Continuing with our look at the Law in the Old Testament; not only was faith, belief in God’s promises, what was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness, but we know that his faith and belief were reflected in his actions (Gen 12:5). We’ll come back to this when we consider the Law as it relates to the New Testament. However, turning to other areas of the Old Testament, we see:
2. That, despite the common idea that the Law given at Sinai was a series of actions commanded and forbidden, it is clear that the Law always was intended to govern the internal life as well. That is, it dealt with attitudes as well as actions. Two commands that illustrate this are “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deut 6:5) and “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” (Lev. 19:18). What should be clear is that no one can obey either of these two commands without a transformed heart. Both these commands deal with our attitudes and internal lives, not just external actions.
Next time, we’ll continue with the Law in the Old Testament…
No comments:
Post a Comment