Read Psalm 119:17-24 17Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. 18Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. 19I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! 20My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times. 21You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments. 22Take away from me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies. 23Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. 24Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.
David understood that God is good. God is for him. God wants what’s best for him. Therefore, his word, his law, is not a trap. It’s not a cosmic GOTCHA! It wasn’t given only to suppress evil. It was given to bring shalom. Flourishing. The good life. As David says, the word of God is full of wondrous things!
But wait! Wasn’t the law given to “increase sin,” as Paul says? Isn’t the law “the power of sin and death?” Wasn’t the law a “ministry of condemnation?” Yes, and it still is all these things when you are living under the law and not under grace. But David, our psalmist, was under the law, but he was also under grace. God had made a unique covenant with him (The Davidic Covenant) promising him unconditional blessing, and eternal kingship.
Here’s what’s fascinating: God’s covenant of grace with David did not make David despise or depart from the law. In fact, it made him run even deeper into it. When he knew that the law of God could no longer condemn him, it made him love and honor the law even more.
How much more for those who are in Christ? The law can never condemn us, never control us, never separate us from God’s love. We are free in Christ from the law’s demands. Now we are free to love the law.
To live is Christ is to live the abundant life, not just surviving, but thriving in his freedom. A freedom that allows us to use the law for our sanctification. Never our justification, mind you. But for our sanctification it is full of wondrous things.
You: Do you see yourself as being under law or under grace?
You in Christ: How does union with Christ allow us to love the law without fear of condemnation?
Christ in you: Practice using the law to see Christ. Start with the Ten Commandments. Can you see how they point to Christ himself? Our need for him?
Pray: Father, I understand that the law no longer controls me, your Spirit does. Let your law guide me by your Spirit into your grace that I may truly live. Amen.
To Live is Christ 