God is our Lawgiver

For the LORD is our judge,
The LORD is our lawgiver,
The LORD is our king;
It is he who will save us (Isaiah 33:22).

His Law is all we need

God revealed his law through Moses. His Ten Words are recorded twice in the Old Testament: in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Case laws that explain how the Ten Commandments should be applied in a variety of situations are provided in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These laws deal with theft violence and murder, so they are all that is needed for a peaceful society.

There is no evidence in the Bible of a group of people being elected to decide what the law should be. A parliament or congress is not needed because God had already provided his perfect law. This is a very important principle. We will not understand the government of God while we think that we need politicians to make laws for us. We already have God’s perfect law, so we do not need elected representatives to make laws on our behalf.

Christians tend to hate the law, because they relate it to salvation by good works. Jesus does not come to destroy the law.

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. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished (Matt 5:17,18).

The law will remain until God’s purposes on earth are complete. Christians have failed to understand that God still has a purpose for the law. We cannot be justified by obeying the law, because we are saved through faith. Abraham knew that five hundred years before the law had been given. However, the primary reason that God gave the law is so the people of a nation can live together in peace and harmony. The law was given to protect citizens from theft and violence that destroy the peace of a society.

Paul explained the purpose of the law to Timothy.

We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers (1 Tim 1:8-10).

We must understand that the law is still good, when it is used for the correct purpose. It cannot wipe away sin, because only the cross can deal with the guilt of sin. However the law is good for dealing with lawbreakers and evil people. By dealing with murder, adultery, theft and false witness the law allows good people to live together in peace.

God’s Standard

The reason that modern Christians have so much disagreement over politics and the role of the state is that most believe the New Testament, but do not take the Old Testament seriously. Many Christians have never studied the Old Testament law, because they believe that the law has been replaced by grace. Even those who know that Jesus has not abolished the law are uneasy, because they have accepted the conventional wisdom that the Old Testament is harsh and cruel.

This creates a serious problem, because it leaves Christians with nothing to say about the role of the state. The New Testament teaches very little about the state and law. The reason is that God does not repeat himself. His word on these issues is contained in the Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, so it does not need to be repeated in the New Testament. Those who ignore the content of those books are left with a big hole that has to be filled in some other way. Without a standard to decide the role of the state or judge the performance of government, many Christians who teach on political issues end up following a secular prophet.

What is Fulfilled

Some Christians hate the law. They say that we live under grace, not law. However, those making this statement should be clear what parts of the Torah are no longer relevant. Jesus had a fairly serious warning for those who reject the Torah.

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. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:17-19).

The Torah covers a variety of topics.

• creation
• history
• civil laws,
• sacrifices,
• tabernacle design,
• covenants,
• infection control and hygiene,
• genealogies,
• blessings and curses,
• rules for priesthood
• land distribution

We need to be clear about which parts have been fulfilled, and which parts remain in force. Creation and history still stand. In fact Christians get quite excited about the creation, so this part of the Torah has not been set aside.

The tabernacle and the sacrifices have been fulfilled by Jesus death on the cross. They sacrifices never did provide salvation from sin, but needed to be accompanied by faith to be effective. The tabernacle has been replaced by the body of Christ becoming the temple of the Holy Spirit. The genealogies remain, but are not so relevant for the gentiles. The Aaronic priesthood has been replaced by the priesthood of all believers. We are all priests and kings.

The civil laws have not been fulfilled or set aside by Jesus. Modern society contains sinful people, so civil laws are still needed.

The Law is Holy and Spiritual

Paul affirmed that the law is good in his letter to the Romans.

What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not!
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
We know that the law is spiritual (Rom 7:7,12,14).

The law is holy, righteous, spiritual and good. Christians who reject the law are rejecting a gift from God. The law is only problem when used for the wrong purpose. When used as a substitute for the cross, it becomes a heavy burden, but when used to restrain evil it is righteous and good. Substituting man-made law for one that is holy and good does not make sense.

Once we realise that the law is good, our attitude to it will need to change. The key to understanding God’s government is to love the law. The scriptures say,

Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me
I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes (Psalm 119:97-99).

This passage is usually interpreted as a command to meditate on the scriptures, but this is not what the Psalm says. It encourages us to “love the law”. It suggests that “loving the law” is the key to gaining wisdom about the role of government and the law. The Lord said something similar to Joshua

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful (Jos 1:8).

Loving the law of God is a key to understanding true justice and achieving good government.

No Politicians

Politicians can only make human laws, but we should be living under God’s laws. If God is our Lawgiver, we do not need elected law-makers?

Laws are just words. On there own, they do not change anything. This makes politicians very dangerous, because they think that by writing a law, they can change the world. Only God can speak and bring things into being (Rom 4:17).

God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so (Gen 1:9).

Lawmakers are acting like gods. They see a problem, so they write a law believing their law will remove it. They call things into being, but nothing is so. People who think they are gods are deluded, so letting them politicians make laws is dangerous.

Law and Rules

The problem with a system of rules is that they cannot cover every possible situation. More and more rules have to be added, as new situation arise. Eventually there are so many rules, that people can no longer understand them. Some of the rules will contradict each other, adding to the confusion. And no matter how much detail is added to the rules, a new situation always arises that is an exception to the rules.

Elected politicians and parliaments always want to implement rule systems. They attempt to legislate for all of life by passing laws that cover every conceivable situation. Unfortnately, they are not omniscient, so they always get it wrong. Their laws often produce confusion and result in illogical and unjust decisions. New situations always emerge that are not covered by the laws, so new clauses or regulations have to be added. Eventually the rule system is so complicated that you need a law degree to understand it.

The Old Testament law is not a rule system. Moses called them laws and verdicts (Deut 5:1). God gave ten moral principles. He also gave some straightforward examples of how these principles should be applied in practical situations. These examples are not exhaustive, but they are sufficient to explain how the moral principles should be interpreted and applied to different situations.

The moral principles are not absolutes, because there are always exceptions. For example, killing a person is wrong, but is legitimate when defending yourself from attack. Killing a person deliberately is different from killing a person by accident. The books of the law explain how the basic moral principles apply in these different situations. However, they do not try to cover every possible situation, because that would be impossible.

Judges not Politicians

We do not need elected politicians to write laws and regulations to cover every possible situation. We need good judges to interpret the God’s moral principles, using the method of application described in the books of the law.

God is our lawmaker. He has given us all the law that we need, so we do not need politicians to make laws for us. However, God’s law will always have to be interpreted and applied to the current situation. Elected politicians will not have the skills to do this task. The best people to do this task will be wise and godly judges.

Good judges are all that we need in addition to the law. God has provided his standard for justice in the law. Our challenge is to apply God’s law to the modern world.

Impossible Burden

Jesus confronted the teachers of the law and the Pharisees for placing an impossible burden upon the people.

Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. "Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it."

And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering (Luke 11:43-46,52).

They had taken the Ten Commandments and converted them into about 600 rules and regulation. Jesus called them blind fools and hypocrites.

The modern state has turned the ten commands into thousands of laws and regulations. They are so many and so complicated that even the judges and parliamentarians do not understand them all. Jesus would have called them similar names.

Ambulance or Fence

A common view is that building a fence at the top of the cliff is better than having an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. This is not a biblical position. The state tries to create a fence at the top of the cliff. It puts in place thousands of rules and regulations to prevent people from coming to harm.

A study of the scriptures shows that God takes the opposite approach. He gives us freedom to live as we choose. His scriptures reveal what is right and what is wrong, and warn of the consequence of disobedience, but he will never force sinners to live righteously, if they are unwilling. He will allow them to experience the consequences of their choices, but he will not stop them choosing. God wants people to obey him, because they love him, not because they are forced to. The most that he will do to make them obey him, is the Holy Spirit’s stirring in their conscience, but he does not prevent us from doing wrong. If people do wander into sin, he has provided remedy through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

God’s approach is more like a sign at the top of the cliff and an ambulance at the bottom. If people ignore his warnings, he will not prevent them, but if they repent when they fall, he will rescue them. The benefit of this approach is that it encourages people to take responsibility for their lives.

God’s way is better than the fence that politicians like to build. Their problem is that the cliff is so large and so rugged, that it is almost impossible to fence. They generally give up fencing the cliff, and put a fence round the mountain to prevent people going onto the mountain. The enormous range of rules and regulations that they introduce limit human freedom, preventing us from reaching out full potential. God’s way is more risky, but it produces better results.