Ignorance of God's law...

fosters all sorts of trouble. My notes actually state "licentiousness", but all sorts of trouble is a sufficient descriptive to aid understanding.

As I've written before, when I refer to God’s law, I am referring to all of God’s inspired Word.

In Mt. 5:17 Jesus stated, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Jesus is talking about all the Bible the people had at that time, which was the Old Testament.

The Old Testament contains not only the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5) but also what Jesus later referred to as the sum of the Law and the Prophets. Compare Deut. 6:5, "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" with Mt. 22:36-40, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

And in case like me you were wondering about the love your neighbor part and where that came from, look at Lev. 19:18, "'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD."

The foundation then is that God's law is the declaration of His will revealed wholly in His Word as a binding, personal, perfect and sovereign declaration.  What then is the requirement of believers to God's law and Word? The answer is to obey Him wholeheartedly, with inner and outer conformity.

And it's at that point where everything within me begins to break apart because I know that I know that I cannot keep God's law perfectly. Even if I only take one of the commandments at bald faced value, let's say the "do not covet" your neighbor's possessions, then I know myself to have failed at that in 2nd grade when I was green with envy over my friend Amy's Charlie's Angels' boardgame.

I'm sure I failed it before then. The heart is after all deceitful in all things, depraved from birth.

James 2:10-11 is pretty clear on this, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker."

Added to that is how Jesus taught on the law during the Sermon on the Mount in Mt. 5:21-30 explaining that external conformity alone does not satisfy the law. Internal conformity is also required.

Therefore, do the people of God wring their hands and give up? No. God gave us His Word to do chiefly three things:

1) Reveal truth about His nature

2) Reveal truth about His will

3) Reveal truth about man's duty to God's nature and will.

Those three things only scratch the surface of the preciousness of God's Word, His law, to all people, but especially to His people. That's where these posts are headed, to explore how we are to interpret and apply the Law of God.

Before I write on the nine interpretative rules, I need to do a post on antinomianism. That'll come next. It's a big word, but remember, it also means all sorts of trouble.