God's Law for the Christian

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: Psalm 119; Lord's Day 34
Psalters: 198, 325, 178, 40
  1. Still valid.
    1. "The law is good, if a man use it lawfully" (I Timothy 1:8).
      1. The worst use of the law is that one is justified by obeying it: Pharisees and Judaizers
      2. The law was never intended to be the/a means to salvation by meritorious works.
    2. The law remains valid and good because it reveals God and reflects the righteous standard of His holiness.
      1. As Creator, He still has the right to demand obedience of His creatures (Rom. 2:14,15).
      2. This is why God's law always defines sin, exposing sin to man's consciousness (Rom. 3:19,20; 7:7,13b).
      3. In this way the law drives the believers to Christ for salvation.
    3. Also, the law's validity for believers is evident in the introduction to the law (Exodus 20:2).
  2. What the law does not do for the Christian.
    1. As those saved in Jesus, we can say that the Christian is free from the law.
      1. First, we are free from the curse of the law (because Jesus became that curse for us, Gal. 3:13,14).
      2. Second, the Christian is free in the sense that the law can never be a way of salvation to us.
    2. That we are free from having to do good works to be saved does not mean that we are free from the law to love.
  3. What the law is to do.
    1. True knowledge of God is efficacious, always leading to an obeying of Him (I John 2:3,4; 5:2,3).
    2. The law teaches us how to express our returning love to God.
      1. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (John 14:15).
      2. Love for God means that we honor Him as He would have Himself to be honored.
    3. Because we are still in the body of flesh, it is good to instruct and to warn us.
  4. There is a three-fold effect and a three-fold fruit the law has on the sanctified, believing heart.
    1. It continually helps us see the horror of our own sin.
    2. Two, we grow in the knowledge of the preciousness of Jesus Christ.
    3. Three, we grow in the knowledge of God's will, to which we want to comply as an expression of gratitude.