October 29th: God’s Law and Christian Liberty
Speaker: Chris Laws
What does Paul mean when he says we “are not under the law”, and what is New Testament Christian “liberty”? Two chapters from the Confession on the place of God’s commandments today.Paul says we “are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom 6.14).
Introduction
Christ says: “the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1.17).
The NT age has been ushered in, and grace and truth have come.
We all know that we cannot be “justified by the works of the law” (Gal 2.16), only by grace.
The era of Law has given way to the era of grace.
Many are saying the OT Law is not for today.
Example: The LORD’S DAY (4th c)
It is now normal not to observe the Lord's day. One service, then football… Or superbowl, no service.
Reason: we “are not under the law, but under grace.”
This is the new norm among evangelicals – one service.
The New Calvinism – the Sabbath is routinely broken & worldliness replaces worship.
Eg John Piper, (Desiring God): “Under the new covenant, no Christian is bound to the fourth commandment as such.”
New Calvinists say OT laws are 'legalism', and this is an age of Christian liberty.
Charles Leiter/The Law of Christ (July 2012) – the Law of Moses was part of the Old Covenant, and hence only meant to guide God's people until the New Covenant came in. Now we have the Law of Christ.
WHAT ABOUT THE LAW FOR CHRISTIANS?
(1) Ten Commandments
BCF 19.1: God wrote “a law of universal obedience” in the heart of Adam. Universal – for all men, saved and unsaved.
Rom 2.14 “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these…show
the work of the law written in their hearts.”
1000s of years before Moses and the Law. Nothing written down.
Then the Ten Commandments delivered to Moses. The moral law.
They too are for all men not just Israel. God’s moral laws have always been written in the heart of man.
Here is what God loves and hates, what He is like. Same for us today.
BCF 19.2: “The same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness…and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in the Ten Commandments.”
Uniquely important.
● Spoken and written in stone by God Himself.
Deut 5.22 “And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.”
● All ten affirmed in New Testament by Christ and the apostles.
Christ did not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it. God’s mind has not changed.
Matt 5.17 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot [smallest letter] or one tittle [tiny accent] shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
The Ten Commandments are unique. For all time, especially for believers today.
Should be our desire to keep God’s standards.
Rom 3.31 “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea we establish the law.”
BCF 19.5 “The moral law ever binds to obedience everyone, justified people as well as others…nor does Christ in the Gospel dissolve this law in any way, but He considerably strengthens our obligation to obey it.”
John Piper and Charles Leiter are wrong. We are guilty when we disobey it.
James writes to believers (2.10) “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
God is unchanging, and these are His unchanging standards, what He requires of everybody.
They are also an unsurpassed code of conduct for men.
Never ever they have been superseded. The moral law remains, still in force.
(2) Ceremonial law.
Obviously not under these laws today. Complex, a lot of ceremonies, sacrifices, washings, food laws.
● Only temporary pictures
The sacrifices were only ever pictures, a “shadow of good things to come…for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin” (Heb 10.1, 4).
The sacrifices pictured what Christ would do; He has done it once and for all!
The ceremonial law has done its job. It is now obsolete.
Christ has “abolished…the law of commandments contained in ordinances” (Eph 2.15).
Paul’s usual language for ceremonies, sacrifices, washings, food laws – these have been “abolished”. Job done!
● Wrong today to keep them
The Judaizers hung onto the ceremonial alongside grace – disaster! Destroyed grace.
Paul taught: Gal 5.1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
● No longer possible
Connected with the Temple. The Temple was destroyed AD70, and cannot be rebuilt (Dome of the Rock AD 691).
Most ceremonial is now no longer possible. Ceremonial was temporary.
● We are exempted
Christian liberty “is exemption from the ceremonies of the law…demanded by the false apostles” (Calvin).
To have rituals, rosaries, vestments, etc is to go back to the OT.
BCF 19.3 “All of these ceremonial laws were appointed only until…Christ…cancelled them and took them away.”
(3) Jewish civil law
Laws of the nation of Israel – slavery, property boundaries, flat roof balustrades, etc.
Eg. 1 Cor 9.9-10: “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.”
The Jews are no longer a nation, but spread all round the globe.
The Jewish settlers since 1948 don't observe them.
What use are they now? Why are they in the Bible?
Still applicable to us. Eg Not muzzling the ox teaches the support of pastors.
BCF 19.4: “To the people of Israel he also gave sundry judicial laws which expired when they ceased to be a nation. These are not binding on anyone now…but their underlying principles continue to be applicable.”
Conclusion
So the moral law (Ten Commandments) remains, but the ceremonial and judicial laws of OT Israel have gone.
Grace and truth have not done away with the Moral Law.
IN WHAT SENSE ARE WE NOT UNDER THE LAW?
We are freed from the Law of Moses in a number of ways, listed in BCF 21.1:
(1) The guilt of sin. Gal 3.13 “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.”
Guilt of sin. How many unbelievers live with troubled consciences? There is a peace which passes all
understanding.
(2) God’s wrath & everlasting condemnation. John 3.16 “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.”
Transgression of the Law met with the death penalty.
(3) Slavish fear of God. Rom 8.15 “For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received
the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”
THE USE OF THE LAW
First it led us to Him. “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ” (Gal 3.24)
We saw our great need.
Now we have been changed and it is no longer our enemy, but our helper.
Ezekiel 36.36-7 “A new heart also will I give you...and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.”
We are as believers enabled to “sweetly and cheerfully do those things...revealed in the law” (BCF 19.7).
It becomes a friend in the walk of holiness.
Read God’s Rules for Holiness
