Renovation of the Heart
Transforming the Soul (4|4)
Pages 220-225
• “The Law of the Lord Is Perfect, Converting the Soul”
• “He Restoreth My Soul”
• Law Hate: Antinomian Christianity?
• Law and Grace Go Together
• Inner Affinity between Law and Soul
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
Hebrews 4:12-13 (NIV) For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Matthew 5:17-20 (NIV) “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
John 14:23-24 (NIV) “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
1 John 3:4-5 (NIV) Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin
Romans 8:1-3 (NIV) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
“The Law of the Lord Is Perfect, Converting the Soul”
“The law of the Lord gratefully received, studied, and internalized to the point of obedience is ‘perfect,’ as Psalm 19:7 (NIV) says: The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. There is nothing lacking in it for its intended purpose. It therefore converts or restores the soul of those who seek it and receive it. - There is nothing in all the glory of the law according to the Old Testament that suggests for a moment that what the law does in the human heart is a human accomplishment. Rather, all benefit is ascribed to the law itself and to its giver. - Viewed as something we can or must achieve by somehow using the law on our own, the benefit of the law would be, simply, a loss. For in attempting to use it, we would have thrown ourselves back into the position of self-idolatry, utilizing the written law as our tool for managing ourselves and God.”
What are some ways in which you can acknowledge your own soul? What does “For in attempting to use it, we would have thrown ourselves back into the position of self-idolatry, utilizing the written law as our tool for managing ourselves and God” mean?” What does that look like?
“He Restoreth My Soul”
“It is always true from the beginning to the end of the Bible, as well as of human history, that human deliverance comes from a personal relationship with God established in God’s gracious love and power. But the law is an essential part of that relationship. - God is the only restorer of souls. When those walking in personal relationship with him take his law into their hearts, that law, as a living principle, quickens and restores connection and order to the flagging soul. But that never happens in the absence of the personal presence and gracious action of God with the person involved.”
What does it look like to have an UN-restored soul? How is the law an essential part of the relationship with God? In what ways have you seen or experienced loving and following the law confused with legalism?
Law Hate: Antinomian Christianity?
“We in the Western world live today in an antinomian culture. This culture in part derives from our religious and secular history, but it in turn reinforces antinomianism among professing Christians. Antinomian means ‘against the law.’ It was coined by Martin Luther to designate some in his day who held that God’s law was not a factor in conversion to Christ. - Details vary from group to group down through history, but the essential point of antinomianism is that sinning or not sinning - obeying or not obeying the law - has nothing to do with being ‘saved’ or not. Some groups have advocated extreme license; others not. God’s law is irrelevant to one’s standing before God in either case.”
How does antinomianism affect one’s life and faith today - especially prospects for spiritual formation?
“Others have said ‘that good works hinder salvation, and that a child of God cannot sin; that the moral law is altogether abrogated (abolished) as a rule of life; that no Christian believeth any good, but that Christ only believeth and worketh [good]. - You have only to think for a moment to see what disaster this will be for spiritual formation and the development of character. It amounts to rejecting it entirely except insofar as it may be done to you by God, passively. And you have only to glance briefly at the behavior of professing Christians currently to realize the practical outcome of holding the law and obedience to the law to be irrelevant to the life of faith in Christ.”
What does this mean and what is your response?
Law and Grace Go Together
“The presence of the Spirit and of grace is not meant to set aside the law but to enable conformity to it from an inwardly transformed personality. We walk in the spirit of the law, and the letter naturally follows as appropriate. You cannot separate spirit from law, though you must separate spirit and law from legalism - righteousness in terms of actions.”
How is the law and obedience to the law an expression of grace?
Inner Affinity between Law and Soul
“There is an inner affinity between the law and the soul. That is why rebellion against the law makes the soul sick and distances it from God. That is why love of the law restores the soul. Law is good for the soul; it is an indispensable instrument and a standard of judgment of good and evil. Walking in the law with God restores the soul because the law expresses the order of God’s kingdom and God’s own character. That is why it converts and restores the soul. Grace is also essential, but not grace as formless spurts of permissiveness that thrust the law aside. - Transformation of our souls requires that we acknowledge its reality and importance, understand scriptural teachings about it, and take it into the yoke of Jesus, learning from his humility and the abandonment of ‘outcomes’ to God. This brings rest to the soul. Then our souls are re-empowered in goodness by receiving the law and the Word into them as the structure of our covenant fellowship with God in grace. The law is the structure of a life of grace in the kingdom of God.”
Does the idea of ‘an inner affinity between the law and the soul make sense to you?
EXTRA READING:
“Too often the price exacted by society for security and respectability is that the Christian movement in its formal expression must be on the side of the strong against the weak. This is a matter of tremendous significance, for it reveals to what extent a religion that was born of a people acquainted with persecution and suffering has become the cornerstone of civilization and of nations whose very position in modern life too often has become secured by a ruthless use of power to defenseless people.”
- Howard Thurman (1899 - 1981)