J. D. Greear and I have collaborated on a six-week study called “God First,” which examines the first four commandments and the difference between religious observance and the gospel. This post is excerpted from the first session, “God First in Love and Pursuit.”
Reading the Ten Commandments and other Old Testament laws, many Christians may ask:
- Why all these rules and regulations?
- What does God want from us?
- What’s He getting at?
- And what’s His motivation for giving us the law?
Rules and Freedom
Rules get a bad rap sometimes. We tend to think of regulations as unnecessarily confining and restricting, often pointless and always annoying.
But rightly understood, rules do not oppose freedom; they make freedom possible.
A home without any rules would mean that the loudest, strongest-willed child would rule the roost, leaving everyone else no longer having the freedom of a happy, well-balanced home. We may hate it when we reach an intersection and the light turns red, but consider how a city without any traffic signals would experience chaos on the roadways, robbing us all of the freedom to drive in safety.
In the same way, God’s people needed guidelines for their life in the promised land.
Love at the Heart of the Law
We won’t understand the purpose behind the law of God until we see how it connects to love. And love is at the heart of God’s law.
Take a look at Deuteronomy 10:13. What was the reason Moses gave when he told the people to obey the Lord’s commands and statutes? “For your own good,” he said. That’s not just Moses talking. That’s the reason why God gives us the law as well. It’s for our own good.
Chances are you hear that phrase and think of your parents forcing you to eat vegetables as a child, shoving a spoonful of lima beans or peas into your mouth, saying, “You may not like it, but it’s for your own good.” That may be a childlike response to vegetables, but most of us grow out of that phase and develop a love for healthy food. Green peppers, lettuce, spinach leaves, tomatoes—vegetables we may not have liked as a kid eventually become a staple of our diet.
In the same way, it’s the child who says, “Laws are for my own good, but I hate them.” It’s the grown-up who becomes like the psalmist—able to savor the law of the Lord and delight in it because he knows behind the law is a loving Father (Ps. 1).
Love and Grace Before the Law
In case you doubt that love is behind the law, take a look at Deuteronomy 10:4-15. First, you see how God’s majesty and unparalleled power is magnified. And then Moses says to the people, “This awe-inspiring God who owns and is in charge of everything loved you and your forefathers. He chose to rescue you!” According to Moses, God’s love for His people is the foundation of His merciful rescue of the children of Israel from the hand of slavery.
This isn’t a God who loves in the abstract. He’s a God who gets involved. He is love in action.
After Moses reminded the people of God’s work, he told the people to submit freely to God’s will. We too are to respond by obeying the God who has saved us. We shouldn’t be like the child who closes his mouth and shakes his head, refusing to take food that is good for us. Instead, we remember the love of God in giving us what we need, and we allow Him to change us to the point that our desires begin to align with His.
The Ten Commandments aren’t given as a way to work for salvation from God; they’re given after God has worked salvation for us. They aren’t given so we can rescue ourselves; they are given to those God has rescued.
Living in Light of God’s Character
The law of God goes beyond His actions for us. It shows us how we are to live in light of God’s character. It’s not just what He has done but who He is that guides us. That’s why, Deuteronomy 10:17 and following, the focus turns to God’s love for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. Love for God is expressed in how we treat others. God expects us to see our past state from the perspective of our present salvation and then to love others who are in the state we once were, praying they will be brought to salvation too.
Love is the Point, Not the Law
The beginning of God’s law is love, but it doesn’t always seem like that, does it? On the one side, there are people who love the structure that comes from rules, so that’s what they focus on—Do the right thing, always. Conform outwardly, no matter what you feel like doing. On the other side, there are people who see rules and laws as stifling their personality—We ought to be authentic and spontaneous. If rules get in the way of who we are and who we want to be, then the rules have got to go.
Scripture doesn’t line up with either side. Those who love rules will find that Scripture consistently points back to the point of the rules. The law itself is not the point but the loving purpose flowing from God’s heart. Jesus had to remind the Pharisees of this again and again. (It’s also hinted at in this passage when Moses told the people to circumcise their hearts. He recognized that outward conformity to God’s law is not the point. It’s the heart that matters.)
Those who think rules are constraining and burdensome to our self-expression will find that Scripture challenges us to think differently about the “self” we want to express. Our authentic desires often turn out to be wicked. Plenty of thieves and liars have acted authentically when they stole from and deceived other people. No, authenticity as “being true to yourself” puts the focus on our own desires, leading us away from love for God and neighbor.
Following a Loving Father
So what do all these rules mean? They serve to create a particular people, and they point us to a higher expression of freedom that is fulfilled in Christ. Look at it this way—You’ll never be “free” to play a Beethoven sonata on the piano unless you undergo rigorous practice and learn the basic notes, scales, and movements. No one sits down and plays a sonata spontaneously. To become a person who is free to make music, you must be a person who puts in some work.
God designed the law to guide the life of His people so they would become a particular kind of people. Israel could not be the light to the nations without standing out from the world. The law was given in love from the Father who rescued them and who continued to form them in His image.
