To love law—this seems unbelievable! The law lifts up the standards for human conduct, higher standards than many people are interested in.
To love law—this seems impossible! The law threatens punishments and exacts penalties. How can I love that which condemns me?
First, the law I love is God’s law. That law reflects the unity, the orderliness, the holy love of His own nature. God’s law outlines the external measurements of His holiness and justice. If I love divine holiness, then I love God’s law.
Second, I realize that God’s law must be loved before it can be obeyed. Romans 7 is the classic statement of a man’s struggles after holiness apart from supreme love for God. But God’s law can be obeyed when it is loved, for “love is the fulfilling of the law.” If a man keeps the first commandment—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart”—he can keep the rest. Love is no substitute for obedience, but only by love can the law be obeyed.
Of course, some object that God’s law cannot be obeyed. If one takes only a technical or mathematical view of the law, then it is impossible for us in human frailty to keep it. But love can be a fully opened blossom while the plant of conduct is only partly grown.
Third, love wants to know what the law says, because love wishes to respect and please another. So, the one who loves another does “keep the commandments,” that is, observes the desires of the one loved. Love is the spirit of law keeping, just as sin is the spirit of law breaking.
He only truly loves God’s law who hates and crucifies the carnal mind within, stilling the inward resentments to God’s will.
He who loves God does not dread God’s law or its penalties. As God’s child he lives subject to divine chastening but not to divine wrath. The Christian stands in freedom from the technicalities and terrors of legalism. This is that perfect love that casteth out fear.
God’s commandments are not grievous to those who love Him. And, living God’s law, we will rejoice with the Psalmist, “Thy statutes have been my song in the house of my pilgrimage.” (Ps. 119:54)
--George E. Failing
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