The Purpose of The Perfect Law of Liberty

What is the purpose of the law?

I posed this question the other night in Bible class wondering what most would say. Some said the purpose of the law is for order or to prevent chaos. Some said the purpose of the law is to demonstrate the authority of God. Some said the purpose of the law is to condemn sinners. Ultimately though I am persuaded that the purpose of the law is so that we can see just how much we need Jesus.

The law is called the "law of liberty". Liberty is freedom. What are we then free from? and further how can a law bring us freedom? What about rules or regulations allows someone to be free? Doesn't the very essence of rules bind instead of free? The law brings freedom from the vary things it condemns. The law is meant to point out the areas of our life where we fall short. To be sort of a magnifying glass to see each crack and each flaw.

To see each flaw is not to bring about guilt and depression but rather to see that no matter how many flaws each of us have that Jesus can fill in the cracks and smooth out the flaws. The purpose of the law then is two-fold. To expose but also to fill in. As we see just how broken we are we can also see just how much we need Jesus to put us back together. The reason then that we need to law is to open our eyes to what sin is and how that sin separates us from God. To see that we are lost without Him and how terrible that would be.

We sometimes like to use that magnifying glass to expose others faults so that we can stand to condemn them. The same way when you focus intently the magnifying glass through the sun it burns and devours rather than magnifies. When we are trying to help others see the faults we need not burn them up. It is not our place to condemn but rather to use the law to help rehabilitate. It's easy to show someone their sins and show them the wages of sin is death-Rom 6:23 but it's harder to show them the second half of Rom 6:23- "the free gift of God is eternal life" The things in life that appear to be free never really are. By the free gift of God we mean that if you can leave everything else behind and allow God to change you to be truly converted you can have eternal life.

I say all that I have said above to say this- We need to be more about rehabilitation than condemnation. You can condemn from afar but to rehabilitate you need to get up close and personal. You need to care and to love and to worry the way Paul did as he wrote letters to those brethren he helped convert that were still struggling. Condemning is easy and can be done without getting involved but people don't need condemned they need to be saved.
MPE