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The Purpose of Law and Grace1. Laws Define MoralityAll laws and systems of law are religious in origin. They are inescapably religious, because laws establish standards which define justice and morality for society. The source of law in any society is its god. If a society makes its own laws, based upon human reasoning, then Humanism is its religion, and man is its god. If its laws are made by a single ruler, then he is the highest god of that society. If a nation's laws are made by a group of people, then we can say that this group of legislators are the gods of that society. The source of law is the god of any society. Thus, legislators are gods by definition. The ancient Greeks believed that man's body was the prison house of the soul. They believed that material things were inherently evil, and spiritual things were inherently good. Man's mind, they said, was part of that spiritual class, even though it was said to be imprisoned in the material body. Thus, they believed that man's mind was of a higher order and was capable of discovering perfect virtue, or ultimate moral law. As a result, Greek laws were humanistic, based upon the reasoning of their minds. Their god was man, and their religion was Humanist Philosophy. 2. God's Law: The Christian StandardThe Apostle John holds the honour of giving to us a clear definition of sin. Everywhere else in the Bible the definition is assumed. 1 John 3:4 says, "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law." Literally, the last phrase in this verse reads, "sin is lawlessness (Greek: ANOMIA)." Lawlessness is acting as though there is no law to obey. In modern judicial terminology, such people are called anarchists. Anarchists are people who advocate doing away with all laws, on the grounds that each man should have the right to define morality for himself. In other words, depose all elected lawmakers (gods) and make every man a god unto himself. They merely advocate a different form of the religion of Secular Humanism. In the context of religion there are some Christian anarchists who advocate doing away with God's laws, so that they may decide for themselves what moral standard to follow. Generally, they follow the "Love" standard, which is commendable so long as they know how to define Love. Most Christian anarchists go the easy route by joining a particular church or denomination that defines Love for them. Thus, they depose God's law and substitute church law. The church then becomes their god. This is Religious Humanism. Then there are others who become dissatisfied with church laws and strike out on their own. It is true that they have just as much right to define morality as does the church. However, God never gave EITHER this right. Man only has the right to agree with God. Anything else is Humanism. There are a large number of "New Testament" Christians who simply dispose of Old Testament law in favour of what they think is a new law of the New Testament. However, the New Testament assumes that people already are familiar with the Old. Thus, the New Testament does not seek to re-define all the Old Testament laws. In Jesus' Sermon on the Mount He does correct the Pharisaical INTERPRETATION of the Old Testament laws. But He prefaced the Sermon with the statement: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law . . ." Suppose you find something that someone else lost. Would it be theft to keep it? Does God's law say "finders, keepers; losers, weepers?" Deuteronomy 22 says that if you don't return it, you have committed theft. But as a child, 1 lost many things in this manner in the missionary school I attended. When 1 appealed to the boarding house parents (Christian missionaries, no less), 1 was overruled by the law of "finders, keepers." Thus, theft was sanctioned by those who should have known better. Why? Because they discarded God's law and substituted their own judgment of right and wrong-Religious Humanism. There are many other issues as well, where Christians define morality and Love differently from God. Each subject is a study in itself and cannot be covered here. 3. God's Law vs. Man's LawThe Bible nowhere gives any man the right to define the principles of right from wrong for Himself. Man only has the responsibility to learn these laws and then seek to apply them in his life in a 20th century context. Exodus 22:1 defines theft in terms of stealing sheep and oxen. We are to learn the principles of restitution found here and apply them in the modem world to things like cars or ballpoint pens. This is the function of the conscience and mental reasoning - not to overrule God, but to apply His laws properly. When politicians, legislators, or church leaders take it upon themselves to define morality by means of new standards that are alien and even opposed to the law of God, they are setting themselves up as gods. These new laws are invariably done under the banner of "love." For example, suppose 1 see a brother in need of food, and I have love for him. So 1 go down to your grocery store and shoplift a bag of groceries for him. Is this love? Is it pleasing to God? Of course not. And yet this is done on a mind-boggling scale in America today with much church support! You don't believe me? Well, let me tell you a little story. How does Mr. Dunifuzzle run for public office? More often than not, the only way he'll be elected is if he promises to steal money from you to give it to the needy. God sets a taxation limit of 10%, plus the firstfruits. Anything above that is theft. At present, nearly half our paychecks go to pay taxes (including hidden taxes). This is theft by God's standard of measure. But according to the Socialists (political Humanists), it is "love. " What about the death penalty for premeditated murder? God mandates it out of love for the victims and future potential victims. The Humanists, both Secular and Religious, deny God's law, saying it is murder. Who is right? Well, if you have faith in God to the point where you want to do things His way, you are a Christian; if you disagree with God and decide to make your own "better, more loving" laws, you are a Humanist, and you are your own god. Many Humanists contend that extramarital sexual relationships between consenting adults is moral, so long as it does not hurt anyone. Many also say that homosexual relations are moral and that it hurts no one. Anyone acquainted with history knows that such views have always helped to destroy nations and civilisations in the past. Such permissiveness is NOT based upon true Love. It is only based upon the Humanist view of love. 4. Without Law, There Is No SinWhat, then, is the purpose of the law? We have already seen that its primary purpose is to define morality. But there is more to it than that. Romans 5:20 tells us: "Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound." What does this mean? How can the law of God make the offence abound? The answer is in Romans 4:15. "Because the law worketh wrath; for where no law is, there is no transgression. " In a state of anarchy, where no law exists, there is no such thing as sin. But the moment law enters, suddenly the offences abound. Conditions may be exactly the same the day before the law entered, but now there is a law to make the offences sinful. If our nation suddenly became devoid of laws, there would be no such thing as crime (sin). Law is necessary to make crime illegal. Without laws against murder, there would be no way a court of law could convict a murderer. In other words, the law is there to define murder as a crime. Relating this to religion, when men say God's law has been put away, they are legalising murder and every other sin. "Where no law is, there is no transgression." If God's law were put away, then God would not be able to convict the world of sin (Rom. 3:19). 5. The Legal Basis of justificationBefore we can really understand the purpose of God's law, we must understand the basis of justification. Justification can only be attained by presenting to God a perfect life of obedience to the law. Justification is something that only the law can grant to us. If anyone can stand before the law and present a perfect life of obedience to the law, THEN AND ONLY THEN will the law justify him. Why? Because it would not be able to convict him of a single sin. The law cannot and will not justify any sinner. It can only demand the full penalty for sin. But here we run into a terrible dilemma, for Romans 3:23 tells us, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." So it would appear that NO ONE can qualify for legal justification, because no one can present the court with a perfect life of obedience. The entire world stands guilty (Rom. 3:19). So how can we find justification? The most common answer in the church today is that God has put away the law, and so the law cannot convict us of sin. This method of justification would serve to decriminalise sin. Without law, there is no sin. Without sin, there is no condemnation. Without condemnation, there is justification. This is the Christian anarchist's hope of justification. But this is NOT how God justifies sinners. Instead, God upheld the law and passed its full righteous sentence upon the entire world. BUT THEN HE SENT HIS SON TO PAY THE FULL PENALTY ON OUR BEHALF. So now by faith in Him, we can present His perfect life to the Law for our justification. The Law takes one look at His record and pronounces us justified.. 6. The Law is "Established" by the New TestamentIn Matthew 5:17-19 Jesus tells us: ''Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. "For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Paul echoes the same theme when he writes in Romans 3:3 1, "Do we then make void the law through faith? Godforbid. Yea, we ESTABLISH the law. " The word "establish" is from the Greek word HISTEMI, which means "to cause to stand." 7. You Are Not Under the LawRemember John 3:4, which says, "sin is law lessness." In Romans 6:14,15 Paul writes: "For sin (i. e., lawlessness) shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we commit sin (lawlessness), because we are not under the law, but under grace? Godforbid!" This passage is easily misunderstood, because most of us do not understand the legal terminology of Paul's day. Suppose we were living in Paul's day. And suppose I see you drop your wallet containing $1000. 1 wait for you to get out of sight, and then I pick it up and keep it. Suppose also the neighbours saw the whole thing from a window, and so they run out and confront me with the sin (Matthew 18: 15). Well, let's suppose I just laugh at them and decide to use the money to gamble at the horse races. So the victim and the witnesses notify the authorities, and we go to court. The law convicts me of theft, and the judgment of the court is that I now owe the victim double the amount stolen in restitution. (See Exodus 22:14) However, I gambled everything away at the horse races, so I don't have the $2000 to repay the victim. What then? The law says if the stolen item is not returned intact, then the thief must repay 4 or 5 times its value in restitution. So the judgment of the court is that I now owe the victim $4000, and that 1 must pay him $100 out of my monthly paycheck for the next 40 months. Case closed. Yes, the case may be closed, but so long as the thief still owes the debt, the court must keep tabs on him to ensure that he continues to pay the debt. It's like being on probation. Or to use Paul's terminology, the sinner is UNDER THE LAW for the next 40 months. When the last payment has been made, the court then puts him UNDER GRACE. That is, the court no longer has a case against him. The sentence has been fully paid. The law has been satisfied. What then? Shall the thief now go out and steal some more, since he is not under the law but under grace? Of course not! God forbid! We are all sinners, and the law convicts us all. We are therefore "under the law" our whole lives, striving to do good works to pay restitution for our sins. But the debt is too much for us to repay by ourselves. God knows that. So what did He do about it? Did He suspend the sentence, thus putting away the law? God forbid! Jesus came to earth and paid the penalty for us. When we put our faith in Him, we finally come "under grace," and we can stop trying to pay off the debt by our works. Does this mean we should stop doing good works? Should we stop being obedient to the law? Of course not. Now that we are under grace, we can stop trying to be justified by our works. We are justified by Jesus' works. So from now on we do good works and obey God because we love Him for justifying us. We work BECAUSE we are justified; not in order to obtain justification. 8. The Dangers of LegalismLegalism bases our justification on something within ourselves. It can take many forms. The most blatant type says that we are justified by faith - so long as we obey the law (either God's or man's). This sounds good to most people, because obviously God wants us to obey His law. However, the moment we attach obedience to justification, we fall from grace. Why? Because perfect obedience is utterly impossible as long as we remain in our fleshly bodies. Legalism always PRETENDS to follow God's law. Yet legalism actually dishonours the law. The legalist attempts to offer the law something less than what the law demands for justification. The law's righteous standard demands perfection and will accept nothing short of it. But the legalist comes with his own righteous credentials and references. He perhaps has faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus, but for his justification he says, "Look at my life of obedience to the law. I've done pretty well for myself. " Strangely enough, most legalists know they are not perfect, but yet they think they can qualify for justification for being better than Joe next door, or by doing more good works than bad works, or by doing the best they could under the circumstances, or simply by being sincere. How dare we think that God will overlook sin for any reason! How dare we think that God will suspend the sentence on the grounds that we did the best we could under the circumstances! If God were to do that, as the legalist expects, then God would be putting away His law!! And so we see that legalism is the most insidious way of putting away God's law! The legalist expects God to put away His law to accommodate his imperfection. What an insult! Offering our own merit is an affront to a righteous God. No man can be justified by offering to the law less than the law requires. The legalist must try to cut the law down to his own size. He thinks he is innocent of murder, not knowing that the hatred m his heart makes him guilty before the law. He thinks he is innocent of adultery, not knowing that the lust in his heart makes him guilty before the law. This is the height of Pharisee religion. They thought they were righteous before God by virtue of their own ability to observe the law and refrain from sinful actions. They did not understand that God's law also requires righteous attitudes and imaginations. So they cut the law down to their level, to the size where they thought they could safely fulfill its requirements. Jesus said, "Except your righteousness shall EXCEED the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." 9. Being RighteousPaul wrote, ''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 3:20) The law defines righteous actions, for by it "is the knowledge of sin," but it cannot make anyone into a righteous person. The law is weak, limited in this way. Not that the law is bad, of course, for we know that "the law is holy ... just, and good. " (Romans 7:12) The problem is, we aren't good enough to match up to the law's righteous demands. The problem is in us, not in the law. When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, if we present ANYTHING to the law except the righteousness of Christ, the law will have grounds to condemn us. We must desire what Paul did in Philippians 3:9, "And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. " The law was not given to make us righteous, but to make us sinners in need of God's grace. If your justification could come by your own works and your own ability to keep the law, then you would not need to depend on the righteousness of Christ. You would not need His blood to pay the debt for your sins. Paul said, "If righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. " (Galatians 2:21) The purpose of the law is to provide a standard of absolute righteousness, which only Christ could fulfill to the letter. And it also provides the standard by which we measure ourselves. It teaches us God's will for our lives in terms of holiness and sanctification - but not justification.
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