Introduction
If Christians are
confused about the Gospel, they are flummoxed about the law. Many of them know
a few biblical texts that have become dismissive catchphrases: “You’re not
under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). “We’re free from the law” (Rom.
8:2). “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). “Christ is
the end of the law” (Rom. 10:4). Armed with these and a few other texts, they
see the law as at best obsolete and at worst, harmful. Jesus came to get rid of
the law (Jn. 1:17), and that is that. The New Testament (NT) writers (they
think) have given us some instructions for life, but it has nothing to do with
the law.
Holy, Righteous, Good
First, the law is
holy, righteous, and good (Rom. 7:12). How could it be anything else? The law
is a reflection of God’s character. We read in Leviticus 20:7–8,
“Be ye holy, for I am holy.” We must be holy like God is, and to be holy is to obey God’s law, for God’s law exhibits his character. To know the law of God is to know the character of God, in other words, to know the law is to know God. Some Christians might chafe at this description. Isn’t the law opposed to the grace of God, for example? And don’t we need to know the grace of God in opposition to the law of God? We do not. If the law of God is a reflection of his character, the law reflects his grace. This is why in Exodus 19:4–5, before he gave Israel the Mosaic law, God points out how gracious he is to his people in giving that law. The law exhibits God’s grace.
Moreover, when Jesus died on the cross, God was fulfilling the terms of his law.[2] The cross demonstrates the love of God because it demonstrates the law of God (Gal. 4:4–6; Rom. 5:6–11). God loved us so much that he gave up his own Son to the law’s justice. Remember that the only law to which God’s grace is antithetical is a manufactured, homemade law apart from Jesus Christ. But that’s not the proper use of the law. If you want to know what God is like, read the law. If you know want to know what God is like, look to Jesus Christ (Jn. 14:9), whose life and death fulfilled the law (Gal. 4:4).
Life-Promising
Second, the law
promises life (Rom. 7:10). This statement might perplex us, since Paul writes
that the law doesn’t bestow life (Gal. 3:21). Only the Messiah can bestow life.
However, the law does promise life to those that live within it (Dt.
30:1–16; cf. Rom. 10:5 –13), because if we live within it, we won’t rely on
ourselves for salvation, but on Jesus Christ. This is another clue that many of
Paul’s opponents weren’t following the OT law but a twisted, Christ-less,
grace-less, faithless version of it. Not only will we know God if we live
within the law. We’ll also be led into life. To live in this sphere of the law
is to gain life. The law doesn’t bestow life, but the law points us to the One
who does, Jesus Christ, and in him alone we should trust.
Liberty-Fostering
Third, the law bestows
liberty (Jas. 1:25, 2:12). This is counterintuitive to many Christians today.
For them the law is heavy and burdensome. They might get this idea from Acts
15, which tells of the Jerusalem council, where Peter identified the law as a
heavy yoke (v. 10). But it seems they might have missed v. 1. The great error
being combated at the council is the teaching that one must keep the law as a
way of salvation. Of course, this is precisely what the law was never intended
to do. When the law is turned into a system of works-righteousness, it does
indeed become a yoke and a burden. This is a pharisaic and Judaic perversion of
the law.[3]
The yoke the Lord Jesus imposes is easy and his burden is light (Mt. 11:29–30). Why is this? Because God is our Creator, he knows precisely how we are to operate within his world. His law, his instruction, is suited to man as the earth-bound creature made in his image. We might say that the law is the instruction manual for humanity. And this isn’t limited to the Mosaic law, but includes God’s entire word, which instructs us (1 Tim. 3:16–17). It is in the sense that we could say that the entire Bible is law.[4] It’s God’s revelation for how we should believe and live. God knows how we should live much better than we do. That’s why he gave us his word, his law. To turn away from God’s law is to turn away from the only truth that will help us to live with great blessing and profit in God’s world. We live in a God-rigged universe. Far from being hard and onerous, God’s law shows us how to live within our environment with the greatest of light and blessings.
Fulfilled in Believers
Fourth, the law is fulfilled in us (Rom. 8:4). If we ask the
question, Can anybody fulfill or obey the law, the answer is, No and Yes. No,
everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23), and if we
break one commandment we have violated all (Jas. 2:20). However, believers, by
the power of the Spirit, can fulfill the law as much as a redeemed sinner can.
This is why 1 John tells us that everyone sins (1:8), but also that we must not
live within the reign of sin (2:4–6), which is a violation of God’s law
(3:410). In other words, to live by the Spirit’s power is to live in obedience
to the law. In this sense, we can keep the law. No, not flawlessly, but
nonetheless faithfully (see Gen. 26:5; 1 Kin. 11:24; Lk. 1:6; Jn. 15:10). In a
post-Fall world, the issue is not whether a person can be flawlessly sinful.
It’s whether a person can live a life dominated by righteousness. He certainly
can — and must. “In the natural man sin is the essential element, but in the
new man sin is an alien element.” [5] Therefore, the
most faithful Christians are those who’ve most faithfully kept God’s law. The
best Christians are the best law-keepers.
In Harmony with the Gospel
Finally, the law is not contrary to the Gospel promises (Gal.
3:21). Paul makes this point quite emphatically (see vv. 21–29), and if we
understand it, we might never again have a problem reconciling the law and
gospel, law and grace, law and promise.[6] The Mosaic law
was given to Israel subsequent to the Abrahamic promises. The promises are
promises of eternal life. The law was never given to impart eternal life. It
has given, as we have seen, to lead us toward eternal life, that is,
toward the Gospel promises (see v. 24).[7] The law is not
against the promises, precisely because they serve different functions. The
promises tell us what God has accomplished, is accomplishing, and will
accomplish in Jesus Christ. The law tells us how we are to live in relation to
Jesus Christ. We are not saved by keeping the law, and no one was ever saved by
keeping the law in any era.[8] In addition,
no one was ever led to please God without the law. Hebrews 11 tells us that
without faith it is impossible to please God (11:6), and then it moves on to
tell us how that faith led the great OT saints to great exploits of obedience,
in other words, law-keeping. To perceive the law as a means of salvation or
justification is to pervert it. To see it as a means of pleasing God is to see
it precisely as God intends.
How to explain the verses that speak disparagingly of the
law is a topic for another post, but suffice it to say that swiftly dispensing
with God’s law is a contra-biblical move.
Notes:
[1] For exegetical and theological evidence for the general
viewpoint I espouse, without agreeing with their view of the law on certain
points, see Greg L. Bahnsen, Theonomy in Christian Ethics (Phillipsburg,
New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1977, 1984); Karl Barth, “Gospel and
Law,” Community, State and Church (Gloucester, Massachusetts: Peter
Smith, 1968), 71–100; Heinrich Bullinger, A Brief Exposition of the One
Eternal Testament or Covenant of God, in Fountainhead of Federalism,
Charles S. McCoy and Wayne Baker, eds. (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John
Knox Press, 1991), 99–138; C. E. B. Cranfield, “St. Paul and the Law,” New
Testament Issues, Richard Batey, ed. (New York and Evanston; Harper &
Row, 1970), 148–172; Robert L. Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972), 458–462; Daniel P. Fuller, Gospel and Law
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), ch. 4 and “Paul and ‘The Works of the Law,’” Westminster
Theological Journal, 38 (1975-1976): 28; Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., “God’s
Promise Plan and His Gracious Law,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological
Society, 33:3 (September 1990): 289, and Recovering the Unity of the
Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 160–162; Robert S. Rayburn, “The Old
and New Covenants in the New Testament,” unpublished Ph. D. dissertation,
University of Aberdeen, 1978; Norman Shepherd, “Law and Gospel in Covenantal
Perspective,” Reformation & Revival Journal, 14, 1: 73–88 (2005);
and C. van der Waal, The Covenantal Gospel (Neerlandia, Alberta, Canada:
Inheritance Publications, 1990).
[4] John M. Frame, The Doctrine of the Christian Life
(Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P & R Publishing, 2008), 176–178.
[6] P. Andrew Sandlin, Wrongly Dividing the Word (Mount
Hermon, California: Center for Cultural Leadership, 2010).
[7] Paul declares that the law no longer serves the function of
a schoolmaster, since it has brought us to Jesus Christ. He doesn’t mean the
moral law is unnecessary; he means that the law’s function as a schoolmaster is
no longer necessary.
[8] Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., “The Law as God’s Gracious Guidance
for the Promotion of Holiness,” in The Law, the Gospel and the Modern
Christian, Wayne G. Strickland, ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993),
190–192.
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