Sin and the Law God
The law is an expression of the character and will of the Lawgiver. The psalmist wrote, “ ‘I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart’ ” (Ps. 40:8, NIV). Here the will of God has been internalized and has become part of the character of the psalmist. In other words, the character of God is being appropriated through submission to the divine will expressed in the law.
How do these texts help us understand the link between God’s love and His law? Matt. 22:37–40; John 3:16; 14:15, 21; 1 John 5:3.
When John wrote, “The devil has been sinning from the beginning” (1 John 3:8, NIV), He was saying that Satan, in heaven, rebelled against the loving will of God.
In contrast to loving obedience, there is lawlessness (see 1 John 3:4). The word lawlessness (anomia) refers to a deep-seated attitude in the heart of rebellious human beings. It speaks of chaos and anarchy as the substitutes for the divine law and for what it stands for, the divine character. The cosmic conflict is against God and what He is in Himself. Paul describes the end-time eschatological antichrist as “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:3, NIV), and refers to the phenomenon of sin as the “mystery of anomia” (vs. 7).
Review God’s command to Adam and Satan’s words to Eve (Gen. 2:17; 3:4, 5). What was going on here?
Genesis 2:17 was a clear expression of God's love for Adam and Eve and His intense desire to enjoy their fellowship forever. He clearly did not want them to experience death; otherwise, why alert them to the possibility of it? Created as free beings, Adam and Eve had to demonstrate their willingness to enjoy eternity with the Creator. Their obedience to the divine command would show that they were freely choosing to enjoy eternal life with Him. It is that clearly expressed divine will that Satan attacks and opposes, offering instead total “independence” from God. This was his basic agenda in heaven: independence from the divine command, being his own law without accountability to anyone.
| In what subtle ways is Satan still trying to get us to declare our “independence” from God? How can we protect ourselves from this deadly deception? |
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