There Is Only One Law Giver

A study of man's law has made me grateful for God's law.

I started studying law this year, and on many occasions, I have felt like one walking through a familiar wood.

We learnt about horizontal legal relationships between person and person, and vertical relationships between person and state. But we have always known about loving our neighbour and looking up to God.

We learnt about the separation of powers between the executive, legislature, and judiciary which together make a government, but we have always been perplexed by the separate yet one Holy Triune.

We learnt about the Rule of Law and the accountability between the president and parliament. But the Apostle Paul once said, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”¹

We learnt about Constitutional supremacy which places the Constitution as the first and last law in the land, but we have always known about God’s supreme word given to us in the Bible. And it is at this exact place, just where man’s law and God’s law seem so similar, that they could not be more different.

As a loyal legal student, I would be slow to diminish the force for good that the courts are. Yet it is starkly clear to any reasonable person that our law is not perfect. After thousands of years of developing, our law is incomplete, biased, and unjust. It is labyrinthine, expansive, and ever-changing.

How easy would it be for me to now proclaim the perfection of God’s law. Indeed, it would be easy. But easy claims must be made when they are true. And how true is it to say that when we read of Christ in the Bible, we are reading of perfection.

Let us rejoice that we don’t have to agonize over what is just and true because God has already shown us in His perfect law. “Just and true are your ways, king of the ages.”² “… a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth…”³

Let us rejoice that God is the only true judge and adjudicator. “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy…”⁴

Perhaps the greatest reason to rejoice is that God has promised to inscribe his truths on the front of our hearts. “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”⁵

A brilliant legal scholar will have the Constitution in his hand, but a man of God is free, for his constitution is in his heart.

The Apostle Paul speaks of a letter of Christ written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, and not on tablets of stone but on tablets of the human heart.⁶

God’s law shouldn’t be seen as a law. It is a letter to be opened written in strange handwriting. And this letter is easy to understand:

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: You must love your neighbour as you love yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”⁷

Many of law’s forefathers were devout Christians, such as the great Hugo Grotius. He is arguably the most influential thinker on private law ever. Grotius famously said, “By understanding many things, I have accomplished nothing.”

Let us rejoice that we don’t have to toil all of our days to understand what is just, true, and good, because God has shown us. Let us rejoice that we don’t have to search for what love, justice, and victory is, for Christ showed all mankind on the cross.

I end with a beautiful description of God’s law from a man who knew Him well, David.

“The law of the Lord is perfect,
    refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
    making wise the simple.
⁸ The precepts of the Lord are right,
    giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
    giving light to the eyes.
⁹ The fear of the Lord is pure,
    enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
    and all of them are righteous.

¹⁰ They are more precious than gold,
    than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
    than honey from the honeycomb.
¹¹ By them your servant is warned;
    in keeping them there is great reward.
¹² But who can discern their own errors?
    Forgive my hidden faults.
¹³ Keep your servant also from willful sins;
    may they not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless,
    innocent of great transgression.

¹⁴ May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
    be pleasing in your sight,
    Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”⁸

1. Romans 3:19-20

2. Revelation 15:3

3. Romans 2:20

4. James 4:12

5. Hebrews 10:16

6. 2 Corinthians 3:3

7. Matthew 22:36-40

8. Psalm 19:7-14