The Law as Honey to our lips

Matt chandler on Gal series part 4: the law for the believer does not condemn but it becomes honey to our souls- ps 19; it's honey because it shows the path of true joy

The law begins to bear weight on my rebellion. The law reveals that I am a liar – I don’t just lie, I’m a liar: that’s why I lie – that I’m a thief; that I tend to covet; that I have a tendency to love other things more than I love God; that I am in stark rebellion against the God of the universe. The diagnostic of the law reveals that’s who I am. It’s not what I do, it’s who I am. I do those things because that’s what is inside of me.

And then the offer is that, in Christ, I’ll be given the righteousness of Christ, and the wrath due me because of that rebellion is put on Christ on the cross. So now, when God sees me, He sees me as perfect, spotless and righteous in His sight. So when God looks upon me in Heaven, He sees me as blameless.

And then after that moment of justification that had nothing to do with me and had everything to do with Jesus Christ, the law now serves the purpose of a light unto my feet, a light unto my path, and God begins to woo me into how He created the universe to work, for the fullness of my joy and the display of His glory.

Now, when men see this, the law becomes a delight. David, who saw this coming – and you learn that in Hebrews 11 – you go read Hebrews 11 – and men in the Old Testament saw this coming and put their faith in it – and David sings about the law, loves the law and talks so strangely about the law that it’s hard for us to get our mind on it. He said the law is like honey on his lips. He would lay in bed and just meditate on it, like lustfully. When is the last time you were just in your bed going, “Oh, don’t covet. Don’t do it,” and started licking your fingers as if they were covered in honey?

We don’t do that, and it’s a fundamental misunderstanding. Because “Don’t covet” for me in Christ is not a condemning command, but it’s a wooing command into joy. So the law does not crush me any longer but leads me into ever-expanding joy.

So when the law says, “This is how you look at your wife,” when the law says, “This is how you are to approach children,” when the law says, “Don’t do this. Do this,” I don’t stand condemned under that law: I’m spotless and blameless. So instead, I’m being invited into the fullness of life now and ever-expanding joy into eternity. 

So the law of the Lord becomes like honey to the saints, because it has lost its ability to tell us we’re terminal. Instead, it reminds us of God’s love for us.