For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 1 John 5:3.

How beautiful is the law of God to the Christian. Every commandment is a revelation of the character of God, a light shining in a dark place to guide our lives. "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good" (Rom. 7:12).

But there is another side to the story. Ours is a pagan civilization marked by the prevalence of sin and indifference to sin. Multitudes have drifted into a neutral attitude in the breaking of God's commandments. For many, sin and transgression are fossil words. they are regarded either as not too important or as curable by the methods of human therapy.

The Bible affirms human depravity in the most strenuous terms. Redemption in Christ is based upon the fact of man's sinful lost state. Therefore our spiritual understanding of sin and law is of first consequence. The law is like a torch carried into the dark corners of human nature to reveal the sin that lurks there. "I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet" (verse 7).

The law was never intended to propel us to righteousness. The law convicts of sin. This was intended to prepare us for a righteousness from heaven, a gift from Jesus Christ. The man who has passed from under the condemnation of the law to under Christ and His righteousness does not wish to lie or steal.

The reason now for obeying the law of God is that these moral principles are part of our lives. The question of obedience has been decided on higher grounds. We are constrained by love for Christ. The Christian life is just the opposite of moral anarchy and disobedience.

We no longer want our own way. We want God's way. Mere external conformity to rules is insufficient. United with Christ, we share in His life and His righteousness. Before God we are accepted as righteous, not through our own merits, but through Christ's.