So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. | Romans 7:21–25
A few weeks ago I preached on how the law of God is not written in modern lawyer-speak, but has a layered purpose; understanding the variety helps us to better interact with it. I asked a friend, Jordan Embree, to guest blog a summary of this tri-fold nature of the law.
The famous Puritan Thomas Watson once said, “until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.” Recently, I have noticed that the more I interact with the law of God, the sweeter our Savior becomes, as I am made increasingly more aware of the condemning nature of the law. I can’t keep it. The moral law was revealed to us in stone, partly to show us that we are weak in comparison. I have trampled on the law of a holy God; Oh! how I need a righteous Christ.
Too often, we don’t read the law as this powerful gift that draws us to our Savior. Part of the reason for this is because the law can be quite confusing, hard to apply, and, at times, a little weird. The purpose of this post is to give a cursory look at how the Reformed tradition has generally understood how to apply the law. Reformers typically described the law of God to have a tri-fold nature: moral, ceremonial, and civil.
MORAL
The moral law of God is written on the heart of every image bearer of God (Romans 2:15). God wrote a universal law on the heart of Adam and this is the same law that was eventually delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables, the four first containing our duty towards God, and the other six, our duty to man. (London Baptist Confession 19.2)
The 10 commandments are a summary of the moral law. The sum of God’s morality is wrapped up in each of the 10. For instance, the 6th commandment is “thou shalt not kill”; but even sins of anger are forbidden within the 6th commandment (see Jesus’ exposition of the law in Matthew 5). While not every sin is addressed specifically, ALL sin is covered by the overarching commands of the Ten.
The moral law is binding on the Christian today and it hasn’t changed. However, we don’t strive to obey the law to earn salvation; rather, we seek to joyfully keep it because we have been saved by the perfection of Jesus, and he tells us if we love Him we will obey Him (John 14:15). The unfortunate reality is that the majority of Evangelicalism wants to push back on the binding nature of the law for various reasons. Chief among them would be a rejection of doctrines within classical Christian Theism like the immutability of God. Immutability is an attribute of God that means God doesn’t change (Heb 6:17-18, Mal 3:6, 1 Sam 15:29). The “I AM” is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, forever. He doesn’t ebb and flow contingent upon his creation. If we understand this properly, we will recognize that this cannot be squared with a moral law that changes. The moral law is rooted in the character of God. He is moral; He defines morality. He is immutable; He does not change. The law was given to us to reveal how we, as creation, could never line up to the moral perfection of the Creator. And if the moral law reflects the character of God, then either the moral law never changes because God never changes, or we have some misconceptions about God.
CEREMONIAL
Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly holding forth divers instructions of moral duties, all which ceremonial laws being appointed only to the time of reformation, are, by Jesus Christ the true Messiah and only law-giver, who was furnished with power from the Father for that end abrogated and taken away (Hebrews 10:1; Colossians 2:17; 1 Corinthians 5:7; Colossians 2:14, 16, 17; Ephesians 2:14, 16). | LBCF 19.3
The second component of the trifold nature is the ceremonial aspect of the law. As quoted above, this part of the law was given to Israel and is now abrogated (done away with). This was a foreshadowing of what was to come. No longer is the blood of a bull required for atonement as we have a Christ who shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28). These aspects of the law were a temporary reflection of the glory of God fulfilled completely in the revelation of Jesus.
CIVIL
To them also he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution; their general equity only being of moral use (1 Corinthians 9:8-10). | LBCF 19.4
The civil laws that God gave Israel have also expired with the nation of Israel. We are not bound to keep the same laws that governed them civilly; rather we are called to submit to governing authorities per scriptures like Romans 13:1-7: Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. The civil law existed to lead and guide the people of Israel as a theocracy, but God rules over us civilly through the governing authorities.
As we read through the OT law, we need to be aware that we are reading laws that have different purposes. When we say that aspects of the law are no longer binding, it does not mean that they no longer benefit us; they still reveal the God behind them. Even with some cultural baggage, we should study them and search out what they teach us about God. We should recognize that they don’t all have the same weight or eternal aim.
At Communion Church, the law is read every Lord’s Day. I am so thankful for this reminder. As it continues to be read and preached, may the words of Thomas Watson be ever so true in our lives. As we hear it and contemplate how we fall short of it, I pray we continue to look to Jesus and that he would become sweeter and sweeter to our souls as the one who obtained righteousness on our behalf.
Soli Deo Gloria