So, even Paul at one place says that Law is good and holy and at another place explicitly says that Law is good if it is used lawfully according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God. How absolute! Not only did God testify to the working of the Law through Jesus, but also its application through Paul by His Spirit.
Here is the distinguishing mark many fail to see: the Law failed in only one thing. It is in making the conscience of a believer perfect. It is because God who was willing to be patient toward men until the appointed time did not intend it to be perfect. So, the blood of animals it commanded did not cleanse the worshipper once for all. And at the right time God offered His Son’s blood as the substitute to once for all cleanse all believers. Now, we no longer have to offer sacrifices in the flesh for our sins, but Jesus Christ Himself is God’s sacrifice for them. Hence, God called the Law in relation to the cleansing as a former commandment that is weak and useless. But as long as the Law is used lawfully according to the glorious gospel of God, we are bound to adopt the teaching of Jesus concerning it. God’s laws continue to carry a moral significance in the lives of His children. They are a school master to understanding His morality. Since many do not consider this knowledge, they fail in one or more things. They fail to accept God’s laws in their entirety. They do not have the full knowledge of His morality. They fail to include His laws as vital for keeping righteousness. They fail to teach and influence others. Finally, they fail to harmonize the word due to their inability to bring out both the old and the new from it.
There are many laws in the Bible. The often we read the word the often we see them and the often we are replenished of the holiness God desires in us. They not only connect us to His intent, but also provide a larger platform for knowing His mind. Consider yourself. Could you violate the above mentioned law and still escape punishment? Could you not keep it and still be the light of Christ? Even the law of your land or any people will not consider it as against morality. Again, knowingly or unknowingly we teach our children of it, because it is of God. Every law of God is for keeping righteousness and every one of them leads up to another for steadfastness in faith. What many don’t realize is that if we are washed in the blood of Christ they subconsciously work in us. Though men may deviate from them, Christ cannot. There are blessings in keeping them. In the following is one of them. “He continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding through the vision of God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God prospered him” (2 Chron. 26:5).
Seeking God is seeking His laws. Then, we know Him and He gives us His ways. His ways come from His laws, which are His words, and they direct us to His desires. King Uzziah did it in His lifetime. Observe the way to His prosperity. It began by seeking God’s laws. Then, God gave him every insight necessary by appointing the prophet. When we begin seeking Him and do not deviate from it, He gives us insight and guides us to prosperity. Listen, He wants us to have the happiness, peace and security from evil He gave to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. All God gave them was prosperity, because they obeyed His law. But when sin began to rule mankind, He had to give His laws to bring men back to His desire for them. Abiding in His laws has only one outcome. It is blessing of every kind, because of the ultimate gift they avail. He gives them without regret, since we chose Him as our only moral guide. Nevertheless, when we run in our own ways, we eventually face regret. Disappointment hits us like a slung stone. It becomes very difficult to recover and embarrasses us before a people who thought we believed in the Almighty God. For this reason, God said His ways and thoughts are not like ours. Our ways are imperfect as are our thoughts and they do not contain the insight to work out God’s purposes. But, to seek Him by His laws allows Him to bless us with great wisdom concerning His purposes. It brings us closer to His mind. Godly men have found this to be true. “Then he said to me, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words’” (Dan. 10:12).
God never rejected a person or people that sought His intent, since they grasped His holiness. Righteousness flows in them and He who is righteous reveals Himself to them. He sends them His word and they find great relief. Joy encompasses them, because of the things they were able to understand. God is a wonderful and loving God and we can only come to incessantly know of it when we continue in His laws. His laws fill our hearts and minds that there is no opportunity for sin to plant its roots in us. They help us to resist sin. This paves the way for great wisdom, which is a result of the ultimate gift. Furthermore, His laws give us confidence of Him who responds to our words with His. It is only a gain to have known the God of heaven and earth, because for a small lifetime on earth we receive an eternal time with Him in heaven.
As we habitually keep His laws, He provides wisdom and helps us realize how important we are to Him and to His ways. We become unique and significant to Him. Since how we spend our time on earth for Him certainly determines how we spend time with Him in eternity, He gave us laws so that we obtain the ultimate gift. When He called us to be His children, it is to provide us with it; keeping it will keep Him with us all the days of our life. We will be built for life on earth and in heaven. This is demonstrated in the following. “He said to him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love Me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Shepherd My sheep’” (John 21:16).
Jesus gave Peter the ultimate gift. It is His way, i.e. to shepherd His sheep. It indicated he was confined to God’s laws. Jesus showed it by making him confess his love for Him. For everything that Peter obtained in life it became the source. This is the benefit of knowing God’s morality. It provides His way and powers us to stand in righteousness all the days of our life just as it did for Peter. We serve God with a pure heart. We increase our knowledge of Him and strive to uphold it. I tell you the most successful man or woman in life is the one who received God’s way, because in it there will be prosperity and wisdom of every kind. Develop the habit of keeping His laws according to His glorious gospel and you will love Him. You will obtain His way and will serve Him to the fullest. You will go through many experiences and become a light of hope and an encouragement to many. So, Paul said, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).
You will display your strength wittingly. At the same time also do not forget the law God availed us. “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness” (2 Pet. 3:17). For many face insults, distresses, difficulties, etc, but they are ineligible before God since they are a result of being carried away by the error of lawless men. If you have God’s way to live out the purpose He appointed to you, you made the distinguishing mark. You will succeed at achieving the things many fail at. Upholding righteousness comes easy to you. Know that if the unprincipled men are a cause for our shrinking back from righteousness, it is mainly because of our failure to resist them. So, let us resist them just as we would the devil that we walk the way God gave us. We do not want to neglect prosperity and the great wisdom, do we? Take note of His words. “But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols” (Rev. 2:20).