When you read “Law and Gospel,” what comes to your mind? In my initial formation, I learned that Law and the Gospel were connected in a quasi-symbiotic relationship. The Law was there to convict us. It laid out the impossibly high standard for righteousness, a standard we could never meet. Its ultimate purpose was to show us our wretchedness and our need for a savior. The Gospel was the other side of the same coin. We were in line for eternal punishment due to our transgressions, but the good news of the Gospel was that Jesus paid the price for us, wiping the slate clean.
I didn’t think about this much; I just accepted it as dogma. The few times I thought about the Law/Gospel dynamic, some things didn’t line up for me. Jesus saves us from the burden of the Law, but he seemed to be laying down a whole bunch of new laws: “You have heard it said…but I say to you….” If his atoning death and resurrection saved me from the law, what is the point of more law? Then we get to Paul and another raft of rules for us to follow.
I also wondered what Jesus meant when he said that he didn’t come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. And why should I care about him fulfilling the law if he was about to render the whole question moot, and I would be let off the hook if I believed the right things and had “enough” faith?
“Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.”Psalms 1:1-2 (ESV)
What do we make of the sentiment in Psalm 1, that we are blessed when we delight in the law and meditate on it day and night? When we in the West think about law, our minds almost always go to crime and punishment. Laws tell me what I must not do or not fail to do if I want to avoid punishment. Law, while often needed to maintain order, is coercive. We follow it not necessarily because we think it is good but because we fear punishment.
The Hebrew word torah is rendered “law” in the ESV, but it can also be rendered “instruction.” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary reminds us that torah (the law) primarily signifies instruction from God. It is an expression of revelation, not regulation and religion.[1] If we can shake off our fixation on law being what we must do to avoid punishment and instead see it as instruction, it indeed becomes a lamp for our feet and a light for our path.[2]
The difference between a legal mindset and an instruction mindset turns out to be an important one that can ultimately influence the kind of people we become. As we read scripture, we “hear” it through a lens that reflects our mindset. Is God “laying down the law,” or is he showing us how to stay on the path that leads to him?
As a simple experiment, consider Jesus’ telling his disciples, “Judge not, and you will not be judged.”[3] What is your natural inclination when you read that? Is Jesus giving a “law,” saying if you judge others, I will judge you? Or, is he giving wise instruction for kingdom life, telling us not to judge because it is bad for those we judge and bad for us. judging is condemning and condemning hurts those we judge. They are likely to hurt us back, so it is just a bad idea all the way around.[4]
Once you shift from the legal mindset to the instruction mindset, you will start reading much of both the Old and New Testaments with new eyes. And that reading will drive how you think about God. Is he a God who mainly wants us to know how wretched and hopeless we are? Is he petty and vindictive? Is that a God whose nature is love? On the other hand, a God who gives us guidance and instruction is a God who loves and cares for us. He is a God who wants the best for us, even when we don’t know what is good for us.
Our conception of God will, of course, influence our relationship with him. The judicial God pushes us toward self-reliance. We are driven to measure up, make the mark, and, hopefully, avoid punishment. We fall into an adversarial relationship – us vs. God. He imposes the law on us, and we had better follow it. At the end of that road, we find a transactional system where we try to make God accept and love us by obeying his Law, or at least trying really hard. The God who gives instruction out of a loving heart invites us to become reliant on him, knowing that he cares for us and wants the best for us. We do not try to earn our way into his heart; we are already there.
Finally, how we think about God and our relationship with him predicts what we will become; we become like the God we worship. If we worship a judgmental, condemning God whose focus is enforcing his standards on us, we become like that God: angry, judgmental, and eager to impose our standards on others. We become incapable of following one of Jesus’ few direct commandments, that we love each other.[5] When we worship a God who instructs us out of his love and care for us, we become like him: caring, compassionate, and letting love be the master in our relationships with others.
When you read about “the Law” in scripture are you being summoned to a courtroom or invited to a classroom? If we are focused on law we try to moderate our behavior in a vain attempt to measure up, or, worse, to try control God in some weird quid quo pro where we can put him in our debt. We keep God at arm’s length, managing our own lives as best we can.
When we realize we are in God’s classroom, we embrace our union with God; we look to the Lord of life, who saves and heals us. We follow him and his instructions for living in his kingdom and gaining the life he intends for us.
Jesus came to save, not to condemn. He really isn’t looking for better-behaved sinners. He came so that we can have life and have it to the full.[6]
[1] Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol 5, p 54
[2] Psalm 119:105
[3] Luke 6:37
[4] I borrowed this interpretation from Dallas Willard’s excellent, “The Divine Conspiracy.”
[5] John 13:34-35
[6] John 10:10
From Pops' Workshop 
Leave a comment