From the editor ...

The believer's relationship to the law of God has been a long debated subject and a point of division among those who claim to believe the Gospel. Some claim that God's law is the believer's rule of conduct and obedience. Their opponents accuse them of being legalists. Others deny that God's law is the believer's rule of conduct and obedience. Their opponents accuse them of being antinomians (without law). Some claim that New Testament believers are still under the Ten Commandments as a rule of conduct while others claim that New Testament believers are not under the Ten Commandments. Some say that Christ, not the law, is the believer's rule of conduct and obedience. The following article is an excerpt from the Reign of Grace pamphlet "The Believer and God's Law," along with additional comments. Our desire is that you will take the time to read it and consider it in light of God's testimony, independent of preconceived notions. We must view the issue of God's law and the believer's rule of conduct as God teaches us.

Bill Parker, pastor
Eager Avenue Grace Church

In every generation since the fall of man, the first and foremost purpose of God's law, in whatever form it was given by God, has been to reveal the sinfulness of man and the absolute impossibility of any sinner being saved, preserved, or entitled to salvation based on his best efforts to keep the law. The Gospel, in light of the law, has always been revealed to show sinners that salvation and all that is included can only be attained and maintained by God's grace through the Lord Jesus Christ and based on His righteousness, His obedience unto death, alone. This is where we must begin in any discussion on the law of God and the believer's relationship to that law. We must understand that God promises to save no sinner based on that sinner's efforts to keep the law, but God does promise to save sinners based solely upon the righteousness of Christ freely imputed and received by faith. Christ's righteousness alone is the fulfillment of the law in both its precepts and its penalty.
 

When referring to God's law, many restrict their meaning to the Old Covenant and Mount Sinai, or the Ten Commandments, as given and imposed by God to the nation Israel. Others simply mean God's revealed will by way of commandment in any generation. Whenever God speaks, it is by way of revelation and/or commandment. Just as there were specific precepts expressed by God for which the nation Israel (believers and unbelievers) in the Old Testament were responsible, there are specific precepts expressed by God for which spiritual Israel (believers) in the New Testament are responsible.
 

We know that the entire substance of the law of God given in any form in every generation is this -- love God perfectly and love our neighbor as ourselves. This principle of love is always the same. However, God has for His own purposes given His law in different forms to different generations whereby men were required to express this love. It was given to the nation Israel in the form of the Old Covenant, the Mosaic Economy, and it was their rule of conduct for almost 1500 years. Since the advent of Christ, who abolished the Old Covenant by way of fulfillment, it has been given in the form of the New Covenant, the Gospel Economy. This is the rule of conduct for believers today. Believers in the New Covenant are not under the Ten Commandments as a rule of conduct and practice.
 

As God's people under the Old Covenant had specific rules binding upon them whereby they were to express their love, gratitude, and reverence to God, as well as love for their neighbor, believers under the New Covenant have specific rules binding upon them whereby they are to express their love, gratitude, and reverence to God, as well as love for their neighbor. All that is binding upon believers in the New Covenant is revealed in the New Testament just as all that was binding upon God's people in the Old Covenant was revealed. Does this mean that we are commanded to obey God's commands in order to be saved, or to become holy, or to be recommended unto God? Of course not! Here we must consider two important points --
 

(1) A legalist is not necessarily one who believes that the law of God is his rule of conduct and obedience. The law of love, love God perfectly and our neighbor as ourselves, is most certainly our rule of conduct and obedience. A legalist is one who imagines or claims that his obedience to any of God's commandments in any form, anything that proceeds from his personal character and conduct, even faith, repentance, and/or perseverance, could contribute to his salvation or entitlement to it. A legalist is a lost person who is seeking to establish a righteousness by his obedience to the law. Consider Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, who were believers living in the time of the Old Covenant. All of the laws given to the nation Israel in that covenant were binding upon them. Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah were all required to be circumcised, to keep a strict sabbath, not to eat certain meats, etc.. All of these strict laws were their rule of conduct and obedience, yet none of these men were legalists. None of these men imagined that their obedience to any of these laws formed any part of their ground of salvation. They saw the impossibility of the law pronouncing them saved, blessed, or entitled to Heaven based on their best efforts to keep it since their best efforts fell short of the law standard of righteousness. They saw the whole law as their schoolmaster to lead them to Christ, the promised Messiah pictured and foreshadowed in that law, for righteousness and life. The majority of the nation Israel were legalists throughout the time of the Old Covenant, not because they necessarily sought to adhere to its precepts and restrictions, but because they sought salvation and entitlement to eternal life by their efforts to keep the law (Rom. 9:31--10:4). God had forbidden this from the beginning.
 

(2) Next, we must understand that since the fall of man, God has never given, nor will He ever give, any law in any form by which sinners could attain or maintain any part of salvation by their efforts to keep that law. The rule has always been -- "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:19-20). As stated before, the foremost purpose of the law of God in any form, given to any generation, is to bring sinners in guilty and drive them to Christ for righteousness and life -- "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 5:20-21).
 

God has always made it clear that any sinner who thinks he can be saved, preserved, or entitled to any part of salvation based on his efforts to keep the law, denies the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in the Gospel of God's grace -- "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Gal. 2:21). "Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace" (Gal. 5:2-4). This includes the laws given by God to the nation Israel in the Old Covenant and the laws given by God to spiritual Israel in the New Covenant.
 

God's goal in salvation is His own glory, and in order for Him to be glorified in the salvation of sinners, He cannot save them based on anything less than perfect satisfaction to His holy law and justice. God requires perfect righteousness, and the best attempts of the best of sinners to obey any law will not meet this condition. Therefore, in order for God to be glorified in the salvation of sinners, He conditioned all of the salvation of His elect upon His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He sent Christ, the Representative and Surety of the whole election of grace, into the world to obey the law perfectly and satisfy justice for His elect. "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Gal. 4:4-5). Notice that Christ was "made under the law." What law was this? It was whatever law those whom He represented were under -- "to redeem them that were under the law." Now, none of us today were ever under the Old Covenant law, but we all, Old Testament believers and New Testament believers, before conversion, were under the law of love -- love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves. This is the law that curses all unbelievers based on their character and conduct. This is the law that justifies all believers based on the righteousness of Christ.
 

The Ten Commandments, as given on Mount Sinai to Israel, are not the New Testament believer's rule of conduct and obedience. The Ten Commandments were part of the Old Covenant, the Mosaic Economy, for that nation. The whole Mosaic Economy has been abolished by way of fulfillment by Christ. The Old Covenant was instituted by God for the nation Israel and for a limited period of time. It served its purpose, and then God removed it. To understand its purpose it must be viewed as a whole unit. Different aspects of the Old Covenant can be distinguished (moral, ceremonial, civil) for the purposes of studying its particulars. But these cannot be separated from that covenant. We cannot say that one part is abolished while another part remains. There are moral precepts embodied within the Ten Commandments that are still in effect today, but these moral precepts in their present form, as binding upon believers today, are stated out in the New Covenant.
 

The Old Covenant and the New Covenant are two separate and distinct covenants. Each distinct covenant has its own mediator, temple, priesthood, altar, sacrifice, ordinances and laws. The Old Covenant was ratified by the blood of animals. The New Covenant was ratified by the precious blood of Christ. The Old Covenant, including the Ten Commandments, has been abolished by the establishment of the New Covenant, including the precepts of the Gospel.
 

The Ten Commandments were a vital part of the Old Covenant as was the ceremonial law. The whole covenant was instituted by God, first, to slay the Israelites from any hope of salvation based on their law-keeping and to drive them to Christ, the promised Messiah, for righteousness and life. It was also given to regulate the worship and obedience of the nation Israel in the land of promise. It was to abide until the coming of Christ. The main purpose of the Old Covenant was to be a "schoolmaster" to lead those who were under it to Christ. The Ten Commandments were given to expose their guilt and defilement and discourage them from any notion of eternal salvation based on their obedience. It proved that God could not be just and justify any sinner based on that sinner's character and conduct. The ceremonial law and all its particulars typified and foreshadowed Christ and what was to be accomplished in eternal salvation by Him alone. All of its elements taught the Gospel principles of substitution, satisfaction, and imputation, so that sinners would see that all of salvation must be conditioned on Christ by whose righteousness alone God could be just to justify the ungodly.
 

Those to whom the Ten Commandments were given were the natural descendants of Abraham, the nation Israel. It began and ended with Israel in the land given them by promise. It was God's appointed system of religion and government designed for that nation for a limited period of time to keep them separate from other nations and to point them to Christ for salvation. The establishment of the Gospel Economy by Christ meant the abolishment of the Mosaic Economy (Heb. 8:13).
 

God's law has always been the guide of a believer's obedience and love. The obedience of a justified sinner is not spontaneous and natural. Although we do have a holy principle of fear, love, and obedience, although we do have the law of God written on our hearts, we are still plagued with an evil principle (remaining self-love, pride, and self righteousness). There is a warfare within every believer wherein he struggles daily with sin. In many areas we must be instructed and guided by God's law to know, first, how far short our obedience and love comes of what they ought to be. This keeps us ever looking to Christ for all of salvation, while we cry, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:25). This keeps us ever saying, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," (Gal. 6:14). Next, this shows us the standard for which we are to aim. The law, for example, commands us not only to love our brethren but also to love our enemies. There are times we would seek to justify ourselves were it not for God's testimony in this area. Those who claim this obedience is spontaneous are denying their own sinnerhood and denying the warfare of the flesh and the spirit.
 

If God's law were not the believer's standard of sin and righteousness, he would have no set rule by which to compare himself. He could not know how far short he comes of God's glory in Christ. He would be a law unto himself. How do we interpret Romans 6:14 in light of this? "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Rom. 6:14). This does not mean that we have no written rules, regulations, and guidelines. It means that the law of God, in a believer's case, has been totally satisfied. Therefore the law cannot condemn a justified sinner nor can it demand any obedience to its commands in a legal way. Justified sinners are under grace, and grace reigns through the righteousness of Christ (Rom. 5:21). This is what it means to be "dead to the law" (Rom. 7:4). It means that in Christ our debt to God's law and justice has been paid in full so that the law can never demand any obedience from a justified sinner aimed at salvation, preservation, or entitlement to eternal life and glory.
 

We see then that the justified sinner does not have to fear God's law. He has already sought and attained the goal of the law, not by works of righteousness which he has done but by the righteousness of Christ alone. Rules and regulations are not the problem. When God gives us specific rules by which to guide our conduct and worship, we can rest assured that none of these rules are given to promote legalism and bondage. The Old Covenant was not given to Israel to promote legalism and bondage. It was given to be their schoolmaster to lead them unto Christ. It was given to guide their whole economy according to God's providential goodness and mercy upon them. They had rules and regulations under the Old Covenant. We have rules and regulations under the New Covenant. God's goal in all this is to lead us to Christ for righteousness and eternal life and to glorify Himself through an obedient and grateful people.
 

One who claims that God's law (the precepts of the Gospel Economy) is not his rule of conduct is making a statement that will not stand on Scriptural testimony. We as believers can and should say that, for example, "Lie not one to another" is a rule, a law, that we should endeavor to keep, not to be saved, not to be sanctified or made holy, not for rewards in Heaven, and not to attain final glory. We should endeavor to tell the truth because we are God's people, redeemed by Christ, and made righteous by His grace. To say that this specific command, or any command of the New Testament, is our rule of conduct and obedience is not fleeing to Mount Sinai for sanctification. The problem is not with God's law, nor with a person trying to obey God's law. The problem lies in the motive. Remember, the believer's only righteousness before God is the righteousness of Christ imputed to him by grace alone. Christ is the Lord our Righteousness. Any sinner who has not submitted to the imputed righteousness of Christ as the only ground of salvation is a legalist. The righteousness of Christ alone establishes the believer's relationship to God and to God's law. It establishes the nature and the place of all means of grace, of the fruit of the Spirit, and of all acceptable obedience.