The Law in Our Hearts

Some question whether we should still be concerned with God’s laws and commandments. This daily devotional looks at why they are still applicable and why we should get them to heart level.

Nuggets

  • The laws were never meant to save us, rather to guide us to being like God.

To read devotions in the At the Heart Level theme, click the button below.

Devotions in the The Law in Our Hearts series

Throughout Scriptures, God has interspersed His laws and commandments. They were not chucked when Jesus came to save us.

Instead, they still point us to God and His character.

Because of that, we need to get them to the heart level. Over the next couple of devotions, we are going to talk about doing just that.

Let's Put It into Context

Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.

Getting the Laws to Our Heart Level

“The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip” (Ps. 37: 31 ESV)

The laws were never meant to save us, rather to guide us to being like God.

The Jews had a skewed interpretation of the purpose of the laws. They thought their salvation was assured when they followed God’s laws and commandments.

Worldview people have that same misinterpretation. They think we must keep them to the letter in order to gain salvation.

These views not only do not get us salvation, but they also do not get the law into our hearts.

We, also, sometimes have a skewed interpretation of the purpose of the laws. Oh, we know we get salvation through grace — at least most of us.

Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.

  • Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
    • Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
      • Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
        • Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
        • Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
      • Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
      • Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
    • Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
  • Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
    • Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
  • Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
    • The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.

Grace is a free and unmerited gift of love from the Heavenly Father, given through His Son, Jesus Christ, that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit.

The ABCDs of Salvation

If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.

A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord

D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us

The Disciple’s Job Description

Glossary

We think we lose our salvation when we don’t keep them after conversion.

We have to watch when we say that. If we had no intent to keep the laws, there is an argument that we were not saved in the first place.

Anything else is God’s call.

The laws are a principle that guides us to the character of God. It is an inward moral code that shows us Who God is.

It shows us who we should be. It gives us an ideal to which to aspire.

We talked before that is it our standard of holiness.

Make Be holy, because I am holy (I Pet. 1: 16 CSB) our standard.

When we make following God’s laws and commandments a habit, we are more likely to follow His Will.

That was why David was called a man after God’s own heart. He took God’s laws and commandments to his heart and strove to follow them.

No, David broke God’s laws spectacularly. But he asked God for forgiveness, and He granted it to him. Forgiveness is, when we ask, the act of God pardoning us because we have shown repentance for breaking His laws and commandments, which allows us to become holy as He is.

  • Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.

Glossary

That just goes to show that even the best disciple has to grow to become like God. There is no switch that is flipped so that we no longer sin.

What God is looking for is that we love Him and that we try to be obedient. We work out our salvation.

That is called sanctification. Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.

  • Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.

Glossary

As we grow to become more like God, it becomes easier to resist Satan’s temptation. “… his steps do not slip” (Ps. 37: 31 ESV).

Not slipping is important. When disciples do, it is called backsliding. That is when those who have made a profession of faith return to their sinful lives.

We don’t want to slip away from God into sin and totally deny Him. We want to be consistent in our walk with Him. Walking with God means we are humble, reverent, teachable servants of God. 

Chapin made an interesting observation. Worldview people sometimes argue that God’s laws take away their individuality.

That is wrong, according to Chapin. He wrote, “This [God’s laws] develops the individuality of a man. Sensualism destroys individuality. The drunkard, in more senses than one, throws himself away. lie unmans himself. But the man described in the text acts under a constant sense of responsibility. He feels that he must act himself and must stand or fall for himself. He knows that an act can only be performed by an individual, and that he must obey the law himself, or there will be no obedience so far as he is concerned.”

Resource

God wants the best for us. He is not a dictator that will force us to serve Him or be who we aren’t.

It is our choice to submit to God’s laws and commandments.

making-the-heart-rightFB

Making the Connections

Yes, mankind is governed by laws and commandments. God has decreed how we will be judged.

What we have to realize is that those laws are based on love. God gives us regulations — boundaries — because He loves us.

These laws and commandments require us to love. The greatest commandment is that we love God. Next, we have to love others.

Jesus said that “all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Mt. 22: 40 NIV).

Love God is righteousness + Love people is mercy = perfection/godliness

How Do We Apply This?

  • Loving God will help us better interpret the Scriptures.
  • Following God’s laws will give us a moral character.
  • Following God’s laws make us practical.
  • Strive to follow the laws, not to get to the edge of following them and no more.

Resources

Father God. We love You. Thank You for loving us. Thank You that You have given us laws and commandments to teach us how to be like You. Help us to imitate You. Amen.

What do you think?

Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.

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