God's Law for the Christian
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
7/13/2014 AM
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Text:
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Psalm 119;
Lord's Day 34
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Psalters: |
198, 325, 178, 40 |
- Still valid.
- "The law is good, if a man use it lawfully" (I Timothy 1:8).
- The worst use of the law is that one is justified by obeying it: Pharisees and Judaizers
- The law was never intended to be the/a means to salvation by meritorious works.
- The law remains valid and good because it reveals God and reflects the righteous standard of His holiness.
- As Creator, He still has the right to demand obedience of His creatures (Rom. 2:14,15).
- This is why God's law always defines sin, exposing sin to man's consciousness (Rom. 3:19,20; 7:7,13b).
- In this way the law drives the believers to Christ for salvation.
- Also, the law's validity for believers is evident in the introduction to the law (Exodus 20:2).
- What the law does not do for the Christian.
- As those saved in Jesus, we can say that the Christian is free from the law.
- First, we are free from the curse of the law (because Jesus became that curse for us, Gal. 3:13,14).
- Second, the Christian is free in the sense that the law can never be a way of salvation to us.
- 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.
- What the law is to do.
- True knowledge of God is efficacious, always leading to an obeying of Him (I John 2:3,4; 5:2,3).
- The law teaches us how to express our returning love to God.
- If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (John 14:15).
- Love for God means that we honor Him as He would have Himself to be honored.
- Because we are still in the body of flesh, it is good to instruct and to warn us.
- There is a three-fold effect and a three-fold fruit the law has on the sanctified, believing heart.
- It continually helps us see the horror of our own sin.
- Two, we grow in the knowledge of the preciousness of Jesus Christ.
- Three, we grow in the knowledge of God's will, to which we want to comply as an expression of gratitude.