Are Christians Called to Obey the Law?
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00:00:05.000 | Mike writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, I have been over the last few years moving
00:00:08.560 | away from a Calvinistic reformed piety among the so-called New Calvinists and towards a
00:00:13.320 | more Lutheran law gospel distinction and a less obligation to the third use of the law
00:00:17.580 | view of the Christian life.
00:00:19.400 | Although the differences are subtle, there are nevertheless differences.
00:00:22.400 | My assurance is more consistent and more joyful, so much so that I feel like I'm deceived
00:00:26.360 | into cheap grace.
00:00:28.040 | I'm a part of a Calvinistic reformed church and there are subtle tensions beginning on
00:00:31.560 | the subject.
00:00:32.560 | Am I moving in a wrong direction and is there no difference at all, just a misunderstanding
00:00:36.560 | of language?"
00:00:37.560 | Oh my.
00:00:40.760 | This is just so huge.
00:00:42.920 | The law gospel conversation has been going on for a thousand years and 2000 and involves
00:00:54.240 | huge and complex issues.
00:00:56.200 | So here's the way I've thought about answering this.
00:01:02.080 | I just want to say a few things that are a contribution to people's thought, not a solution
00:01:10.440 | to every issue they're facing.
00:01:13.400 | And it may be a few thoughts they haven't had, and so if the Holy Spirit would be pleased
00:01:17.800 | to just take these few thoughts and stir them in to all their biblical reflections and all
00:01:22.720 | their reading, I would be happy with that outcome.
00:01:29.160 | In the New Testament, the word "law" is used in several ways, numerous ways.
00:01:36.600 | It refers to the Old Testament.
00:01:39.120 | It refers to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament.
00:01:42.400 | It refers to the covenant at Sinai, the Mosaic covenant and the commandments there.
00:01:47.240 | It refers to the principle of authority.
00:01:49.720 | It refers to a summary statement of God's demand for perfect obedience, etc.
00:01:55.120 | So it will be very confusing if we speak of a law gospel distinction without making clear
00:02:03.040 | what we mean by "law" when we say it.
00:02:06.000 | And I think lots of confusion happens when people just constantly say "law, law, law,
00:02:11.160 | law, law" and don't define what they mean by "law."
00:02:14.360 | Let me give an example of how I would talk.
00:02:18.080 | If I should say there is a clear distinction between law and gospel in the Bible, then
00:02:27.400 | what I would be meaning by "law" at that moment is not the first five books of Moses.
00:02:38.000 | Now why is that?
00:02:41.080 | Because the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, include Genesis, which contains
00:02:49.160 | the Abrahamic covenant, where Paul says, God says, that Abraham was justified by faith.
00:02:57.160 | And Paul uses that text to illustrate the gospel.
00:03:01.640 | In Galatians 3, the Scripture, he says, "The Scripture," Genesis 12, "for seeing that God
00:03:08.720 | would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel."
00:03:12.400 | There it is.
00:03:13.400 | So the Pentateuch is preaching the gospel in Genesis 12, "If in you shall all the families
00:03:20.400 | be blessed."
00:03:21.400 | So the Pentateuch preached justification by faith, preached the gospel, and pointed to
00:03:26.200 | Christ when it did it.
00:03:28.560 | And then Galatians 3:17 says, "The law, which came 430 years later, does not annul a covenant
00:03:39.680 | previously ratified by God."
00:03:41.320 | So now you've got, within the law, the law.
00:03:45.040 | So you've got to distinguish between—what are you talking about, "law"?
00:03:49.280 | Do you mean the Pentateuch and its message, or do you mean the specificities of the commandment
00:03:56.240 | of the Mosaic covenant, which coming 430 years later doesn't annul the covenant made with
00:04:04.000 | Abraham and is used by Paul to illustrate the gospel?
00:04:09.880 | So the law, in the sense of the Pentateuch or the whole Old Testament, teaches that the
00:04:16.200 | law, in the sense of the commandments given at Sinai, is not the path of justification.
00:04:22.440 | I think John Selhammer used to say that the Pentateuch is the Galatians of the Old Testament.
00:04:30.240 | In other words, the Pentateuch goes to battle against the Mosaic covenant as the means by
00:04:41.500 | which we move into a right standing with God.
00:04:45.760 | It cannot be done.
00:04:48.360 | So there is no law-gospel distinction if by "law" you mean the Pentateuch.
00:04:53.960 | They're both preaching the same message, and they're both distinguishing the gospel from
00:05:01.300 | something about the Mosaic covenant.
00:05:03.240 | Now what's that?
00:05:04.240 | Maybe we should go there.
00:05:06.280 | It seems then like embedded in the Mosaic law given at Sinai is a principle, an ultimate
00:05:14.080 | principle that if you seek to be justified by commandment-keeping, you must be perfect
00:05:22.080 | in keeping them or fall back on the provision of an animal sacrifice pointing to the final
00:05:29.120 | sacrifice.
00:05:30.120 | So Galatians 3.10, "It is written, 'Cursed be everyone who does not abide in all things
00:05:37.200 | written in the book of the law to do them.'
00:05:39.880 | For James, whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable
00:05:46.520 | to all."
00:05:47.520 | So embedded in the Mosaic law is this principle that this isn't all or nothing, folks.
00:05:53.640 | If you want to be circumcised, you got to keep the whole law.
00:05:56.720 | If you want to be justified, that is, come into a right standing with God through law-keeping,
00:06:02.720 | rule-keeping, commandment-keeping, then you got to keep it all.
00:06:07.520 | And nobody can do it, and that is what brings that principle into distinction to the gospel,
00:06:14.320 | because the gospel says, "Okay, you can't do it.
00:06:17.240 | Christ has done it for you.
00:06:19.340 | Christ has borne your punishment for not doing it.
00:06:21.800 | Christ has provided your perfection, which you can't measure up to."
00:06:25.240 | And so we have a gospel, and the gospel is different from the principle of law that is
00:06:33.800 | the demand for commandment-keeping perfection to get right with God.
00:06:40.360 | That is simply not what the gospel is.
00:06:43.600 | The gospel declares, "Christ has done that.
00:06:46.200 | He's finished that.
00:06:47.280 | He's provided that."
00:06:48.760 | And now the way into justification, the way into a right standing with God is by faith
00:06:54.720 | in this Redeemer, faith in this substitute.
00:06:59.260 | So that leaves just one more question to do in this little daily podcast.
00:07:05.700 | What do you do with the commandments, then?
00:07:07.500 | Because that's probably what he's wrestling with, is the use of the commandments for the
00:07:13.300 | Christian.
00:07:14.640 | And I would say the commandments never can make God to be for us.
00:07:22.300 | He's already for us in Christ by trusting Christ.
00:07:25.900 | We're in Christ so that no commandment-keeping can make us acceptable to God.
00:07:34.220 | We are acceptable in Christ, which puts commandment-keeping at a lower level.
00:07:39.600 | The way to live the Christian life is not by focusing on commandments.
00:07:44.500 | They can help discern the path of love, but the key to living the Christian life is now
00:07:51.220 | very different than a focus on commandment-keeping towards pleasing God and bringing us 100%
00:08:01.940 | into his favor.
00:08:02.940 | And the key verse that I love so much that I try to live in each day is Romans 7, 6,
00:08:11.220 | and I'll end with this.
00:08:14.420 | Now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive.
00:08:21.220 | So we die to the law and are no longer under the law, we're no longer its slaves, so that
00:08:27.420 | we may serve—oh yes, there is a serving of—we may serve in the new way of the Spirit, not
00:08:36.980 | the old way of the letter.
00:08:40.660 | The letter kills; the Spirit gives life.
00:08:45.100 | So that's what we're aiming at, and I don't know whether that touches where this question
00:08:52.420 | was coming from, but those are the kind of thoughts that I wrestle with and where I am
00:08:57.460 | right now in my thinking.
00:08:59.980 | Thank you for those thoughts, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:09:03.140 | Please continue to email the hardest questions you can possibly think of to askpastorjohn@zaringod.org.
00:09:08.580 | Visit us online at zaringod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources
00:09:12.420 | from John Piper, all free of charge.
00:09:13.980 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:09:14.980 | Thanks for listening.
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