Why is it important to keep the law when the Bible tells us that we will be justified by faith?
The apostle Paul asks the same question in this way, “So since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does this mean we can go on sinning?” He answers his own question by saying, “Of course not!” (Romans 6:15, NLT). He argues that whatever we choose to obey becomes the master of our lives. You can choose sin, he suggests, but that leads to death.
He tells the Romans (and us) that they were once slaves to sin, but now, through God’s grace, “you are free from sin, your old master, and you have become slaves to your new master, righteousness.” By choosing to be slaves of righteousness, Paul says we become holy (Romans 6:18-20, NLT). In other words, how you act demonstrates who is master in your life.
We who are justified by faith, through accepting Jesus as our Savior, have to decide how we will live. Once we were “full of darkness,” but we are now “full of light from the Lord, and [our] behavior should show it” (Ephesians 5:8, NLT).
In Jesus’ time many of the religious leaders had made following God’s law a burden. Being freed by God’s grace means we can now “really serve God, not in the old way by obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way, by the Spirit” (Romans 7:6, NLT). In this way the law becomes a guide for Christian living; our gratitude and love for our Savior makes us want to do all we can to live by the principles He has provided for us in His word.
The law teaches us how to respond to grace. In the next verse (Romans 6:15), Paul asks the question, “So since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does this mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!” (NLT). In the next chapter, just in case his readers misunderstand him, he asks, “Am I suggesting that the law of God is evil? Of course not! The law is not sinful, but it was the law that showed me my sin.” Then he uses an example: “I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet’” (Romans 7:7, NLT).
Jesus said He did not come to abolish the law (Matthew 5:17), but He was battling against religious leaders who saw the law as the way to truth and life and to God. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, NLT). In other words, salvation is not through the law, but through Jesus--God’s grace in action. It’s also worth remembering that He said that those who love Him will and do keep his commandments (John 14:20).
This is found in the midst of laws to help govern the newly formed nation of Israel. In the previous chapter you find that God gave the moral law (the Ten Commandments) that have universal application for all time. Then, in chapter 21, He gave laws for Israel, and many of them reflected the social customs of the day. (For those of you who have access to the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, there is a lengthy discussion of this in the part that looks at Exodus chapter 21.) It may be that God used what was generally known and understood to help bring order and some sense of fair judgment--in this case in areas of personal injury.
We Christians must remember that this rule was specific to the nation of Israel--it is not a universal law. We live under our own national laws, which we should respect (Romans 13:1-7). Our actions and motivations, as Christians, should be directed by higher principles than payback or revenge. Forgiveness and love are to be our trademark.