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| Image: Part of the All Souls Deuteronomy, containing the oldest extant copy of the Decalogue It is dated to the early Herodian period, between 30 and 1 BC. |
EXTERNAL VS. INTERNAL LAW - Are you "under" or "free"?
"Fear God, Honor the King" (1 Peter 2:17).
The fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord come through knowing the Lord; and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ (Col. 2:3).
The fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord come through knowing the Lord; and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ (Col. 2:3).
Virtuous character and conduct are driven either by external compulsion or by personal conscience.
Perception of right and wrong - righteousness and sin - is the basis of conscience.
"Through law is a knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20).
"The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ" (Gal. 3:24) [And remains the tutor to bring others to Christ].
"For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness..." (Rom. 2:14-15).
God's desire to grant autonomous, internal, conscience-based compliance to His will was expressed in the Old Testament: "Keep my commands and live...Write them on the tablet of your heart" (Prov. 7:2-3). Jesus exampled such internal compliance: "I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart” (Ps. 40:8).
Compelling virtue by external means, whether by secular brute force or by the dead letter of the law, is oppressive - as expressed in Paul's terminology, "UNDER the law."
"Freedom in Christ" (Gal. 2:4; 5:1) refers to the autonomous compliance to God's law proceeding through the New Covenant which places God's law within the heart and mind (Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 36:26).
"The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good" (Rom. 7:12)
"One jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled" (Matt. 5:18).
"One jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled" (Matt. 5:18).
Without law the conscience has no bearing, the lost have no tutor, and the world is given over to lawlessness.
C.W. Steinle
