When you study the Holy Scriptures, how do you do it? First, you research. You compare scripture to scripture. You consult a concordance, dictionary, and a Bible commentary. Then you reason from the biblical truths and identify spiritual principles. Finally, you relate these truths and spiritual principles to your own life and the world around you. Many people record their personal Bible studies. To help you develop a biblical worldview you will use the research, reason, relate, and record teaching method, popularly called the 4 Rs of the Principle Approach. To learn more about the Principle Approach for teaching and learning, visit the Foundation for American Christian Education.
Select and print the lesson below. There are 10 lessons, each one containing scriptures and words to define using the online Noah Webster 1828 Dictionary. The study questions are designed to help you develop a biblical worldview and the principles of godly leadership. The training is based on the book, The Kingdom Leadership Institute Manual: Raising Up Leaders a Time Like This Demands, by Rev. Rusty Lee Thomas.
The Law of God
A biblical worldview is impossible without an understanding of and appreciation for the law of God. Jeremiah 31:33 reads, “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
When we speak of God’s law, we must remember his holy and righteous character is revealed in his law. You cannot separate God’s character from his commandments. It is impossible, but that does not seem to stop the church in America from attempting it.
It is clear from the opening scripture God’s will for the New Covenant is to place his law in our “inward parts” and to write it in our “hearts.” Unfortunately, for many in the American church this truth does not resonate well. Some question how God’s intention to write his laws on our hearts squares with the New Testament teaching that we “are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). When the Apostle Paul wrote that, he was revealing two important truths. First, we are not under the law as means of securing God’s salvation. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Salvation is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).
Second, when Paul states we are not under law, he is testifying that Christians are no longer subject to the curse of the law and its deadly penalty. Christ indeed redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us that the blessing of Abraham might be ours in Jesus’s holy name (Galatians 3:10-14).
What should be the response of the church, in light of these truths? Should we dismiss and break God’s law because we are not under the law but under grace? The Apostle Paul declares, “God forbid.” Paul settles the relationship between law and grace when he maintains, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Romans 3:31).
With that as our backdrop, let us now examine the threefold purpose for the law of God.
The First Purpose: The Law is our Schoolmaster
The law of God is a schoolmaster. The Apostle Paul tells us plainly, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). The law of God is like a mirror, designed to reveal man’s sinful state. Of course, once the law serves its purpose to show man his dreadful condition apart from God, it would be foolish to try to use the “mirror” to wash away sins. The law at that point will only lacerate the souls of men and further condemn them by misusing the ministration of death (1 Corinthians 3:7). We need something, or rather Someone, to cleanse and purify us. We need the Savior. Unless a sinner realizes his wretched state apart from God, he has no true incentive to seek God’s salvation. Once a man is aware of his sinful state, it is time to share the good news, the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
The law of God teaches us the truth of our sinful condition. It is an essential ally in evangelism. The law, as our schoolmaster, is to be an unyielding, immutable, and hard taskmaster that drives men to the mercy seat of Christ.
Look up the definition for “schoolmaster” in the online Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary. Write out the two definitions below.
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Continue your word study. Look up the definition for “discipline,” the verb. Write out definition one below.
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Now look up the definition for “instruct,” the verb. Read all five definitions. Write out definition one and two below.
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Finally, look up the definition for “lead,” the verb. Write out definition one and four below.
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Consult Strong’s Concordance online. Look up the Greek definition for “schoolmaster,” Strong’s number 3807. Write out the full definition below.
Reason from your word study and the scriptures. What does the Greek definition say about the tutoring of boys in ancient Greek and Roman culture? What was the tutor primarily responsible for ensuring? Compare that to the Word of God at work in the life of the believer. Does the Word of God guard the morals of believers?
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Read Genesis 1:28.
Reason from your word study and the scriptures. According to definition one of lead, what goes before us and shows us the way? To whom is the Word of God leading us? How does the law of God equip us to “take dominion?”
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Relate what you have learned to your own life and the world around you. Are you allowing the Word of God to guard your morals, in this fallen world? Are there areas in your life that are not being governed by God’s Word? Are you using God’s Word to take dominion and advance the kingdom of God in the culture?
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The Second Purpose: The Law is our Measure of Obedience
The secondly, the law of God is to be the divine pattern by which the converted soul reorients his life. Once the saving grace of God has done its eternal work in the heart of man, the law of God serves as a measure of our obedience in Christ. Again, it is not the means of justification. For the believer, obedience to the law is evidence that our confession of faith is authentic. In fact, it is the lawless Christian Jesus denounces in Matthew, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:23).
Read Matthew 7:21-23, 1 John 2:3-4, and John 14:21.
Finally, read Romans 13:10 and record it below.
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Reason from the scriptures. How can people tell we love God? What is the fulfillment of the law? Why is it the fulfillment of the law? Is it possible to know how to love God and others apart from the law of God?
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Relate this truth to your own life. Are you keeping the law of God? Are you allowing the law of God to reorient your life? Are there areas in your life you must repent of and bring in line with the law of God?
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The Third Purpose: Binding Upon All People and All Nations
Lastly, the third purpose of the law of God concerns all earthly governments. The law of God is the eternal standard governments must uphold to maintain their legitimacy. Without the law of God, there is no objective basis for good and evil. If governments refuse to uphold God’s law, they will end up calling good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20). This is a wretched betrayal of government’s sacred trust. The end of such civil government will be the codification of evil, which inevitably leads to lose of freedom and tyranny.
You must realize that civil government is a delegated authority, subject to God’s supreme authority. God alone is sovereign. Paul declares that civil government is a minister of God, assigned to be a terror against evildoers and to protect those who are good in God’s sight (Romans 13:1-4). If civil government refuses to uphold and enforce God’s law, the scriptures reveal the severe consequence.
Read Isaiah 10:1, 2 and Proverbs 17:15.
Whether earthly governments accept it or not, the law of God is binding upon all people, at all times, and in every nation. As Christians we must understand neutrality is a myth; someone is always legislating morality. The question is whose premise of right and wrong, ethics, morality, and philosophy of law undergird our laws. As God alone is the lawgiver, the choice before men and nations is either to uphold or to break God’s universal laws.
So how did our Founding Fathers view the universal laws of God? Was our founding influenced and informed by submission to God’s higher law? Patrick Henry explained:
The eternal difference between right and wrong does not fluctuate. It is immutable. And if the moral order does not change, then it imposes on us obligations toward God and man. Duty, then, requires the willingness to accept responsibility and to sacrifice one's desires to a higher law.
According to John Adams:
You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.
Rufus King, a signer of the Constitution and framer of the Bill of Rights said:
The law established by the Creator, which has existed from the beginning, extends over the whole globe, is everywhere and at all times binding upon mankind...This is the law of God by which He makes His way known to man and is paramount to all human control.
William Blackstone was the English jurist who was the inspiration behind the Declaration of Independence’s statement, “the law of nature and nature’s God.” He stated:
Upon these two foundations, the law of nature (the eternal laws of good and evil) and the law of revelation (found only in the scriptures), depend all human laws. That is to say, no human laws should be allowed to contradict these.It was because our Founding Fathers understood the laws of God and humanity’s depraved condition, that we have our Constitutional Republic. Accordingly, in 1787 James Madison proposed a three-way division of American government, a separation of powers, at the Constitutional Convention. He desired to establish a proper check and balance to hold government accountable to their proper jurisdictions and curb their tendency towards tyranny. He came to this innovation through his biblical worldview. Madison knew the fallen nature of man, and he knew his Bible. He read Isaiah 33:22, “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.” As a result, our nation was afforded protections guaranteed not so much by our Bill of Rights, but by God himself. Apart from the law of God, there is no way man can establish a just, free, and orderly society that will obtain the blessings, wholeness, and soundness of God.
Read Timothy 1:9-11.
Compare the definitions for “law” and “lawless” in the online Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary. Record them below.
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Reason from the scriptures and your word study. Was God’s law given for the righteous or the lawless? Did the law of nature exist prior to positive precepts? From where does natural law derive its authority? Is the law of nature a rule of conduct for created beings?
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Relate these principles to your own life and the culture.
In conclusion, the New Testament reveals Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the rightful ruler of the universe. His decrees, commands, and statues proceed from his lawful authority. Every king, in their capacity as ruler, issues decrees for his domain. Typically, these commands are binding upon its citizens, unless of course, they are tyrannical in nature. All earthly kings, regardless of how large or small their domains, must reign in such a way that their governments fall within the parameters of God’s law.
Moses wrote that the law of God is our wisdom before the nations:
Behold I have taught you statues and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statues, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people (Deuteronomy 4:5-9).
These verses reveal that keeping the law of God will cause other nations to praise us. At one time, America was the envy of the world. This forces the question, how do nations view us today? As the great Bible commentator Matthew Henry wrote, “Those that magnify the law will be magnified by it.”
For a fuller treatise of the subject, read The Kingdom Leadership Institute Manual: Raising Up Leaders a Time Like This Demands.
Proceed to lesson 8
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