“So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” (Rom 7:12)

There are three attributes of the moral law of God, taught by Paul. The law is holy, it is righteous, and it is good. Since God Himself can only designate these three attributes, the law is an expression of God’s character. It follows that to live a life led by the Holy Spirit; we live a life designed and motivated by the abiding love of Jesus Christ, which when so responding, our hearts sing within.

The law is the unchanging guideline of His holiness. Christ died so that “the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit” (Rom 8:4 NLT)

Disciples on the road to Emmaus listened to Christ use scripture to explain why He had to die, to fulfil the Word of God, to initiate the new covenant of grace. Later they admitted the experience as heart-warming. (Luke chapter 24)

Do the characteristics of God change? No, he remains holy, righteous and good just as a life of Godliness — of loving God and loving others reflects Christ, who fulfilled the letter of the law by dying for you and me.

Jesus made it clear that the law of God continues. (Matt. 5:17–19). To keep the law is evidence of being faithful to loving God and loving others.

Most Christians understand that the law can never save us. The law was never our way to salvation, though if revealed our need for Christ to save us from our own rule-based method of salvation, determined by works.

To live a Spirit-filled life means that we live following two primary laws of God, upon which predicates the law of God — both principles of love — for our Creator, and for the creation of man. (Matt 22:36-40)

Try viewing the law, as the pair of shoes in which you walk fulfilling loving God first, then loving your fellow sentient beings. Only in Christ’s love can we love — our love then walks and expresses itself in all areas of our life. In contradistinction, Jesus warned when “lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold” (Matt. 24:12 ESV).

Love perishes when the law of God depreciates as the standard of true love which reflects the character of Jesus Christ — who expressed the exact image of God as a man. Paul worked tirelessly with the churches teaching that our character is to be reformed — changed into the likeness of Christ: “My children, with whom I am again in labour until Christ is formed in you”. While Christ recreates our character in His image, will we not reflect God as loving, which will naturally be holy, righteous, and good, fulfilling the law?

Read Romans 13:10 and Matthew 22:37–40 to find out why love is the fulfilment of the law.