The Law of the Lord: Do This and You Will Live

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 1:2

What is the law of the Lord?

According to the Strong's Concordance, the law is the Torah. It's a precept or a statute. It directs. Informs. Instructs. Teaches. (The Torah includes the first 5 books of the Bible, known as the Law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. However, it can also mean the entirety of the Old Testament, also known as the Tanakh.)

Is this the same law that we discussed last week? The law that Jesus came to fulfill? Yes. According to the Greek definition of the term "law" used in Matthew 5:17, it means regulation. The Law of Moses. The Law of the Gospel. A principle.

Which makes me question, what is the law of the gospel? When I think gospel, my mind automatically runs to the New Testament. The four gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Here is the law of the gospel that sticks out most in my mind:

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”
So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’^"
And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
Luke 10:25-28

I included the story surrounding this precept, because it identifies Jesus asking the lawyer what is written in the law. Note that Jesus doesn't say the law is void. He says the lawyer answers correctly concerning it.

Is the law of the Lord relevant to me? This is, after all, 2013. Things have changed over the years. Times have changed. I'm a Gentile, not a Jew. So do the laws apply to me?

First of all, times haven't really changed all that much. Nor have things. They've merely gotten worse. We still suffer the same sinful natures people did in the days of Moses. Or the days Jesus walked the earth in His human form. Otherwise, God would not have addressed such issues as child sacrifice (abortion), same sex fornication (homosexuality), adultery, divination (witchcraft), divorce, and so many others within His Word. 

Which is why it's important to know and understand God's law. We are called to live holy lives unto Him. How can we do this if we don't know what He requires of us and how to avoid those temptations that frequent our daily lives? We can only do so when we know His Word, when we meditate on it day and night, when it becomes our delight.

And if Jesus felt it important enough to ask a questioning lawyer what is written in it, how much more do we need to know what is written in it? "Do this and you will live."