What is your relationship with the law of God? How do you handle the law? How do you view the law?
God gave us his law to obey so that it would restrain our sin.
Sunday’s sermon, on January 25, 2026, entitled “A Bunch of Rules,” talks about the law of God and its merit. Based on Exodus 21:1-12, God’s law was given to us for our benefit.
First, our pastor discussed the function of the law in these three ways:
1. The Law is a mirror. It reveals who God is and who we are.
2. The Law is a guardian. It protects people in a broken world.
3. The Law is a shadow. It restrains sin but does not end sin.
So how do we relate to the Law of God? Sometimes we come to the Law with the wrong approach.
First, we often reject the law. We don’t want God telling us what to do. We want our own law.
Secondly, we try to master the law. In doing so, we try to justify ourselves by it, thinking that we have done all that the law requires. This is a deception. It’s not possible for us to keep the law perfectly.
Third, we are crushed by the law. Here, we live out punishment on our own and condemn ourselves with the law.
Finally, we sometimes weaponize the law and use it to control others.
Where are you on that spectrum? Do you reject the law, try to master the law, are you crushed by the law, or do you weaponize the law?
The sermon points out a better way to handle the law. Instead of rejecting the law, we need to accept it. Instead of mastering the law, we need to submit to it. Instead of being crushed by the law, we need to be freed by it. And finally, instead of weaponizing the law, we need to use it to love others.
So again comes the question, what is your relationship with the Law? In reality, when Jesus came to take our sins upon Himself, he became the law. So we need to trust Jesus as the law, and His blood covers our sin that breaks the law.
Here’s another question. How do we practice righteousness now? We do this through a personal relationship with Jesus that leads to:
1. Personal discernment. We are little judges intent on taking the principals and applying
them to our lives.
2. Personal conviction. God has something personal for me in each law.
3. Personal obedience. After God convicts me, I need to obey.
Jesus became the law and met its criteria by his death on the cross. Then, by His grace, He enables us to use the law to reveal sin in our lives, to help keep us from sin and to give us life with His grace.