LAWS PROPER USE

What is the LAWS PROPER USE?

The slanderous charge has been made in affirming that if the Christian is not under law we are rejecting a part of Scripture as the word of God for us.

1. We do not reject the law. On the contrary, we accept the law in its totality, including all its elements-moral, ceremonial, and civil-not merely a part of the law stripped of its sanctions, as our opponents are in the habit of doing. They, not we, are the real rejecters of the law. 1 Tim. 1:8-11.

2. We accept this entire law as a part of the inspired word of God, and therefore profitable for all Christians, to be used for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness 2 Tim. 3:16.

3. We accept this law as something good, if a man uses it lawfully 1 Tim. 1:3-11 for the meaning of lawfully (nomimos) see 2 Tim. 2:5-“according to law.” This must mean that it must be used as law, not stripped of its legal penalties. This proper use is further elaborated in the passage.

            a. The law, as law, is not made for a righteous man. This must mean that a Christian should be not put under the law, for the Christian is righteous in relation to the law as law, because in the work of Christ the law was completely fulfilled and satisfied for us in all its demands and sanctions. In addition, there was imparted to him a new nature, whose disposition is to do right, wants to do right, and does do right 1 Tim. 1:9.

            b. The law, as law, was made as an external restraint for the lawless and ungodly. See 1 Tim. 1:9-11, which agrees with Galatians 3:19, as to this purpose of the law.

            c. The law is our schoolmaster (Gal. 3:24) to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith, not law.

In summary: the relation to the Christian, the law, as law, having been satisfied in Christ, is completely done away. On the other hand, the law, as divinely inspired Scripture, still abides, and as such is profitable for all Christians in all its parts both dispensationally and experientially.

Questions and problems:

1. It will be said that many professing Christians are not living as they should, and that the law should be used to remedy this.

            We admit the problem and deplore the situation. they may not be genuine Christians, not having appropriated Christ. They may be carnal Christians, not being submitted to Christ.

            But we deny that the law can make bad men good. (Heb. 7:19-the law made nothing perfect. the remedy for sin is not more law, but more grace Rom. 5:20; James 4:6. the grace of God in Christ came to do what law could not do Rom. 8:3).

2. We shall also be told, some may use the truth of grace as a license to continue in sin. Here again, we admit the problem. Even in the early church, there were those who turned the grace of God into lasciviousness (sexual deviations)-Jude 4. Of this fact our headlines inform us almost weekly. But the basic defect in these men was not merely that they had broken the moral law, in this sense, all have sinned. These men were denying the only Master and Lord Jesus Christ Jude 4. They were not saved men at all. They should be warned of the doom awaiting all such, and urged to flee to Christ from the wrath to come, even if they use religious ropes to perform these dastardly deeds.

3. You will be also charged with "antinomianism", if you preach the gospel of the grace of God for salvation without the law. This charge is nothing new. Paul was accused of the same thing in Romans 3:8. Unless you are charged with this sooner or later, you probably are not preaching salvation by grace. This is the only position that is open to slander. Never is salvation by law or righteousness by law slandered. Why is the gospel slandered? Because it cuts from beneath every man the last square foot upon which he can stand and boast (Eph. 2:8-9). But the charge is false. In the gospel of salvation by grace in Christ, we are honoring the law, and establishing law. For our Lord by his death satisfied in full all the laws demands. The legalists are the real antinomians, for they either take only one element of the law, or strip it of its penalties, or relax its demands. To this extent they are against the law. Romans 3:31.

4. You will be told that in refusing to put Christian under law, you are lowering the standards of the good life. We are not lowering the moral standards, but actually raising them. See John 15:12 "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you." The standard of the law for the so called good life is cold, unstoppable, and impotent; and it inevitably degenerates into the lowest depths of sin. Why? Because it is ultimately a rejection of God's standards, God's grace to maintain those standards, a retreat to human appraisals, the relative, and ultimately a descent into the lowest depths. It results in the death of His Most Precious Son. It is not the law, but Christ dying under the law for us and in our stead, Who sets the standard of the good life in grace. See Phil. 2:5 and following.

5. Does not the Bible say we should fulfill the law of Christ? The sole basis for this idea is found in Galatians 6:2. The verb here is very probably future indicative, not imperative. For the textual argument, see Ellicott on Galatian 6:2. Meyer accepts the reading without discussion. So also Nestles Greek New Testament. Under the influence of legalism, we can account for the change from the indicative to the imperative. Thus we have here a simple statement of fact, not a command. But more important here is the question, what is "the law of Christ?" Practically all commentators who deal with the question at all find a reference back to Christs’ words in John 13:34 and John 15:12. Cf. 1 John 2:7; 3:11, 23; 4:21; 5:1-3. The law Christ then is not the Decalogue, nor even the Sermon on the Mount, but the law of love, namely, that we should love one another as Christ loved us, ever working for the one He loves to arrive at perfection through grace and washing. This is the principle which dominated the ministry of Christ while here on earth, and even to the end (John 13:1) which is not yet. Note also that this law of love is the fulfillment of all other divine law Rom. 13:8-10.; Gal. 5:14; 1 Tim. 1:5. We are commanded to love one another, and this love is the fulfillment of the law, but nowhere are we commanded to fulfill the law. See Rom. 8:1-4 for the proper formula. "That the righteousness of the law"-a reference to the moral element "might be fulfilled in us"-passive, not active form. "In us" is an important phrase.

6. May not this salvation by grace without law prove to be dangerous? May be dangerous for some people, all divine truth is dangerous to men who resist it. Cf. 2 Cor. 2:15-16; 2 Thess. 2:1-12. All depends on the attitude. Salvation by pure grace is not dangerous for the true Christian. But anything else is dangerous, for the simple reason that only grace in Christ can break the power of sin See 1 Cor. 15:56-57; Rom. 6:14.