God’s Laws Written on the Heart
By Bill Vigue
“For this is the covenant that I will make…I will put my Laws in their inward parts, and in their hearts will I put them. And I will be to them a God and they will be to me people.” (Heb 8:10)
This NT epistle was written to the early Hebrew Christians. The writer quotes from the prophet Jeremiah’s revelation of the coming New Testament and the promises contained in it. There was to be granted to Israel a New Covenant which would be handed down and granted to the Gentiles too. The New Covenant to come has come in adherence with a New Birth where the Laws of God are now written in the hearts of men who call upon the Lord for salvation.
Under the Old Testament God’s people mostly related to Him through the written Law. Written Law is not bad. Paul not only advocated that the written Laws were “holy, just and good” (Rom 7:12) he reasoned that the written laws were a faithful guide to children who will become the “heirs of God through Christ” (Gal 4:1-7) and he himself wrote many precepts into the instruction of the NT.
However, the very scriptures themselves (the Old and the New ones Paul himself wrote down) explain how the written law is terribly ineffective. Left to the interpretations and judgments of carnal man, they do not produce life. Thus Paul, the NT’s major interpreter, explained how God promised to speak to His children today in a superior fashion and that each believer is an epistle.
“Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” (2Co 3:3)
Paul also explained how we cannot trust in the keeping the Law. He explained how trusting in the “works of the law” leaves us “under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” (Gal 3:10) Since God knows no one has continued in keeping the written Law, Paul explained why God “blotted out” the written Law since it only works against us.
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has quickened (given life) together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; (Col 2:13-14)
In my previous article I quoted this from G. Campbell Morgan. “It is well to remember that the written commandments – and I refer resolutely to the commandments contained in the Holy Scripture, whether in the old or the New Testaments now – the written commandment is always incomplete, and constantly obscure. With that in mind consider what Morgan expounded upon further from today’s text of Heb 10:8.“In the history of human interpretation, at best the human interpreter has been fallible and at worst he has been false and that abides true until this hour. The New covenant is a covenant in its final experience, in which the human soul shall be rendered independent of the external law and independent of the human interpreter; the law within, written on the heart.
Morgan was a promoter of the scripture and he was certainly not against writing and giving instructions through his own writings. But his wisdom here was in accordance with the NT promise that God will deal with us personally, intimately and more effectively through heartfelt communion within our spirit, where God has written His Laws. Morgan continued to explain these Laws are;
“… received by the direct revelation of the Will of God within the spirit, independent of all writings and all human interpretation, is to be the rule of life. This is the exact description of the covenant under which Christian people live. Yet we still hanker after laws and rules and regulations. How perpetually we give ourselves to modern legalism, signing our pledges, conforming our habits to the opinions of other men, and looking outside for direction instead of expecting direction within. “All written laws fail, not because man is less than the law, but because the law is less than man and because within human personality there is something infinitely greater than ever can be conditioned within any law uttered at a single moment.
Morgan understood this in the same way Paul did. Setting up himself as an example, Paul described how he appreciated the written Law, but he knew he must refuse coming under its power. He said it this way;
“All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: (helpful) all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” (1 Co 6:12)
Paul was not advocating breaking any laws here. But he was saying that because salvation is by grace and not by the works of the Law, if he did violate any Law of God or man, he would not let that violation overwhelm his pursuit of continuing on with God through faith. He would continue because faith demands that he must continue!
In the next article we will look at the context of Paul’s point regarding his argument to resist being “brought under the power of any” law. But in closing this session, I think it is important to point out how Paul recognized the need to live in the Law of Liberty. It is not a liberty to continue on in sin, but a liberty from continuing in the violation and practice of the sin.
Living under the condemnation of sin (Satan’s strategy against us) stimulates sin. This is because it tenders to hopelessness. Hopelessness leads to despair and despair leads to more carnal inclinations. But living by God’s Law written on the heart gives life and hope that frees us up so we can serve the living God.
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