The Mosaic Covenant (Part 2) - Baptist Covenant Theology

Review of the Mosaic Covenant and Its Conditional Nature

Okay, week nine, and we are on the Mosaic Covenant part two. You have your handout. Most of you, I think, were here last week. We'll do a little bit of review. If you missed last week, you can always listen online and set the context.

We kind of need to hit the ground running. Not that we're on a timetable, but I really am trying to finish by the time our semester ends, and we will, Lord willing. But last time we talked about the nature of the Mosaic Covenant.

It's a conditional covenant. It's a covenant of works. I was reading today an article on Ligonier. I love Ligonier. I'm grateful for R .C. Sproul. I'm grateful for those guys, but they want to push the Mosaic Covenant underneath the covenant of grace.

It's not. We looked at it last week. It's not. It is a covenant of works. We talked about even how it can be considered the covenant of works, but not with the actual promise of eternal life because we can't keep that.

Now, this covenant is made with who? The people of Israel, okay? So this is from Romans 5. I just want to remind you. Romans 5, 12 says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man. Who's that?

Adam, not Moses, through one man. And death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all sin, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given. Let's talk about the Mosaic Covenant.

But sin is not counted where there is no law, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. Just to summarize, we've already talked about that, but we die in Adam because Adam is the head of the covenant of works, if you will, the federal head.

So all mankind, so here's what I'm saying. All mankind is born under a broken covenant of works in Adam. But not all mankind is born under the Mosaic Covenant. You understand that? No one today, we'll get to this at the end.

No one today is born under the Mosaic Covenant. It's fulfilled and abrogated, we'll talk about that. And while the Mosaic Covenant was still in force, no Gentile was born under that covenant, right? So I'm just saying specific covenant there with Israel between God and the physical lineage of Abraham, let's just say this together, or you can tell me.

So how do we get from Abraham to Israel? We go Abraham to his son, Isaac to Jacob, okay? And now we have this covenant with the physical lineage of Abraham through Isaac through Jacob. And now what's the purpose of this covenant?

I'm just gonna quick review of the first four points. To preserve the line of the Messiah, so it's kind of like a fence around Israel, so it gets us to the Messiah. Through the physical lineage of Abraham, we are going to get to Christ.

Secondly, it distinguishes God's people from the rest of the world, it sets them apart. We see the threefold division of the law, the moral, ceremonial, and judicial law. I understand people kind of argue about that because it's not explicitly, there's not a verse that says divides it up that way, but if you look at it as a whole, you understand and you see this threefold division.

And then thirdly, it showed the necessity of perfect righteousness, it required perfection. Fourthly, it showed the hopelessness of working to God. That is, it showed out righteousness, but there's no way you can get to God through this way in and of yourself.

The Bloodiness of the Atonement and the Necessity of Christ's Blood

And so that brings us to our fifth point tonight. So fifthly, the Mosaic covenant reveals to us the bloodiness of the atonement. This is something I think, especially as Americans, 21st century Americans, we just don't appreciate this.

But the sacrificial system of the Mosaic covenant was absolutely a bloody event. So I'll just read to you there, Exodus 29, 38 through 42. Now, this is what you shall offer on the altar. So listen to this, two lambs, a year old, day by day, regularly.

One lamb you shall offer in the morning, the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. And with the first lamb, a 10th measure of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hand of bean oil and a fourth of a hand of wine for a drink offering.

The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, shall offer with it a grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. There'll be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord where I will meet with you to speak to you there.

So every morning, every evening, day after day after day, there is the shedding of blood. And that's just one fraction of the sacrificial system because then you have the guilt offering, the sin offering, the peace offerings.

You have Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, which is a yearly thing when the high priest, you have the two goats and the scapegoat and the goat, the substitutionary and representing expiation. You have all this going on.

And what I'm trying to argue is this shows us the bloodiness of the atonement. And it ultimately points us to who? You know the answer, the Christ. So again, Hebrews 10, one through four, it's on your sheet.

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year by year make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers having once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sins. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year.

For it is impossible, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Every day, you kill the lamb in the morning before the tabernacle or later in the temple. The tabernacle in the temple.

Every evening, twilight, you kill the lamb. Then all these other offerings, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, a continual reminder of your sins. They can't draw you, they can't atone for your sins.

But what they can do and what they did do is point us to the one that we need. I'll back up in Hebrews, it's on your sheet, Hebrews 9, 24 through 26. For Christ has entered, not into the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

And nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.

But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin, listen to this, by the sacrifice of himself. He is that sacrifice. The Mosaic covenant shows us the reality of sin and that it must be dealt with in this way, a blood sacrifice.

The problem is all the blood of the bulls and goats and lambs in the world, all the blood of those animals in the world could not atone for one sin. It points us forward to the necessity of the blood of Christ.

The atonement that they needed and the atonement that we need is that offered by Christ. He fulfilled all righteousness and then don't forget this, he bled for us. Ephesians 1, seven, remember that book.

In him, we have redemption through what? His blood, he was whipped, his hands and his feet were pierced. He's bloody, unrecognizable. His side was pierced, his lifeblood was shed for sinners. He died, he rose again in victory and this is the atonement we need and the only atonement that we must trust, repenting of our sins and believing the gospel.

Now let me just pause there for a second and say this, how offensive must it be to God to look for salvation in another way? The son of God was beaten and battered and bloody because that's the cost of our sins.

It's offensive, isn't it? To a holy God to look for atonement in something else, something we do or let's talk about, we want second Rome, they have this doctrine of transubstantiation. So every time they take the Lord's supper, they're saying that Jesus is being sacrificed again.

That's shameful.

His bloody atoning work is enough and I'm telling you tonight, the Mosaic Covenant points us to these things. Sixthly, similarly, but listen to this, the Mosaic Covenant shows us the heinousness of sin and it's just consequences.

So a couple of thoughts, the Old Testament is laden with example of example after example of the heinousness of sin and people were put to death for sin. Is that wrong? They were killed for idolatry, for blasphemy, for adultery, for homosexuality.

One time a guy was picking up sticks on the Sabbath, right? And the Lord said, you should kill him. How about this one? Exodus 21, 17. Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death. Is this unrighteous?

No, Nadab and Abihu were killed for false worship. You remember what God told Adam in the garden? On the day that you eat of it, you will surely, what?

Die.

Now there is a spiritual death there for sure, but don't forget Romans 6, 23. For the wages, what does wages mean? Kermit, you go work for somebody, what do they owe you? They owe you money, right? That's your wages, okay?

What's the wages of sin? What does God owe you? Death. Well, he owes you punishment, death. The wages of sin is death. And so we see this time and time again, the soul that sins shall die. That's Ezekiel 18, 20.

We see in the conquest of Canaan. Don't be embarrassed about this, just understand it. You know, God's not embarrassed of the Bible. You don't be embarrassed of the Bible. In the conquest of Canaan, God says, kill everything, men, women, children, right?

And so we look back on all that stuff and people today are looking back, and even people who profess to be Christians, that's just barbaric. But actually the reality is this shows us the holiness and justice of God and the heinousness and just consequences of sin.

Sin is wicked and sin deserves God's judgment. Now, I think it was R .C. Sproul who did say this, 100 agree, he says, we sing the song, Amazing Grace. We're not amazed at grace. We expect grace. We're amazed at justice.

When we read a passage in the scripture and God brings about justice, then we're like, but we need to understand justice. And Mosaic Covenant helps shows us this. Seventhly, this is an interesting one.

I came up with all these, but I could have combined them. I know, but I'm just trying to draw out some things we should learn. So the Mosaic Covenant shows us God's willingness to bless obedience. So read Psalm 1, for example, and it's even in our confession in chapter 19 of the 1689.

But I'm not trying to argue there's an ironclad promise that you can use God to do what you want. There is a reality of trusting God by grace, following His ways and Him blessing you. Now, it's similar to like how we may reward our children.

You know, they stumble, fall, they're not perfect. We reward them sometimes. In a similar way, God blesses His children. He's gracious to us. This is not a propriety gospel. Even this really points to the necessity of Christ and His gospel.

Because only Jesus, if you wanna understand blessing, only Jesus is the ultimately blessed man. And even His life, you wanna talk about the blessed life? Jesus' life was one called acquainted with grief, the man of sorrows.

He suffered under God's judgment, but by His obedience, the Bible says the many are accounted righteous. So the lamb who was slain will receive the reward of His suffering. And the point is, I'm trying to say that the Mosaic covenant does show us the character of God in His willingness to bless obedience.

We don't have to be afraid of that. We don't have to react to the prosperity gospel by saying, well, I'm not even worried about if God blesses me. Well, that'd be kind of silly, right?

It's okay.

That shouldn't be, your biggest motivation shouldn't be material blessings. But if the Lord at times blesses your walk in such a way, praise, give Him the glory for it, right?

Praise Him.

Your obedience in and of itself didn't earn that, right? He still blessed you. But we see that, we see. The Mosaic covenant shows us that. Eighthly, this will just be a quick one. It shows us God's faithfulness to His promises to Abraham.

So let me just say Joshua 21, 45. I think it's an important verse. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass.

So it did.

God told Abraham, gonna bring your offspring into this land. And he did it. He actually did more than that. We'll talk about that later. And then ninthly, and in fact, Abraham and his offspring will inherit the earth one day, right?

The Ten Commandments, the Moral Law, and the Character of God

So ninthly, it demonstrates God's character. So slow down just a second here. Let me read this quote from Brandon Ray. It's on your sheet. God did not give the 10 commandments as a new law. Instead, He codified His already revealed standard of righteousness, which He had written on the human heart of Adam and all of His offspring.

So this is important.

This is what our confession teaches. I want you to understand this and we'll just kind of walk through it. But what I want you to understand is that the 10 commandments, it's not like, well, Adam fell in the garden.

One commandment, thou shall not eat of the tree of knowledge.

Of good and evil.

He failed. So now the Lord says,.

Well, I'll come up with 10.

He couldn't do one. Now I'll come up with 10 and we'll see how it goes. That's silly, okay? What we need to understand the 10 commandments are as a, well, let's just read the confession here. I've got it on your sheet, 1689, 19 .2, chapter 19, paragraph two.

The same law that was first written in the human heart continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall. It was delivered by God on Mount Sinai in 10 commandments and was written in two tables.

The first four commandments contain our duty to God and the other six, our duty to humanity. What we're saying is the 10 commandments are the summation of the moral law. They were always from the beginning before the 10 commandments were written on stone.

And then even today, they still are binding in the sense of their moral character, their moral nature. Why do we think the 10 commandments are different? Well, the Bible shows us they're different. So I've written this down here for you.

The 10 commandments were written by the finger of God. These were the only ones, Exodus 24, 12. The Lord said to Moses, just come up to me on the mountain and wait there that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment, which I have written in their instruction.

And then the 10 commandments were placed in the Ark of the Covenant, the special place. Identifying these, there's something special about these. Deuteronomy 10, five. My turn came down from the mountain, Moses says, and put the tablets in the ark that I laid, there they are, as the Lord commanded me.

So Adam summarizes, the 10 commandments were a clear summary of the law written on the heart of man at creation. She had become obscured by sin, but was and remains a rule of righteousness for all image bearers, as they are a reflection of God's character and transcend all covenants.

And there's some passages you can look. Feel like maybe I'm a little fast, I'm gonna just call it a breather. Okay, if you have a question, you wanna wait till the end, you can ask it. But if you're like, hey, can you explain that?

This will pause for just a second. Okay, 10thly, what is the Mosaic Covenant's purpose? 10thly, it gives stipulations for the offices of prophet, priest, and king, which Christ fulfills. So we talk about these roles that Jesus fulfills.

Where do we get these roles? Where do we get the office of prophet, priest, king? Well, they're laid out for us in the Mosaic Covenant. I love this quote by Sam Rennighan. Maybe it just really encouraged me, but I want you to think about it.

The Mosaic Covenant began to delineate the lines of the Savior's silhouette. I think that's beautiful. You tell me what you think that means. And so we're on the same page. The Mosaic Covenant began to delineate the lines of the Savior's silhouette.

What's he trying to communicate there?

Yeah, you begin.

So the Messiah is promised where? Genesis 3 .15. And then he's gonna be of the family of who? Abraham. We have that in between Genesis 3 .15 and Abraham. You have that Mosaic Covenant, which guarantees that the earth is gonna remain, okay, until the Messiah comes.

So that's been fulfilled. But then we have this promise that it'll be of the line of Abraham. Now we have this Mosaic Covenant. And what Rennighan is saying here is, now you begin to say what kind of man the Messiah is gonna be.

And you see that. Well, what are some things we see? We see that he's going to have to be righteous, right? Perfect righteousness is required. God's building a kingdom, right? Upon this kingdom, there has to be a foundation of righteousness.

And then atonement is required. And we see in the Mosaic Covenant, these offices now, these three separate offices,.

They don't overlap.

The prophets, the priests, and the kings. The office of prophet is what? Someone teaching us God's word. Office of priest is someone sacrificing on behalf of God's people. And then there's the office of king, which is someone ruling over God's people.

By the way, when they ask for a king, when they ask for a king, first Samuel, it's the problem is not so much that they ask for a king, the problem is that they're rejecting God's kingship over. That's the problem, okay?

Anyway, prophet, priest, and king. Now in the Mosaic Covenant, were there good prophets? Yes. Were there false prophets?

Yes.

Were there good priests?

Yes.

Were there wicked priests?

Yes.

And were there faithful kings?

Yes.

And were there apostate kings? That's true as well. But only one would fulfill these three roles perfectly, and that is Jesus. So Jesus is on the scene, he's the perfect prophet, he's the perfect priest, he's the perfect king, he's the prophet to teach us God's word perfectly, the priest to be slain our sins, and the king to rule over us and to be the head of the church.

And so this Mosaic Covenant, the conditional covenant, was set before Israel. And the proper response from Israel was to see all that was pointed to and to repent and believe in the gospel to come. Don't kid yourself and think they didn't have the gospel.

Yes, they had the gospel. These, all these things were pointing to Christ. And I say when we test things more clear and revealed,.

So I'm not arguing,.

I'm saying is what they had to be said by was this promise of Moses. Even Moses said, God raised up one like me from among you. All pointing to our nation beside us.

Did Israel believe this?

Some, we have Israel, physical Israel,.

And you need the Israel within Israel.

That's what Paul argues in Romans nine. So the Israel within Israel are those who are looking at the promise of believing. But the vast majority of Israel is resting in the Mosaic Covenant for their righteousness.

The Obsolescence of the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant

Now, this leads me to the last point. So we discussed nature and the purpose of the Mosaic Covenant. Lastly, we're doing really good on time, but we've got to read a little bit here. So everybody turn to Hebrews 8.

Lastly, I want to talk about the fulfillment of the Mosaic Covenant. So Hebrews chapter eight, we'll read the whole chapter, but it's only 13 verses.

Hebrews chapter eight.

All right, listen carefully, follow along. Now the point in what we are saying is this. We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus, it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old.

The old what?

The old covenant.

Those eggs.

As the covenant immediates, it's better since it is enacted on better promises. For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. If it finds fault with them, he said, so it's not the argument, it's not so much the covenant, it's not that the covenant is faulty in and of itself.

The fault is in Israel. For even if it finds fault with them, he said, behold, the dead are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel.

And with the house of Judah,.

Not like the covenant that I made with the father on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant and so no concern for them, declares the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days to collect the Lord. I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people.

They shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, O the Lord, for they shall all come to me, from the least of them to the greatest. I'll be merciful toward their nicknames and I will remember their sins no more.

This is Jeremiah 31. In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one, what's your word say, Alex?

Yeah, same.

Makes the first one. What?

Obsolete.

And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. So what happened to the Mosaic covenant? It is what?

Obsolete.

Okay, we'll talk about that in just a second, but let me mention this. And we'll get to the new covenant in a couple of weeks. But everyone in the new covenant has the law of God written on their heart, has, they know God, they have their sins forgiven.

All right, that's why we say only those born again are in the new covenant. It's always been this way. In the Old Testament, they were saved by virtue of the new covenant, only by being born again, repenting of their sins, looking to the coming Messiah.

Okay, so the Mosaic covenant is obsolete. That's important. Did you guys know that right now it's Passover? Yeah, I can't believe you didn't know that, Colton. Why didn't he know it?

Because he's in the new covenant.

The Passover is obsolete. It's obsolete. Now, it's not obsolete in the sense that, can we learn from the Passover or read? Can we say, yeah, amen. The Passover points us to Christ, amen. Do we celebrate the Passover?

No. Why?

It's obsolete. It's been fulfilled. Listen to long quote from Dr. Renan, Sam Renan. Among the laws, this is important. Among the laws by which God governed Israel, there are two basic kinds. Israel was governed by moral laws and by positive laws.

Okay, positive doesn't mean like, these are happy laws, you know, or whatever. It's a theological term that means these are, well, he's gonna explain it. Moral laws transcend transcription. They're known by nature, though suppressed by fallen nature.

God delivered the moral law to Israel, summarized in the 10 commandments. In addition to moral laws, God gave positive laws to Israel. Positive laws are added laws, additional laws. These laws are not morally right or wrong in and of themselves.

Circumcision, how to build the tabernacle, which animals to sacrifice for which sins, and what foods you can or can't eat are positive laws. They were added by God to Israel's covenantal obligations. Every covenant has its own positive laws that govern the people of that covenant, like the trees and Eden.

The moral law and the positive laws of Israel govern the people. That was their function. Israel's positive laws are often split up into two groups, the civil law and the ceremonial law. And here's the argument I'm saying.

The positive laws of the covenant are abrogated. Over, they're done, they're finished. It has been finished. It has been completed. You understand the difference between moral and positive.

So what Griffith wrote says,.

Now this is what I want you to think through. Could be unpopular. Today, Israel has served its purpose and it could no longer be seen as being a sanctified nation or people. The covenant of Christ marked the end of the conditional covenant made physical Israel.

Look at Israel today. I want to say this. I never thought I would have to say this,.

But I need to say it in the church.

I need to make it clear. Anti-Semitism is wicked.

It's abhorrent.

We should love the Jewish people, just like we should love every tribe, tongue, language, and nation. And we want to get the Jewish people what?

The gospel.

The gospel. We don't, okay, so the nation of Israel today, and I know you've got people with charts and all those things. And I'm like, yeah, but look at the maps. I got the charts. Not trying to be disparaging.

Just trying to say, you don't look at the nation of Israel today and say, yeah, those people are under the Mosaic covenant.

Are they?

What did the Hebrews say? It's obsolete. It's not in function anymore. If you really, we don't have time for this tonight, but if you go, Mark, I'll give you the passage.

Go look at Mark 11.

Do some study and think about why did Jesus curse the fig tree?

Ever thought about that?

Like, he just get angry. He's like, came up to the fig tree. It's not to see the figs.

He was hungry.

No fruit shall come from me again. Well, if he's having, being hanged is a sin, right? Not getting hanged.

Sorry, Alec.

But he, you know he's not getting hanged. He never sins. Why did he curse the fig tree? And it's symbolic. It is symbolic of the completion of the Mosaic covenant. Israel is done in the covenantal sense.

So listen, this helps with so many things. Don't look at the Mosaic covenant to come back. Israel didn't meet the condition of the Mosaic covenant.

They did not.

They failed.

But who did it?

Jesus. And the Mosaic covenant has been fulfilled in that abrogation. It's not going to come back again. It's not going to come back in a thousand year reign. I do, my personal eschatology, I do think there'll be a large number of Jews, I'm not sure what it'll look like, come to the kingdom.

They won't come into the kingdom by the Mosaic covenant.

Come into the kingdom, how? That's the way anyone gets in.

They must be, they must be born again. They will repent and they will believe the gospel. So we are obligated to share it with them. We should not, I think this is the argument of Romans 11. We should not despise them.

We should not be like, oh, the Jews. No, we should take the gospel to them. We shouldn't make jokes about them or inappropriate racial marks, whatever the case may be. Like we should love them and take Christ to them and let them know they can be in Christ if they'll repent of their sins and believe the gospel.

Okay, last thing, but what about the moral law? So the positive laws, the ceremonial laws, by the way, this is why if someone tries to stump you and say, well, you say homosexuality is a sin, but you don't care about eating pork, what's the answer?

You say homosexuality is a sin, but you don't care about a shirt, a fabrics, mixed fabrics or whatever. That's the answer. One is a moral law, one is a positive law. The positive laws have been fulfilled and abrogated.

Now there is a sense that positive laws are moral. For example, if a person had mixed fabric under the Mosaic Covenant and they wore that, was that immoral? Yes, why? Because they disobeyed God. I'll give you an example.

There's positive laws in the New Testament, the New Covenant, what are they? A hint, Ms. Virginia is really excited about one. Very good. Baptism or supper are positive laws. What I mean by this, so listen, is baptism is getting dunked in the water in and of itself, moral or immoral?

Just in and of itself, someone going down in the water, going down in the water, coming up, is that moral in nature? No, the answer is no. It doesn't have a moral connotation to it. However, if someone professes faith in Christ and doesn't get baptized, is that immoral?

Yes, because it's a positive law, we're commanded to be baptized. So you understand the connection. Okay, so what about our confession does a really good job and we'll be done here and then we'll have time for questions.

So what do we do then with the moral law? If the positive laws have been fulfilled and abrogated, you don't understand what I mean by abrogated. So like theological term, it just means done away with.

So fulfilled and now these things are done away with. Okay, let me give you an example. What do you do if you go to someone's house? I've already kind of used this, haven't I? What do you do if you go to someone's house and they say, hey, we're gonna celebrate Passover tonight?

What do you do?

Well, I mean, look, we can think through that, we can talk about that and we can, you know, but at the end of the day, you're like, I don't celebrate Passover. Why don't you celebrate Passover? Because Passover has been completed.

The Passover lamb has come, okay? The feasts point me to Jesus and he's completed all those things, right?

You understand?

Can there be like a moral neutral way to like celebrate Passover? I'm not saying that's necessarily wrong, but you might, maybe you just go through and walk through that or whatever, okay. If you think celebrating Passover.

For like some sort of spiritual purpose,.

You're out of your mind.

I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just saying.

You're out of your mind in terms of what the scriptures are teaching. The first covenant is obsolete, okay? Now, but what about the moral laws? So what I, I'm just, I just live however I want. No, listen, chapter 19, paragraph six, chapter 19 of the confession is very, very helpful.

Although true believers are not under the law as a covenant of works to be thereby justified or condemned, yet it is of great use to them as well as to others. It, 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, discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature's hearts and lives.

So as examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of or humiliation for and hatred against sin, together with a clear sight of the need they have of Christ and the perfection of his obedience.

It is likewise of use to the regenerate, to restrain their corruptions and that it forbids sin and the threatenings of it, serve to show what even their sins deserve and what afflictions in this life they may expect for them, although freed from the curse and unallayed rigor thereof.

The promises, this is not in the modern English Bible, the promises of it likewise show them God's approbation of obedience and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof. Though not as due to them by the law as a covenant works, so as man's doing good and refraining from evil because the law encourages to the one and deters from the other is no evidence of his being under the law and not under grace.