The Law And The Christian – What The Bible Says

Feature 4 – September 2020 – Grace & Truth Magazine

The Law And The Christian
– What The Bible Says

When Was The Law Given?

• “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made ... And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred thirty years later ...” (Gal. 3:16-17 NKJV).
• “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses” (Rom. 5:13-14).
• “For the law was given through Moses” (Jn. 1:17).

Why Was The Law Given?

• “What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions” (Gal. 3:19).
• “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound” (Rom. 5:20).
• “I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet’” (7:7).
• “But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful” (v.13).
• “Whatever the law say, it says ... that ... all the world may become guilty before God” (3:19).
• “By the law is the knowledge of sin” (v.20).

What The Law Cannot Do

• Make man obey God:
  The law is a “yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear” (Acts 15:10).
  You “have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it” (7:53).
  “...The righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us ... the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh” (Rom. 8:4,3).
• Justify:
  “All things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses ...” (Acts 13:39).
  “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident” (Gal. 3:11).
• Give life:
  “If there had been a law given which could have given life ...” (v.21).
• Make perfect:
  “The law ... can never ... make those who approach perfect” (Heb. 10:1).
  “The law made nothing perfect” (7:19).

What The Law Is

• “The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Rom. 7:12).
• But for men, the law is also:
  “The ministry of death, written and engraved on stones ... the ministry of condemnation” (2 Cor. 3:7-9).
• A curse:
  “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them” (Gal. 3:10).
  “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law” (v.13).
• Only a shadow:
  “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things ...” (Heb. 10:1).
  Feast days “or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Col. 2:16-17).

The Law Remains

• “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets ... but to fulfill” (Mt. 5:17).
• “But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane ...” (1 Tim. 1:8-9).
• The law is useful to bring us types of Christ (sacrifices, tabernacle), instruction, examples and principles of God’s moral character (see 1 Cor. 10–11).

But The Law Is No Longer The Principle By Which Man Can Find Relationship With God

• “The law and the prophets were until John [the Baptist],” meaning that a new period was starting with the coming of earth of the Lord Jesus (Lk. 16:16).
• “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4).
• “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ ... But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor” (Gal. 3:24-25).

The Christian Is No Longer Under The Law

• “My brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another ... But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by” (Rom. 7:4,6).
• “I through the law died to the law that I might live to God” (Gal. 2:19).
• “We are not under the law but under grace” (Rom. 6:15).
• “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Gal. 5:18).

Summary

• The law was given by God to show men what sin is.
• The law brings condemnation to us, and brought condemnation to Christ.
• As identified with Christ, the Christian died through the law and in regard to the law.
• Being dead to the law, the law has no power over the Christian.
• The Christian is now called to walk by the Spirit and to follow Christ.
• The Christian’s standard or model is no less than Christ, and not the law.
• Living by the Spirit, walking according to the Spirit, the Christian can fulfill what the law requires, not being under its commandment but being under Christ and transformed to His image.

Adapted from a tract by Christian Bookstore, Castries