Resources/Articles
We Need a Law!
You have probably been in a conversation with someone regarding a particular injustice. Having witnessed or heard about this unfairness, either you or the person with whom you were talking with said, “We need a law against someone who would treat people that way!” If there was a law, would people receive and follow it?
When God gave a law to Israel in Deuteronomy 8:1-6, He outlined the reasons why a law was needed for the children of Israel. If soberly considered, they are the same reasons God has kept us “under law to Christ” today (Romans 8:2; 1 Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 6:2).
God’s law to Israel was to “humble thee” (v. 2), to “prove thee” (v. 2), to see what was in their hearts (v. 2), to make them see “man does not live by bread alone” (v. 3), and to show as a man chastens his son, “Jehovah thy God chasteneth thee” (v. 5; Hebrews 12:5-11). God gave them a law for their own good and to be blessed by His favor.
In keeping this law, the benefits to each person and to Israel as a nation would be: (1) Keep them from forgetting God (v. 11) as the One who controls and sustains all things; (2) Prevent them from boasting that their achievements and blessings were by their own hand (v. 17); and (3) Disobedience to the law would result in ruin, like other nations (vv. 19-20).
If you are more thrilled and excited about living without limits and indulging in what you are “big enough to do,” you will meet you ruin as did the individuals and nation of Israel in the Old Testament. Yes, we need a law. We really do need an absolute standard expressing what is forbidden and what is desirable. That standard is from God. It is the whole duty of every man to follow it (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
