the law

There’s an art to writing policies for a business. A good policy enables you to hold your least-motivated people accountable while not putting restrictions on your best people. In other words, you only really use a policy to get the attention of people who won’t get with the program.

When Paul described the law to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:8-9, it sounded like much the same thing: “We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious . . . .”

That’s a useful distinction for those of us trying to figure out our relationship to the law in the post-crucifixion era of grace. We find, according to Paul, that the law is not really to be used against those of us who already follow Jesus. It’s meant for the ones who still are unrepentant about their sin.

That’s because the primary role of the law is to satisfy God’s justice, and that can only happen one of two ways. Either we are under the law and justice is satisfied by the law being enforced, or we are redeemed by Jesus and his sacrifice, which meets the requirements of the law. One way, we earn the wages of our sin, which is death. The other, we taste grace and walk free from the condemnation of the law.

That’s not to say the law has no purpose for a Christian. Jesus-followers study the law because it shows us how God thinks and what he values. We learn from the law what pleases God and what offends him. Fulfilling the law as it applies to current living becomes a desire rather than an obligation.

In the end, though, it’s one of God’s great mercies that the law is made not for us, but for lawbreakers and rebels. As long as we walk the path of discipleship, we have nothing to fear from the law.