BLDJ: Chapter 8

(Serializing here the draft of my book, Biblical Law: Divine Justice.)

8. What Now?

Now you understand all of David’s blather in Psalms about loving God’s Law; His Law is love itself. The single greatest reward for this kind of lawful living is more of that love coursing through your soul. It becomes its own reward.

For this reason, the laundry list of blessings attached to lawful living seem mere icing on the cake. We don’t obey to earn our pay, but because we would rather obey than be captured by material rewards. On the one hand, God’s glory comes in part when people see how God blesses those who embrace His character. On the other hand, we have a chance to speak the truth when people notice we miss out on some material blessings because we aren’t willing to play along in the worship of Mammon. We really don’t want for much when we view this life through the lens of our hearts. All we really want and need are opportunities to bless His name.

Thus, we recognize that all Creation exists as a mere tool for His glory. We embrace that and internalize it as our sole reason for living. You don’t need any other justification for taking up space; no other human has any valid claim on you as a resource outside of the pursuit of God’s glory. The same goes for the rest of Creation — nothing and no one has to justify their existence. In every encounter with things and people, the only question is what God requires of you for His glory, in part by our seeking to redeem the context as much as we are able. When all else fails, we are quite eager to go Home to be with Christ.

We have been warned that the world will only get worse as we drift toward the End of Time. A critical part of that warning is that we not somehow imagine that this broken world will actually see redemption. To the degree redemption happens, it is within our souls. We our the battlefield, not the world around us. It becomes necessary to understand the ancient concept of dominion: the portion of your world God has delivered into your stewardship. Most Westerners assume that, because there is some mythology of “consent of the governed” that God wants us to change the political situation. Often the excuse if “for our children.” This is pure worldliness.

While we may well fight for our children against an evil secular world, the greatest gift we can give them is an active sensory heart. Short of that, the best gift is to let them see our otherworldly focus. Exercise divine justice over the limits of what God has granted you. He most certainly did not grant us a democratic political philosophy. Again, that is a wholly pagan ideal based on rejecting God’s revelation. A proper divine justice takes place only within the limits of where your faith operates. That is, your faith and your heart ruling over your mind after you have purged the damned nonsense about political activism.

We have no intention of fixing this broken world, only using it for His glory. The human political situation is just as much entirely His domain as is the natural. Nothing within human power can bring His mercy and grace to bear on things. Rather, we operate within the context He gives to exploit every opportunity to bring Him glory. We should never be surprised that His promises seem shaved a bit by circumstances. The Laws of God living in you will change things, and nature will respond, as will human nature itself, but there remains a truculent grip on the mythology that blinds the world to the truth. People will often respond to the truth in spite of themselves, but only God can grant a living heart.

Jesus told His disciples:

“I give you a new commandment — to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples — if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Naturally, the only way those early disciples could do this was by first sacrificially loving God. Rather, Jesus emphasized here His Second Commandment, adding the context of His sacrificial love, with the Cross looming before Him. It was the same as commanding them to love as God loves. And while John does not record it, we know that numerous references to that Last Supper elsewhere in the New Testament describe Jesus establishing a New Covenant based on that sacrifice. We celebrate that in our highly abbreviated version of the Passover Meal with our communion ritual.

But it’s all just words and rituals unless your heart comes to life and rules over your head. You can just about obey the Law of Noah without it, and perhaps reap some measure of shalom in worldly terms. However, you cannot truly obey His Law of Love in Christ unless something much better than your brain takes over.

The End

(Did I leave anything out?)