God Without Religion_ Can It Really Be This Simple_ - Andrew Farley [15]
Laws and rules actually cause sin to increase, not decrease. Laws arouse sinful passions (Rom. 5:20; 7:5). As we saw, even rules, although they have the appearance of curbing sin, don’t really restrain us (Col. 2:20–23). In fact, God tells us, “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14).
God wasn’t acting blindly when he liberated us from the law. He did it for a reason: so that, by the Spirit of his Son in us, we might live a life the law could never give. He invites us to a life freely chosen, not one of duty or obligation. Just as I chose freely out there on the Indy 500 track, we are intended to live out the idea that “everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial” (1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23). When the sky’s the limit, we discover what we really want.
“A New Command I Give You”
Maybe the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law have no bearing on the lives of Christians today. Still, it’s clear from Scripture that some kind of laws are written in Christians’ hearts, right?
Yes, there are laws written in our hearts. But here’s the fundamental question: What exactly are those laws?
First, remember that Jesus tells us that the two greatest commandments in the law are to love God and to love others. In these two, Jesus says, all the law and all the prophets are fulfilled (Matt. 22:37–40). From this, we know that love has historically been what’s most important in God’s eyes.
In the Epistles, James tells us that the “royal law” is loving others (James 2:8). Similarly, Paul tells us that all of the moral concerns in the Ten Commandments are summed up in the idea of loving others (Rom. 13:8–10). And the apostle Peter wrote, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).
So love is key. But is it the Mosaic laws of “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:5) and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18) that are in our hearts?
Actually, no.
We just saw that these two are the greatest commandments in the law. But if these laws were written in our hearts today, God would be sending us a mixed message about the law. He’d be saying that part of the Mosaic law is still for us today. Yes, it’s true that love is key. And yes, it’s true that love is written in our hearts. But notice exactly how Jesus puts it:
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
Jesus was talking to a Jewish audience. They were well aware of the commands in the law about loving God and loving others. But they were used to hearing they should love others as they love themselves. Here, Jesus announces that he’s introducing them to a new command, one they’ve never heard before!
This new command involves grasping how much God loves us and transmitting that same love to others. Jesus’s command is greater than any love command his audience encountered in the writings of Moses. It’s one thing to love others the way that you love yourself. It’s a wholly different thing to love others with the very same love with which God loves you!
The apostle John confirms what Jesus’s commands are today:
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. (1 John 3:23)
John says to love one another as Jesus commanded us. How did Jesus command us to love? While the law said “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18), Jesus said to love others “as I have loved you” (John 13:34).
The bottom line is this: today, it’s all about believing in Jesus and transmitting his love to others. That’s what’s written in our hearts, not the law of Moses.
Behavior Verses
But what’s the difference between all those New Testament behavior verses and the old way of rules and regulations? The difference, I believe, can be summed up in one simple question: “What if I don