What Law Do We Meditate on Today?

"97O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day." (Psalm 119: 97)

Looking over the entirety of Psalm 119, the writer refers to God's law in nearly every verse, or God's Word, His commandments, or His directions.

The immediate response we may offer to this statement is that God wants us to meditate on the Ten Commandments.

Yet sections of Psalm 119 suggest otherwise:

DALETH. My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word." (Psalm 119: 25)

"Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness." (Psalm 119: 40)

Now, the Ten Commandments is a ministration of death and condemnation, not life and righteousness:

"But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: 8How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 9For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 10For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. 11For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious." (2 Corinthians 3: 7-11)

We cannot find life in the Ten Commandments, in the Old Covenant.

In fact, Jesus fulfilled the law, which was meant as a testimony our dead-in-trespasses state:

"19Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3: 19-20)

And

"20Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 5: 20-21)

and also

"13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2: 13-15)

Notice that the verses in Colossians, Paul writes about "the ordinances against us, contrary to us". He's writing about the Ten Commandments. They do not give us life, they do not minister righteousness to anyone.
So, what law should be meditating on, then?

The first mention of "law" in the Bible will give us a clue:

"Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." (Genesis 26: 5)

Notice that this verse precedes the rollout of the Big Ten.

In what we specifically was Abraham obedient to God?

"And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness." (Genesis 15: 6)

God wants us to trust Him, and from Genesis 12 until his passing, Abram followed God's lead. He trusted the LORD to take care of him in every way, and God never wavered in His promise.

So, the law which we need to be thinking about is. . .the law of faith?

Yes!

"Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith." (Genesis 3: 27)

There is another law, one which rests on faith, which supercedes the law of Moses:

"1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8: 1-2)

The law of the spirit of life: what is that?

This is Christ Jesus living in us by His Holy Spirit, and His leading us by His peace, by God's grace:

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6: 12-14)

The grace of God not only pays for all our sins (all of them, eternally), but allows us to receive eternal life, Christ in us, the  hope of glory (Colossians 1: 27)

Paul continues:

"4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." (Romans 7: 4-6)

The blood of Jesus cleanses us of all sin (1 John 1: 7), and His Spirit now lives and flows in us:

"20But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." (1 John 2: 20)

and then

"27But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." (1 John 2: 27)

This direction operates based on His peace:

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." (Colossians 3: 15)

We no longer  meditate on the Ten Commandments, because Jesus fulfilled them at the Cross (Matthew 5: 17; Hebrews 8: 10-13). We meditate on the Gospel, that in Christ we are justified from all things that we could not receive through the law of Moses (Acts 13: 38-39)

We meditate on the grace of God, revealed to us in Jesus' death on the Cross, and manifested through His resurrection and ministry as our High Priest at the right hand of God the Father:

"11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2: 11-14)

and then

"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." (2 Peter 3: 18)

That is what the law of faith is all about today, under the New Covenant. We receive the grace of God and His gift of righteousness every day (Romans 5: 15-17), and He causes us to reign in life, His life.