Why would anyone love the law of God? Why would we love that which constantly tells us what miserable wretches we are, daily points out all our shortcomings, relentlessly reminds us of all our death-deserving sins, and keeps knocking us down to our knees, leaving us crying for help? Is God’s law made irrelevant because of Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection? Should Christians today pay any attention to God’s “Old Testament” law?
The law is not an abstract set of rules and regulations. The law reflects the will and nature of the Lawgiver. The law serves, in one respect, as God revealing who He is to man, and in that regard it is intensely personal.
God is perfect and so is His law. Those things that are pure, that are perfect, are worthy objects of our affection. All of these functions of the law are seen in the sweetness and the loveliness of the law that God reveals. God gives us His law not to take away our joy but rather that our joy may be full.
This post is a synopsis of the March 2011 TableTalk Topic of the month “The Three Uses of the Law and Why We Should Cherish Them.”
The Civil Use of the Law
Of the three uses of the law, the so-called “civil” use may strike us as the least interesting theologically. Do you appreciate being able to walk out your door in safety each morning to pursue employment, go to school, or enjoy leisure? What if your neighbor did serious damage to your property and you sought restitution, or what if you were wrongly accused of a violent crime and faced decades in jail if convicted? Are you grateful to be able to own a Bible or to gather peacefully for worship on Sundays without the threat of being arrested? All of these questions are directly connected to God’s use of civil law. God gives grace to all men.
Theologically, we categorize God’s grace as common and effectual. Common grace refers to privileges all men, redeemed and unredeemed, enjoy. Effectual grace refers to privileges only the redeemed enjoy. Because of God’s Word and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, all men receive some degree of grace. The natural law and authority that we all live in subjection to is one manifestation of God’s common grace to all men. “God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).
The natural law (police, park rules, speed limit, prison, the court system) checks and bridles sinners from giving full vent to their sinful desires. At times Christians refrain from doing evil only because we are afraid of getting caught and suffering for it, instead of rightly being motivated by a desire for holiness motivated by the love of Christ (II Corinthians 5:14-15). This is a common grace of God, for it is far better to refrain from evil for the wrong reasons than to do it. If you do not murder out of fear of going to jail, it is better to not murder, although wrongly motivated, than to sin. Also, unbelieving man is restrained from reaching his full potential in sin because of the restraining power of natural law (police, prison, death penalty, monetary fines). Human laws that forbid bad behavior and threaten to punish it by the point of the sword can serve to restrain wickedness in particular effective ways. This too is the work of God’s common grace.
In short, society would be absolute mayhem if it were not for God’s moral law placed within the heart of man. Because of God’s moral law, men are compelled to make natural laws that make society somewhat civil. In Acts 16 and 22 Paul is unjustly accused and arrested. Paul appealed to his rights as a Roman citizen. On both occasions, the unbelieving civil officials acknowledged his claim and treated Paul accordingly. Here we see how God uses a benevolent feature of Roman law (protecting due process) to promote justice and to curb wickedness – in this case for the special purpose of promoting the mission of the church.
Christians should respond to natural law by obeying it as long as it does not cause us to disobey God’s moral law. Also, Christians should prayerfully thank God for restraining evil in the world and should also petition God on behalf of those in authority, that they would make wise decisions.
God’s Law Reflects Sin and Leads to Christ: In salvation for the unbeliever and for sanctification in the believer
A mirror reveals flaws and imperfections. God’s law is like a mirror to the unbeliever and the believer. But imagine that you stumbled into my bathroom one day and saw me scrubbing myself with the mirror or brushing my teeth with a small broken piece of it. I hope that you would quickly convince me that while the mirror shows what needs cleaning, it is dangerous to do the cleaning with it. The attempt is doomed to fail, as it would only produce a bigger mess. When Paul wrote to the Galatians, he contended with them for trying to “scrub themselves clean” by the mirror of God’s law. God commonly shows us ourselves in the mirror of His law before pointing us to the gospel of grace. The mirror is good and useful, so long as it is used as a mirror and not as a cleaning device.
Morality is a great deception in churches today. As people desire to honor and love God by following His law, they do so in order to obtain righteousness instead of because they have been made righteous by Christ. The law was “our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster” (Galatians 3:25-26). The law “gives us knowledge of our sin” (Romans 3:20).
In using the word “schoolmaster” Paul is referring to a specific role given to well-educated slaves by wealthy fathers in the Roman Empire. A father would commission such a slave to make sure that his child went to school, kept away from trouble and danger, and completed his studies. The father gave the slave full disciplinary rights over the child, and as the slave’s own life depended on the success of the student, he was often quite brutal in ensuring the student’s compliance. It was therefore a huge relief for the student when he reached adulthood and was loosed from the slave to become a full- fledged member of the father’s household. Paul said to the Galatians, “You are full members of the Father’s household. Why do you want to go back to the harsh slave and his punishment?”
The second use of the law is not to destroy us or to leave us in utter despair. It is to lead us step by step to Christ that we might seek His pardon. The law is a mirror to reveal our sin, but if we try to scrub ourselves clean by this mirror, it will further destroy us. The law is our schoolmaster, bringing us to Christ.
The Law Lights the Christian’s Way
The law is a guide for believers in their conduct. In this sense, we are talking about the Decalogue – the Ten Commandments – and its entailments, not the ceremonial or the civil law, nor the law in its old covenantal terms. The law has no power to change us (Romans 7:1-8:8). The law exposes our sin and leaves us there. The law exposes what sin is and so warns us to avoid it. Simultaneously and conversely, its negations express positive requirements and point us to what is pleasing to God. The law expresses the unchanging will of God for His creatures. Jesus reaffirms and intensifies the law in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and applies it consistently not only to actions but to thoughts, words, and personal attitudes. Other New Testament writers also reiterate the Ten Commandments and apply them to their contexts (Romans 7:12; James 2:8-12; Romans 8:1-4; Hebrews 3:7-4:11).
By giving us His law, God has set us free from bondage to the opinions of men; it is a charter for Christian liberty. In short, the law defines for us what is pleasing to God and what sin is. It is a map, explaining to us how our sanctification is to take shape. When our lives are attached to the life-giving Spirit of Christ (John 15:1-5; Romans 8) we are able to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. The law cannot change us and cannot be obeyed in our own strength. The law cannot justify us, but is obeyed because we are compelled by the love of Christ and are aware of our unchanging righteousness in the sight of God (II Corinthians 5:14-15; Romans 6:1).
No comments:
Post a Comment