This episode introduces the role of affliction in assisting believers to more profoundly embrace God's law to the point of delight. "Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I keep your word." (Psalm 119:67) Affliction effectively grabbed the psalmist's attention, who left his wayward ways behind, after he was afflicted. Very likely the psalmist knew about God's Law, but his understanding was shallow. Until he meditated on God's Law, he would never graduate beyond mere surface acquaintance. Meditation, "chewing the cud," enables the believer to gain God's perspective on the Law leading to delight. Affliction is one of the mechanisms that God used in the psalmist's life to answer his petition in verse 5, "oh that my ways may be established to keep your statutes.
Fawning after God and His Law
This episode spells out how the cultivation of love of God and His Law is the means of gaining victory over the flesh. This love is metaphorically captured in Psalm 42:1: "as the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul pants for Thee, oh God." Victory over the flesh is not found in merely knowing about God and His Law, but victory manifests when we PANT after God and His Law. It becomes an insatiable craving. New Testament believers, who delight with the Law of God in the inner man, can potentially have substantial victory over the flesh by setting their minds on the Spirit. (Romans 8:6) This is key to falling in love with God and His Law. And it also makes sanctification much easier. When God and His Law become our delight, His commandments are not burdensome, and crushing the deeds of the flesh becomes instinctive and natural. We pant after God and His commandments, and we do anything to satisfy our thirst.
Life in Christ Trumps Sin and Death
This episode spells out the answer to the question raised in the previous broadcast: "Why do many REGENERATE believers have less appreciation for God's Law than the UNREGENERATE author of Psalm 119? The short answer is that many Christians' theology of sanctification is the pessimistic lens of Romans 7:14-25. Perpetual war between the flesh and the Spirit is the defining description of their sanctification experience and critically, their perspective hasn't been qualified by the clear promise of Romans 8:2: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death." Paul set up his argument for Christian freedom in Romans 7, where Romans 8:2 is the optimistic conclusion. The key to growth and spiritual victory is verse 6, where the "mind set on the spirit is life and peace." Based on what Paul just declared in verse 2, the mind set on the spirit is stronger and more powerful than the mind set on the flesh. Christian failure to appropriate victory is sometimes a casualty of bad theology where the pessimistic lens of Romans 7:14-25 is divorced from the optimistic conclusion of Romans 8:2. With respect to appreciation of the Law, a pessimistic adoption of Romans 7:14-25 as the final word understandably colors one's view of the Law. A holistic love for God's Law is one of the many benefits believers should experience when their sanctification expectations are informed by Romans 8.
Make the Law Your Rod and Staff
The road to having the psalmist's ways established involves two encounters with God's law. As a reminder, Psalm 119 uses 8 words to describe God's law: judgments, ordinances, precepts, word, testimonies, statutes, commandments, and way. The first encounter for Christians is often corrective: the law reflects God's character and highlights where ours is deficient. When believers work through the challenges of conforming to God's law through confession and repentance, they can revisit the same law and experience delight. God in His grace does a transformative work and now the law becomes the psalmist's delight. (Psalm 119:20)(Psalm 1:2) Believers should therefore recognize that the roadmap of sanctification is a purposeful journey in which we are both corrected and comforted by God's law as the Holy Spirit transforms us into the image of Christ.