Law, The

The Law is God's instructions concerning the moral, social, and spiritual behavior of his people found in the first five books of the Bible. The Law is the very reflection of the nature of God because God speaks out of the abundance of what is in him. Therefore, since God is pure, the Law is pure. Since God is holy, the Law is holy. The Law consists of the 10 commandments (Exodus 20), rules for social life (Exodus 21 - 23), and rules for the worship of God (Exodus 25 - 31). It was a covenant of works between God and man, and was (and is) unable to deliver us into eternal fellowship with the Lord because of man's inability to keep it. The Law is a difficult taskmaster because it requires that we maintain a perfect standard of moral behavior. And then when we fail, the Law condemns us to death. We deserve death even if we fail to keep just one point of the law: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all," (James 2:10).

The law made nothing perfect (Heb. 7:19). That is why the Law has shown us our need for Jesus and the free gift we receive through Him (Gal. 3:24).