Overview of the Law

Psalm 119:97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

Psalm 119:102–104 I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

Threefold Division of the Law

Great Commandment (Summary of the 10 Commandments)

Matthew 22:34–40 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Ten Commandments

Moral Law

Publication of the natural law written on the conscience of men’s hearts.

Romans 2:15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.

Affirmed by 1689 19:2

A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 Chapter 19: Of the Law of God (John Reuther)

2. The same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall, and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables, the four first containing our duty towards God, and the other six, our duty to man.

Reveals God’s holy and righteous character and since God does not change the Moral Law abides over all people everywhere.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

1689 19:5 speaks of the perpetual requirements of obedience to the Law

A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 Chapter 19: Of the Law of God (John Reuther)

5. The moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof, and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it;11 neither doth Christ in the Gospel any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation.

Ceremonial Law

Application of the first table of the Law (Love God) fulfilled in Christ.

Clean unclean foods.

Sacrifices.

Priesthood.

Temple.

A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 Chapter 19: Of the Law of God (John Reuther)

3. Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly holding forth divers instructions of moral duties,7 all which ceremonial laws being appointed only to the time of reformation, are, by Jesus Christ the true Messiah and only law-giver, who was furnished with power from the Father for that end abrogated and taken away.

Civil Law

Application of the 2nd Table (Love Neighbor) for society and culture at large.

Think case law.

These Laws still stand in the general equity principle of them as they show us how to live out the 2nd table in particular situations.

A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 Chapter 19: Of the Law of God (John Reuther)

4. To them also He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution; their general equity only being of moral use.

Example of General Equity Principle

Church discipline requires the evidence of two or three witnesses (Matthew 18:15-20, 1 Timothy 5:19).

1 Timothy 5:17–18 Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”

Three Uses of the Law

1. Mirror

Condemn our sin and show us our need for Christ.

Galatians 3:24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

1689: The Law requires 1. Personal, 2. Entire, 3. Exact and 4. Perpetual obedience (19:1)

A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 Chapter 19: Of the Law of God (John Reuther)

God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart, and a particular precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; by which He bound him and all his posterity to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience;

2. Restrain Evil

1689 19:6

A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 Chapter 19: Of the Law of God (John Reuther)

it is likewise of use to the regenerate to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin; and the threatenings of it serve to shew what even their sins deserve,

3. Rule of Life

1689 19:6

A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 Chapter 19: Of the Law of God (John Reuther)

6. Although true believers be not under the law as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified or condemned, yet it is of great use to them as well as to others, in that as a rule of life, informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly;

1689 19:7 says the law sweetly complies with the Gospel by the Holy Spirit empowering and enabling us to “freely and cheerfully” follow Christ.

A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 Chapter 19: Of the Law of God (John Reuther)

7. Neither are the aforementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the Gospel, but do sweetly comply with it, the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully which the will of God, revealed in the law, requireth to be done.

1 John 5:2–3 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Antinomianism/Legalism

Legalism

Legalism does either one of two things.

The first way to have Legalism is to look to good works for salvation…

Of saying I’m righteous by my works and not the finished work of Christ.

The other way you can have legalism is to be like the Pharisees who held other men to man-made self righteous standards teaching the commandments of men as doctrines of God (Matthew 15:9).

You have the classics like you can’t drink, you can’t smoke, you can’t dance.

Or you hold others to your religious scruples and peculiarities as the standard of what it means to be a real Christian.

Antinomianism

The other side of the ditch is Antinomianism based off the Greek word nomos which is the Greek word for Law.

So Anti-law.

We are saved by grace, grace, grace, grace, grace so there is no need for any kind of Christian obedience.

We are not saved by good works but we are saved to good works.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10).

As Jesus said If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15).

And as John says Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked (1 John 2:6).

But we are not under the law! We are under grace! (Romans 6:14).

But keep reading.

Romans 6:15 “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!”

Romans 3:31 “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.”

Justification by grace through faith establishes the righteousness of God in the Law (just and justifier). But that the Law is fulfilled in Christ does not nullify the abiding moral norms of the Law.