Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully,  [9] understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers,  [10] the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,  [11] in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.   1 Tim. 1:8-11 (ESV)

Of all Christian doctrines, the doctrine of the Law is perhaps the most misunderstood (well, there is one that people confuse even more and that is the scope of Christ’s salvation).  With respect to the Law, however, virtually every church and denomination understands it differently.  Teachings range from one of utter lawlessness by those who claim that Christ abolished the Law and is therefore irrelevant to those who claim that all, or almost all, of the Old Testament laws still bind even Christians.  But, what is the real truth concerning the Law?

Notice Paul’s distinction: “The law is good if one uses it lawfully.”  The converse of this statement is “the law is not good if one uses it unlawfully.”  Then Paul sets forth two categories of people, the just and the unjust.  To be just is to be righteous.  Other translations, in fact, use that word.  But, instead of using the word unjust, Paul defines those people instead.  He says they are lawless and disobedient, ungodly and sinners, unholy and profane, those who strike their fathers and mothers, murderers,  the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and those who practice whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.  Paul says the Law is for them, not for the just.  Why?

People who act in these evil ways described by Paul need the Law because it is the Law, and the Law alone, that can ever convict them of sin.  If the Law did not exist, or if Christ aboloished the Law, then no one would have any sin, not even the worst imaginable sinner.  In fact, there could be no sinners because there would be no sin.  Only the Law defines sin.  Thus Paul says the Law can be used lawfully by applying it to those who practice sin.  We must understand the importance of this.  If a person is not convicted of sin, he can never repent.  If he never repents, he can never begin to practice righteousness and walk with God.

The reason that sin runs rampant today throughout the world and especially in America is because Christians first, then politicians, threw away God’s Law.  Today, therefore, no standard exists in the mind of men by which they can call evil truly evil.  Instead we witness continual clamoring by sinners for the legal right to practice evil.  And, a vast sea of Christians acquiesce to and even help fight for these perverted rights.  Even major Christian leaders help their agenda or actually take part  in their wicked behavior.

Thus the wold today walks in darkness without any comprehension of knowledge and truth.  En mass most men discarded the one thing that embodies knowledge and truth, THE LAW.

Paul tells us in Romans 2:20 that we have “in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and truth.”  The word “embodiment” here is from the Greek word morphosis and means “formation” or “form.”  Your physical body, for example, is the earthly formation of you.  God determined how you would look, the body you would have and the gifts that body would house.  The Law, then, is that natural structure which God ordained to house his knowledge and truth on earth.  We must take the Law seriously and we must understand what it is for and, just as importantly, what it is not for in the present age in order to walk in God’s knowledge and truth.

The most succinct statement of the Law can be found in Exodus as follows:

Exodus 20:1-17 (ESV) 
    And God spoke all these words, saying,
    [2] “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
    [3] “You shall have no other gods before me.
    [4] “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  [5] You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,  [6] but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
    [7] “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
    [8] “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  [9] Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,  [10] but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.  [11] For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
    [12] “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
    [13] “You shall not murder.
    [14] “You shall not commit adultery.
    [15] “You shall not steal.
    [16] “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
    [17] “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Do any Christians today say that we (other Christians) do not have to obey these laws?  Oh yes.  Today most Christians say that we have to obey about three of these ten laws.  You figure out which!  And, of course, they will add a fourth, “Pay your tithe to the church!”

The Ten Commandments form God’s framework for all of the laws he reveals to man, both before and after he gave them to Moses.  In fact, as a one-time legislator I came to understand that the laws we implement to run the state can be classified under one or another of each of God’s ten commandments.  For example, as I considered anti-pollution laws for factories on the Missouri River I realized that any good law would simply enforce God’s command to “not steal.”  If someone pollutes a stream, then he potentially steals from others who use that stream by, perhaps, destroying their drinking water or killing the fish they harvest to sell or eat.  A good law for a power company would seek to ensure the lowest possible pollution while still providing electricity to the masses.  If that cannot be done in such a way as to save the water and the fish, then alternative power sources must be found. 

The goal in legislation should be to craft and pass laws which always honor God’s Law.  Why?  Because God’s Law is the embodiment of knowledge and truth.  If a society bases its laws upon knowledge and truth, then that society will be healthy, wealthy, and long-lived.  If it fails to do so, then the nation looks like the United States.  Get the picture?