PMW 2023-067 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
This is the second in a three part series on the benefits of God’s Law for today. In my last article I dealt with the practical (personal) benefits of the Law. But the Law of God is not simply a system of personal morality. It also reveals to us a corporate morality covering the social, political, and judicial spheres as well.
1. God’s Law provides an unchanging foundation for society
In the self-consciously Christian approach to social ethics, an unchanging Law becomes the basis of social order, rather than the changing whims of legislators, the mood of the populace, or the fads of revolutionaries. God’s Law is unchanging: “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, / And Your law is truth” (Psa119:142). “The sum of Your word is truth, / And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting” (Psa 119:160). Therefore, Moses warns God’s people: “Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it” (Deut 12:32; cp. Psa 119:44, 137, 142, 144).
We must recall that the new covenant does not bring with it a new Law, but rather a new power to keep the same Law.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Jer 31:31–33).
Thus Paul declares in the new covenant era: “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law” (Rom 3:31)?
God Gave Wine (by Ken Gentry)
A biblical defense of moderate alcohol consumption. Considers all key biblical passages and engages the leading objections.
See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com
Some decry the law as an imposition of religion. But all law imposes religion in that law is necessarily religious, for all law is an expression of morality. And morality is based on ideas of ultimacy and value. By the very nature of the case ultimacy and values are religious conceptions; they are not mathematical formulas or chemical reactions or physical constructs. The Christian religion, being the truth (as demonstrated by a proper apologetic), provides an inerrant and authoritative Word of unchanging righteousness as the standard of social morality.
2. God’s Law promises cultural prosperity
Cultural prosperity abounds due to widespread God-defined righteousness because we live in a moral universe. Scripture teaches the inescapable reality that “the eyes of the Lord are in every place, / Watching the evil and the good” (Prov 15:3; cp. Psa 139:7; Jer 23:24). The God who watches over all things reveals his Law to us in order to define the evil and the good: “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law” (Rom 7:7). We must understand that “righteousness exalts a nation, / But sin is a disgrace to any people” (Prov 14:34).
God is sovereign in his providential administration of world affairs. Consequently, the prophets can poetically portray the clouds as the dust of his feet (Nah 1:3–6). Job can speak of God as directing the lightning (Job 37:3). Jesus says that he even controls the number of hairs on our heads and the life and death of sparrows (Matt 10:29–30). Indeed, He “works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11). History has meaning and purpose due to God’s personal involvement. Thus, he has ordained that Law obedience determines national destinies in the historical long run.
We see this most clearly expressed in Deuteronomy 28 where God promises personal and social blessings for obedience but threatens cultural and social upheaval for disobedience. The opening section of this chapter promises: “Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the Lord your God. . . .” (Deut 28:1–2; cf. vv 3–14). And it equally threatens disaster for breach of his Law: “But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you” (Deut 28:15; cf. vv 16–68). Other such verses include: Exodus 15:26; 23:22; Leviticus 26: 3–13; Deuteronomy 7:12–26; 11:13–17.
Indeed, Paul expressly teaches that: “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God” (Rom 3:19). Thus, all the world is accountable to God in terms of his Law. His blessings will flow or his curses befall men on the basis of their moral conduct which God evaluates through his Law.
As It Is Written: The Genesis Account Literal or Literary?
Book by Ken Gentry
Presents the exegetical evidence for Six-day Creation and against the Framework Hypothesis. Strong presentation and rebuttal to the Framework Hypothesis, while demonstrating and defending the Six-day Creation interpretation.
See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com
Postmillennial Worldview 
Succinct and chilling. For those Christians who believe the world around us is quickly AND uniquely failing, they should study all of the “great” civilizations before us. They will find we are not unique in our failures & rapid decline toward oblivion. The world, apart from God, is not becoming darker today…it has always been at least as dark, if not more so. Thank you for stimulating my every morning with your commentaries.
another excellent article on God’s unchanging law
As “law is necessarily religious”, “christian religion is the truth”, God’s Word is the “unchanging standard of righteousness for social morality”, and obedience to it “promises blessing and cultural prosperity” as Dr. Gentry summarises so well, surely we need ask ourselves today where did we go wrong, and what needs to be done to regain that which is lost ?? (the early Reformers, Anglicans and Presbyterians to their credit at least early on, worked hard to uphold the establishment principle and national christianity) but I sense that for many today it is too late having sold our birthright for a bowl of soup.
Righteousness exalts a nation.
What does the word “nation” mean in legal terms?
Did you know that the term “nation” means “A people, or aggregation of men, existing IN THE FORM of an organized jural society, usually inhabiting a distinct portion of the earth, speaking the same language, using the same customs, possessing historic continuity, and distinguished from other like groups [i.e. from other organized jural societies] by their racial origin and characteristics, and GENERALLY, but NOT NECESSARILY living UNDER the SAME GOVERNMENT and sovereignty? Seed Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th. Edition
It appears to be possible to live among a nation of people organized as a jural society without necessarily living UNDER the same government and sovereignty. Therefore, it is possible for God’s people to live among an earthly nation or jural society of people WITHOUT being a “political member” of and UNDER the same government and sovereign. Did you KNOW that?
National – Pertaining or relating to a nation as a whole. Commonly applied in American law to institutions, laws, or affairs of THE [not these] United States or its [not their] government, as OPPOSED to those of the SEVERAL STATES. “National” contemplates an activity with a nationwide scope. The term “national” as used in the phrase “national of the United States” is BROADER than the term “citizen.” See Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th. Edition.
How exactly is the term “national” broader than the term “citizen?”
Can a man or woman have the nationality of the particular state in which he or she was born without necessarily being a citizen of the United States [i.e. a federal citizen] or being a citizen of the PARTICULAR state in which he was SUPPOSED to have been born free since the term “nationality” is BROADER than the term “citizen?”
The federal style manual refers to the nationality of one born in Pennsylvania to be that of a “Pennsylvanian” and one born in Maryland to be that of a “Marylander” and so on for each state of the Union.
Nationality – Pertaining or relating to a nation as a whole. Commonly applied in American law to institutions, laws, or affairs of THE [not these] United States or ITS [not their] government, as OPPOSED to those of the several states. “National” contemplates an activity with a nationwide scope. See Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th. Edition.
Notice that the word “ITS” is used in this definition. The word “THEIR” instead of “its” would have been used if the term United States was referring to the several States of the Union as the word “their” was used in Amendment 13 of the US Constitution.
Perhaps God’s people ought to define the term “United States” to make sure we KNOW what the term means as it is used in the definition of the term “nationality. ”
United States – This term has SEVERAL meanings. (1) It may be merely the name of a SOVEREIGN occupying the position analogous to that of other SOVEREIGNS in the family of nations, (2) it may designate the TERRITORY over which sovereignty of THE [not “these”] United States extends, or (3) it may be the collective name of the states which are united by and under the Constitution. See Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th. Edition.
Does “the” United States federal government have “sovereignty” over territory within the several states of the Union? No, it does not. The federal government is sovereign only over federal territory – i.e. Washington DC and the federal territories.
Why do I take the time to define these terms and share them with those who follow Ken Gentry’s Postmillennial World View?
I do so because it is important to KNOW what these terms mean in order to KNOW what you think you know is true about the United States, citizenship, and nationality and where those whose citizenship IS in the Kingdom of Heaven STAND in relation to the other unregenerate people in the community.
Standing – One’s place in the community in the ESTIMATION of others; his RELATIVE position in social, commercial, or MORAL relations; his repute, grade, or rank.
One’s “reputation” is based upon hearsay or what others “estimate” or think or say your standing in the community is whereas one’s “character” is made up of the things an individual actually is and does.
Are we God’s people subject to His perfect Law of Liberty or are we as “citizens/persons” under the control of the federal government and its municipal laws, administrative agency rules, and regulations?
What is one doing when they estimate something?
Estimate – A valuing or rating by the mind, WITHOUT actually measuring, weighing, or the like. A ROUGH or APPROXIMATE calculation only.
Are “others” in the community “estimating” your “standing” correctly? Are you actually a “federal citizen” who has voluntarily submitted yourself to the “dominion” or absolute control and jurisdiction of the federal government?
Again, when did you become a “federal citizen” by submitting yourself to the absolute control and ownership of the United States federal government? To whom do you owe your absolute allegiance and fidelity?
I am asking these questions in good faith. I really want to KNOW the answer to these questions.
Can anyone answer these last two questions for me?
Peace.
We need to look at the BIBLICAL word in use, not Black’s modern explanation of a modern nation.
I would even say that how the word nation is defined and variously understood today is an interesting discussion, but the gospel and starting point of the great commission is that “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me” (Christ) who is now “head over all things”
The BIBLICAL word “nations” in Matt. 28:19 is Strong’s # 1484 which means, race; tribe; PAGAN. So we are to call the pagans to be reconciled to God, not call the governments in which the pagans are members or citizens to be reconciled.
And when these pagans are reconciled to God their STANDING in relation to the pagans in the community that have not been reconciled to God has changed. The pagans that have been reconciled to God are no longer members of the pagan community. They are now members of the household of God and as such they are SOJOURNERS in the country in which they previously were citizens or inhabitants. First Peter 1:1
I think the legal definition agrees with the biblical definition.
The truth is the truth and you can’t change the truth in the slightest way. What have I written above that is not the truth?
You cannot be a sojourning stranger and an ambassador in a country and at the same time claim to be a citizen who is domiciled in that country. That would make no sense.