God’s Law and the Christian

It seems there is quite a lot of confusion over the relevance of God’s law to the Christian in evangelical circles today. I claim no special insight into this as I too have grown up in this confusion. We’re not under law but under grace right? So that means the law is irrelevant? Why does Jesus say he didn’t come to abrogate the law when Paul seems to say the Christian is not under the law? What about the laws around sacrifice? What about stoning adulterers? it seems so very complex. Recently, however, I read an excellent book called “By this Standard” by Greg Bahnsen which is an outline for the case of the ongoing validity of the Law.

Before you accuse Bahnsen of arguing for works righteousness, that is not what he is talking about at all. There are some things the law cannot do.

What the Law Cannot Do

  1. The law cannot contribute anything toward the personal justification of one who stands under its curse for violating its precepts.
  2. The law cannot break the stranglehold and power of sin in a person’s life.
  3. The law delivered by Moses never could actually make anything perfect. Redemption comes not through the law.

What the Law Can Do

So according to Bahnsen what can the law do?

  1. The law declares the character of God and so reveals His glory
  2. The law displays the demand of God upon our lives as men.
  3. The law pronounces blessing upon adherence to its demands
  4. The law provides a definition of sin.
  5. The law exposes infractions and convicts of sin.
  6. Even more, the law works to incite rebellion in sinful men.
  7. Consequently, the law condemns all transgression as deserving God’s wrath and curse.
  8. The law drives us to Christ for salvation.
  9. The law guides the sanctification of the believer.
  10. The law also serves to restrain the evil of the unregenerate.

Bahnsen definitely got me thinking about the typical “Oh that’s Old Testament stuff” that we use to so easily write off the law that the Psalmist meditated on day and night and the Scriptures that were able to make Timothy and his readers wise unto salvation.