MORE THOUGHTS RELATING TO THE LAW
Matthew 5:17-19

In our previous study, we observed that, by the time of Jesus, the religious leaders of the day had taken the broad principles of the law which had been prescribed in the written Word of God, or the Torah as they called it, and had begun to write thousands of rules and regulations which effectively enslaved the people.

In essence, the Jews practiced a type of relativism.  They had abandoned the absolutes of truth.  And, friends, rules without absolutes behind them become rules without authority.  If there is no religious absolute, then there is no basis for real law.  Dr. Harold Berman, professor of law at Harvard University, in his book titled The Interaction of Law and Religion, wrote some powerful words.  Listen to them carefully.  Law in contrast to religion has become undisguisedly a pragmatic process.  It is made by men and it lays no claim to divine origin or eternal validity.  Thus a judge, in reaching a decision, is not propounding a truth but is rather experimenting in the solution of a problem, and if his decision is reversed by a higher court or if it is subsequently overruled, that does not mean it was wrong but only that it was, or became in the course of time, unsatisfactory.  Having broken away from religion, law is now characterized by existential relativism.  Indeed, it is now generally recognized that no judicial decision is ever final, that the law both follows the event (that is, it is not eternal or certain) and the law is made by man (that is, it is not divine or true).

Friends, do you hear what Dr. Berman is saying?  Our laws today, much like those of Jesus’ day, do not reflect an eternal verifiable truth, but merely reflect what is most convenient for man’s immediate needs.  We have just celebrated our nation’s 224th birthday.  We have recalled that our forefathers did not found this nation upon a handful of regulations which met their needs of the moment, but rather, based their decisions for seeking independence from Great Britain upon the eternal truths from the Word of God.  Their belief was that law was eternal because it was of God.  How far have we gotten from that thought today.  We have exchanged truth for convenience.  We have exchanged the eternal for the contemporary.  And, in so doing, we have become the great losers.

Well, what does Jesus have to say about this law business?  That will be our focus in our next study.

Father, Our hearts have become heavy with some of the recent decisions which our Supreme Court has made, especially with regard to the killing of the unborn children of our nation.  It must grieve Your heart very much as well.  Please forgive us for our misuse of the law.  Forgive us for wandering away from the eternal truths upon which those first laws of our nation were enacted.  Help us to seek to return to You and to be restored to Your favor.  We pray this in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

 

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