Romans 7:4 - The Law

 

•        In the broadest sense, the Law of God is that rule of action which He has prescribed for man.

 

•        It is important to note that there are many of God’s laws that do not apply to all men everywhere and for all time.

 

•        God has at particular times, given particular commandments to certain people that were binding only upon those people, and were of limited duration.

 

•        For example, the commandment to circumcise all male children was not given until Abraham’s day. It applied only to his descendants, the Jews, and ended with the coming of Jesus.

 

•        Various Revelations of God’s Laws:

–       The Law of the Conscience - the Law Written on Man’s Heart

–       The Law of Moses - the Law Under the Old Covenant

–       The Law of Christ - the Law Under the New Covenant

 

Various revelations of God’s Laws:

•        The Law of the Conscience - the Law Written on Man’s Heart

–       Man was created with the requirements of God’s law written on his heart.

–       Before the fall, this law was clear and legible, but as a result of Adam’s sin the law written on the heart was defaced and marred.

–       Man’s spiritual understanding is darkened by sin

•         Ephesians 4:17-18 - You must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

•         Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

–       Consequently the law written on the heart is no longer an adequate or reliable guide for fallen man

–       But this law is still sufficiently clear to make sin known and therefore render men guilty when they break it, for all men have in their own nature to some degree a knowledge of what is right and wrong.

•         Romans 1:32 - Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

•         Romans 2:14-15 - Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.

 

•        The Law of Moses - the Law Under the Old Covenant

–       This law was given by God to the Jews at Mt. Sinai through Moses

•         Deuteronomy 5:1-3 - Moses summoned all Israel and said: Hear, O Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with our fathers that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.

–       It was established as a covenant by God with the nation of Israel and had no reference whatsoever to the Gentile world

–       Men who study the Bible sometimes divide the laws given by Moses into various categories, but it must be remembered that all of these laws stood as a single unit and together formed the covenant made with Israel.

–       This covenant, including all its parts (laws) was abolished by Christ at His death and replaced with a new and better covenant under which God’s people now live.

•         Jeremiah 31:31-34 - "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant

•         Hebrews 8:7-8,13  - If  there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah . . . By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

•         Ephesians 2:14-16 - For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross

•         Colossians 2:14-16 - having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross . . . Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

•         (see also: 2Cor.3:6-18; 1Cor.9:19-20, Gal.3:18-25, Acts 15:1-29)

 

–       In most cases when the word “law” occurs in the Scriptures (especially when the definite article is used - “the law”) it has reference to the Law of Moses. The reason for this is that until the time of Christ came, the law of Moses was the most complete revelation of God’s law that had been given.

 

•        The Law of Christ - the Law Under the New Covenant

–       The New Covenant consists of the teachings given by Christ through His chosen apostles and their associates.

–       These laws are contained in the New Testament (Covenant) Scriptures.

–       Paul, in Galatians 3:23 - 4:11 shows that the Law of Moses was Israel’s custodian (child-trainer, guardian) but now that “the faith”  (the New Covenant) has come, God’s people are no longer under this custodian.

–       They have received adoption as mature sons and the indwelling Holy Spirit

–       The saints under the law of Moses were treated as immature children in that they were regulated by detailed laws, whereas saints under the law of Christ are treated as mature sons and are guided by much broader principles of conduct.

–       Believers living in the present age, therefore, have far greater liberty and as a result greater responsibility than the believers who lived under the old system.