The following may be helpful as an outline of Scripture teaching on this important
subject. The moral law only is referred to in the passages cited.
1. WHAT THE LAW IS.
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good (Rom.
7:12).
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin (Rom. 7:14).
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man (Rom. 7:22).
But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully (1 Tim. 1:8).
And the law is not of faith (Gal. 3:12),
2. THE LAWFUL USE OF THE LAW.
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by
the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet (Rom.
7:7; see also ver. 13).
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by
the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20).
Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions (Gal. 3:19).
Now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the
law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God (Rom. 3:19).
[Law has but one language: "what things soever." It speaks only to condemn.]
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written,
Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of
the law to do them (Gal. 3:10).
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of
all (James 2:10).
The ministration of death, written and engraven in stones (2 Cor. 3:7).
The ministration of condemnation (2 Cor. 3:9).
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin
revived, and I died (Rom. 7:9).
The strength of sin is the law (1 Cor. 15:56).
It is evident, then, that God's purpose in giving the law, after the race had existed
twenty-five hundred years without it (John 1:17; Gal. 3:17), was to bring to guilty
man the knowledge of his sin first, and then of his utter helplessness in view of
God's just requirements. It is purely and only a ministration of condemnation and
death.
3. WHAT THE LAW CANNOT DO.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by
the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20).
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus
Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the
faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no
flesh be justified (Gal. 2:16).
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then
Christ is dead in vain (Gal. 2:21).
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just
shall live by faith (Gal. 3:11).
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending
his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh
(Rom. 8:3).
And by him, all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be
justified by the law of Moses (Acts 13:39).
For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the
which we draw nigh unto God (Heb. 7:19).
4. THE BELIEVER IS NOT UNDER THE LAW.
The 6th of Romans, after declaring the doctrine of the believer's identification with
Christ in His death, of which baptism is the symbol (vers.1-10), begins, with verse
11, the declarations of the principles which should govern the walk of the believer -
his rule of life. This is the subject of the remaining twelve verses; verse 14 gives
the great principle of his deliverance - not from the guilt of sin, that is met by
Christ's blood - but from the dominion of sin; his bondage under it.
"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under
grace."
Lest this should lead to the monstrous Antinomianism of saying that therefore a
godly life was not important, the Spirit immediately adds:
What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God
forbid (Rom. 6:15).
Surely every renewed heart answers "Amen" to this.
Then the 7th of Romans introduces another principle of deliverance from law.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ;
that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that
we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of
sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that
we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter (Rom. 7:4-
6).
(That this does not refer to the ceremonial law, see verse 7.)
For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God (Gal. 2:19).
But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us
unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no
longer under a schoolmaster (Gal. 3:23-25).
But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this, that the law
is not made for a righteous man (1 Tim. 1:8, 9).
5. WHAT IS THE BELIEVER'S RULE OF LIFE?
He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked (1
John 2:6).
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16).
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts,
which war against the soul (1 Pet. 2:11; see also verses 12-23).
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love (Eph. 4:1, 2).
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath given himself for us (Eph. 5:1, 2).
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children
of light (Eph. 5:8).
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time,
because the days are evil (Eph. 5:15, 16).
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh (Gal.
5:16).
For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you (John
13:15).
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my
Father's commandments, and abide in his love (John 15:10).
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you (John
15:12).
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me (John
14:21).
And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments,
and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That
we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he
gave us commandment (1 John 3:22, 23).
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord; I will
put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them (Heb. 10:16).
A beautiful illustration of this principle is seen in mother-love. The law of the
commonwealth requires parents to care for their offspring, and pronounces penalties
for the wilful neglect of them; but the land is full of happy mothers who tenderly care
for their children in perfect ignorance of the existence of such a statute. The law is in
their hearts.
It is instructive, in this connection, to remember that God's appointed place for the
tables of the law was within the ark of the testimony. With them were "the golden pot
that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded" (types, the one of Christ our
wilderness bread, the other of resurrection, and both speaking of grace), while they
were covered from sight by the golden mercy-seat upon which was sprinkled the
blood of atonement. The eye of God could see His broken law only through the
blood that completely vindicated His justice and propitiated His wrath (Heb. 9:4, 5).
It was reserved to modern nomolators to wrench these holy and just but deathful
tables from underneath the mercy-seat and the atoning blood, and erect them in
Christian churches as the rule of Christian life.
6. WHAT IS GRACE?
But after that the kindness and love of Gad our Saviour toward man appeared . . .
according to his mercy he saved us (Titus 3:4, 5).
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:7).
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us (Rom. 5:8).
7. WHAT IS GOD'S PURPOSE IN GRACE?
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of
God: not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:8, 9).
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us
that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and
godly, in this present world: looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11-13).
That, being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life (Titus 3:7).
Being justified freely by his grace., through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus
(Rom. 3:24).
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand (Rom. 5:2).
And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able
to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified
(Acts 20:32).
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of his grace (Eph. 1:6, 7).
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and
find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).
How complete, how all-inclusive! Grace saves, justifies, builds up, makes accepted,
redeems, forgives, bestows an inheritance, gives standing before God, provides a
throne of grace to which we may come boldly for mercy and help; it teaches us how to
live, and gives us a blessed hope!
It remains to note that these diverse principles cannot be intermingled.
And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it
be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work (Rom. 11:6).
Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness (Rom. 4:4, 5; see also Gal. 3:16-18; 4:21-31).
Finally:
So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free (Gal. 4:31).
For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire,
nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the
voice of words: which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be
spoken to them any more (for they could not endure that which was commanded, And
if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a
dart: and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake). But
ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and
church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to
the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel (Heb.
12:18-24).
It is not, then, a question of dividing what God spoke from Sinai into "Moral Law" and
"Ceremonial Law" - the believer does not come to that mount at all.
As old John Bunyan says:
"The believer is now, by faith in the Lord Jesus, shrouded under so perfect and
blessed a righteousness, that this thundering law of Mount Sinai cannot find the least
fault or diminution therein. THIS IS CALLED THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
WITHOUT THE LAW."
Should this meet the eye of an unbeliever, he is affectionately exhorted to accept the
true sentence of that holy and just law which he has violated: "For there is no
difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:22, 23).
In Christ such will find a perfect and eternal salvation, as it is written: "If thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9); for Christ is "the end of
the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. 10:4).
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