“Was the law abolished?”

September 2017 – Grace & Truth Magazine

QUESTION: Was the law abolished by grace through Christ Jesus?

ANSWER: When Paul wrote Romans he did not write as if the law had been abolished. But he tells us that the believer's relationship to the law had changed radically.

Beginning in Romans 5:12 we see that sin was in the world from the time our first parents sinned in the garden of Eden. People died as a consequence of sin. Death ever has been the wages of sin. After God gave Israel the law at Mount Sinai, violating the law was not only sin, but was also transgression. The law entered that the offense might abound. Yet "where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" (v.20 NKJV). Thank God!

Romans 7 tell us that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. The law has not been abolished and is not dead, but we as Christians have died to the law. "Now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter" (v.6). The next verses go on to speak of the purpose of the law. "The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good" (v.12). Verse 14 adds, "We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." The chapter ends with a cry for deliverance � and with God's answer: Jesus Christ our Lord!

The law could not help us. It could only condemn us. There was nothing wrong with the law; the problem lay with us, with the flesh. But God sent "His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (8:3-4). As Christians we walk according to the Spirit � even according to the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This has made us free from "the law of sin and death." We are led by the Spirit of God, children of God and heirs of God; and we can cry, "Abba, Father."

The Holy Spirit dwells in us and helps us in our weaknesses � something that the Law was never able to do. What blessings are ours in our Lord Jesus Christ!

Answered by Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.