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?
