Book Review: Delighting in the Law of the Lord

With cultural insight, theological integrity, and the heart of a gentle evangelist, Jerram Barrs expounds a biblical view of law in his Delighting in the Law of the Lord. Combating both legalism and antinomianism, Barrs shows how the proper Christian attitude toward the law is neither fearful dread nor casual dismissal, but rather delight and wholehearted consecration. Delighting in the Law of the Lord will help believers cry out with Paul, “In my inner being I delight in God’s law” (Rom. 7:22), and with the psalmist, “Oh how I love your law!” (Ps. 119:97).

Barrs, professor of Christian studies and contemporary culture at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, served for nearly two decades with L'Abri Fellowship in England prior to his teaching ministry. His years in the field, influenced by the ministry of Francis Schaeffer, bring to the book a pastoral freshness and insight that makes for a spiritually and practically helpful read. Delighting in the Law of the Lord is a book for real life settings—for pastors and church leaders wanting to reach the postmodern generation more effectively, for lay Christians who feel ill-equipped to speak with their unbelieving neighbors, and for small groups wanting to understand the role of God’s law in their lives and society (note the discussion questions concluding each chapter). I especially wonder if those involved in leadership at Christian schools may benefit from Barrs’s work, given the temptation to moralism in such settings.

Barrs’s work is as much cultural analysis as it is biblical exposition. The first three chapters outline the decline of Western civilization into postmodern uncertainty and pessimism, and this backdrop is never far from view throughout the rest of the book. Thus Barrs does not merely analyze a biblical view of law and morality, he also applies it to our cultural drift into moral relativism. The result is that in Barrs’s helpful portrait, God’s law isn’t merely an authority over the Christian, but a resource to the Christian seeking to be salt and light in an increasingly anti-authority, relativistic culture. Keep reading