Burdensome Rules or Relational Blessings

SYNOPSIS: You don’t huff and roll your eyes whenever you see a traffic sign that reminds you, “Danger Ahead: Reduce Speed.” No, you subconsciously say, “It’s there for safety—mine and others.” So why get bent out of shape when God’s law is preached and you are warned of wrong behavior and called to right living? God’s law is God’s covenant of love, and there are blessings for obeying it and consequences for not. The Bible is not a burdensome rulebook, it is an amazing relational covenant that will lead a life of abundance with God and with others. When you read the Old Testament, learn to think of God’s law as God’s love.

The Journey // Focus: Deuteronomy 27:1,8,10

Then Moses and the leaders of Israel gave this charge to the people: “Obey all these commands that I am giving you today…. You must clearly write all these instructions on the stones coated with plaster…. So you must obey the Lord your God by keeping all these commands and decrees that I am giving you today.

Deuteronomy is the Greek word for second law. Actually, it was the first law given a second time. As Moses nears the end of his administration over Israel and the people of Israel now stand at the edge of the Promised Land, ready to go in and take possession of it, one final time their leader reminds them of the covenantal relationship God has called them into. What might appear to us as yet another endless lists of rules to obey is actually a powerful reminder to them of the blessings and curses associated with this covenant.

In our world, we tend to associate law with legalism, and we don’t like it. We don’t want to be reminded of the rules. We would much prefer to talk about grace, which in reality, is often code for don’t hold me accountable for my attitudes and actions; I want the freedom to be my own master. We can insist on that until we are blue in the face, but God is not swayed. He is still a covenantal God. And he still expects us to abide by the rules of the covenant.

Now of course, keeping rules does not save us. Let’s be clear about that one more time. We are saved by grace through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is not by works of law keeping, period. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us, and that is what saves our bacon. Yet our salvation evidences itself in how we behave. We may not have to keep the rules, but we honor the rules because we are saved—rules that demonstrate our love for God and our love for one another.

Let me offer an earthy illustration. I entered into a human covenant with my wife the day we spoke our wedding vows to one another. It was an act dominated by love, not rule-keeping. Yet we both promised to each other to keep certain rules: faithfulness to one another exclusively, cherishing each other unconditionally, loving and respecting the other through thick and thin, ‘til death do us part. We joyfully embraced those rules, not as burdensome, but as continual reminders of our covenantal love. After years of marriage, we do not verbally repeat the rulebook to each other, but we do live the rules out in our attitudes, words and actions. And if ever we sense dissonance in our covenantal commitment, you bet we talk specifics. It is what love does. No, our marriage vows are not burdensome rules. They are a cherished and necessary part of our relational covenant.

It is in the context of relationships that God called Israel into covenant. It is a covenant that spells out how God will treat them and how they will treat God and how they will treat each other—not as separate subsections of the contract, but as a seamless way of living. The covenant makes it plain that commitment will be lovingly demonstrated by specific obedience. The covenant is likewise quite clear as to the blessings of obedience and curses of disobedience. Now once again, this only makes sense in the context of love—God’s love for his people, their love for God, and God’s love through them for each another. The rules are simply a reminder of that love.

All that to say, rules are not burdensome; they are reminders of a very powerful relational covenant. Now we don’t woodenly apply many of those Mosaic rules today—our situation is different. We don’t have a Levitical priesthood that needs to pronounce us ceremonially clean from mold in our home; we don’t need to sprinkle ashes from a red heifer to relieve our contamination from touching a corpse; we don’t sacrifice animals to purify us from sin. Most of those Old Testament laws were subsumed in the sacrifice of Jesus. But that doesn’t mean we throw the baby out with the bath water. We still follow the rule of loving God and loving each other; of not lying, or lusting or stealing—hopefully. So we have to be mature enough as it relates to Mosaic Law to know what is still literally to be obeyed and what is only spiritually to be observed. This spiritual maturity recognizes that the rules remind us of love, and love is demonstrated in obedience to covenant.

So give the law a break! Don’t roll your eyes or huff when the Old Testament is preached or you are called to adjust your behavior or a sobering reminder of the covenant is given. You don’t huff and eye-roll whenever you see a traffic sign that reminds you, “Danger Ahead: Reduce Speed.” No, you subconsciously say, “that is there for safety—mine and others.” And you know there are blessings for obeying it and consequences for not.

God’s law is God’s love. Look at it through the lens of covenantal love and you will never read the Old Testament again as a burdensome set of rules to keep. No, you will gratefully think of it as an amazing relational covenant—one that became even more amazing as it was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.