The Heart of the Law

Have you ever contemplated the incredible power of words?  The process of taking sounds formed by specific combinations of lip shape, tongue activity, and the movement of air, crafting those sounds into a recognizable library of letters, arranging those letters into particular sequences called words, and placing those words deliberately into the structure of a sentence, is truly an awe-inspiring ability that God has granted to mankind.  Verbal speech is one of the hallmarks that sets man apart from the animal kingdom.  However, with this unique and noteworthy ability comes great power and therefore a great burden of restraint.  Our words have the power to help or to hurt.  They can build up the soul.  Or they can tear down the psyche.  They inflict wounds that are arguably more deadly than physical ones, and without question more insidious, because the damage cannot be seen.  But, a crushed spirit is just as real as a broken arm. 

Beyond that, words have the incredible capacity to conjur up images in the human mind.  These images can be either implanted fresh or recalled from memory.  For example, the title of this essay is “The Heart of the Law.”  That word, law, has probably already done its work in your mind, instantaneously, as you read it.  Perhaps you associate law with rules, structure, judgment, or even oppression.  For those among us trained as attorneys, law may bring to mind countless hours of study or grueling testing or even stress filled courtroom scenes played out in the theater of the mind’s eye.

In the context of the biblical record there is another angle to the word law.  For a Christian, often when we hear law in the context of the Scriptures our thoughts travel immediately to The Law; the covenant that the Lord God made with the descendants of Jacob at Mt. Sinai, delivered through God’s servant, Moses.  This Law towers above all others for the rest of Scripture.  Through both the Old and New Testaments, the human writers of the Bible refer to the Law of Moses repeatedly, in various contextual situations and manners of application.

Because of how well known this Law is to Christians, they probably bring many pre-conceived notions to bear on it.  Some may find it to be outdated.  Others would consider the Law non-applicable.  Still more would perhaps find it harsh in many of its aspects.  Those well versed in the letters of Paul might say that the Law is capable of bringing only death.

But I believe there is a characteristic of the Law of Moses, the Law of God, that we may tend to overlook as we consider its relevance for our lives and our relation to it.  Namely, I believe the Scripture is clear that the very heart of the Law, the foundation upon which it is built, the soul that gives life to its component parts, is love.  The heart of the Law is not rules.  It is not judgment.  It is not death.  It is not even holiness, although holiness is critically important to the Law.  No, the heart of the Law is love.

To demonstrate this, we will consider the source material.  The book of Deuteronomy is one of the five building blocks that make up the Pentateuch, or the first five books of both the Hebrew and English Bibles.  This is an excellent place to look in order to find out what really makes the Mosaic Law tick.  The name Deuteronomy means “second law” in the Greek.  This book is Moses’s attempt, as the nation camped on the plains of Moab, just prior to his death and the entry of his countrymen into the Promised Land, to summarize, recount, and even provide commentary upon the entirety of the Sinai Covenant.

The Law as a whole was essentially the constitution for the nation of Israel.  But it was also a record of the contract or covenant between the Lord and His chosen people.  In this capacity, it stands as an indelible historical account of the interaction between the Hebrews and their God.  Furthermore, Deuteronomy, because it is a sort of second look at the whole of the Law, encapsulates within just a few chapters an overall summary of this divine and human relationship.

For example, in chapter 7 we find that the Law began with the Lord Himself.  In verses 6 to 8 we read the following: “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God.  The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.  It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

Moses is telling the Israelites that it was not for any reason in and of themselves that God chose them.  Rather, it was purely because He loved them.  He loved the Hebrews and desired to keep the oath He had sworn to their forefathers.  It was because of God’s love and His faithfulness to His own covenants that He rescued them from slavery in Egypt and made them a people holy unto Himself.

This is a magnificent picture of salvation.  In fact, it is the standard and only mode of redemptive interaction between God and mankind, His wayward rebel children.  We are hopelessly lost and enslaved to sin.  But just as God “redeemed Israel from the house of slavery” solely because He loved them, so He sent His only begotten Son into the world that He loved, so that the world might be redeemed through Him.

Furthermore, it is by no means due to any righteousness or loveliness in us that He does this.  Again, Moses tells the tale in chapter 9, verses 4 and 5: “Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.  Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that He may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob.”

It was not the uprightness of the Hebrews that caused God to give them the land of Canaan so that they could go in to possess it.  It was because of the wickedness of the Canaanite nations that He did it.  The Israelites were just as wicked and stubborn as the nations they destroyed.  Moses makes this painfully clear in verses 6 through 12 of the same chapter.  So, in a very real sense, it was not about Israel at all.  They were just the tool in the hand of the Lord to, one the one hand administer justice and judgment against the evils of man, and on the other hand to enable God to glorify Himself and demonstrate His faithfulness in the fulfillment of His promises to the patriarchs.

In the same way, those who come to faith in Christ now do not do so because of any spark of holiness within themselves.  A Christian, who has trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior, only does so because God loved him and set His favor on him and called him to repentance and quickened his heart so that he might believe.  We should never delude ourselves into thinking that we came to Christ of our own accord.  The truth is that Christ came to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  All we did is respond to His irresistible call with inevitable faith and repentance.  There are many New Testament passages that teach this accurate view of salvation unequivocally.  But it is utterly compelling to me that the foundation of this crucial New Covenant teaching is presented here in Deuteronomy as the very nucleus of the Mosaic Law.

Amazingly, there is more to it!  The love that God initiates upon those He chooses produces a love in the one so chosen that can then in turn be directed back at God.  This is unmistakable from the text as the clear motivation for obedience and the upholding of the statutes and commands of the Lord.  In chapter 6, verse 5 we read that Israel was to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and might.  It is fascinating that this is the very factor that will enable the people to keep the Law.  Apart from a genuine love for God it is impossible to remain faithful to His statutes. 

The sequence in chapter 6 builds from one layer to the next like a house rising up from its foundation.  The love for God in verse 5 produces the binding of His commands on the heart in verse 6.  In turn, the treasuring of God’s commands in the heart results in the desire to teach those commands to children in verse 7a.  In fact, the worshiper of God falls so much in love with the Lord and with His ways that they begin to think about them and talk about them at home, on the road, when they lie down, and when they stand up (verse 7b).  The lover of God begins to immerse him or herself in the law of God so thoroughly that they create reminders for themselves because they want to luxuriate in the richness and splendor of the holiness of God that is revealed in His law.  So, they do things like writing statutes on the doorframes of their homes.  They put up plaques on the gates of their property.  They carry the commands with them wherever they go because they never want to be far from them (verses 8 and 9).

So, the heart of The Law of Moses, the Law of God, is love.  Jesus Himself taught this.  In Matthew 22:37-38, in response to the question “Which is the great commandment in the Law?” Christ responded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  Jesus was not teaching something new.  What He was doing was fulfilling and upholding and explaining the real point of the Law to a people who had grossly distorted it in their own minds for centuries.  Are we sometimes guilty of doing the same injustice to the Mosaic Law?  Do we make the mistake of thinking that the Law is not important to us because we are under the New Covenant in Christ’s blood?  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

In short, the love of God that He is pleased to bestow on a human being produces a love within the heart of man that causes him to strain until his dying breath to return that same love back to God in ever increasing measure.  Obedience to God’s commands flows smoothly and naturally from this wellspring of devotion.  Thus, obedience does not produce acceptance.  On the contrary, acceptance produces obedience through love.  This is the heart of the Sinai Covenant and it is the same heart that beats within the breast of the New Covenant.

When Christians Are Atheists

I recently read a statement from a Christian Bible teacher.  This statement was uttered at a summer youth camp during a Q and A session with the kids.  When I read it, I was somewhat mesmerized by what was contained in this single line of text.  I pondered it, analyzing it in an attempt to figure out whether I agreed with the thought behind it.  The statement is as follows, slightly modified by me, but still carrying the same message as the original: At the moment of sin, every Christian is an atheist.

Clearly, this is a provocative thing to say.  After all, are not Christians and Atheists polar opposites of each other?  Is it not true that they represent two camps at the furthest extremes of morality, ethics, and purpose in life, both sides locked in a titanic struggle for the hearts and minds of the culture?  This description of Christians and Atheists is certainly how the issues between the two have been phrased by myself in the past as well as other Christians I am in acquaintance with.  And if such a state of affairs is accurate, then how can a statement like the one above be correct?

In an effort to answer these questions I want to begin by establishing some baselines.  I think it is important to define our terms to ensure that your starting point is the same as mine.  Whether your ending point will be the same, only time will tell and will be up to you to determine.

The first term I want to define is Christian.  Here is what I do not mean when I say Christian: A professor of his belief in the religion of Christ; in a general sense, the word Christian includes all who are born in a Christian country or of Christian parents.  Although I found this definition in a dictionary, I do not believe it correctly establishes what the Bible teaches about being a Christian.  It is true that a Christian must profess of his or her belief in Christ.  So that part is at least accurate.  But one’s Christianity must not end there if one is to be labeled a Christian by God’s own word, the Bible.  And being born into a Christian home or in a Christian country most certainly does not make one a Christian.

On that note, what does the Bible itself say about Christians?  Two passages strike me as important because they are two of only three in the Bible to actually use the word Christian.  The first is 1^st Peter 4:16: Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.  The Apostle Peter is communicating here that those who follow Christ must suffer.  Their suffering must be precisely because of their Christianity.  This is contrasted with the list in the previous verse of murderers, thieves, evildoers, or meddlers.  In other words, if you are going to be a Christian you will suffer for your faith in Christ. 

But the amazing part of this is that you are expected to glorify God in the midst of that suffering.  A Christian is one who takes every stone and arrow thrown at him by a fallen world full of sin, and converts those missiles of destruction intended to kill, into psalms of thanksgiving and praise about the glory of God.

Another important passage is Acts 11:19-26.  This section of Acts details the activities of the early Christians who were scattered throughout Israel and the Mediterranean following the martyrdom of Stephen in chapter 7.  The passage lists three characteristics of a Christian, in addition to the ones we have already seen in 1^st Peter.  They are: the preaching of the gospel, faithfulness to God, and persevering with a steadfast purpose.

So then, what we are presented with in the Bible as an image of a Christian is one who suffers for their faith, proclaims the good news of Jesus, is faithful to the Lord, perseveres through trials, and does all of this for the glory of God.  These factors combine to lead into a much better dictionary definition of a Christian: A real disciple of Christ; one who believes in the truth of the Christian religion, and studies to follow the example, and obey the precepts, of Christ; a believer in Christ who is characterized by real piety.  To state it another way I will turn to the words of John Calvin, who defined piety in this way: reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of His benefits induces.  This is what I mean when I say Christian.

With that in mind, what do I mean by atheist or atheism?  As before, I will begin by stating what I do not mean.  The dictionary defines atheism as: The disbelief of the existence of a God, or Supreme Intelligent Being.  Odds are that is the understanding of atheism that you have had to this point.  It was how I would have defined it myself prior to this study.  But I have now come to believe that, although atheism as described above is the cultural and even perhaps the Christian view of it, I now believe that this is a false definition that is flatly contradicted by the Bible.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that the cultural definition and understanding of atheism is impossible.  But in order to argue my case I cannot turn to a dictionary, because none of them that I could find present what the Bible does about this notion of a disbelief in the existence of God.  In light of that, I will go straight to Scripture.

First, consider the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3:11: He has made everything beautiful in its time.  Also, He has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.  The word eternity in this verse has the idea of everlasting or a long time.  The idea is that man instinctively knows there is something grander and greater in the universe, a majestic backdrop of divine work which stretches across the corridors of time and encompasses all of creation.  Yet, in spite of this inherent knowledge, man, by himself, cannot put his finger on this concept of eternity.  Therefore, the first point is that man knows something bigger than himself exists.

Second, ponder the sermon that Paul preached to the men of Athens at the Areopagus, also known as Mars Hill, in Acts chapter 17.  In verses 26 to 28 we read: And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him.  Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for “In Him we live and move and have our being.”

In his address Paul used the word “zetein”, rendered in English as “seek”.  It means to desire or look for.  It is the same word used of Herod in Matthew 2:13.  An angel of the Lord is communicating to Joseph via dream.  In this dream Joseph is told that Herod is about to “search” for the child, to destroy Him.  The context is not a casual search.  It is a desperate straining after something, exerting all of one’s resources in the quest to obtain it.  So according to Paul, man knows there is something out there that he desperately wants to find, but he does not know where to find it.  Therefore, he searches for it earnestly and quite desperately.

For the next two points we will travel to the book of Romans.  In chapter 1, verses 18 and 19, we find: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  When Paul wrote that what can be known about God is plain he used the same word that Luke used in Acts 4:16.  In that verse, the Sanhedrin, or the Jewish ruling council, is discussing what to do with Peter and John.  The apostles have just healed a lame man, in the temple, in the sight of all the people there.  Not only that, but they did it in the name of Jesus.  The rulers of the Jews, being fiercely opposed to any talk of Jesus as being the Messiah of Israel, are furious with Peter and John because there is no way they can deny that a miracle has just been performed through them.  The power of God, working through the discples of Jesus, has become “plain” to everyone.

Carrying that understanding back to Romans 1:19 we can draw the following conclusion.  The knowledge of God in creation is not merely obvious or easily understood.  It is in fact completely visible and unilaterally known by everyone.  Furthermore, this knowledge is implicitly written on the heart of every human being who has ever lived.  Romans 2:14-15 tells the tale: For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.  They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.

From this we can clearly see that the heart of man, even apart from details of God’s law, confirms the existence of that law.  Because of this, men at times feel the pangs of conscience and at other times suppress or ignore the inner condemnation they experience.  This creates in them a spirit of instability in which they are perpetually unsettled within their very own souls.

We might think that these facts, once presented to a sinner, would compell them to repent and turn to God.  However, the Bible paints an image of man in which he is hopelessly and helplessly compelled by his own nature to rebel against and run from God.  The first three verses of Psalm 14 are a devastating litany of madness directed against the heart of fallen man: The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”  They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.  The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.  They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. 

It is instructive to note that the English word fool in verse 1 is the Hebrew word nabal.  Astute Bible readers will recognize this as the name of the man in 1^st Samuel 25 who rejected David’s request for aid, even after David and his men had protected this man Nabal’s business interests.  Verse 3 of that chapter describes Nabal as harsh and badly behaved.  In verse 25 Nabal’s wife, Abigail, is not even that kind to her husband.  She calls him a worthless fellow.

This, then, is the charge against men who reject the clear knowledge of God in creation and in their own hearts.  They suppress the built-in awareness of God’s presence and work in history.  Even in the face of their instinctiveness perception of their creator they resist and reject even their own hearts and minds within themselves.  As was Nabal, such people are completely worthless.

The final nail in the coffin of cultural atheism is found in Ephesians 2:12.  This is the only occurrence in the Greek testament of the word “atheos”.  If that word looks familiar it is because it is the word we get our English atheism from.  “Atheos” simply means without God.  Look at it in its biblical context: Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God (atheos) in the world.

Thus, the biblical word that we get our modern word atheism from has no association with a denial of God’s existence.  It simply means to be without God, apart from God, or alienated from God.

All of these points combine to provide us with what I believe is a much more accurate definition of atheism: A delusional worldview characterized by classical insanity; that is, a denial of the plain evidence of one’s own senses and a determined refutation of the facts of reality.  This repudiation of truth is demonstrated by a ludicrous opposition to the pre-programmed awareness of and desire for God that He created in the heart of every human.  The result is full blown rebellion and alienation from the very source of that which is instinctively sought after.

This is nothing less than a mass hallucination by the greater portion of the entire human race who stand apart from God.  It is a group psychosis that feeds upon itself in an insane effort to authenticate and validate a fiction that is impossible to believe.  Alcuin, an 8^th century English scholar in the court of Charlemagne, said: The riotous tumult of the crowd is always very close to madness.  In the deepest recesses of every sinner’s heart, regardless of how much suppression is layered on top of it, is a conviction that they are wrong.

This understanding of atheism leads me back to my original proposition.  At the moment of sin, every Christian is an atheist.  If atheism is a refusal to acknowledge that which is apparent, then that is exactly what Christians do when they sin.  They convince themselves, at least in that moment, that the promises of God are lies, the statutes of God are not relevant to them, and the will of God for their life is not best.

Let us examine a case study in Scripture to see this borne out.  In the 10^th chapter of 1^st Corinthians, Paul warns believers against idolatry.  As his example he uses the Israelites, under the leadership of Moses, who left Egypt and traveled to Sinai.  He points out that every one of them was a recipient of the grace of God in their release from bondage, their deliverance from the Egyptian army at the shore of the Red Sea, and their consumption of food both spiritual and physical in the wilderness.

In verse 7 the apostle instructs us: Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”  This is a reference to Exodus 32 where the children of Israel sinned against the Lord and worshipped a golden calf.  What must have been particularly galling to God about this was that the stated intention of the people was to worship the Lord.  Yet the manner in which they went about it flatly contradicted the specific instructions He had just given them.

God told them in Exodus 19:5-6 that if they would obey Him they would be His people, a treasured possession of His among all people on the earth.  Yet they considered His promises lies because they immediately disobeyed the Lord as soon as they thought His back was turned.  He had commanded them not to worship Him by making an image of anything in the entire created order.  This was command number 2 of the 10 commandments, found in Exodus 20:4.  Yet the people felt that this statute was unnecessary because they desired something to look at and fix their eyes upon.  God had commanded them to approach Him with reverence and awe.  Moses’s instructions were to consecrate the people for three days.  They were to wash their clothes so as to be as presentable as possible before the Lord.  They were not to have sexual relations during this time.  And they were to make their hearts ready to be in the presence of Almighty God.  Yet the people decided that God’s will in how they were to approach Him was not best.  The verse that Paul quoted back in 1^st Corinthians is Exodus 32:6, which records that: they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings.  And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

The point is this.  When Christians sin they are doing the very same thing the Hebrews did.  They convince themselves, at least in that moment, that the promises of God are lies, the statutes of God are not necessary, and the will of God is not best.  I will pull just one example out of the hat that probably everyone reading this is guilty of.  Colossians 4:6 teaches: Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.  And Colossians 3:16 instructs: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

The sobering reality of Scripture is that when we violate these simple instructions of inter-personal conduct, or any other statutes of the Lord, we are deluding ourselves into ignoring the bald faced truth of God that we have been taught from the Bible.  Although we may not be guilty of the same crimes, in the moment of sin, or in the time leading up to sin if it is premeditated, we are guilty of the same corrupt philosophy as the pimp and the prostitute in the red-light district in Hong Kong, the human trafficker in Sudan, and the rapist in Springfield, Illinois.  At that moment, although we would hotly deny such a charge, we are acting like atheists.