This is John at the Bible Project, and today on the podcast we continue our conversation

on the law.

In the modern world, we understand law as a set of legal requirements that society has

for us.

Things you can do, things you can't do, and if someone's behavior is in question, we

go to the written law and we see what it says.

It's the final authority, and we call this statutory law.

What we have to do is try to imagine a culture where things don't work like that.

We have to imagine where people who live in a society have a set of views about a transcendence

concept of justice and goodness and righteousness.

But the written law codes are not the official statement.

They are illustrations written in specific times and places, but no one written statement

is the final arbiter or word.

It's a statement that participates in the long history of statements.

This is really hard for us to appreciate, but imagine you live in a society where you

have written laws, but you also have your culture stories.

You have the wisdom of the elders and all of these things are consulted.

But not as the final authority, but as a way to help you get to a deeper authority.

That is God's justice.

Law isn't the right word anymore.

Yes, wisdom.

The wisdom and the fear of the Lord living in a way that corresponds to God's will.

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