A SECOND USE of the law under the New Covenant of Grace, is that which Gal. 3:24 states “The law was our school master to bring us unto Christ”. By showing man’s penal debt; and high terms of the Covenant of Works, now impossible for the sinner to fulfill, the law prepares the soul to submit to the righteousness of the Redeemer.
The third and equally essential use of the law, appears to the believer, after his adoption. He is “chosen in Christ that he should be holy”; “redeemed from all iniquity to be Christ’s peculiar people, zealous of good works”. This great end, the believer’s sanctification, can only be attained in practice by giving him a holy rule of conduct. Such a rule is the law. It is to be assiduously observed, as the guide to that holiness which is the fruit of adoption.
A fourth important purpose of the law in the church, is that its precepts restrain the abounding of sin. The law partially instructs the conscience even of the unrenewed. They guide circular laws, and thus lay a foundation for a wholesome civil society. The law is preparatory for that use which God will make of it on the Judgment Day, for the conviction of His enemies. He is now in every message, preparing to close the mouths of the disobedient on that day. For these reasons, the preaching and expounding of the law is to be kept diligently in every gospel church.
In the light of the foregoing it becomes necessary to consider such Scriptures that create the wrong impression that Jesus Christ’s coming abrogated all God’s laws, such as Eph. 2: 15; Rom 6:14 and Rom 10:4. These passages generally refer to the ceremonial law which came to an end at the cross. However, it must be remembered that the ceremonial system (of ritual laws) as God gave it did not create the enmity between the judaising Jews and the Gentiles Apostle Paul describes in Eph. 2:15. It was the interpretation the Jews placed upon it, the additions they made to it, and the exclusive and hostile attitude they adopted as a result, that were the basis of the hostility. The added regulations together with the involved interpretations served to modify the force and function of the original commands or greatly nullify them.
Even the coming to an end of Judaism did not mean the abrogation of all the laws God had given to the Jews. The ceremonial law which pointed to Christ naturally came to an end when Christ fulfilled its type. The Jewish civil law had already passed away with the passing of the nation’s sovereignty. But the precepts of the moral law which are a transcript of the character of God Himself were not and can never be abrogated. They remain eternal and are applicable in all dispensations. In all his teachings on the Jewish legal system, Apostle Paul made it emphatically clear that the moral law was not abrogated.
Again, Rom. 10:4 “for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” with the Greek “telos” translated “end” in the emphasis, has been so abused and misinterpreted to mean that “Christ is the termination of all laws of God as such”, hence the common error that “the believer is not under the law”. This interpretation is that of the Anotinomians (errorists who consistently seek to exclude the law from the system of Christianity) is a pervation of the Scripture.
It is a direct contradiction of Rom 3:31 “Do we then make void the law through faith. God forbid; yea we establish it” Paul had said in verse 21 of this chapter that “the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law” (it must be observed that in the Greek, law stands without the article “the”). It is generally agreed to by Bible Scholars that in the absence of the article, the emphasis is being placed upon “law” primarily as an abstract and universal principle. And with the article, the stress is upon “the law” as a special and concrete code.
Apparently realizing that the statement in verse 21 of chapter 3 could be mistaken to mean that faith abolishes the principle of law, Apostle Paul himself raises the rhetorical question in verse 31 “Do we then make void the law” and answers it with an immediate and categorical denial: “God forbid, yea, we establish the law” with this it becomes very clear that law in its true function is confirmed, rather than abrogated by God’s appointed method of justifying sinners.
Paul in, “yea, we establish the law” emphasizes the place of law as a Christian principle, and particularly as it is embodied in the revealed law of the OT to the teaching that was soon to become known as NT (Rom 4:21). Now he asserts that law, viewed, as a revelation of the Holy will of God and of the eternal principles of morality, is fully vindicated and established by the Gospel of righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus came to this earth to reveal by His life of perfect obedience, that believers can through the empowering grace of God, give obedience to His law.
Further, the plan of justification by faith reveals God’s regard for His law in demanding and providing the atoning sacrifice. If justification by faith abolishes the law, then there would be no need for the atoning death of Christ to release the sinner from his sins and thus restore him to peace with God.
Moreover, genuine faith implies in itself a reserved willingness to fulfill the will of God in a life of obedience to His law. Real faith based on wholehearted love for the Saviour, can lead only to obedience. The fact that Christ endured such great -suffering because of human transgression of God’s law is one of the strongest motives for obedience. One of the chief glories of the plan of salvation is that while it made possible the sinner’s justification through faith, it also provides powerful influence to produce in him a desire to obey.
The plan of righteousness by faith places the law in its proper position. The function of the law is to convict the sin (Rom 3:20) and to reveal the great standard of righteousness. The sinner who is confronted with law, sees not only his sin; he sees also his lack of positive qualities. The law thus leads him to Christ and the Gospel (Gal. 3:24). Then faith and love bring forth a new obedience to the law that springs from faith (Rom. 1:5; 16) the obedience of love (Rom 13:8, 10).
The precise message of the gospel is that Christ is the end of the law as a way of righteousness to everyone who has faith in Him. Law here is a reference by Apostle Paul to the principle of law generally, rather than to any law in particular.
Rom 10:4 ‘for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth” does not in the least imply that righteousness could be obtained by law in the OT times, nor does it imply that with the coming of Christ, faith has been substituted for law as the way of righteousness, nor is it by any stretch of imagination to be taken to mean that Christ is the termination of law as such, and therefore men are no longer under obligation to obey God’s law. What has been brought to an end is the application of law as a means or method of obtaining salvation. Christ came to bring this error and abuse of law to an end and point the way back to faith. Such faith does not abolish law but rather establishes it, and makes it possible for men to fulfill the requirements of law.
Again, it has been argued that Rom 6: 14 say categorically “for sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace” here the Apostle’s reference is to law and grace in principle, hence neither the two in, Greek has the limiting expression of the article “the”. Paul is here talking about “salvation” and not of “sinlessness”. If men were to be in a state of “sinlessness” what would Christ have died for? Perpetual atonement on the cross would have been unnecessary, and unwarranted. And no act of God is without cause and effect. Jesus Himself asserted that He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it (see Matt 5:17-20)
God’s moral laws are applicable to His creations throughout all ages, and so, is His grace. The NT believer is not under the Jewish ritual ceremonial legal system for the procurement of atonement from sin and salvation of his soul. The believer must look up to, and appreciate with faith, the price paid by the vicarious suffering and death of Christ on the cross of Calvaryfor the atonement of his sins. Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice is the final sacrifice for the sins of mankind, for as He gave up the ghost on the cross and carried out “it is finished”. The angels in heaven echoed, “the burdens of mankind are rolled away”. This refers to the rolling away of the sins of mankind as well as the Jewish ceremonial laws of atonement by ritual sacrifices. This is implied in Mat. 11:29 and 30 – The yoke of Christ in the passage is none other than the Divine will of God as summed up in the moral laws of God and amplified in the sermons on the mount around AD 28 (Matt 5:1-7; also see Luke 6:20). The OT Rabbis also referred to “torah” (law) as a yoke, – not in the sense of its being a burden, but as a disciplined way of life, to which man must submit. (Mishna Aboth 3.5 and Baracoth 2.2 Soncina edition of Talmud pages 29, 30 and 75 respectively) The heavy burden of legal righteousness (of the ritual legal system) of securing atonement by works were rolled away atCalvary.
It is on this question of the authority and function of God’s law that the final conflict will come between Christ and Satan, on Satan’s deceptive proposition, that it is now no longer necessary nor required of the believer to give complete obedience to every precept of God’s law, (see Rev. 12:17; 14:12).
