Doctrine of the Week - God's Law

The Doctrine of the

Week for this Sunday is God's Law. God's Law, as summarized in the

Ten Commandments, and more succinctly summarized in the two Great Commandments spoken of by Christ, God's Law shows us the

Lord's holy and righteous character, which is unchanging.

Jesus said in Matthew 5, 17, Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.

I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And as we had said last week, it is the violation of God's law that constitutes sin.

So Jesus, as the only sinless man, Jesus kept the law perfectly.

And generally, the law of God is broken down into three parts. The ceremonial law,

Jesus fulfilled. God's moral law, which never changes,

Jesus upheld. And then the civil law of Israel, the laws of the nation, that passed away with the nation and the old covenant that they were under, although those laws left behind many valuable principles.

Now unfortunately, regarding God's law, many Christians have been influenced by the false doctrine known as antinomianism.

You guys know this term by now, I hope, right? Anti means against, the nomos refers to the law, so it's anti -law.

And this usually plays out where some professing Christians are either dismissive of the

Old Testament, or they think that Jesus died to make them free to live however they want.

Of course, this is a gross misunderstanding. As the New Testament says in 1

Timothy 1 .8, the law is good. That's what the New Testament says, the law is good as long as one uses it lawfully.

Of course, so much more could be said, it's such a big topic. But in conclusion, what's the ultimate purpose of God's law?

Well, not only does it display God's righteous character, it also shows mankind of his or our unrighteous character.

Therefore, our need for Christ. As the apostle Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia, Galatians 3 .24

says, therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.