The Origin of Law

What is law and where did it come from? Are we required to keep the Law of Moses? What can the fall in the Garden of Eden tell us about law in general? These are some of the questions addressed in this blog.

The first law given was a test of man’s faith. God told Adam not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. By extension this law applied to Eve because she was given to Adam as a helpmate. That was a certain kind of law, one that was not necessary because of sin, but because of free will. The human heart had not been tested and so, the first law was a test.

The second law was a judgment. When Eve broke the first law, the one of testing, she instituted a second law, one where her husband would rule over her. Before her sin, Adam did not have to rule over her, even though he did have authority over her by nature of God’s established hierarchy. Adam was made in the image of God first. Eve was make from Adam, so by extension she was made in the image of God, but she did not have Adam’s authority. What happened when Adam ate that fruit was an inversion of God’s hierarchy of authority.

The Bible states that Christ is over man and man is over woman. That is God’s design, but that design was flipped upsidedown when Eve sought her husband’s authority. She believed the lie of the serpent, who made her question God, who encouraged her to believe that she would be like God, knowing good from evil. Adam didn’t believe that lie, but he did do something even worse. He ate the fruit for a different reason. He ate it because he chose his wife over Christ. He chose to define love for himself. At that moment he came out from under the love of Christ and let his wife rule over him. There began a power struggle that would require him to rule over his wife. This was the beginning of many problems for humanity. It is the source of all of our problems. The first institution the devil attacked was God’s design for marriage. Everything falls apart when that institution fails, first and most importantly, when man chooses to live by his own authority and second, when he chooses to let his wife have equal authority.

To be clear, I must make a distinction so as to avoid confusion surrounding the nature of equality between man and woman in God’s eyes, for “in Christ there is no male or female” and “all are one in Christ.” Man and woman are equal in value to God, but not in authority. This difference is important to divide, because someone will inevitably call you misogynistic for stating what I just did. Our world has largely lost a godly view of the family institution as God intended it. God never intended authority to be synonymous with value, for He “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son” for all of us. His hierarchy of authority is incredibly important, though. When man is under Christ and woman under man, everything goes well and all are taken care of. The love of God flows through all of creation. When this hierarchy is broken, the love of God does not flow as designed. Mankind tries to control that flow, but who can possibly control that which is infinite and unfathomable? We can’t possibly know the depths of God’s love. We can only experience it as it flows from the infinite Father through His Son, His express image, by His Spirit to indwell us. This is how we inherit God’s eternal nature.

When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he set in motion the law of judgment both on his wife and himself as well as all of their offspring. All people who came from them inherited sin in their very genes for we were all “in Adam’s loins.” Just as Eve was to be ruled over, so too would there come to be a need for law among men. Since we decided in Adam to rule ourselves, to stop walking with God in the garden, to stop partaking of His Spirit, we would by necessity have to be under rule of written law. We would have to contrive all those definitions. We would have to find our own balance, but that is a futile effort, and God knows this. It is why He Himself called the Hebrews out of Egypt and gave them a law, one that pointed back to the Source of love and truth.

That law was also given “because of transgressions.” The Hebrews rebelled coming out of Egypt. They rebelled in the desert. They rebelled at the foot of Sinai. They needed law, evidently, so God gave them one, but in it He embedded symbolism that was meant to show them a deeper truth, that law could never make them right in His sight. It was substitutionary and insufficient, but what it pointed to was real and all-encompassing. It pointed them back to Christ.

I say “back” to Christ because the Hebrew people came from Abraham, who was called out of pagan Ur, just as they were called out of pagan Egypt. Abraham came from Adam, who once walked with Christ. It was Christ who led the Hebrews out of Egypt, who spoke with Moses in the burning bush and who gave the law on Sinai. He was “the Rock struck in the desert.”

Our challenge, not only as Christians, but as people, all people, is to turn from this fallen world back to Christ. Only then will we experience restoration, first in our spirits, then in our minds and souls, then our bodies, for taking dominion back over this world first requires we take dominion back over this flesh. Mind over matter. Spirit over mind. When you do that, there is no longer a need for law. You are under the law of God, not of the letter, but of the Spirit.

This doesn’t free you from the bonds of law on this planet, though. Law will be necessary until every knee has bowed and every tongue has confessed Christ as their Lord and Savior. Until then, we who are of the Spirit are strangers and pilgrims in a land ruled by foreigners. We must behave in a manner worthy of the title “Christian” while also maintaining the law of the land in which we preside. Now, I must make a clarification. We follow the law of man as long as it doesn’t violate the law of God. When it does, we must choose God. This will likely mean you give up something in this world, because the two are in opposition to one another in spirit.

For example, God designed marriage. It was the first relationship He created. He gave men and women their anatomies and the ability to have children. He set a figure of authority over that relationship, however society has changed what marriage is. In the Western world, a woman holds authority and equality in a lawful marriage. Men and woman are allowed to divorce. Women can take half of a man’s net worth in a divorce. Man cannot exercise godly authority by the law of man. To enter into marriage in a society such as this is a real risk. At any time a wife can challenge her husband’s authority, throw the marriage into chaos and ruin a man, all within the bounds of law. Is this not the sin of Eve? It is why I choose not to marry. Every woman has this in her heart just as every man so desires his wife that he will give her his authority. Sure, in Christ this can be resolved, but only if you both remain in Christ for the entirely of your life-long commitment. If either of you fail to maintain God’s design for your marriage, you can quickly fall into a destructive pattern.

All of this is to address the broader issue of law, not only from a civil standpoint but from a biblical one. Whether the law of man, the law of Moses, both fail and pale in comparison to the law of God, which is written on our hearts, not on tablets of stone or in great volumes of books. It is possible to write the law of God in two sentences, just as Christ did, that we should love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, but how that is carried out in our society is far beyond the written word. IT is impossible to contain the law of God just as it is to contain His Spirit, yet His Spirit, His presence can indwell us always and lead us in every unique situation. In this, we become more Christ-like.

May the love and truth of God prevail in your heart with peace and understanding.