CHAPTER 19: Of the LAW OF GOD
(Parts Four and Five)
According to Jesus (Mark 12:28-31) the Ten Commandments and the whole of God’s Law can be summarized in the two greatest commandments. Number One: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and Number Two: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Note the following about these two commandments that capture God’s Law:
The first and greatest commandment is to love God with every fiber of one’s being. Therefore the greatest sin is to fail to love God with every fiber of one’s being. Who among us has always loved God above all? None.
The second commandment is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Please note that there are two commandments, not three. It is a complete misreading of the Bible to adopt the modern psychological interpretation that says: (a) we must learn to love ourselves so that we can love others; (b) therefore the second commandment is to love ourselves and the third is to love others. Jesus said there are two commandments, not three. He said we must learn to love others as we already naturally love ourselves. The essence of sin is to love ourselves ahead of God and others.
The person who loves God will worship and obey Him. The person who loves his neighbor will honor his parents and refrain from doing harm to his neighbor, will be faithful to his marriage vows, will not take his neighbor’s goods, lie to or about him, and he will not even desire his neighbor’s possessions in his heart.
(Part Five)
In addition to the moral law (that is timeless and binding on all people), God gave Israel ceremonial and civil laws to direct them religiously and nationally. When Christ fulfilled the ceremonial laws in His life, death, and resurrection, and when Israel ceased to exist as a nation (ultimately in 70 AD), those ceremonial and civil laws became obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).
That those laws are obsolete does not mean they have no significance. They still contain many moral principles. The moral law and the moral principles in the ceremonial and civil law are valuable and binding for all people at all times. Breaking those laws or the moral principles in those laws is the essence of sin, as stated in 1 John 3:4. “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”
Keeping the Law was never a means of salvation, since no one (excepting Jesus) ever has, or even can, keep God’s Law perfectly. Even if one could successfully keep all the Law starting today, that would not undo that person’s guilt for having broken the Law before today.
The good news is that Jesus has kept and fulfilled the Law for those He came to save.