The Law: A Guide to God's Will and Purpose

God for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshippers having once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sins but in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins consequently when Christ came into the world he said sacrifices and offerings you have not desired but a body you have prepared for me in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure then I said behold I have come to do your will oh God as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. [00:47:48]

When we think of the law of God encapsulated in the Ten Commandments we're thinking of something that is even more than that we're thinking not simply in terms of legislation but in terms of Revelation but in as much as the Ten Commandments give to us that apt summary it is an expression in specific detail of God's will and purpose for the life life of man and when I use man I mean for the life of humanity that instead of the Ten Commandments being viewed as some restrictive mechanism that would spoil and ruin life when we consider them with any care at all and certainly if we come to them with a believing heart we realize why it is that Paul in Romans 12 after he has encouraged his Believers to submit themselves entirely to God and then he says and you're going to do this in relation to his will which is his good pleasing and perfect will. [00:242:04]

There are two essential perils that confront Us in relationship to these things on the one hand is the danger of dealing with the law in such a way that we Embrace a form of legalism essentially an approach to things which conceives of the idea that salvation is dependent upon observing various laws and fulfilling various regulations now Paul has dealt with that in Galatians very clearly I won't go through all these different referen but if you're making a note at all you just note Galatians 2: 15 and 16 Paul is hitting that head on and he's taking on these people who are suggesting that that is the case and he says if anyone was going to come to you with a gospel like this then actually he should be let him be a curse that's how strongly he felt about it the the at the other end of the spectrum of course is antinomianism nomos is law anti or anti is against against the law so you have a certain group of people who are saying the key the key to Salvation is in the rules and regulations and in our fastidious obedience and on the other hand you have the person who is there saying that the law of God no longer has any place in the lives of of Believers so you know there's no reason for us to give consideration to it so in summary form the legalist sees the law as the solution and the an antinomian sees the law as the problem. [00:681:48]

What does Paul actually mean when he says you are not under law but under grace because in any conversation regarding the place of the law and the life of the Christian it's only about a minute and a half for somebody will say well wait a minute after all it says in the Bible that the law has got nothing at all to do with us Paul says it in Romans chapter 6 well if you listen carefully to Romans chapter 8 when we began the service you'll know that in verse four he says that he he is concerned that the that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in The Believer so he's not contradicting himself therefore we need to understand what it is he says when he says that now the answer to that I can give you in just perhaps three straightforward statements what Paul means by that or what we are to understand by that is first of all that we are not as Believers under the law as a means or as a way of justification we're not under the law as a way of justification again Galatians Paul states with this Galatians 3:11 clearly says Paul no one is just ified before God by the law now one of the ways in testing whether in our lives we have confidence in the finished work of Christ and we've addressed this in our hymns this evening I think very carefully and very helpfully one of the ways in which we can explain to ourselves that we have a solid experiential grasp of the this essential truth is to determine how we react to the accusations of the evil one. [00:794:16]

The law is not the dynamic of sanctification either again Paul if you are led by by the spirit you are not under law in other words we say no to sin and yes to righteousness not as a result of struggling to keep the law but by the power of the indwelling spirit now I can spent a long time working through this but I think it suffice simply to say that the believer gives up looking to the law in terms of any of this ceremonial legislation and mosaic material that's why we're not doing the sacrifices that's why we're not going back to these things that's why the Council of Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15 was so crucial because they were hammering out these very issues well where what part then does all this old stuff fit in our Newfound profession of faith in Jesus and as they worked that out together they were laying down if you like a foundational premise from which everything else must follow so the believer gives up looking to the law for justification or for sanctification when when the reformers picked up this material they spoke in terms of the three-fold function of the law and they spoke of the law first of all in terms of its civil or political function obviously within the context of the Mosaic law but even beyond that the reformers were quick to point out that as we said in the outset the 10 Commandments the moral law of God actually are a specific summary statement of how the world is able to work perfectly according to the plan of the Creator. [00:1083:84]

If you just think about it every so often I say to somebody in in a department store when they've they've caught some poor sto for trying to steal a handbag or something I I'll often say can you imagine what it would be like if just for one week everybody everybody in the United States of America obey the Ten Commandments and usually the answer is well it would shut down the entire nation well yes it would actually I mean it would just bring everything to a crashing halt so the reformers were very clear when people come around and say you know the way the the pathway to freedom is to is to overturn these these Dreadful and and ridiculous commands of God then the reformers said no that is actually the pathway to chaos because the law of the Lord is perfect there's a reason why the Ten Commandments are in the retunda in some in where where the Supreme Court says there's a reason why British J jurist prudence and American law is as it is it was because at the outset of things the founders of the nation agreed with the reformers about the Civil and political place of the law in establishing the bounds of a civilization and of a country. [00:1212:56]