The Law of the Lord is Perfect

Based on the message I delivered at the 55+ community on February 9, 2019

The Law of the Lord is Perfect

Last week we looked at the first part of Psalm 19:1-6 -- The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork."

We then spent some time looking at how the science of human anatomy, biology and the science of astronomy clearly demonstrate the existence of God. Well . . . clearly to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear, anyway. 

What we did not talk about is the spiritual COST of refusing to hear what God says to us. And that cost has a terrible price tag. As someone much wiser than I once said: Sin will take you where you don’t want to go. It will keep you longer than you want to stay. It will cost you more than you want to pay.

After the apostle Paul spent considerable time declaring to the Jewish community of Rome the clear evidence that Jesus is the Messiah, he said to those who continued to scoff at God’s truth:

“ . . . You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; And you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes; Otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.”’ (Acts 28:26-27) 

And so we all ought to pray for humility in our own lives so we will continue to see and to hear from God all that He wants to tell us regarding our lives and our lifestyles. Otherwise we might find ourselves growing increasingly insensitive to His voice. 

So, now we move to the next part of this 19th psalm, verses 7-14 where the Holy Spirit guides us toward reproof, correction, and His instruction in righteousness. 

"The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul." The Hebrew word for perfect means God’s law is complete, full, without spot or blemish. By inference, God designed His law to bring us up to its level. We must not drag the law down to ours.

The Law of the Lord is perfect – but not everyone thinks that to be true. Indeed, judging from the state of our country and too many churches, most think of His laws as hopelessly old fashioned, antiquated and written by an unsophisticated people. 

And don’t think for a moment that those same people think any better of us who believe God’s word to be as authoritative today as it was when the prophets and apostles first penned His words. That’s because so much of our culture is driven by men and women whose banner is summed up in Frank Sinatra’s signature song, “I Did it My Way.”  

According to a report I read in the online publication, Daily Mail, Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” is now among favored songs played at funerals. And, I am saddened to say, I also discovered that at the end of the memorial service for Senator John McCain, Sinatra's "My Way" played as the casket was carried out of North Phoenix Baptist Church. 

Talk about the change in our culture!

It was in the Garden when Satan first introduced the lie that God’s law is not perfect. He suggested to Eve that God was unfair to make a rule about eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. His inference was, of course, God’s laws are flawed. “Go ahead, Eve. Take the fruit and see for yourself.”  

And the rest is history.

No surprise that Satan continues to do what works. He tells us today that God’s laws are not perfect. They’re flawed. “Go ahead” He whispers.  “Do it your way.”

Nonetheless, regardless of what the devil tells us and what we might like to think – the law of the Lord is perfect. That’s why the former painstakingly scrupulous Pharisee, Paul, confessed “The Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” 

But don’t overlook what he says next: “I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.  . . . I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. . . . Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:12-25)

How often have you grieved over your own sin nature? How many times have you noticed the pull of the culture drawing you into its seductive control? Yes, you pray. You read the Bible. You come to Bible studies and Sunday services. You want to do right, but so often you do wrong. 

Listen – if our inclination toward sin doesn’t grieve us, then we need to reexamine our heart and our relationship with Jesus. 

I’m glad Paul didn’t stop with that gloomy lament in chapter seven. A moment later he declared the good news, “There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus . . .  . (Romans 8:1)

That statement, “Who are in Christ Jesus” is an important distinction. Why? Because ‘no condemnation’ applies only to those who are IN Christ. God provides no wiggle room for any other opinion. 

In 1 Corinthians 15 the Holy Spirit makes the same point about being IN Christ: For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. (verses 21-22)

No one on this planet can help being in Adam. He is the father of all humanity. But no one has to remain in Adam. God gives us a choice to be born again into Christ. 

No one needs to remain only a child of Adam. Anyone can be a child of God. 

Jesus – the Last Adam, as Paul calls Him in 1 Corinthians 15 – fulfilled the requirements of the Law of God. That’s why God counts those who are IN Christ to have also fulfilled the requirements of the Law. Here is Romans 8:3-4 – For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit [of God]. (Romans 8:3-4) 

That is why it is critical for us to be ‘IN’ Christ, so that God can view His perfect law to be fulfilled in us who are imperfect. God does not see us by ourselves, but He sees us IN His perfect Son.

Let me illustrate this concept for you with an Old Testament reference. God told Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant – a gold-covered chest which sat in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle in the wilderness. Among the items Moses placed in the chest were the tablets of the law – the Ten Commandments – written by the finger of God. It was those ten commandments which the people broke time and time again.

Every year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest entered the holy of holies and sprinkled the blood of the sacrificial animal on top of the Ark. When he did that and God looked at the Ark, He did not see the Law which the people had broken, but He saw the sacrificial blood covering the broken law that made atonement for the sins of the people.

In like manner, when we are IN Christ – when we have brought ourselves in humility to God, asking His forgiveness through the sacrificial blood of His Son who died for us on Calvary, God does not see our sin. He sees the sacrificial blood of our Messiah who covers our sins. 

THAT’S what it means to be IN CHRIST. To be abiding with Him and living for Him according to His commandments. 

Do we do away with the Law?  Of course not. God gave us the law to be a light to guide us through our dark world where almost everything is upside down and inside out from God’s uncompromising standards (see Psalm 119:105). 

God’s law is like a mirror in which we see our imperfections and with God’s help, root them out. 

It might be an unpleasant analogy, but I like to sometimes compare God’s word to flossing our teeth. How often have you brushed your teeth and thought they were clean – only to then floss them and discover all sorts of flecks of food that had hidden between the crevices and spaces of your teeth? And you know what happens to those flecks if they are not removed?  They breed bacteria that causes not only bad breath, but also in tiny holes in our teeth – called cavities. 

The law of the Lord is like dental floss for our soul. It gets into the hidden crevices of our lives and roots out sins before they create a stench in our lives and defects in our character.

The law of the Lord is perfect. And because it is perfect it restores the soul. The Hebrew for ‘restoring the soul’ can be translated as a converting of the soul, of turning it back to God from the way it is traveling.  

I do not understand the idea of ‘conversion’ as a one-time event. Go to an altar, confess your sins, ask God for forgiveness – and you’re done. You’re born again. 

While that might be true, it is only true at a most superficial level. The verb in the Hebrew for ‘restoring’ means ‘converting.’ The verb tense illustrates a continuing action. We must continue, day after day, to be converted toward Christ because the lure of sin is always nipping at our heels. 

It is God’s word alone that instructs us when we are drifting off the narrow path and toward the wide gate that leads to destruction. That’s why the Holy Spirit tells us repeatedly from one end of the book to the other – Read and study and apply God’s word to your life. 

When you have 15 or 20 minutes, read Psalm 119. The Holy Spirit devotes the entire 176 verses of this chapter to the wonder and the wealth inherent in God’s word.

Let me say this as clearly as I can: There can be no ongoing conversion of the soul without an ongoing study of and obedience to God’s word. “Be diligent,” St. Paul wrote to Timothy – and to us in 2020 – be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

God’s word is timeless. It crosses cultures and races and nationalities and creeds. It does so because God created all humanity and He knows our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him. God help us and our families and all we know to quickly find our rest in Him through Jesus our Messiah and in His perfect law.