This final episode merges the lessons of affliction learned by the psalmist with the role of discipline spelled out in Hebrews 12:4-13. Affliction/discipline are the divinely sanctioned means of conforming believers into the image of Christ. Just as the psalmist didn't wholeheartedly follow God and His Law without affliction, so Christians don't surrender fully to the Lordship of Christ without discipline and affliction. The results, according to Hebrews 12:10-11, are very consequential: sharing in God's holiness as we enjoy the "peaceful fruit of righteousness." This is the New Testament equivalent to the psalmist's plea that God establish his ways to keep God's statutes. (Psalm 119:5) So when Christians affirm their desire to be like Christ (establish their ways), they shouldn't be surprised when God answers through affliction.
Affliction Leading to Awe of God and His Law
This episode takes the central theme of Psalm 119, "oh that my ways may be established to keep your statutes," and applies it to Christian sanctification. Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit conforming us into the image of Christ: He gradually conforms our condition with our perfect position in Christ. With respect to the believer's attitude and obedience to the Law, the Holy Spirit cultivates the inner delight of God's law in the inner man (Romans 7:22), making it the governing disposition of the soul, where we love God (and His Law) with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Psalm 119 describes affliction as one of the means God uses to force the issue of holistic delight in God's Law. Similarly, the Holy Spirit orchestrates affliction to push the urgency of sanctification, hopefully leading to a more exhaustive embrace of God and His Law. God intends that affliction graduate the believer from simply parroting God's Law into apprehending the "why" of God's Law, leading to delight.
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.
Obey the Law through the Power of Christ
This episode takes many of themes of psalm 119 and applies them to Christian living. "The law is given as a tutor to lead us to Christ." (Gal. 3:24) While Christians should always rely on Christ and His merit as the basis for justification, they should nevertheless seek to honor God by fulfilling the Law, which is summed up in the Great Commandments. And, just as faith in Christ is the basis of our justification, faith in Christ is also the basis for all subsequent sanctification. Christ aids us in fulfilling the Law, while He delivers us from the power of sin. In essence, Christians are to keep the moral law THROUGH the power and grace of Christ. Many of the themes of dependence on God's grace are sprinkled throughout Psalm 119, the psalmist noting that he need God's grace to keep the Law. The episode is a needful reminder to the Christian Church to reject the Marcionite false dichotomy of our day which bogusly asserts that the Old Testament was all law and the New Testament all grace.
“Graciously Grant Me Your Law”
The road to looking like Christ involves confession and repentance. While many readily confess their sins, repentance is often more challenging. Psalm 119: 25-32 records the psalmist's struggle to repent, and the psalmist's dependence on the grace of God to help him repent. "Remove the false way from me and graciously grant me your law." (29) The Psalmist implores God to give him a gift he doesn't deserve, i.e., grace, and that gift is His law. The gift of God's law here refers to granting the psalmist's a love for God's law, whereby he can abandon false ways and repent. This dependence on the grace of God to repent is underscored by verse 32: "I shall run the way of Your commandments, for you will enlarge my heart." Grace enlarges the psalmist's heart, enabling him to repent and therefore fulfill God's law. The application for NT believers struggling to repent is straightforward. Grace doesn't just release us from the penalty of sin, it also changes us from within, giving us a new heart so we can honor God by obeying Him. We run the way of commandments because He enlarges our heart.
The Mirror of God’s Law
Citing Psalm 119:104, this episode highlights how God gets us to change our ways. "From your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way." God's precepts, one of the eight expressions of God's way and law used in Psalm 119, act as a mirror to show us where we have missed the marked. They reveal the psalmist's false way (and those of others) and he sees the obvious disconnect. Confession and repentance should be the response, and we observe this in Psalm 119:59: "I considered my ways and turned my feet to your testimonies." God's law reveals sin, and ideally the response is confession and repentance. The psalmist then reconsiders the law, here God's testimonies, and sees its inherent beauty. At one point the psalmist's petitions God: "Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things in your law." (18) This positive encounter with God's law is largely contingent upon the initial response to God's law where we confess and repent. The law consequently for NT believers is therefore very useful if we would become more like Christ.