The Church Must Preach The Law

The Church must preach God's law. We are not trying to get justified through obedience to the law. We preach law to help the lost see they are lost. It was after all, Paul, who said,

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me (Romans 7:7-10).

We preach God's law to help people come to grips with the fact that they have to deal with God. They may only be thinking about civil authorities. But, in reality, their problem is with God. They rebel against Him. 

Adapted from Strong and Courageous: Following Jesus Amid the Rise of America’s New Religion by Tom Ascol and Jared Longshore

R.C. Sproul on What Parts of the Law are Still Relevant Today

The Law As A Guide

When Christ came and finished the sacrifice for sin—granting pardon for all who have faith in Him—the Old Covenant schoolmaster gave way to the New Covenant power within every believer. Now our obedience not only reflects the two greatest commandments (Mark 12:30–31) but also sums up the expression of the Law in all of its moral and ethical intention. Laws reflecting exclusive devotion to God and sacrificial love toward others do not change; they are mirrored in the New Covenant. All laws foreshadowing redemptive realities to be fulfilled in Christ are no longer ethically binding now that He is the fullest expression of those truths:

•​No more civil and national separation from other nations—because we are now set apart in Christ and sent into the world for the gospel.

•​No more circumcision—because circumcision is now “of the heart” (Rom 2:29).

•​No more clean/unclean things—because “God has cleansed” (Acts 10:15).

•​No more holy days—because redemption and rest are gained in Christ (Heb 4:11).

•​No more sacrifices—because Christ was sacrificed “once for all” (Heb 7:27).

•​No more central temple—because believers are now the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:17).

Yet, the love ethic inherent in God’s Law crosses over into the New Covenant since God’s love is not merely a foreshadowing of Christ’s saving purpose but the supreme expression of His Person.

Evangelicalism’s current one-sidedness with the doctrine of sanctification has produced serious confusion about the role of God’s Law, and even nurtured in some a rash disregard for the Ten Commandments specifically and all biblical commands in general. All of this is not only unnecessary, it is unhelpful. Just like the psalmist, we can delight in the Law of God because it reflects Who He is, it defines our obligation before Him, and it guides our life toward Him. The Law is not a burden from God, it is a grace. Just as sure as we love God, we must love His Law.

Adapted from Free to Be Holy: The Liberating Grace of Walking by Faith by Jerry Wragg and Paul Shirley

5 Reasons Why God Giving The Law Was A Gracious Ministry

When God gave the Law to Israel under the Old Covenant, it was a gracious ministry to His people in several ways:

1.​It revealed the exceeding sinfulness of man’s depraved heart (Rom 3:19–20). Of course, guilt was still a reality in fallen man (Rom 5:13–14) even before anyone was aware of the Law’s moral high ground, but its arrival in Israel exposed just how dark and dead our corruption is (Rom 7:13).

2.​It revealed sin’s aggressive, enslaving nature (Rom 7:8–13). Paul said it is the corruption within us, not the Law, which rails at God’s holy standard (John 3:20) only to bring further condemnation against the sinner (Rom 7:8–13).

3.​It was given as a custodian/teacher to bring its subjects to the end of themselves that they might see their need for a Savior (Gal 3:24).

4.​It restrained outward anarchy to protect the moral, social, and religious institutions of Israel.

5.​It hemmed the nation in with promises of blessings and cursings to keep them from running violently away from its unbending standard (Lev 26; Deut 28).

Adapted from Free to Be Holy: The Liberating Grace of Walking by Faith by Jerry Wragg and Paul Shirley

Around The Web-October 14, 2016

Danger Signs of an Unhealthy Dating Relationship by Tim Challies

Why Didn't The Reformers Unite by Sean Michael Lucas

Is There Such a Thing as Church Authority? by Greg Gilbert

A Gospeled Church by Jared C Wilson

Make The Most of Sunday Morning by P.J. Tibayan

Mike Boling reviews A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the Old and New Testament

Resources for Standing Firm in a Faithless Age which features Tim Keller's latest book

Ligonier is now offering a study by Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman called, Marks of a Healthy Church

3 Ways Marriage Proclaims The Gospel by Josh Buice

Can grace and law coexist? Bryan Chappell answers that question.



Finally, the new trailer to Rogue One has been released which shows a very familiar villain

Law/Gospel

God's Word has two parts-the law and the gospel-and there is a danger in either confusing or separating them. The law commands and the gospel gives. The law says, "Do," and the gospel says, "Done." Equally God's Word, both are good, but God does different things through them.

In the widest sense, the law is everything in Scripture that commands, and the gospel is everything in Scripture that makes promises based solely on God's grace to us in Christ. But in a narrower sense, the gospel is 1 Corinthians 15:3-4: "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day pin accordance with the Scriptures." The content of the gospel is the announcement that Christ was crucified and raised for our salvation in fulfillment of the Scriptures. At the same time, the gospel includes God's gracious fulfillment in Christ of all of the promises related to the new creation. That's why Paul can answer his question: "Shall we then sin that grace may abound?" with more gospel: union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, so that we're no longer under sin's dominion. The gospe; isn't just enough to justify the ungodly; it's enough to regenerate and sanctify the ungodly. However, only because (in the narrower sense) the good news announces our justification are we for the first time free to embrace God as our Father rather than our Judge. We have been saved from condemnation and tyranny of sin. Both are essential to the "glad tidings" that we proclaim.

We can also speak of the law and gospel in the redemptive-historical sense, as the covenantal principle of inheritance. The history of salvation moves from promise to fulfillment, from shadow to reality. In this sense, the law is not opposed to the gospel.

Yet when it comes to how we receive the gift-how redemption is applied to us by the Spirit-we are saved apart from the law. Law and gospel are completely opposed in this sense, since they are two different bases of principles of inheritance. We are saved by Christ or by our own obedience, but we cannot be saved by both. Interestingly, Paul includes both senses in Romans 3:21: "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law [justification in order of salvation], although the Law and the Prophets [i.e., the Old Testament writings] bear witness to it."

Finally, Lutheran and Reformed traditions distinguish (without separating) three uses of the law: the first (pedagogical), to expose our guilt and corruption, driving us to Christ; the second, a civil use to restrain public vice; and the third, to guide Christian obedience. Believers are not "under the law" in the first sense. They are justified. However, they are still obligated to the law, both as it is stipulated and enforced by the state (second use) and as it frames Christian discipleship (third use). We never ground our status before God in our obedience to imperatives, but in Christ's righteousness; yet we are also bound to Christ, who continues to lead and direct us by his holy will.

Michael Horton, Pilgrim Theology