Statutes, Judgments, and Decrees

Federal Court Reports, Author Raysonho (CC0 1.0 Universal PD Dedication)

Attorneys are regularly called upon to elicit testimony; draft stipulations; and defend (or dispute) statutes, judgments, and decrees. At times, these tasks can become routine. Politics can make us equally jaded.

Walk through the student union at any university, by contrast. You will find young people on every side engaged in impassioned discussions about law and politics, philosophy and theology. Why does the world operate as it does? Can one person possibly make a difference? What is the point of it all?

The Bible – which which offers answers to these questions – urges us to consider God’s law with the same degree of fervor. We are instructed:

“ ‘And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up…When your son asks you…saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand…’ ” (Deut. 6: 6-7, 20-21).

This is not an argument in favor of legalism. Rather, it is an invitation to know God better, that we may obey Him out of love, with a willing heart.

The apparent discrepancy is explained this way:

“So the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3: 24).

We were in bondage to sin, condemned by the law, but set free by Jesus Christ. That should be grounds enough for excitement.  May it be our byword for the New Year.

READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse  https://avoicereclaimed.com