Dartboard Ethics: Whatever Sticks?

This is the second follow up to my post Your Doctrine Drives Your Practice .

The question we have to ask ourselves, when we have been called “out of darkness to His marvelous light” is “how should I now behave”. This is fundamental to our perspective on what pleases God.

If you spend any time in your bible or if you have been to listening to stories about Christians in the news, or if you have visited almost any church, you will quickly come in contact with the term “the 10 commandments”. I am pretty sure if you have been raised on American soil that you have at least come in contact with this, but I would go a step further and bet that 9 out of 10 understand that it is rules God gave Christians to obey. There are enough movies that reference them our directly recount the story of Moses and actually Moses is probably synonymous with the 10 Commandments.

However, in spite of this most Christians understand that there were more than 10 laws given. The number is in the 500’s by some estimates. This entire “law system” is called a “covenant”. God gave over 500 plus laws to His people in order that they may obey Him, worship Him and live fruitful in the land of their fathers (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob).

Well, with that intro that leads me to our question today? What ethic am I to live by? Which rules am I to obey, which can I ignore, and how can I know for sure what God demands of me?

Well the average Christian will have a dartboard method. Especially as it relates to the Old Testament. Some pick the 10 commandments. Others go a bit further (dietary and tithing). Some attempt to live as a Hebrew would completely, though subjectively (Seventh Day Adventist). And again as I lead off this topic with a link, your doctrine will effect the way you live out your Christianity.

So how should you live? I will suggest under the grace provided by the New Covenant. What does that mean? I am glad you asked .

Christ has become the righteousness of God (Ephesians 2:14-15) for us. Once He did that, died on the cross and raised from the dead He established (or His death was the final payment) the New Covenant. In the New Covenant we get something unique. That something is a someone and that someone is a person! That person is the Holy Spirit who is now Christ living in us, conforming and shaping us to His will. This conformity is a promise (Romans 8:28-30), not an option and if there is no conformity (some subjectivity but biblical none the less) 2 Peter 1:3-11, 1 John 1:5-6 then we should have no security that Christ is living in us.

This is also described as the New Heart. This was promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34, Ezekiel 11:19 and Ezekiel 36:26. The writer of Hebrews uses the quotation in Hebrews 8:8-13 and Hebrews 9:15.  In these text we see the introduction of a new covenant and a new law is given (Hebrews 7:12) and now Christ has become the mediator of a better covenant. This covenant writes the law of God (not the Old Covenant, but law of Christ founded upon love (John 13:34).

We have been given a new nature, indwelled by the risen Christ and our law moves from ordinances to motivation. Christ is our law and He has now empowered us to live by His will.

With that said, we are no longer under the ordinances and commands, but now God directs us internally. We are under grace! God’s love is our law. This does not exclude principles as we see that often in the New Testament; however, there is no need to turn anywhere before Matthew to look for an ethic. We can find all we need to obey on the pages of the New Testament, under the New Covenant, as expressed by Jesus and His apostles.

In closing we are not under Old Covenant (happens to be Old Testament) law. The ordiances have been abolished. We are now under the Law of Christ and our ethic is set for us in a person. Namely Jesus the Christ.