Love Fulfills the Law, Part 1
Selected Scriptures
Let's open our Bibles to Romans chapter 13 again tonight, as we come back to the Word of God. Wonderful, wonderful section... One that I'm sure if you're any student of Scripture, you've read many times and meditated on and perhaps taught, shared with others. Great truth. Romans chapter 13 verses 8 through 10. Let me read these verses so that you'll have a...a setting for the lesson that God has brought to us tonight. Beginning in verse 8, "Owe no man anything, but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery,' 'Thou shalt not kill,' 'Thou shalt not steal,' 'Thou shalt not covet,' and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely: 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' Love worketh no ill to its neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."
Michael Griffith, who has written some very insightful books, once quipped that, "Enthusiasm is much easier than obedience." He was right. And I think the Apostle Paul would have gaven...would have given an amen to that. Look with me for a moment at the 7th chapter of Romans...and verse 14. He says, "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am fleshy, sold under sin. For that which I do, I understand not. For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I...verse 19...For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do." Paul would've agreed with Michael Griffith that enthusiasm is easier than obedience...We understand that. No matter how much we want to obey, we sometimes find it difficult to do that. No matter how eager we are to do what we know to be the will of God, we find ourselves bound by our humanness and unable to fulfill all of the good that we, in our hearts, desire to do.
But may I suggest to you that, in spite of this difficulty in the...in the matter of obedience, obedience is still essential for the believer. If I could boil the Christian life down to one word, I would say it is the word obedience. Following the truth of God. Following the Spirit of God. Obeying the Word of God. Obedience, power, blessing, and joy are all four legs to the same chair. They're all essential elements of the Christian life. And obedience is certainly at the very heart of that. For without obedience, there's no power, no blessing, no joy...
We need to understand that. There are some people who would tell us that the Christian life is a matter of just sort of letting go of everything and let God...letting God do something. And there is a sense in which we have to allow the spirit and power of God to work through us. But there's a tremendous amount of effort on our part in the Spirit to obey. Admittedly, the word obedience is not a popular word...To a child, obedience is a very threatening word. Obedience is an invasion of their world of independence. Obedience to a child can be a very ominous word, a very frustrating word. A word that forces them away from the thing they most wanna do to the thing they least wanna do.
And some of that childhood aversion to obedience maintains itself through adulthood, doesn't it? And particularly with an unregenerate person, that is a person who doesn't know God, there is no desire to obey God. There is no desire to obey the Word of God. That has no binding claim on the life of an unbeliever from his viewpoint. He does exactly what he wants to do...
But, contrary to how a child feels about obedience, and contrary to how an unbeliever feels about obedience, a Christian, as illustrated by Romans chapter 7, has a great desire to obey. And if I were to give one key distinction between a true Christian and a false, professing Christian, I would say it is a heartfelt desire to obey. That's the truest indicator of Paul's genuine conversion in Romans chapter 7 is that heart of obedience. That desire to obey. For a Christian, obedience is a sweet word. It is a hopeful word. It is an encouraging word. It is a welcome expression of the deepest desire of the heart of a Christian.
The supreme illustration of that that I find in Scripture, and you might wanna look with me for a moment, is in Psalm 119. Without question, this is the greatest statement or series of statements ever made by any child of God relative to the desire for obedience...In Psalm 119 and verse 10, the Psalmist says, "With my whole heart have I sought Thee; O let me not wander from Thy commandments!" In verse 16, "I will delight myself in Thy statutes; I will not forget Thy word." In verse 20, "My soul breaks for the longing that it has unto Thine ordinances at all times." Verse 24, "Thy testimonies are my delight." Verse 33, "Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end." Verse 34, "Give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart." Verse 35, "Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments, for therein do I delight." Verse 40, "Behold, I have longed after Thy precepts; give me life in Thy righteousness." Verse 44, "So shall I keep Thy law continually, for ever and ever." Verse 45, "I will walk at liberty, for I seek Thy precepts."
The only freedom the Psalmist wanted was the freedom of obedience in verse 45. Verse 47, "I will delight myself in Thy commandments which I have loved." Verse 48, "My hands also will I lift up unto Thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in Thy statutes." In verse 54, "Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage." Verse 70, "Their heart is as fat grease, but I delight in Thy law." Verse 72, "The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver." Verse 77, "Let Thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live; for Thy law is my delight." Verse 92, "Unless Thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in mine affliction." Verse 97 sums it up, "O how love I Thy law! It is my meditation all the day." Verse 98, "Thou, through Thy commandments, hast made me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me." Verse 99, "I have more understanding than all me teachers, for Thy testimonies are my meditation." Verse 103, "How sweet are Thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Verse 111, "Thy testimonies have a I taken as an heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart." Verse 112, "I have inclined my heart to perform Thy statutes always, even unto the end." Verse 113, "I hate vain thoughts, but Thy law do I love." Verse 15, "Depart from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God."
And then down in verse 127, "Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold." Verse 128, "Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way." Verse 129, "Thy testimonies are wonderful; therefore doth my soul keep them." Verse 131, "I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for Thy commandments." An indication of real desperation.
And verse 140, "Thy word is very pure; therefore Thy servant loveth it." Verse 143, "Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me, yet Thy commandments are my delight." Verse 159, "Consider how I love Thy precepts; revive me, O Lord, according to Thy loving kindness."...Verse 163, "I hate and abhor lying, but Thy law do I love." Verse 164, "Seven times a day I...do I praise Thee, because of Thy righteous ordinances." Verse 165, "Great peace have they who love Thy law. Nothing shall offend them." Verse 167, "My soul hath kept Thy testimonies, and I love them exceedingly." Finally, verse 174, "I have longed for Thy salvation, O Lord, and Thy law is my delight."
It's remarkable, isn't it? There is the hunger of a redeemed heart. And we know enough about David, being the one who is the Psalmist, to know that he didn't always do what he said he wanted to do in the Psalm, right? I mean any cursory study of the life of David will reveal the fact that David couldn't live up to his own love, in a sense. But it is the mark of genuine salvation to have a great and consuming passion for obedience, to love the law of God to the point of desiring to obey it...This is essential. This marks the attitude of the true child of God. The spirit of a heart that is willing to obey, longing to obey, not out of fear, but out of love...
In the New Testament, we find in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2, that Peter addresses the sojourners. Calls them in verse 2, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the father through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience." The sanctifying work of the Spirit of God is a work unto obedience. It produces an obedient heart. It produces what Paul in Philippians 2:12 was talking about when he said, "Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You, who are believers, as you've always obeyed, keep your obedience so that you work on the outside to salvation that is in the inside."
In the last chapter of Romans verse 19 of chapter 16, Paul says, "Your obedience has come abroad unto all men." In other words, the mark of your Christianity is a life of obedience, a testimony of obedience...It is then the pattern of obedience that is the mark of the Christian. Like Romans 7:22, Paul says, "I delight in the law of God in my inner man."
Now, what does obedience involve? If a true Christian has the heart that longs to obey, what does it involve? Simply, as we've seen in Psalm 119, it means to keep God's Word. And in Psalm 119, David uses a whole series of words to refer to Scripture. Commandments, ordinances, precepts, statutes, Thy Word. All of those terms basically refer to the revelation of God. And the heart of obedience says that the consuming passion of my life is to obey God's Word. Somebody comes along and says, "Well, now, wait a minute. If we're saved by grace, and saved into grace, and stand in grace, as Romans 5 says, "This grace in which we stand," and are no longer under the law, as Romans 6 indicates it, then is it not so that we no longer are bound to the law?
That is true...in one sense, not true in another. We are not bound to the law as to its power. In other words, the law, after we're converted, has no power to condemn us. We are not bound to the law as to its penalty. It has no power to kill us, to execute us. But we are bound to the law as to its precepts. For God has not changed His morality. God has not abandoned His standard of truth. And so it says in Romans 8 that even though in verse 1, "There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." That is the law has no power over us. The law cannot execute a penalty over us. Still..."We have been made...verse 2 says...free from the law of sin and death." That is from the law's ability to cause us to be guilty of sin unto death. "For what the law couldn't do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh."
In other words, because of the sacrifice of Christ, the law can no longer kill us. He died in our place. But when we were redeemed, and though we are no longer under the law's power and penalty, the purpose of redemption is in verse 4. "That the righteousness of the law might be...eliminated? Is that what it says? No, what?...fulfilled in us who now walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." In other words, walking in the Spirit we now have the capacity and ability to fulfill the law. See, we are...we are free from the law only in the sense of its power to dominate us and condemn us, its penalty to sentence us to eternal death. We are not free from the law as to its precepts. We are still commanded and called to a life of obedience to the revealed Word of God...
Now, obviously, the question comes: How are we gonna keep the law? How can we keep it? If we are called to obedience and if, by nature, we long for obedience, how are going to keep that law when we find ourselves restrained? Yes, we have the...the power of the Spirit in us, the law of the Spirit of life in us, as we read in Romans 8. That law that enables us to do the will of God. But we also have in Romans 7, don't we, the flesh. And therein is the battle.
In the inner man, we delight in the law of God, but we have another law warring in our members, and that's the principle of sin in our humanness. And so we have the sin principle in our humanness warring against...the heart of obedience. And every Christian fights that battle. Every Christian.
Couple of Wednesday nights ago, we had our family meeting. A lady stood up, and it was really a beautiful testimony. She'd been a Christian about a week or so, and she asked the question very simply. She may be here tonight. She asked the question, she said, "You know, ever since I received Christ in...into my life, I...I...I'm just in constant war. When will this end?"...And I said, "When you die or go to heaven." She said, "Oh, no." It was absolute instant distress. But I said, "The single greatest evidence that I can see right here in what you say that you're a redeemed individual is that you've got a war, because unredeemed people don't have a war. But you do. And it is your humanness, residual, warring against the new creation that delights in the law of God."
The hopeful part of it is that the longer you fight the battle, the more victorious you're gonna be, and you'll learn to gain the victory, even before the Lord comes to deliver you from the constraints and restraints of your humanness. So all of us then are faced with a heart of obedience if we're true Christian. I really believe that the heart of a Christian is a heart of obedience. A longing to do what is right. That's Romans 7. And it is sometimes restrained by our flesh.
Now, how then do we overcome that? I mean what is the key to obedience? How do we get to that? How can we simplify that? I want us to see if we can't discover that in Romans chapter 13 tonight.
Now, as we know, from this section of Romans, beginning in chapter 12, this is the practical part of the epistle. And he's talking about all the ramifications of being a justified soul. Everything that's gonna result from our salvation. Right relationship to God is discussed, isn't it, in verse 1. Right relationship to the world is in verse 2 of Romans 12. Right relationship to the church is in verses 3 through 8. Right relationship to everybody comes in verses 9 to 21. Right relationship to the government we've been looking at, haven't we, in chapter 13:1 to 7.
And now we have right relationship to society in general in verses 8 to 10. This is just another dimension of life that is impacted by salvation. It effects everything. How we're related to God, to the world around us, to the church, to everybody in general, to the government, and to society. He's gonna get into it in chapter 14, how we're related to the weaker brother, isn't he? In terms of not causing him to stumble or be offended. This whole section is an outflowing of right relationships that come from a redeemed soul.
Now he says in verses 8 to 10 that the key thing in your relationships within society is the word "love." And I wanna try to just show you very simply in this passage tonight that love is the key to obedience. We've tried to say already that obedience is what's in our heart to do, and we're trying to get a handle on how to do it. And the key to understanding that is to understand love, because love, he says twice in the passage, is the fulfilling of the whole law, you see. So, in a way, he reduces all of obedience to one thing, and that is love...
I remember hearing a man one time when I was young saying, "The Christian life can be lived like this: love everyone perfectly and do whatever you want." I thought that sounded pretty good. I just didn't think it made much sense. Love perfectly and do whatever you want? But I understand it, and I think you will, too, after you've looked at this passage a little more closely.
So Paul says, in reference to your relationship to the people around you, love is the key. And then he expands that and says, in effect, that love is...is the whole thing in the Christian life. The key to everything in terms of relationships, all relationships. And he gives us three looks here that we can kind of track our way through on. One is the debt of love; two, the discharge of love; and, three, the design of love.
First of all, notice the debt of love in verse 8. He starts out "Owe no man anything, but to love one another." "Owe no man anything, but to love one another." Now what does he mean by "Owe no man anything." He's just been writing about paying your taxes, hasn't he, in verses 6 and 7. And this is a bridge from the prior text. He's been talking about the essentiality of paying your taxes. It is a...a natural transition then to come into this idea of paying all your debts, all of them, whatever they are. He goes from the debts that we owe to the government to the debts that we owe to anybody in general. Just our...our relationships to people around us.
And the imperative here applies to every single relationship. No believer is to have unpaid debts. Very pragmatic stuff. Pay your debts. Don't owe anybody anything. Now people have immediately asked upon reading this verse, "Does that mean that we are not to be allowed credit? Does that mean that we are not to borrow, that we are not to take money on interest, that we are to have no financial obligation at all? That if we can't plunk down cash, we can't buy it? Is that what it means? There's no basis for borrowing anything, anytime, for any reason?
Let's find out. Go back in your Bible to the 22nd chapter of Exodus...Exodus chapter 22...In verse 25, and here in Exodus, God is laying down some societal laws and rules and principles. And in Exodus 22:25, it says, "If you lend money...I'll read that again...If you lend money to any of My people who is poor among you...someone obviously needs the money...you shall not be to him as a usurer, neither shall you lay upon him usury." Now, usury is an old English word that basically means exorbitant interest. Gouging someone. Like when you can't pay any of your debts, and you're so deep in debt that you go to the place where they say they'll consolidate all your debts...and you pay interest that will choke you. When you find someone, and you lend them money, and they're poor, that is, they're in a position where they need the money, it is not discretionary. They need it. You lend it to them, but do not charge them exorbitant interest. Usury does not mean any interest. It's not just an indicator of interest at all. It means interest that is unfair.
Now, the assumption of verse 25 is that it's perfectly all right to...to lend money. The other assumption is that if it's perfectly all right to lend it, it must be perfectly all right to what? To borrow it. On the basis of the fact that you're dealing with need. This is a person who has to have it. And the...the warning is not to charge high interest because you've got a desperate person on your hands who has really little other choice.
In Deuteronomy chapter 15, we find a further teaching in the Old Testament that helps us get a handle on this. Deuteronomy 15:7, "If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of the gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother; but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he lacks. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, 'The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,' and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother." In other words, you know what happened in the seventh year, don't you? All debts were cancelled, and land...and land was not used, and somebody might say, "I'm not about to loan that guy the money. Next year is the year of release. Next year is the...the Sabbath year, and all this thing will be cancelled. I'm not loaning him my money. He won't have a chance to pay it back." He says, "Don't do that. If he has a need, you lend it to him."
Verse 10, "You'll give it to him, and your heart will not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto; for the poor shall never cease out of the land. Therefore, I command you, saying: 'Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor...to...to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land.'" In other words, lending was a very important thing. And the poor people, for example, the farmer whose crop didn't turn out right or made an unwise investment or who was robbed or whatever it might have been to cause his poverty, we are to lend to those people. Therefore, we make no assumption that lending and borrowing is wrong. In the case of need, in the Bible, it is right. It is advocated, as long it...as it is not an exorbitant interest. And here we find it should be done with a willing heart...with a willing heart.
Look to Psalm 37 for a moment in verse 26. And here, just a commendation of a righteous man, of a blessed man, of a good man. It says, "He is ever merciful...and here is the characterization...and lendeth; and his seed is blessed."...The righteous are not only not forsaken, but they are gracious and merciful, and they lend, and they are blessed. So it is a blessed thing to lend to someone who has need for what you have in surplus.
In Proverbs 19:7, "All the brethren of the poor do hate him - how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursueth them with words, yet they are lacking to him." In other words, poor people sometimes can't get what they need from the people who say they're their friends. But down in verse 17, "He that has pity on the poor lendeth...I love this...unto...whom?...the Lord, and that which he hath given, will He pay him again." When you lend money to someone who is in need, you are lending to the Lord, and the issue is not whether he pays you back, that is the person to whom you lent it. The issue is that the Lord promises that He will pay you back. That He will pay you back.
I can give testimony to that in my own life. There have been times when we have been asked to lend amount of money to someone who was in a state of...of great need. And we did so in good faith and with joyful and eager hearts, and I can promise you that never have we done that without experiencing the super-abundant blessing of God. That is the testimony of the text, as well.
In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 42, coming over to the very familiar Sermon on the Mount, it says...and here is one of the principles our Lord wanted to see put into practice, Matthew 5:42. "Give to him that asks you; and from him that would borrow of you, turn not thou away." When someone comes with need, you should respond in eagerness to meet that need.
In Luke 6:35, it's the same thing. "Love you your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great." So all of that to say this. The text of Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament, always indicates that the one who lends is generous, that it should be done toward those who are in need. It should be done without a high rate of interest. It should be done with a willing heart. It should be done with a spirit that says, "I am lending to the Lord." It should be done with the hope of eternal reward, spiritual reward, even more so than being paid back...
But may I add as a footnote, the Scripture really knows nothing about lending and borrowing for things that are not related to need. It really says very little about that. It does not advocate that we get into debt for luxury. As someone said, "Today, people buy things they don't need with money they don't have from people they don't even like."...
In Matthew 25:27, the Lord's giving a parable there, and He talks about the fact that one of the servants who was given a talent, verse 27, "Should have put the money to the exchangers, and then at my coming, I should have received mine own with interest." Now, there is an indication, and it's the only one really in the New Testament,