| “But we are no longer under the law!” That was my ardent response to the patient pastor sitting before me at a corner table in Panera Bread. He was seeking to show me the abiding validity of the moral law, specifically the fourth commandment. I was of the persuasion that the Christian, having been driven to Christ by the condemning power of the law, had nothing more to do with the Decalogue. “We are called to walk in love like Jesus, not live in legalistic obedience to the Ten Commandments!” It is comical to look back and consider how muddled my thinking was. How so? Let me explain with two very simple questions. First, what does love look like in action? It looks like keeping the Decalogue. “Love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10). Second, what does walking like Jesus look like in action? It looks like keeping the Decalogue. His flawless obedience as the second Adam “born under the law” (Gal. 4:4) is, after all, the only ground of our salvation: “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19). So if we are called the love (1 Jn. 4:7) and to walk like Jesus (1 Jn. 2:6), then there is simply no way of getting around the call to keep the law. “But,” I would have interjected ten years ago, “isn’t that legalism?!” Not in the slightest. For as those who have been justified in Christ, we do not keep the law as a meritorious means of gaining favor with God (i.e., a covenant of works). The original covenant of works with Adam promised life upon the condition of perfect and perpetual obedience. The law functioned meritoriously. But when Adam (and us in him) broke that covenant, there was no way to merit life by the law. We were hopelessly condemned until the second Adam came, perfectly obeying the precepts of the law in life and suffering the penalties of the law in death. As those who are in Christ, the law no longer functions as a broken covenant of works to condemn us. In that sense, we are no longer under the law! But as we saw last week, our union with Christ doesn’t merely deliver us from the penalty of sin in justification but it likewise delivers us from the power of sin in sanctification so that we progressively grow to reflect the character of the Christ who perfectly fulfilled the Decalogue. While the law no longer functions as a condemning covenant of works for those in Christ, it does function as a gracious rule of life. Here is how the Westminster Confession puts it: “Although true believers be not under the law, as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified, or condemned; yet is it of great use to them, as well as to others; in that as a rule of life informing them of the will of God, and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly…” (19.6; check out the whole paragraph–great stuff!). The law as a covenant of works in Adam says, “Do in order to live.” But the law as a rule of life in Christ says, “Live in order to do.” We don’t merit life by our obedience. We are gifted with life in Christ and our radically renovated hearts cannot help by obey in Godward gratitude. This is not legalism; this is piety! As we continue to think about our third core principle of God-delighting piety, we must not only stress that Christ is our strength but also that He is our standard which means that the Decalogue is our standard. As the righteous fulfillment of Psalm 1, Christ delivers us from the way of sinners so that it can be said of you and I: “his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (v. 2). Is that not what Paul expressed in the midst of His struggle with indwelling sin as a man in Christ? “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being!” (Rom. 7:22). The path of God’s commands is the path of biblical religion, and it is the path of joy for it is only when we are loving God and loving people by the power of the Spirit of Christ that we are living as God created us to live. So as those united to Jesus as their righteousness and sanctification, may I commend to you the goodness, beauty, and sweetness of the moral law? Yours in Christ, Pastor Nick |
