UNDERSTANDING THE LAW

The dispensation of the Law is the period when God gave Israel- His people- laws to obey in order to be right with Him.
Unfortunately when the Law is mentioned many people are quick to see the Law as something it is not. For example, in a world where many people seek to know what to do, the Law is a welcome concept because according to many without the Law they are unable to know what is expected of them. It is normal human nature to seek what is expected of you that you may do it. But the fact that everyone is looking for something to obey does not mean that Christians must also find something to obey.
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For this reason, many people are unable to accept that in the New Creation we are not under the Law and are therefore not expected to follow it. They believe to throw out the Law is to receive chaos into the Church. I have spoken to genuinely concerned people with this kind of opinion. They feel that the Ten Commandments are a guide for us to fall
in line with God. And without such a guide there is no limit to which the people of God will go with licentiousness. They easily compare the situation to a country without laws and prone to chaos. I believe that such people have not understood why the Law was given and are in similar situation to the Israelites when the Law was given to them. They
said they were well able to obey.
And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient (cf. Ex 24:7).
So why was the Law given? When the Israelites were given the Law, they also thought it was just a guide to bring order into society. It is true they had received a guide but the Law was more than a guide. It was a tool to reveal their wickedness of heart. How they responded to the Law is very interesting. They actually said they will keep the law- even
though they knew that to break one means breaking all. Remember these are descendants of fallen Adam with the nature of sin. Had they known their true nature they would have cried for mercy after the Law was read instead of stepping up proudly and saying they will do.
Before the Law came, people thought they were good. They saw themselves to be good enough. Their response shows that they were self-righteous. God gave them a standard and they felt they were good enough to merit it. God showed them what they must do to get blessed and they thought they could in themselves merit His blessing. In such a conceited state, these people could not have accepted the Saviour because they had not seen the need for one.The Lord brought in the law to reveal sin in their heart; that their inherent wickedness may be seen in the light of the law. The Bible says so:
Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful (cf. Rom. 7:13).
God wanted to reveal sin in His people and therefore He placed before them the Law. Before this dispensation men (even though were sinners) had not come to terms with this nature and therefore had not found the need for a saviour. Men thought they were as good as God Himself.
This is seen in the attempted construction of the tower of Babel. So God gave the Law to self-righteous men that it would bring them to their knees before the Saviour. They were enslaved by the Law because of the nature they bore. Notice that even though they were sinners they did not accept it. They saw themselves good even though they were bad and God had to change that before the Saviour came.
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet (cf. Rom. 7:7).
They were lusting but they did not know it was lust and therefore did so with a clear conscience till the Law came and said it was lust. Then their conscience picked it and by it condemned them. So by the law sin could now appear as sin:... sin, that it
might appear sin (cf. Rom 7:13).
The Law places a demand like a ruler does. It presents God's standard before you and asks you to meet it. In meeting standards we act from ourselves. That is where the weakness is. In the unbeliever who has a sinful nature, he cannot but break the law. With the believer who has a righteous nature, because he is trying to merit something which he already is, he will no longer be acting from nature but from the flesh and therefore will also find himself breaking the Law. To try to merit righteousness means automatically rejecting one's righteous nature in Christ. And righteousness can only be lived from
nature. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (cf. Rom. 8:3,4).
So the righteous requirement of the Law that was given in the wilderness has now been fulfilled in the believer. This could happen because now man knew he was bad and needed a saviour. Through the Law man came to realise his wretchedness in
Adam that he might accept Chirst. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of
sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death (cf. Rom.7:23,24)?
So why was the Law given? To reveal the wretchedness of sin and the sinner and show the sinner that he needed a saviour. If so, then the Law must be for the sinner and not the righteous man.
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, (cf. 1Ti 1:9)
We who are in Christ have no need of the Law because we are righteous. We have received the righteous nature of God through Christ. To go back to the Law is to attempt to merit by ourselves what we already are in Christ. By that we operate in
the flesh and subject ourselves to the condemnation that the Law brings to the sinner and by so doing ignore our freedom and find ourselves in bondage, being ruled over by sin which has been conquered in Christ. Quite ironic, isn't it?
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace (cf. Rom. 6:14).
In sum, know that the righteous man has the Law within as a life or nature. So by training or maturing in that nature, he, without an external law, lives right not to merit anything but as a matter of course.