As God's living testimony the law functions to minister the living God to His seekers (Psa. 119:2, 88). If we regard the law only as letters, the law will be very negative to us. However, if we regard the law as God's testimony, as a portrait of God, and if we consider that every word of the law is something breathed out by God, then to us the law will be the living and loving word of God. If this is our attitude toward the Bible today, then whenever we come to the Bible we will have the sense deep within that we are with God. Then as we read the Bible we will touch God, knowing that He is loving and that it is surely worthwhile for us to love Him and to seek Him. This is the positive function of the law as the testimony of God.
As God's living word the law functions to dispense God's life and light into those who love the law (vv. 25, 116, 130). We all should regard the Bible as the living word of God which dispenses God Himself into us as our life and light. Whether or not this is our experience depends upon whether we seek God and love Him. This means that what the Bible is to us depends upon our attitude toward the Bible.
There are two kinds of people in relation to the law.
The first kind is the letter-keepers, illustrated by the Judaizers and Saul of Tarsus (Phil. 3:6b). The Judaizers, who were zealous for Judaism, were a damage to the Lord Jesus in the Gospels, to the apostles in the Acts, and to the believers in the Epistles. Paul, before he was saved, was a strong Judaizer. In Philippians 3:2 Paul referred to the Judaizers as "dogs" and "evil workers," saying, "Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision."