the Role of the Law

The Role of the Law

I cannot stress enough how important this topic is to understand and retain. Why is it important to know the role of the law? There are lots of reasons to study this subject, and keep it as a personal treasure. For one thing, knowing the role that the law is supposed to play, keeps us from becoming self-righteous, as you will soon see. The law also reveals the power of Grace. An equally important reason to study this subject is because one of the most common tactics of Satan, non-believers, and even frequently those who would call themselves believers; is to attempt to make you think that they have revealed hypocrisy within you by comparing you to the law’s standard, in order to win against you in some fashion, or perhaps to deceive you into a false understanding of the Goodness of God or of the fullness of His plan of salvation. In essence, the law reveals the need for salvation and Grace, but keeping the law is not how we attain salvation.

(A) Salvation or justification before God is not by keeping the law; it is the free gift of Grace from God, by faith, or belief in Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:8-9 “8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works (not by keeping the law), lest any man should boast.” See also Galatians 2:16.

Acts 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

Acts 13:39 “And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”

Romans 3:21-31 “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested [Christ's Righteousness], being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law."

Romans 9:31-32 “31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Wherefore [why]? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;”

Galatians 2:21 “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”

(B-1) !!!KEY POINT!!! The role of the law is to reveal sin, not to save from sin.

Romans 3:19-20 “19 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. 20 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.”

Romans 4:15 “Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.”

Romans 5:13 “(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”

Romans 7:7 (also 8-9) “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”

Galatians 3:16-19, the law was added after the covenant, or promise to Abraham, because of transgressions, and therefore does not make the promise to Abraham’s seed of no effect.

I Timothy 1:8-10 “8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; 9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons (those who give false testimony under oath), and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;"

(B-2) The law is also to lead people to Christ.

Galatians 3:23-24 “23 But before faith came, we [Hebrews] were kept under the law, shut up unto [kept away from] the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 Wherefore [that is why] the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

(C) Grace triumphs over sin.

Romans 5:20 “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:”

(D) Grace is not license to sin.

Romans 6:15-16 “15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”

(E) What do we make of believers who sin?

Romans 7. 7:1 the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives; 7:4 we are dead to the law by the Body of Christ; 7:14 the law is spiritual (it is observed in the spirit), but we are carnal; 7:25 Paul writes that he serves the law of God with his mind, but his body still serves the law of sin (since the law is spirit, and Paul serves it with his mind, there seems to be a direct connection between the spirit and the mind, and perhaps they are essentially the same thing); 7:16-18 when a true believer sins, it is not the redeemed spirit man that does it, but the sin that resides in the flesh body, and thereby we testify that the law is good. Falling to sin is different than yielding to serve sin. As long as this corruptible flesh body lives, it will occasionally fall to sin, but serving sin (i.e. refusing to acknowledge something as a sin that the bible clearly labels a sin, thereby rejecting the Word of God for the sake of sin) is yielding to serve sin.

(F) Impending judgment is key in repentance.

Don’t ever let any one convince you (because many will try, even those who call themselves Christians) that preaching judgment doesn’t lead people to Christ. It is true that only preaching judgment, and leaving out Mercy and Grace is only telling half the story, but nevertheless, the coming judgment is necessary to reveal the need for salvation by the Grace of God.

Acts 24:25 “And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

(G-1) The law is one tool of revealing the person of Jesus Christ.

In studying types of Christ in the Old Testament this becomes abundantly clear. For more on the study of typology, please see the following 2 part Hatena Diary entry: Part I http://d.hatena.ne.jp/nicholighkun/20120822/1345634931 and Part II http://d.hatena.ne.jp/nicholighkun/20120820/1345482065

Acts 28:23 “And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.”

(G-2) The law is a shadow of Christ, but not the very image of Him, just as your shadow is not you, but a faint outline of you.

Hebrews 10:1 “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."

(H) Christ is the end of the keeping of the law in order to be righteous, Romans 10:4.

(I) Christ’s priesthood is after the order of Melchesidek.

Christ's preisthood is after the order of Melchisedec (Psalm 110:4, Hebrews 7:21) and not of the tribe of Levi as was commanded by the original law (Deuteronomy 21:5), but instead of the tribe of Judah (Isaiah 11:1, Micah 5:2, Matthew 1:3, Luke 3:33, Revelation 5:5), which meant there was a need for a changing of the law (Hebrews 7:12). See Hebrews 7:11-28 for a more comprehensive description of this truth.

(J) Love is the fulfillment of Christ’s law.

Romans 13:10 “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Galatians 5:14 “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

Galatians 6:2 “Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”

John 14:21 “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”

I John 3:22-24 “22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. 23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. 24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”

(K) Those who are under the law are under the curse, but Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Galatians 3:10 “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”

Galatians 3:13 “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:”

Galatians 4:21 “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?” Galatians 5:3-4 “3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”

Verses That Can be Easily Taken Out of Context

Romans 2:13 “(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Paul is saying that those who know the law are not justified before God, but those who do the law. Yet, this is not even possible, as stated in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” What Paul is really showing in Romans 2 is that those who boast in the law are hypocrites. This is easily seen in the context of the entire chapter.

Is Justification by Faith or Works?

Although this is a totally separate topic, the foundation for understanding this topic is all laid down by the study of the law, so I thought I would go ahead and knock it out. This also is of the utmost importance, since it too is one of the favorite arguments by non-believers, in this case to attempt to show that the Bible contradicts itself.

We know that we are not justified by the law, but by faith, according to Romans 3:28, Galatians 2:16 & 3:11, but James 2:24 says “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.” So how is this not a contradiction? Well, there are 2 major things to note, one of which is revealed by the context of James entire epistle, and the other is revealed by Christ’s law.

First off, we must ask who is it that James is considering us to be justified to? Like I said, the whole of the epistle makes that clear, and the answer is man. James 2:17-20 “17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” James 3:13 “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? [in other words, how can one be known to be wise] let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.” This is also seen in the fact that one of the most prominent messages of the epistle is that the recipients of it were showing preference to wealthy persons over those with less wealth i.e. their works were revealing them to have “dead faith”. Paul echoes this truth in Galatians 5:6 “but faith which worketh by love.”

And secondly, section (I) of this “Role of the Law” study reveals that Christ’s law was new together with His Priesthood. This is also echoed in His own Words when He said in John 13:34 “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” Remember when Jesus said in Matthew 25:41-46 “41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” Now looking at James 2:14-16 we see that these works reveal a persons faith, whether it be genuine, or false, since no one who truly believes will not feed the hungry, as Jesus commanded “14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?”

In short, James is speaking of justification before men, so that men can recognize living faith and dead faith. Also, the idea that we are not saved by the works of the law is in regard to the Old Levitical priesthood and it’s law, but Christ’s law is new for His new Priesthood. Keeping either law still does not save us, but keeping or not keeping Christ’s law reveals the nature of our faith, be it alive or dead. So the works that James is speaking of is not even in reference to the old law, but the new, and those works are a tool for us to recognize real and false faith. Our works are a token; they justify our faith before other believers. If our faith is real, our works will attest to that fact.