Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
I don't like rules. I really don't—I'm not a fan of laws and rules. In my mind, the less the better, especially if rules are arbitrary. With all that said, I feel very differently about God's rules and law.
I feel the way the psalmist did in Psalm chapter 1 verse 2, where he said, Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord. It is a good thing for us. We should delight in God's Word. You may or may not connect with my dislike of rules and laws in general, but do you appreciate God's law? Do you delight in God's law?
Here's what the verse we're looking at today helps us with—it helps us understand the key to loving God's law. You have to think like this if you're going to love God's law. Again, it says, Your laws are always right. Help me to understand them so I may live.
Good—Not Arbitrary
What we have to understand as Christians is that God's laws are good. God's laws are right. They are not arbitrary. All the do's and the don'ts—we ought to live like this and not live like this that you see in Scripture—they're not arbitrary.
I'm going to encourage you specifically now to keep three things in mind. Theologians throughout history have pointed out these three important uses of God's law so that maybe you'll appreciate God's law.
Three Uses of God's Law
First, the law of God helps to restrain evil in the world. Most of the laws we have today, if they're not arbitrary, are founded in the morality that is defined in the Word of God. As we have laws and punishments for those who break the laws, evil is restrained in society, and that's thanks to God's law.
Second, the use of law is that it reveals evil. It reveals sin in me. When I understand God's law and what pleases Him and doesn't please Him, I come to understand the wickedness that is in me, the evil that is in me, the sin that is in me. Why is that important? Because that drives me to Christ. That reminds me how much I need a Savior and that salvation can be found in Jesus. That's a good use of law.
The third important use of God's law is that it is—think of it this way—a rule for Christian life. I don't obey God so that God will love me. No, God loves me. He's adopted me into His family. I'm His child. You're my brother or you're my sister. But now, with God as my Father, I want to please Him.
Don't you have a desire? You have a desire to please God and to honor Him. How do you know what pleases God and what doesn't please God? You know by understanding God's law.
Delighting in God's Instruction
We can delight in God's law. We can love it. If you're listening and you're not a believer, I would hope that your understanding of right and wrong in God's Word would drive you to Christ. If you are a believer, then I pray that as you read God's law, it would show you how you ought to live to please the God you love so much.
Thomas Watson wrote, "The law of God is a copy of God's will. A Christian loves it. He cannot live without the law of God any more than he can live without his soul. He delights in the law of God. It is the compass he sails by."
