<span style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" data-mce-type="bookmark" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span> The Ancient Blueprint for Liberty… The Church Traded for Sincerity… Feelings… And Good Intentions Most folks think the problem with Christianity today is that it’s too strict. Too many rules. Too much guilt. Too much talk about obedience. But look around. Does this feel like a culture crushed by discipline… or one unraveling from the absence of it? Homes are fragile and fractured. Churches are confused. Freedom keeps shrinking even as we preach it louder than ever. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: we didn’t lose freedom because we obeyed God’s law… we lost it because we abandoned it. Somewhere along the way, Christians were taught that grace meant lawlessness, that love made obedience optional, and that feelings could replace faithfulness. And the moment that lie took root, instability followed… personally, spiritually, and socially. This isn’t a call back to cold religion or joyless rule-keeping. It’s a call back to reality. Because God’s law was never meant to crush life… it was designed to give it shape. And when you see the law not as a threat, but as a gift… not as an enemy of grace, but its foundation… everything starts to make sense again. Grace Without Law Sounds Loving… Until You See the Ruins It Leaves Behind When the church forgets God’s law, widows stand in government lines. When the church embraces it, no one faces need alone. The law of God isn’t some cold list of rules whispered from a distant cloud to crush joy or smother freedom. Instead, it’s the very heartbeat of God Himself… the steady rhythm of His character pulsing through creation and into His people. Yet somehow, many Christians have learned to hear that heartbeat as a threat. They read the law like a courtroom sentence instead of a doctor’s diagnosis… something meant not to condemn, but to reveal what’s broken so real healing can begin. And once you slow down and look at the law through the lens of grace, something surprising happens. The chains fall away. In their place, you see freedom. Because God’s law was never meant to cage us… it was meant to show us who He is, and who we’re being remade to become. The Law Written Where It Belongs For the person living in Christ, the law isn’t a foreign code taped to the wall and grudgingly memorized. It’s written into the heart. If that’s true… think about this for a second. When you see something you want on Amazon, for example, your instinct isn’t to steal a credit card and buy it… it’s to work harder at earning the money it takes to get it honestly. That pull toward honesty and integrity isn’t just good manners or social conditioning. It’s evidence of a changed nature. That’s why the psalmist could say he hid God’s Word in his heart. The believer’s relationship to the law isn’t external or mechanical… it’s intimate. God’s commands don’t just sit outside us like guardrails; they should run through us like bone and marrow. And whenever we ignore that law… when we silence what God has written within… we don’t become freer. We grow weaker. Because obedience isn’t your burden. It’s your strength. Two Jacks and Two Futures Years ago, I heard Rushdoony tell a story about two boys from the same neighborhood… both named Jack. One grew up in a home where God’s law was honored and taught. The other was raised under a roof that mocked it. Time passed. Life happened. And years later, their paths could not have looked more different. The first Jack became disciplined, steady, and upright… a man with roots. The second drifted from one emotional revival to the next, constantly “getting saved again,” always repenting but never changing. His faith had turned into a revolving door of guilt and relief, confession and collapse. And sadly, that story feels familiar when I look at the church today. Modern Christianity has mostly taught folks that emotion can replace obedience… that being nice and sincere is enough. But that’s apostate theology with real consequences. When grace is divorced from law, it doesn’t produce freedom. It produces instability. The Old Lie of “Grace Without Law” There’s a word for this idea: antinomianism—literally, “against law.” It teaches that because we’re saved by grace, the written commandments no longer matter. But Scripture never says that. Christ didn’t abolish the law. He embodied it. He fulfilled it not by erasing the standard, but by engraving it deeper… into human hearts renewed by His Spirit. That’s why He could say, without apology, “If you love Me, you’ll keep My commandments.” Love doesn’t replace obedience. It proves it. So when people say the Old Testament was all law and the New Testament is all grace, they miss the point entirely. Both reveal the same unchanging God. Sinai and Calvary tell one story… not contradiction, but completion. When Law Disappears, Chaos Rushes In Honestly, it shouldn’t surprise us that society is unraveling. Even in my day, (born in 58) schools taught some degree of discipline and memorization. Authority wasn’t mocked. The respect for elders in Scripture still echoed through our classrooms. Then the foundations were pulled out… first ridiculed, then rejected. Moral absolutes gave way to feelings, and feelings gave way to confusion because everyone’s feelings are different. But here’s the thing: History has seen this before. When a people forget God’s law, they don’t drift toward neutrality… they slide into lawlessness. Many biblical scholars (like Herman Bavinck) warned decades ago that civilization cannot survive indefinitely without biblical foundations. Bavinck, in fact, said all this would lead to a kind of hopeless modern Buddhism. Today, that warning reads less like a prediction and more like the morning news. Still, hope remains. God’s Word hasn’t changed. What’s needed is a return of the heart. Why the Law Is Actually Beautiful The psalmist described the law as perfect… reviving the soul, making the simple wise, giving joy to the heart. That’s not the voice of a man crushed by rules. It’s the testimony of someone set free by obedience. God’s law brings color to a gray world the way Spring sunlight brings life to the cold, dead corn field across the road from my house. When believers stop treating it as an indictment and start seeing it as revelation, they begin to love what God loves… justice, mercy, compassion. God’s Law Defends the Forgotten Further, the law isn’t just personal. It’s much more than that. It’s also profoundly social. Scripture thunders with God’s concern for widows, orphans, and strangers. His warning in Exodus still echoes: when the vulnerable cry out, He hears… and He acts. That’s not a footnote. It’s a window into divine justice. Yet modern Christianity has often forgotten this. Consider another Rushdoony story from a while back. Here’s a faithful but aging widow who could no longer afford food. A doctor in her church offered financial help… if the church would take responsibility for getting her the groceries with his money. Instead, the elders took her to a welfare government office. Sadly, typical. The doctor left the church heartbroken. Something sacred had been surrendered. When the Church Retreats, the State Advances Now, whenever the church abandons its calling, the state rushes in… not with covenant care, but with cold bureaucratic control. What begins as “help” slowly becomes dependency. Authority shifts. Families weaken. God’s design empowers people through community, not centralized force. True freedom grows where responsibility is honored, and love is lived out locally. The Law That Liberates Paul told Timothy to care for widows who are truly in need. That word matters. Discernment matters. The local church knows its people in ways distant agencies never can. So when the local church takes responsibility, society strengthens. When the state replaces compassion with policy, freedom erodes. Ironically, the law so many fear is the very thing that protects liberty. God’s law builds accountability, generosity, and trust. It governs not by coercion, but by conscience. Faith That Lives and Breathes Recovering God’s law isn’t about reviving cold religion. It’s about rediscovering order, beauty, and freedom. New Testament writer James didn’t spiritualize obedience. He demanded action. Real faith feeds the hungry, clothes the poor, and steps into suffering. Words without works, he warned, are empty. Thankfully, many churches are waking up. They’re reclaiming education, strengthening families, and rebuilding communities… one small obedient step at a time. The Law That Makes Life Whole God’s law shapes everything… marriage, money, parenting, hospitality. It builds families and stabilizes nations. Even the command to love the stranger flows from memory and mercy. The law doesn’t compete with grace. Grace fulfills it. When Scripture says the law came through Moses and grace and truth through Christ, it isn’t drawing a dividing line. It’s showing us completion… the law walking among us in flesh and blood. Freedom without law is chaos. Grace without obedience is an amorphous illusion. But God’s Word… law and gospel together… is a lifeline. And those who take hold of it don’t find chains. They find harmony. Because the law of God isn’t the enemy of grace. It’s its truest expression… the melody of life played in tune with the heart of the Creator.