Sin and the Law of God

The law is an expression of the character and will of the Lawgiver. The psalmist wrote, “ ‘I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart’ ” (Ps. 40:8, NIV). Here the will of God has been internalized and has become part of the character of the psalmist. In other words, the character of God is being appropriated through submission to the divine will expressed in the law.

How do these texts help us understand the link between God’s love and His law? Matt. 22:37–40; John 3:16; 14:15, 21; 1 John 5:3.

When John wrote, “The devil has been sinning from the beginning” (1 John 3:8, NIV), He was saying that Satan, in heaven, rebelled against the loving will of God.

In contrast to loving obedience, there is lawlessness (see 1 John 3:4). The word lawlessness (anomia) refers to a deep-seated attitude in the heart of rebellious human beings. It speaks of chaos and anarchy as the substitutes for the divine law and for what it stands for, the divine character. The cosmic conflict is against God and what He is in Himself. Paul describes the end-time eschatological antichrist as “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:3, NIV), and refers to the phenomenon of sin as the “mystery of anomia” (vs. 7).

Review God’s command to Adam and Satan’s words to Eve (Gen. 2:17; 3:4, 5). What was going on here?