Is the Law of God Good? | The Whole Counsel

Is that it's impossible for God to actually adjust the law, or to release us from the demands of the law. And we'll talk about this later, that there is one way for the law not to not to demand perfect righteousness of us, you know, for justification through the work of Christ, of course.

But listen to what he says. We find this on page 22. We may be sure God will not release any moral agent from his obligations to this law. As it is most certain, he cannot do it consistent with his character as moral governor of the world.

So even though the Christian is not under the law as a way of earning justification, it's not a ladder that we're climbing, God, even though that law has been satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ's perfect obedience, still that law cannot be adjusted.

God cannot be okay with adultery now, even though he was against it before the cross. So we have to—the role of the law, and we'll talk about this in a minute, the role of the law has shifted for the believer, and yet the moral strictness and perfection of the law cannot be dimmed at all.

It must remain as it always has been, a perfect reflection of God's perfect moral expectations.

Ernie Reisinger has written that God and his perfect law are so united that you cannot be at enmity with one without being at enmity with the other. So if you're at war with his law, you're at war with the lawgiver, God himself, and contrary.

To the other is true also. I think that's a really good point, and that does bring us a little bit to the issue of the new—people who hold to a new covenant theology that would say that the law has nothing to do at all, no use in the Christian life.

I don't think that what Reisinger pointed out there necessarily condemns them. For example, a man may—and I would disagree with this, I think we would disagree with that view of the new covenant. We don't believe that the law has no part in the Christian life.

But if a man, through studying the Bible, comes to that view, and he's a true believer, I think what we find is though his official theology says, well now the law really, because it's satisfied, it doesn't actually have anything to do with your life now.

But if you press that man, he loves the law. If you say to that man, would you—do you love to be faithful to your wife, or do you love adultery? And if he's a Christian man, he says, no, I love to love my wife the way Christ loved the Church.

That's what I want to do. You know, do you love integrity, or do you love dishonesty? You know, at every point that the law would lay a path of obedience, I think good men who might define the role of the law in the Christian life differently than what we feel the Bible does, I think that in their heart, their life is better than their theology.

That doesn't make their theology, right? You know, where we are wrong, that tends to lead to some wrong thoughts, wrong behaviors. But ultimately, even if you have a different theology, every believer loves the law.

Yes, and I.

Don't remember the context of this quote, but I'm assuming it is for the lost person. You're at enmity with God, you're at enmity with His law, or you're at enmity with—if you're breaking His law, you're at enmity with Him.

Hopkins says it something like this on the top of page 23, regarding believers in Christ, who, he says, they're as much under the law as a rule as they ever were. Everything in them which is short of perfect obedience—pardon me—everything in them which is short of perfect holiness, or perfect obedience to this law, considered in its utmost strictness, is wholly inexcusable, and is criminal in them as if they were not believers in Christ.

So again, not condemning the person who views the law differently, but who in action still loves the law. But Hopkins is pointing out that we have an obligation to the law, not again as a ladder to climb our way to God, but as an expression of obedience to Him.

God's law is still in a reflection of His character, and so obedience to that is pleasing to Him. I heard you use an example one time about obedience and spelling it out. You were talking about going to your grandparents' house as a child, and your parents would tell you to be good, and you were like, okay, but good in your mind was I get all the food I want, and whatever, you know.

But then they laid out, okay, here's what this looks like, you know, so that means don't ask for this, and it means don't do this. And you know, they were putting expression to be good, and we wouldn't necessarily say—again, we're not saying be good to earn God's favor—but as believers, we want to be good.

We want to express love to God. What does it look like? Well, we have a law that tells us. Yeah, Chuck, you.

Have two young boys right now, and you know, when like Father's Day comes along, when your birthday comes along, when Elizabeth's birthday is there, they want to do something for you. And you know, you can remember being a kid and being really excited to get your parents something, maybe for Christmas.

I remember getting my mom this one thing in particular, and it was so—it was just so bad. You know, it was so cheesy and cheap, and my mom made, you know, like she always did, she made a big deal about it.

She thanked me for it, and I felt so satisfied. But as I grew older, I looked at it, and I thought, wow, that was really a piece of junk I got my mom, you know? And like, she should have taken it right back, and you know, just done something else with the $5 or whatever.

But you know, it's kind of funny when our kids, you know, we understand that they're doing the best they can, but it would not be funny to live our entire life as believers yearning to express love to God, to say thank you, to say I am yours, or as Paul says in Romans, now unto Him.

You know, I want to wake up, and those— that's my yearning before my feet hit the floor. And you really want to live that way now because of the work of the Spirit in you, and because of the wonderful mercy you've received.

But what if there were no path laid before our feet, and we were just wandering in a fog, hoping that today my wanderings were in the general right direction, that they pleased the King? So it is really a very sweet gift that the law comes to us still as believers, not through the hands of Moses to condemn us and drive us to a Savior, but through the hands of Jesus Christ, satisfied, kept, and as a friend to say to us, here is the way to walk in harmony with Him.

Here's a way to show love to Him. And so we don't ever have to fear, with all the fears that we do have, with all the inadequacies that we feel, we don't have to fear that we don't know what path pleases the Lord.