Education

Lesson 3
The Law as Teacher
 Memory Text
Deuteronomy 6:5 NKJV
• "You shall love the LORD your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
• What did Jesus have to say about this text?
• What other commandment did Jesus quote along
with this as being second in importance?
• How do all the law and the prophets hang on these
two?
• Which is easier, to keep the 10 commandments or
to keep the two commandments of love?
• How can we progress in keeping this
commandment?
 Overview
• Through His commandments, the
Lord teaches us right and wrong and
lovingly provides boundaries for our
behavior.
– Love and Fear
– Learning from Law
– Loving the Law
– Learning from Jesus
– Summary
 Love and Fear
• What command did Moses give to the
people as he closed the book of
Deuteronomy? (Deut 31:11-13)
• What do you think Moses means when he
writes that the book of the law will teach
us to “fear” the Lord our God?
• What conflict, if any, do you see between
the command to fear the Lord your God,
and the command to love the Lord your
God?
 Learning from Law
• Why do you think God gave us His law? (Deut 6:24;
10:13; Joshua 1:8)
• What useful function did the apostle Paul see in the
law? (Rom 7:7)
• Read Deut 28:1-2 and 15
• How should we understand the blessings and curses
that God promised through Moses in Deut 28?
• As a general principle, what evidence do you see of
obedience to God’s law binging blessing and
disobedience bringing difficulties?
• What personal experiences have convinced you that
obedience is always the best choice?
 Loving the Law
• How does Paul describe God’s law?
(Rom 7:12)
• If we are not saved by keeping the law,
why should we?
• What motivates the true Christian to
keep the law?
• What does the God do to make keeping
the commandments a joy rather than a
burden? (Heb 8:10)
 Learning from Jesus
• Who is our example in keeping the
commandments of God? (1 John 2:6)
• What is the key to abiding in Christ? (John
15:10)
• What is the flip side of this conditional
promise: “If you keep my commandments
you will abide in my love?”
• How does John 15:14 help us understand
what happens when we disobey the
commandments?
 Summary
• Much useful education and learning can be found in the
law of God. In fact, in the book of Galatians, Paul calls
the law “our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that
we might be justified by faith.”
• One of the most important functions of the law is to
point out sin in our lives so the Holy Spirit can convict
us of sin and lead us to Christ for forgiveness.
• In addition, there are many other benefits in knowing
and obeying the law: it is our hedge of protection given
to us for our good always; it defines right and wrong,
good and evil, what pleases and displeases God; it
keeps us out of trouble and out of jail. Obedience
brings temporal blessings, prosperity, and success.
 Summary
• God’s moral law is based on the one great principle of love.
• Jesus applied that principle in the two great
commandments: love God supremely and love your
neighbor as yourself.
• These two summarize the two tables of the law, written on
stone, which give minimum standards for loving behavior
toward God and others.
• Love is the fulfilling of the law, and it is love that motivates
true Christians to obey the law.
• Jesus words may be taken as a promise: “If you love me
you will keep my commandments.”
• God writes His law on the hearts of those He justifies and
sanctifies.
 Summary
• Jesus is our example of abiding in His Father’s love
by keeping His commandments.
• Jesus invites us to keep His commandments and so
abide in His love. He calls us friends when we live in
obedience to Him.
• This implies that disobedience breaks our
fellowship with Jesus and strains the warm
friendship of our relationship with Him.
• Knowing that obedience is the key to abiding in
Jesus, will you ask Him to pour out the love of God
in your heart so you can abide in Him this week and
walk in love, toward God and others, as Jesus did?
 Deuteronomy 31:11-13 NKJV
"when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in
the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel
in their hearing. 12"Gather the people together, men and women
and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they
may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and
carefully observe all the words of this law, 13 "and that their
children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the
LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the
Jordan to possess.“ [R]
 Deuteronomy 6:24; 10:13 NKJV
'And the LORD commanded us to observe all these
statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always,
that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day.
"and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His
statutes which I command you today for your good?
 Joshua 1:8 NKJV
"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your
mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night,
that you may observe to do according to all that is
written in it. For then you will make your way
prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
[R]
 Romans 7:7 NKJV
What shall we say then? Is the law sin?
Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not
have known sin except through the law. For I
would not have known covetousness unless
the law had said, "You shall not covet.“ [R]
 Deut 28:1-2;15 (NKJV)
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the
LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I
command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above
all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you
and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
15 “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the

LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His
statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come
upon you and overtake you: [R]
 Romans 7:12 (NKJV)

Therefore the law is holy, and

12 

the commandment holy and just

and good. [R]
 Hebrews 8:10 (NKJV)

For this is the covenant that I will make with

10 

the house of Israel after those days, says the

LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write
them on their hearts; and I will be their God,
and they shall be My people. [R]
 1 John 2:6 KJV

He that saith he abideth in him

ought himself also so to walk, even as
he walked. [R]
 John 15:10 KJV

If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love; even as I
have kept my Father's
commandments, and abide in his
love. [R]
 John 15:14 KJV
Ye are my friends, if ye do
whatsoever I command you.
[R]