Do We Need The Law?

Most believers know they are not under the law, but under grace (cf. Rom. 6:14); however, they are not lawless and do not have contempt for the law, but know it has its place.  The law was never given to be a way of salvation, but only to show our need, to measure us.  The law was given to show us we cannot keep it!  The Hebrews vowed they would keep all the law when it was given, but they should have asked for mercy, knowing such a law was impossible to keep.  The Christian life is not hard, it's impossible too!  We must live by faith and express it through love, for love is the fulfillment of the law.

The law of love is harder to satisfy than any code though!  Thank God Jesus lived it and the law's righteousness is credited or imputed to our account in the Divine Ledger up above.  We all fall short, and perfection is only the standard, the direction is the test as we grow in expressing faith through love (cf. Gal. 5:6, NIV).  In essence, the law is for the lawless and the lawbreaker (cf. 1 Tim. 1:9)!  We don't only have the law to guide us in right and wrong, we also have a conscience, the Holy Spirit, and the totality of Scripture as our plumb line to convict us of wrongdoing.

There are several purposes of the law for the believer (its purpose was formulated in the first Lutheran confession of faith known as the Formula of Concord in 1577):  a mirror to show us what we are like inside with all our guilt, insecurities, sin, and uncleanness--wrinkles and all; a sword to divide soul from spirit; a whip that drives us to the cross for mercy, and a hammer to smash our self-righteousness! The moral code is a guide to enlighten us to the Way, for morality never changes. It's a perfect standard of righteousness that only Jesus fulfilled.

The law was also ordained to restrain evil in society and provide for orderliness. To the Christian, it never loses its ability to convict of sin and to be a light unto our path.  But we must realize that the whole law is summed up in loving God and our neighbor as its fulfillment. The whole idea is to make us realize we cannot save ourselves no matter how righteous we think we are and no matter how good we are to our standards--we always fall short of the divine standard in Christ.

There are four types of laws that I want to mention, and disobeying each one has its consequences,   BUT WE ARE NOT ANTINOMIANS OR AGAINST THE LAW!  NB:  Nowhere in the NT are we exhorted to obey the Law, or to become somewhat Jewish--we must use it righteously--it's only a shadow (cf. Heb. 10:1)!

The first is the law of nature (SOME FIFTY UNIVERSAL CONSTANTS), e.g., the weak and strong nuclear force, the force of gravity, the speed of light, the speed of sound, the freezing of water, the charge on the electron, and even the nuclear weight of the proton and neutron, et al., and there are some fifty of them to consider and are uniform and consistent throughout the universe.  The laws of motion also come to mind:  an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion; each force exerted is met by an equal and opposite force; force equals mass times acceleration. 

The second law to consider is the moral law:  there is a moral compass in man's heart and conscience given by God, and guilt is meant to signal that we break it, there are consequences for wrongdoing to our soul's health, we don't toy with sin and get away with it! What was right in Moses' time is still right and what was wrong is still wrong--morality is absolute, universal, and also timeless.  If you ignore your conscience it may go away but this may lead to becoming perverted, degenerate, destitute, criminal, psychopathic, or worse!  It doesn't pay to ignore the signals of what God has ordained to restrain evil in man.

The third type of law is governmental (THE POWERS THAT BE), which is instituted by God and meant to keep evil at bay and provide for the public welfare--we no longer can survive with tribalism or patriarchal society.  Government, according to Augustine, is not a necessary evil, but necessary because of evil.  We are to fear government and submit to it unless it contradicts God and it has been given the power of the sword to enforce its laws--under God!

The last and probably most important law to bear in mind is the spiritual one (THE FIVE ONLY'S):  the way of salvation is only by grace through faith in Christ and saving faith must go hand in hand with repentance--one can imagine this as either penitent faith or believing repentance, but they must bear fruit to be genuine and not bogus.   Faith is manifest by trust in Jesus as Savior and embracing Him as Lord.

The savvy preacher knows how to discern and demonstrate law and gospel: the law is what God requires from us and God's expectations or standards; the gospel is the good news about what Christ has done for us in the cross and resurrection--solving the sin problem or the breaking of the law. NB:  Christ is the end of the Law for believers unto righteousness (cf. Rom. 10:4); Christ abolished the law (cf. Eph. 2:15).

What does this all mean in essence?  What can we take away from this going forward?  Laws couldn't exist without a lawgiver, right?  All these laws are indicators of a Supreme Lawgiver far superior to anything we can fathom!  Law implies a Lawgiver--this is reasonable to believe!  We all must beware lest we violate any of God's laws that apply to us, for God disciplines and chastens His children and they don't get away with sin or lawlessness.  Also, each law has its natural consequence which cannot be avoided any more than we can avoid gravity--we violate at our peril!     Soli Deo Gloria!