15 March 2015 - letter go

15 March 2015 - letter go


Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

Following the law of the Lord promises much greater benefits than any other law can promise.  Other laws can promise, perhaps, that if people follow them then society will be well ordered and at peace.  It is entirely possible, likely, and in fact what we see in real life that such societies are still afflicted with depression, with emptiness, with hopelessness and a lack of meaning.

The laws of the state tell us how to be civil.  But they can tell us nothing about why we ought to be.  The goal remains elusive.  Yet God seldom mentions his law without mentioning its goal.

you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you;

He is not making us a people of isolated, miserable, law-abiding citizens.  He is making us his people.  He is making us a people filled with the true happiness, the blessedness, which only he can give.  This is what raises us "high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made".

Jesus tells us that he wants us to be children our heavenly Father.  And of course no civil law would dare call us to the standard of our Father's kingdom.  But civil law can only command people to that of which they are capable.  God can command us to "be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" and at the same time make it possible.  This is true because although "with man this is impossible; but with God all things are possible" (cf. Mat. 19:26). 

He empowers us to love our enemies.  This is paradoxical.  It is seemingly impossible by definition.  Without the example of the Father who "makes his sun rise on the bad and the good", without the example of Jesus who reconciled us to God "while we were enemies" (cf. Rom. 5:10), we would not only believe this to be impossible but scarcely understand what is meant by it.

Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.

His law is infinitely personal.  Seeking it must be seeking him.  Observing "his statutes, commandments and decrees" must mean "to hearken to his voice."  Abstract rules have no power to save.  The letter of the law kills (cf. 2 Cor. 3:6).  Yet Jesus does not come to abolish the law (cf. Mat. 5:17).  He comes to bring us the power of the Holy Spirit which, through the law, gives us life and blessedness.