The Law Part 2 -- God Purposed Law

This is the second message in a series on the Law. God purposed the Law. That means that He willed, planned, and designed the Law. Law does not end when a person delights in obeying it. There is nothing incompatible between love and obedience. The truly justified person wants to please his Sovereign Lord. However, if he was to say that he did this because he enjoys obeying his Sovereign Lord, it would not be because the Lord commanded his obedience. That would be like him becoming a law to himself. That is a great distance from what the Psalmist said: “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Thy commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, For Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Thy precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Thy word. I have not turned aside from Thine ordinances, For Thou Thyself hast taught me, How sweet are Thy words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Thy precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way” (Ps. 119:97-104 NASB).

Those who attempt anything in God’s Law without grace will soon give it up. There can be no perseverance in things which are not loved. Love of God is preceded by knowledge of God’s Law. There are three great features concerning the success of the Psalmist’s perseverance: (1) the object of love—“I love”; (2) the degree of that love—“O how I love”; and (3) the evidence of that love—“my meditation all the day.”

Love of God’s Law is preceded by knowledge of God’s Law. Therefore, the believer has great reverence for the Word of God, because he knows knowledge cannot come from a closed Bible. He admires the Bible’s holiness, is jealous for its honor, desires to obey it, and is active in spreading what he has heard and read. God is not only the Author of the Bible, but He is the substance and crowning purpose of the Book of all books.

The Christian’s love is the consequence of God’s love. God said to Jeremiah: “At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people. Thus says the LORD, the people who survived the sword Found grace in the wilderness—Israel, when it went to find its rest. The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness” (Jer. 31:1-3 NASB).

In its very nature, love is particular and personal—not indiscriminate. Knowing the unknowable is an intriguing subject. Paul said to the Ephesians: “So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:17-19 NASB).

The word “intriguing” can be applied to something that attracts attention by arousing one’s curiosity, by baffling one’s understanding, or by thrilling one who knows that he has done nothing to deserve such a blessing. Consider the number of love’s objects, the value of its benefits, the cost of its sacrifice, the perpetuity of its attachment, and the tenderness of its rewards! What a blessed attainment!

Christians know by grace what we could not know by nature. We know by faith what we could never know by reason. We know the effects without knowing the cause. We know the reality without knowing its nature. We know increasingly in time what we will know fully in eternity. Solomon said, “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day” (Prov. 4:18 NASB).

The “path of the righteous” resembles the “light of dawn” in three respects: (1) As to origin, it emerges from the darkness at the dawn of the day. (2) As to progress, it grows in brightness until the perfect (full) day—the day of Christ’s personal presence at His second coming. (3) As to its perfection—progress ends with Jesus Christ who is the Light of the world. Christ’s path is no meteor which gleams and expires, but it is the path of the cloudless light of the eternal heaven. There are two ideas—progression and perfection. Progression is in time, and perfection is in eternity.

There are four things about “the path of the righteous” that only the chosen sheep understand: (1) “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8 NASB). (2) It is dim at the beginning. Paul said to the Corinthians: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly…” (I Cor. 3:1-3 NASB). (3) It is progressive in character. Peter said, “Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord” (I Pet. 2:2, 3 NASB). (4) Paul said to the Corinthians, “Who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us” (II Cor. 1:10 NASB). Paul used the verb ruomai three times in this verse. It is used as an aorist middle indicative verb the first time, and as a future middle indicative verb in the last two references.

Law has been Divinely ordained as a means of our sanctification—not our justification. We are not talking about justification by the Law because we do not participate in our justification before God. The faith that a Christian exercises every day of his or her Christian life was given by God. Faith is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8). Since it is the gift of God, it is not what God gives to you that justifies you before God. It is God’s faith that He has given to you. It is yours because it is His gift. All Arminians believe that every individual that is born has faith enough within him that he can, if he will use his faith, exercise his faith and justify himself before God. They take a verse like Romans 5:1, and say that an individual has faith. They reference Romans 12 about God giving faith. God does give faith, but it is not something you had before regeneration. (Read I Thessalonians 4:1-10.)

Power for sanctification resides only in Jesus Christ. Paul said, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:21-26 NASB).

The common interpretation of this passage in Romans 3 is as follows: “Faith does not do the saving, but Jesus Christ who is the object of one’s faith. The believer is not saved because of his faith, but he is saved through his faith.” A simple question should suffice; but let us elaborate to some extent, because of the doctrinal value of the passage. Let us begin with a question. Is this righteousness based on the faith of the elect or is it referring to the faithfulness of Jesus Christ? When we were regenerated, God gave us faith. As soon as we heard something, we could exercise the faith that we were given. When the Lord saved us, the Holy Spirit is the One who regenerated us. In regenerating us, love was poured out in our hearts (Rom 5:5). He gave us faith; we were able to exercise that faith; but it is not that faith that justifies us. We were justified before God by the death of Jesus Christ at Calvary, by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We were justified by the faithfulness of Christ. The person who has been justified by the faithfulness of Christ will never lose what he has been given, and that is the position that God gave him as the result of the sacrifice of His Son.

Power for sanctification resides only in Jesus Christ. The Christian is not lawless, because he is under the law of Christ. Paul said, “Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men” (I Cor. 7:21-23 NASB). A justified believer’s sin cannot bring him into condemnation. To obey God because one loves Him is not legalism. Furthermore, a justified believer’s sin cannot bring him into condemnation. Paul does not argue against the Law in one place, and turn around and plead for it in another case. Some say obedience to Law is slavish, whereas the believer is moved by love and needs no Law. Therefore, it is fallacious to put cause and the result into opposition. A law is not to be rejected because man has no power to keep it—similarly, man has no power to obey the gospel. Why does the Arminian get so upset because he does not understand depravity? Christ said, “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44 NASB). Christ also said, “And you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life” (John 5:40 NASB). Once a person grants that the Sovereign God must be subordinated to man, he is on the road to disaster. However, this is the position of all Arminians and conceited philosophers.

Justification is not God’s reward for the human performance of faith. Romans 3:21-5:21 proves that God the Father appointed His Son to execute His purpose, fulfill His prophecies, and redeem His elect. (1) He who knew no sin was appointed to be the Representative on behalf of the sins of the elect (not the sins of every human being). (2) The Son of God became the Son of Man in order for the chosen ones to become the sons of God. (3) Christ took our misery in order for the elect to take His glory. (4) The eternal Son was born of woman in order for the elect to be born of God. (5) Christ suffered the effects of our sins so that we could experience the effects of His righteousness provided for the elect at Calvary. (6) Christ was made sin by imputation, so that the elect could be assured of being made righteous by imputation and impartation. (7) Christ Jesus was appointed to die for the chosen ones in order for them to become righteous in Him. Even when perfected in eternity, this righteousness will not be identical with God’s unalterable character, but the completion of what Christ provided for us.