Oh, How I Love Your Law

In my last post, I'm not sure if I made myself clear on this, but I Love God's Law. I do not think it should belong to any nation, but that of the true Israel, the Israel of Jesus and the New Jerusalem, the Church. So I also love it jealously, just as the Pharisees in Jesus day. They, however, failed to recognize Jesus fulfillment of it, and thus lost their inheritance of it.

I love the Law, because it condemns murderers to death. But this death can also be the salvation of the murderer, if only the old Adam within him is destroyed and not his whole self. You see, the death of Jesus Christ was the death of the power of Death in the Law. Now the Law can show us the path of life and point to the Second Adam of the new humanity. It points us to the empty tomb, where Death was left humiliated and disarmed, and to the great Flood of Baptism where a repentant murderer can leave his murderer self behind and come up on the other side a new creation.

I love the Law, because when a member of the covenant community commits a sin worthy of death, the whole community must stone him. But these no longer are stones of mineral that are cast upon the offender, but one Rock upon which he is begged to cast himself for mercy.

The holy ground has been cleansed, once for all, by the blood of the Lamb, given for all, and no longer cries out for vengeance. Death's hold on the Law has been broken, it is now subdued, serene and gentle. It is a quiet teacher who visits its former students to offer words of advice and wisdom.