After we receive the Lord Jesus as our life, we have three main things: the fellowship of life, the sense of life, and the law of life. In order to know the inner life, that is, to know and experience Christ as our life in a very practical way, we need to know these three related matters. According to the teaching of the New Testament, the law of life is even more important than the other two. Hebrews 8:10 and 11 say, “For this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them; and I will be God to them, and they will be a people to Me. And they shall by no means each teach his fellow citizen and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all will know Me from the little one to the great one among them.” Verse 10 is a quotation of Jeremiah 31:33, but in Jeremiah law is single in number, while in Hebrews it is not one law but laws. In addition, Jeremiah 31 says that God will put His law “within them,” that is, in their inward parts, while Hebrews says that God puts His laws “into their mind.” The inward parts spoken of in Jeremiah must refer to all the parts of the soul-the mind, emotion, and will.
When Christians today speak of the law, we mostly have a bad impression. We may say of a certain matter, “That is just the law!” It seems that the law is something bad. This is wrong. Here we are speaking of the law not according to the human way, thought, and understanding but according to the scriptural meaning. It is hard to define what the law is in the Bible. To say that the law is simply the commandments from Moses is too common. This is what a child in Sunday School would say. In the ancient time God had Israel as His people. As a people, there was the need for regulation in their life and walk. If there is no law, there is no regulation for living. The law, therefore, is the regulation of the life of God’s people. This is the basic definition of the law.
Today, just as the people of Israel in the ancient time, the believers are the people of God, who need to be regulated. By what are we regulated? It is not by Moses but by God Himself. As the people of God, we must be regulated by God in our life, our walk, and our daily living. God must be our law. Do not think that the law in the Scriptures is something bad. According to the proper understanding, the law is God Himself, or using the scriptural term, the law is the testimony of God. In the Old Testament the ark was called the Ark of the Testimony, and the tabernacle was called the Tabernacle of the Testimony (Exo. 25:21-22; Num. 1:50, 53). The ark was the testimony because within it were the two tablets of the law. As a Christian for many years I tried to find out why the law is the testimony of God, but no one could tell me. I was not able to understand this until one day God Himself opened my eyes. According to human words, the testimony of God is the description of God. The purpose of the law is to testify, define, and describe God. As the people of God, our walk, living, conduct, and entire being must correspond to this very God.
What kind of God do we have, and what are His attributes? This is the purpose of the law. The law was given to tell us what kind of God we have. We may compare it to a document that describes a certain person, telling us his size, hair color, and other features. Such a document would be the testimony of this person. In the same way, the law is the description and definition of God, so it is His testimony. We as His people must be regulated in our walk and living by this description, this testimony. We may also compare the law to a photograph. If I take a picture of a young man, the picture becomes his testimony. We may say that it is the photograph of the man, or we may even say that the photograph is the man. Because the law is the testimony, description, and “photograph” of God, we can say that the law is God Himself.
The Ten Commandments described God to the people of Israel (Exo. 20:3-17). Many of us can recite the Ten Commandments, but we still may not know what kind of God the commandments describe. First, God is a jealous God. It seems that jealous is not a good word, but God is jealous because He is holy, separate, and not common. If He were common He would not be jealous. He is the holy God. Therefore, the first attribute described by the Ten Commandments of the law is the holiness of God. Second, God is righteous. Of course, we do not have the words holy and righteous in the Ten Commandments, but if we know the spirit of the commandments, we realize that they describe the holiness and righteousness of God. The Ten Commandments also describe God as a God of love, which includes mercy and grace. Fourth, the Ten Commandments show us that God is a God in light. He is a God of holiness, righteousness, love, and light. We should write these four words as a heading over Exodus 20. Then as we read these commandments again and again, we will see their true meaning. The Ten Commandments describe the very God who is holy, righteous, of love, and in light.
God is also omnipresent, transcendent, and great, but these attributes are not the regulation of the walk of God’s people. There is no need to be regulated by God’s transcendence or greatness, so these attributes are not found in the Ten Commandments. Rather, the walk of God’s people must be regulated by four attributes of God-holiness, righteousness, love, and light. These are the very elements that regulate the walk of God’s people.
On the one hand, knowledge alone does not mean much, but on the other hand, we need the knowledge of the law. We need to know the law given by God as His very testimony. A particular kind of person will make a particular kind of law. A lazy person, for example, will make a regulation that breakfast is at 9:30 A.M. There is no need for a second commandment, for just by this one commandment we can realize that the maker, the legislator, of this law is a lazy person. If we read the Constitution made by the founding fathers of America, we can see what kind of people they were. When I read the Constitution, I realized that those persons at least had the fear and reverence of God. It is different from certain Chinese and Japanese laws, from which we realize that they were worshippers of idols. The law made by God is a description, definition, and testimony of God Himself, testifying what kind of God He is. He is the God of holiness, of righteousness, of love, and in light. In order to be the people of God, our walk and daily living must be regulated by and correspond to these four attributes. Our walk must be holy, righteous, of love, and in light. In principle, the law is God Himself being the regulation of the walk of His people.
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