February 11 – Internal Law (Psalm 1)

“His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.”(Psalm 1:2)

IN WORD:
Many Christians get confused about the Law of the Old Testament, even with Paul’s lengthy teachings on its role for believers in Jesus. We don’t want to be legalists, trying to earn righteousness through our works, as other religions teach. Our righteousness is found exclusively in Christ — why would we seek it in our own efforts? On the other hand, we don’t want to be lawless. The Bible — even the New Testament — condemns lawless behavior. God is holy, and so must we be (Leviticus 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16). Somehow, we are to have holiness and liberty all at the same time. How?
The Law that was written on stone tablets — i.e., the 10 Commandments, the sum of God’s moral standard — was once an agenda for how sinful humans could be godly. No one ever fulfilled it, of course, except for Jesus. But it was the right standard. It is now not our agenda, but a description of what God does in us to make us godly. There is no difference in the godliness of the Old Testament and the New, per se. The difference is in how it is obtained. It was once an external objective; it is now an internal work of the Spirit of God. But it is the same Law.

IN DEED:
It is as appropriate in New Testament faith to meditate on God’s Law as it was for the psalmist hundreds of years before Christ. The trick for the Christian is never to put it outside of ourselves as something to strive for. Instead, we are to see it as a measure of what God has already done and will continue to do in our hearts.
Suppose you have failed one of the commandments. Meditate on it, but do not strive to fulfill it in your strength alone. Pray to have it fulfilled in you. Confess your transgression of it, but know that its fulfillment is an act of God. It comes with your prayers and full cooperation, of course, but it is His work. The perfect Son of God lives in you. Why attempt the life He has already lived? Delight in His holiness and let Him write it on your heart.

“Law says ‘Do”; grace says ‘Done.’
-John Henry Jowett-