In yesterday’s post I said, “The Law is not the issue; your interpretation of it is!” I’m writing this post one minute after writing that line.
I know that many will respond, “The Law is too the issue! It’s what kills me, it’s what Christ had to abolish for me.”
Yes and no.
There has never been a problem with the Law. It is a revelation of God’s righteousness, therefore, Paul says it is “holy, just and good.” Paul’s problem with the Law was not the Law, it was himself, “I am carnal, sold under sin.”
In our current age we feel it imperative to bash the Law. I suggest we be careful with this. The Law was added to codify our sin, to let us know what it is, and yes, it did stir us up to sin.
However, that’s not a problem with the Law–it’s a problem WITH US! Therefore, I will persist in my statement that “The Law is not the issue; your interpretation of it is!”
I will stick with it also because it’s exactly what Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:8, “But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.” In other words, the Law is not the problem, our interpretation and use of it is.
anti-itch meditation 
The law is like a set of train tracks that leads us in the right direction. The Jewish scribes and Pharisees tipped the law on end like a ladder, and climbed up it to elevate themselves.
I’ve been away for a while, but finally caught up with your sermon and the last few posts. The sermon did not bore me…getting faith and the law in the right places is the whole art and science of true Christianity.
When they are in the right places, then a simple prayer to God brings the fire down from heaven to consume the sacrifice…when they are not in the right places, then all the dancing around the altar will not accomplish anything.
You made a comment at the beginning of the sermon, stating that the false teachers in Galatia were teaching, “in order to be saved you must keep the law.”
I don’t think that was quite the problem. The keeping of the law is simply righteousness (Rom. 8:4)…therefore, Christ, who was the Righteous One, kept the law. Nobody could convict Him of sin (even though they tried at times unsuccessfully to do so).
“Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Eccl. 12:13.
“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.” Ps. 119:1
The problem was the way in which the law was to be kept…was it by faith in Christ, or by “the works of the law”?
To use the example of Abraham: it was clear that he was to have a son. That was both a promise and a command. The question was, how was he to have the son? By faith in the power of Christ to put life where there was death? Or by the strength of his flesh alone?
Usually, when we have an inadequate view of God’s holy law, we are tempted to think that we can perform it, using the strength of our flesh. In the same way, Abraham tried to bring forth his own son, using the strength of his flesh. That was Ishmael. And that is what the false teachers in Galatia were trying to put across…an Ishmael gospel.
But Paul knew that this was impossible…there was nothing in the flesh that could produce the kind of living faith and works that God could approve. This is also shown by his statement that those who are “of the works of the law” are “under the curse”. And how does this curse look? “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” They cannot do the law…that is what happens when you try to do it by the works of the law.
But to the children of faith, “the righteousness of the law” is “fulfilled in us” (Rom. 8:4). Israel who sought righteousness by the “works of the law” did not attain to it, but the Gentiles who sought it by faith, did.
There is nothing in the life of Jesus except perfect law-keeping. But never did he resort to the “works of the law”. He lived only by faith, but it was the kind of faith that led to the keeping of the law. It must be so, for as the seed is, so the plant must be.
One more comment on this topic. This is a quote from a commentary on Galatians 5:3 –
“I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.”
“There!” exclaims some one, “that shows that the law is a thing to be avoided; for Paul says that those who are circumcised have got to do the whole law; and he warns them not to be circumcised.”
Not quite so hasty, my friend. Stick a little more closely to the text. Read it again, and you will see that the bad thing is not the law, nor the doing of the law, but that the thing to be avoided is being a debtor to the law. Is there not a vast difference? It is a good thing to have food to eat and clothes to wear, but it is a sorrowful thing to be in debt for these necessary things. Sadder yet is it to be in debt for them, and yet to lack them.
A debtor is one who owes something. He who is in debt to the law, owes what the law demands, namely, righteousness. Therefore, whoever is in debt to the law is under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.” So to attempt to get righteousness by any other means than by faith in Christ is to incur the curse of eternal debt. He is eternally in debt, for he has nothing wherewith to pay; yet the fact that he is in debt to the law,–debtor to do the whole law,–shows that he ought to do it all. How shall he do it?–“This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” John 6:29. Let him cease trusting in himself, and receive and confess Christ in his flesh, and then the righteousness of the law will be fulfilled in him, because he will not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
– E.J. Waggoner, The Glad Tidings.
I like the image Paul.
Well said, Frank, I appreciate your insight.
Frank,
You nailed it brother!
Fellows,
Well, how pleasant it is when brethren agree!
I had one other thought that someone once shared with me regarding Romans 7. Paul says there that he “was alive without the law once”.
Yet we know he was raised a Pharisee, and would have learned nothing but law, law, law (mixed up with some traditions, also). Large parts of the Scriptures would be committed to memory.
How then could he say that he did not know the law? Simply that he did not see what it was really saying, as it applied to the inmost thoughts and motives of the heart. When he saw that, then he saw himself as utterly condemned and dead in God’s sight.
So, may not the same be true of us? We think we understand God’s requirements, but in actual fact we hardly yet understand them:
“I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.” Ps. 119:96
But I have a question. Paul says that God made him a minister of the new testament, or of the spirit, not of the letter, for the letter kills. So then, what is the role for the Law? Our reformers seemed to think both the law and the gospel were necessary to be preached, and that people would not come to the gospel if they were not first convicted by the law that they were in need of help. Isn’t there a need for the law to kill the old stony heart in us? Is that the same as the ministration of death?
My answer to what is the role of the Law (by which I assume you mean Mosaic Law) is:
The Law tells us what sin is.
The Law stirs up sin in us so we clearly see our guilt, add to our guilt and have to crumble in that guilt and have our mouths stopped.
The Law eliminates options and leads us to Christ.
“Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” is where salvation begins. This quote is from the OT, or the Law (Genesis 4:26; Psalm 116:13; Joel 2:32). So even under the Law the Gospel is still what saved–The Gospel was preached before unto Abraham (Gal. 3:8).
A person does not need to know the Law in order to be saved. They need the Gospel and that was true even in the ages under the Law–Jonah in Ninevah did not give a discourse on the Ten Commandments.
However, in order to better understand the Gospel, sin, guilt, redemption, sacrifice, atonement, and pretty much everything else, the Law is quite helpful.
Jeff,
Yes, generally I mean the Mosaic Law, although it encompasses everything (love to God and love to man are the two great laws, upon these hang the 4 and 6 commandments of the ten, and upon those hang all the law and the prophets). The Law (properly and spiritually understood) is an expression of God’s character, so it covers every attribute of God.
When Paul said the “law is not of faith” he must have been referring to the law in the sense of a code of conduct…but Jesus also said that “faith and mercy” were some of the “weightier matters of the law” (Matt. 23:23), so it appears that the Law can be considered in different roles and aspects.
I thought your description about the role of the Law was good, albeit a bit negative…if you look at it in the positive aspect, it shows us what the righteousness and holiness of God is like…so it does not just depress us with a view of our wretchedness, but gives us a glimpse of something better.
You lost me on the comment about Jonah. True, Jonah did not give a discourse about the ten commandments, but neither did he preach about the cross of Christ! He pointed them to the judgment that was coming because of their sins, and that must have included laying out what those sins were. That would definitely fall under the role of the Law. There was no intimation of forgiveness in the plain Bible description of his message, but somehow that must have been present also, because the folks got the idea that they could avert the judgment by turning to God.
Also, you stated “a person does not need to know the Law in order to be saved.” Indeed? How can this be? If by the law is the knowledge of sin, can a person be saved without a knowledge of sin? Why would he want to be saved if he did not know himself as lost? From what would he be saved from?
To express it in a practical way, would a person go for cancer treatments if he did not think he had cancer? Would he do it “just to be safe?”
My description was negative, however, I’m not the one who called it the “ministration of death,” which is also quite negative.
I lost me on the Jonah comment too.
I guess it depends what you mean by “know the law.” If by law you generally mean “a command of God” or if you mean the whole law–commands, temple, priests, sacrifices, etc.
A guy has to know he is a sinner to know he needs salvation. The law tells us what sin is, but so does our dad or our conscience. A guy can be aware of his sin and not “know the law” or even where to find it in the Bible.
However, if you mean general morality as law, then that would be implied knowledge. The Gentiles show the law written in their heart when they do right. So heathen Gentiles “know the law” because it’s in their heart, but I would not equate this with a Pharisee who memorized the whole thing.
So it depends what you mean by “know the law” to be saved.
Jeff,
Thanks for the reply. Yes it was a ministration of death, but yet had some glory associated with it, which the children of Israel saw in the shining of Moses’ face. In Moses, they had an example of one who had been in the presence of the Law-giver, and yet was not destroyed. So there was a kind of promise there (that they could do the same), it was not all negative.
But after some thought (and I keep coming back here because you make us think!), I’m coming to the conclusion that the Law is actually wrapped up in the Gospel in a more glorious manner. What do we see in the life of Jesus? The Father’s will, the Law, lived out in beauty and glory. What do we see in His death? The greatness and utter unchangeableness of the Law, that it required the death of the Son of God to atone for it’s transgression. What do we see in His words? The promises that His life in us will do the same deeds (in our smaller sphere) as it did in His.
It is as if in the 10 commandments we had a book about an apple tree: what it looks like, and what it does not look like. But then along comes a living apple tree, and how much more glorious it is!
“He will magnify the Law and make it honourable.” Isa. 42:21