I explained in yesterday’s post about Puritan spirituality that it was the conviction of the Puritans (as well as my own) that the inherent righteousness of every believer was to be shaped by the Ten Commandments, the moral Law of God. This is because the Puritans rightly understood that the moral law provides the Christian with both light from heaven to expose his sin and truth from God to guide his feet in righteousness.
The Law of God is therefore to be the Christian’s chief concern–not out of fear and in pursuit of a righteousness of merit, but out of love for God and in pursuit of a righteousness of evidence. This raises two points, which, if we understood them, would go very far towards healing today’s church of its worldliness.
First, the moral law is still binding on all men. The moral law is the holy, just, and good will of God made known unto His creatures (Rom 7.12). It is the revelation of His will unto men and the reflection of the holiness of His mind and character. The moral law can therefore no more admit of change than God Himself. Only if it were possible for God to change His mind or character would it be possible for the moral law to change its demands. The law of God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Pss 111.7-8; 119.160), precisely because the God of the law is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Mal 3.6; Heb 13.8).
And since all men are the offspring of Adam then all men are born under the moral law. It binds them because they are included in Adam as their head and have it written on their hearts just as he did (Rom 2.14-15; 5.12-14). Every man born into this world is born a child of Adam, guilty of transgressing the moral law as a covenant, and under the curse of the law of God written on his heart (Rom 1.18-20, 32). It is therefore wrong to teach that the Ten Commandments are no longer binding in the New Testament age. As the moral law of God, it stands forever in full force, established by the unchangeable will of God.
The second thing to understand is this: while the law of God is no longer a covenant of life for the Christian (since Christ fulfilled it), it is his enduring and perpetual rule of conduct. The moral law is satisfied with believers because Christ, as his Surety, has rendered both the obedience required of them and the penalty due from them. Therefore the moral law is silenced towards the believer as a demanding covenant and no longer expects him to meet the condition of life (i.e. a perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience, Gal 3.12) because Christ has supplied this condition to him by faith (Gal 3.11; Rom 3.27-28, 31; 2Cor 5.21; Phil 3.7-9). Furthermore, the law’s curse is silenced towards the believer because Christ has borne it for him (Gal 3.13-14; Rom 8.1-3; Jn 19.30).
This does not mean that the believer lives without a law. Our newfound liberty in Christ is not a license to sin (Gal 5.1, 13; 1Pet 2.16). Rather, the believer is yoked to Christ (Mt 11.28-29) in order that he might walk as Christ walked (1Jn 2.6), fully pleasing to God in obedience to His law (Jn 8.29; Col 1.10; Gal 4.4-5; Rom 8.4). Therefore the moral law of God, once over the believer as a cursing and demanding covenant is now over him as a rule of conduct because of his saving relationship to Christ. The Puritan Thomas Watson put it beautifully: “The moral law is perfect…. It is an exact model and platform of religion; it is the standard of truth, the judge of all controversies….. ‘The commandment is a lamp,’ Prov. 6.23. Though the moral law be not a Christ to justify us, it is a rule to instruct us.” Think of it this way: believers are not under the curse of the law anymore because Christ bore it; but we cannot but be under the commands of the law since it ever remains the good, holy, and just will of our Heavenly Father for our lives (Jn 14.15; Rom 7.12; Mic 4.2).
Another Puritan, Ezekiel Hopkins, spoke well when he said, “As [the moral law] has a power of obliging the conscience as a standing rule for our obedience, so it remains still in its full vigor and authority. It still directs us what we ought to do; it binds the conscience to the performance of it; it brings guilt upon the soul, if we transgress it; and it reduces us to the necessity, either of bitter repentance, or of eternal condemnation…. Therefore they are to be abominated, who derogate from the value and validity of the Law: and contend, that it is to all purposes extinct unto believers, even so much as to its preceptive and regulating power.”
Therefore they are wrong who say that the Ten Commandments are not for the New Testament church. We are delivered from its curse, but not from its commands.
Come back tomorrow and I’ll conclude this post with three great benefits of the Puritan understanding of God’s Law. I’m convinced that what the church needs today is a good dose of “old-time Puritan religion” from the 17th century.
Thank You, It is always good to be reminded of these truths.
You make it so easy to understand.
Thank you Sandy. Please pray with me that everyone to whom these posts come not only understand them but find great comfort from them. These 3 posts on the moral law (including tomorrow’s) are reminiscent of what we’ve been studying in The Marrow of Modern Divinity and indeed are good reminders of great truths.