Why should we New Testament Christians bother to read and study God’s Old Testament law? And, if we don’t have to obey it in order to be saved, why should we try to put its principles into practice in our lives? Today’s passage gives us a couple of good reasons.
First, although we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, apart from works of the Law (Romans 3:28), putting the principles of the Law into practice is still a good way to live a long and prosperous life (Deuteronomy 4:1). After all, loving and serving God keeps us from all the selfishness and perversion that is involved with so much idolatry. Moreover, loving and serving others is the best way to build trust among people, and such trust is one of the most important components of any successful society.
Yes, any honest student of history will recognize that cultures that are transformed by the gospel tend to be more successful by any objective measure – there’s a reason that Christian Europe in general and the Reformed, Protestant part of Europe in particular was so successful in spreading its ideas about science and government all over the globe. In fact, Moses points out in Deuteronomy 4:6 that even the unbelieving nations all around God’s people would be able to see the wisdom in living according to God’s Law.
But the most important reason to study and apply the principles of God’s law to our modern life is because it reveals God’s perspectives, God’s preferences, God’s values to us. As Deuteronomy 4:7 points out, it was because God agreed to live among His people that He gave His law to them. Just so, the best way we can demonstrate our close relationship with God is to live the way He would have us to live – loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Deuteronomy 4:1-8 (ESV)
“And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor, for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. 4 But you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive today. 5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
