The Law: Gods Standard of Righteousness Part 2

Someone will always reply “we’re not under Law but under grace!” (Romans 6:14) I agree, but what does Paul mean when he says that we are not “under Law”? Does “under Law” speak of desiring to keep the Law? When Paul says that we are “not under Law” is he saying that we should no longer desire to keep the Law? Does it mean that being under grace is opposed to obeying the Law or that those who are under grace cannot desire to keep the Law? Such a conclusion is completely untenable.

Take Moses for instance. Moses was saved in the same manner we are; by grace alone through faith alone in the Messiah alone. Whatever Paul means by “under Law” and “under grace” they are clearly opposed to each other, the unregenerate person being “under Law” and the regenerate person being “under grace”. Moses, therefore, as a regenerate child of God would have been “under grace”, yet he was given the Law and told to obey it. Moses was under grace yet he sought to obey God’s Law.

The same could be said of King David. He was a regenerate child of God, he was “under grace”, but yet he loved God’s Law and sought to obey it. Grant it they lived under the Old Covenant and some aspects of that Covenant have been done away with along with the Covenant itself, but the point is this: they were “under grace” but yet kept the Law and for this reason these two things (being “under grace” and desiring to keep the God’s Law) cannot be opposed to each other.

Clearly, being “under Law” does not speak of being obliged to follow the Law but rather it speaks of being under its condemnation, under its curse and under its wrath. It speaks of the unregenerate heart which is provoked by the Law to commit further acts of sin. (Romans 7:7-12) The Law has a claim on those who are “under” it. It has something against them. They owe it a debt.

True Christians, on the other hand, are those who have been delivered from the Law. Their “certificate of debt” has been wiped out upon the cross (Colossians 2:14) and they no longer owe the Law anything; it has no claim on them! “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) They are under grace, but that does not mean that the Law no longer reveals sin and righteousness to them.

Someone else will surely respond: “But we have died to the Law.” (Romans 7:4) Again we have to ask, what does it mean to die to the Law? Does that mean we should no longer desire to keep it? Once again we could look at both Moses and David; both were regenerate children of God, both were saved just as we were and both loved the Law of God and desired to keep it. They too were “dead to the Law through the body of Christ”. (Romans 7:4) They were no longer in the flesh having their sinful passions aroused by the Law to bear fruit to death (Romans 7:5), but rather they were united to the Messiah. You are either in Adam or in Christ (Romans 5:14-19) and they were in Christ, yet at the same time they loved the Law of God and desired to keep it.

So what does it mean to “die to the Law”? Romans 7:6 tells us that it means to be delivered from the Law; we are removed from the former relationship that we had to it. We are delivered from its wrath, we are delivered from its curse, we are delivered from all the claims it had upon us and we are delivered from all the charges it had against us. It can no longer demand payment of debt because Christ satisfied it in full; our relationship to the Law has been radically altered.

Paul compares our relationship with the Law of God to the marriage relationship. When I die, the relationship I have with my wife will be radically altered. The relationship will not be over, but it will be different. We will see each other again and we will still love each other but the mutual obligations and the claims we had upon each other through marriage will be over with. Just so, when we die to the Law the claims that it rightly had upon us are over with and we are justified, or literally declared just by God.

Christians are those who can stand guiltless before the Law and owe it nothing at all. And while the unbeliever’s relationship to God is contingent upon his Law keeping (but they cannot keep the Law so they stand condemned) the Christians relationship to his God is contingent upon grace for “we are not under Law but under grace.” But now, by the grace of God, we see the goodness and character of God reflected in His Law and we long to conform to it.

Brethren, while we Christians no longer relate to God on the basis of our own law keeping the Law is still a light to our feet and we should love to keep it!