The Law of God and the Christian Life

What you'll learn

• Explain the moral, ceremonial and civil (judicial) law distinction of WCF 19 and the three uses of the law, with Scripture
• Summarise the Ten Commandments using the Shorter Catechism and state the main views of the Sabbath and the Lord's Day fairly
• Distinguish law and gospel, diagnose legalism and antinomianism, and explain why good works matter but do not save

The doctrine in one sentence

God's moral law, summarised in the Ten Commandments, expresses his holy character and binds all people in every age; the ceremonial laws given to Israel pointed to Christ and are fulfilled and abolished in him, and the civil laws expired with Israel's state except for their general equity; the law cannot justify anyone, but it shows us our sin, restrains evil and guides the grateful obedience of the redeemed.

Christians often swing between treating the Christian life as rule-keeping to earn God's favour and treating his commands as optional. Scripture closes both doors. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law (Rom 3:31). The law is holy and righteous and good (Rom 7:12), yet by works of the law no one will be justified (Gal 2:16).

This matters for apologetics: Hebrew Israelites, Jewish friends, Muslims and secular critics all ask why Christians keep do not murder but not the food laws, and what the Sabbath means today.

The law in the story of Scripture

God's law did not begin at Sinai. Adam received a command as the condition of the covenant of works (Gen 2:16-17; WCF 19.1), and every human being has the work of the law ... written on their hearts, with conscience bearing witness (Rom 2:14-15). That is why nations without Moses' law were still judged (Gen 6:5; Amos 1-2).

At Sinai God gave the law to a people already redeemed: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt (Exod 20:2). Grace came first; the law showed the redeemed how to live as God's holy people. The law reflects God's own character: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy (Lev 19:2).

Jesus did not come to scrap the law: I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them (Matt 5:17). He fulfils it by perfectly obeying it in our place, by bearing its curse for us (Gal 3:13), by bringing its types and shadows to their reality, and by writing it on our hearts through the Spirit in the new covenant (Jer 31:33; Rom 8:3-4).

Moral, ceremonial and civil: WCF chapter 19

The Westminster Confession, following a long tradition, distinguishes three kinds of law in the Mosaic covenant. Scripture itself does not use these labels, but it supplies the distinctions.

The moral law is the permanent rule of righteousness, summarised in the Ten Commandments (WCF 19.2). The Decalogue was spoken directly by God, written with the finger of God on stone (Exod 31:18) and placed inside the ark, setting it apart from the rest of the law. Its commands are grounded in creation and God's character, and they are repeated or applied in the New Testament (Rom 13:8-10; Eph 6:1-3; James 2:8-11). The Confession says it binds all people forever, justified persons included (19.5).

The ceremonial laws (sacrifices, priesthood, festivals, purity and food laws) were given to Israel as a church under age (19.3), as types prefiguring Christ. They are now abrogated: Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19); festivals and new moons are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ (Col 2:16-17); Hebrews 7-10 shows the priesthood and sacrifices fulfilled in Christ's once-for-all offering; and God showed Peter that the clean-unclean distinction between Jew and Gentile was over (Acts 10).

The civil or judicial laws governed Israel as a nation. They expired together with the State of that people, not obliging others further than the general equity thereof may require (19.4). General equity means the underlying moral principle. For example, Israel had to build a parapet on a flat roof (Deut 22:8); the equity today is a duty to protect others from foreseeable harm. Paul applies you shall not muzzle an ox to paying ministers (1 Cor 9:9).

Not everyone accepts the threefold division. Many dispensationalists and advocates of new covenant theology argue that the Mosaic law is a single unit, fulfilled and ended in Christ, and that believers are bound by the law of Christ. Reformed theologians answer that Scripture itself treats the Decalogue as uniquely permanent. Within the Reformed family, theonomy (Greg Bahnsen, Theonomy in Christian Ethics, 1977) argues that the civil laws' penalties still bind modern states unless Scripture changes them; most Reformed theologians read 19.4 more narrowly. This is an in-house debate.

The three uses of the law

John Calvin set out three uses of the moral law (Institutes 2.7.6-12), and the Lutheran Formula of Concord (1577, Article VI) also teaches three uses, listing the first two in the opposite order.

First, the mirror (pedagogical use). The law shows us God's holiness and our sin: through the law comes knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20; 7:7). It strips away self-righteousness and drives us to Christ (Gal 3:24). Jesus used the commandments this way with the rich young man (Mark 10:17-22).

Second, the curb (civil use). The law, with its threats, restrains evil in society, even among those who are not converted. The law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient (1 Tim 1:9). Just laws and courts restrain fallen people (Rom 13:1-4).

Third, the rule of life (normative use). For believers the law is a guide showing how to please the Father who has saved them. Calvin called this the principal use. If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15). The Confession says believers are not under the law as a covenant of works, yet it is of great use to them as a rule of life (19.6).

The Ten Commandments with the Shorter Catechism

The Shorter Catechism teaches that the moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments (Q. 41) and that their sum is to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and our neighbour as ourselves (Q. 42; Matt 22:37-40). The preface, I am the LORD your God, who brought you out, teaches that because God is our Lord and redeemer, we are bound to keep all his commandments (Q. 44). Each commandment both forbids sins and requires their opposite virtues. Here is what the Catechism says each one requires:

• 1. No other gods (Exod 20:3): to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly (Q. 46).
• 2. No graven images (20:4-6): the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in his word (Q. 50).
• 3. Not taking the Lord's name in vain (20:7): the holy and reverent use of God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word and works (Q. 54).
• 4. The Sabbath (20:8-11): keeping holy to God the times he has appointed, expressly one whole day in seven (Q. 58).
• 5. Honour father and mother (20:12): preserving the honour and performing the duties belonging to everyone in their relations, as superiors, inferiors or equals (Q. 64).
• 6. No murder (20:13): all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life, and the life of others (Q. 68).
• 7. No adultery (20:14): the preservation of our own and our neighbor's chastity, in heart, speech and behavior (Q. 71). God's design is that sexual intimacy belongs within the marriage of one man and one woman (Gen 2:24; Matt 19:4-6; Heb 13:4). Every sexual sin is to be repented of, and the gospel offers forgiveness and new life to all who turn to Christ, including same-sex-attracted believers who live faithfully (1 Cor 6:9-11; see the Progressive Christianity module).
• 8. No stealing (20:15): the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others (Q. 74).
• 9. No false witness (20:16): the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man, and of our own and our neighbour's good name (Q. 77).
• 10. No coveting (20:17): full contentment with our own condition, with a right and charitable frame of spirit toward our neighbor, and all that is his (Q. 80).
• No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word and deed (Q. 82). Jesus showed that the commandments reach the heart: anger is murder at root and lust is adultery (Matt 5:21-30).

The Sabbath and the Lord's Day

The fourth commandment is grounded in creation, not only in Israel's history: God rested on the seventh day and blessed and hallowed it (Gen 2:2-3; Exod 20:11). Jesus called himself lord even of the Sabbath and said The Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27-28). After the resurrection the church gathered on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2), which John calls the Lord's day (Rev 1:10). Early Christian writings such as the Didache (14), Ignatius (To the Magnesians 9) and Justin Martyr (First Apology 67, about AD 150) show the Lord's Day as the day of Christian worship long before Constantine's Sunday law of 321.

Reformed Christians hold differing views. The Westminster view (WSC Q. 58-60; WCF 21.7-8; similarly 1689 ch. 22) holds that the moral principle of one day in seven continues, transferred by Christ's resurrection to the first day as the Christian Sabbath, to be kept by resting from ordinary work and recreation and devoting the day to public and private worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy (Q. 60). The continental Reformed view (Heidelberg Catechism Q. 103) stresses diligent attendance at public worship on the day of rest and resting from evil works every day, so beginning the eternal Sabbath in this life; it has generally been less strict about recreation. Many other evangelicals hold that the Sabbath command was ceremonial and fulfilled in the rest we have in Christ (Heb 4:9-10; Col 2:16-17; Rom 14:5), while still treating Sunday as the day for gathered worship.

Seventh-day Adventists, Seventh Day Baptists and Hebrew Israelite groups insist that Saturday must still be kept (Hebrew Israelites module). Whatever your view, the Lord's Day is a gift: a weekly reminder that our work does not save us, and a foretaste of eternal rest.

Law and gospel, legalism and antinomianism

You met law and gospel briefly in Lesson 7; here we go deeper. The law says, Do this and live; it commands and condemns. The gospel says, Christ has done it; believe and live; it promises and gives. Luther said that whoever knows how to distinguish law and gospel well deserves to be called a doctor of Scripture. Confuse them and you either preach a gospel of moral effort or a grace that makes no claims. Yet the law and gospel are not enemies. The law drives us to Christ, and the gospel sends us back to the law as a rule of grateful life, now written on our hearts.

Legalism has several forms: trying to be justified by law-keeping (the Galatian error, Gal 5:4); adding human rules to God's law as if they were God's (Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch, Col 2:21; Mark 7:8); and resting assurance on our performance rather than on Christ.

Antinomianism says the law has no claim on believers. Paul's answer is blunt: Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! (Rom 6:1-2). Luther opposed Johannes Agricola on this in the late 1530s, and the Marrow controversy in early eighteenth-century Scotland wrestled with both errors. Sinclair Ferguson's The Whole Christ argues that legalism and antinomianism grow from the same root: separating God's commands from God himself and his grace in Christ. The cure for both is Christ himself, the one in whom we are both forgiven and made new.

Why good works matter but do not save, and where others depart

Good works can never be the ground of justification, because even our best works are imperfect (Isa 64:6; Gal 3:10; James 2:10). We are saved by grace ... through faith ... not a result of works; yet in the next breath Paul says we are created in Christ Jesus for good works (Eph 2:8-10). The Confession calls good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith (WCF 16.2). By them believers show gratitude, strengthen assurance, adorn the gospel and win others (Matt 5:16; 1 Pet 2:12). James's point that faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead (James 2:17) is that genuine faith always bears fruit, not that works add to Christ's righteousness.

The Heidelberg Catechism captures this in its three-part structure: our sin and misery, our deliverance, and our gratitude. The Ten Commandments appear in the gratitude section. We obey because we have been saved, not in order to be saved.

Others in the course relate law and salvation differently: Rabbinic Judaism centres covenant life on the 613 commandments of Torah (Judaism module); many Hebrew Israelite groups require the Sabbath, feasts and food laws (Hebrew Israelites module); Islam sees God's law (sharia) as the path of submission, with deeds weighed at judgement (Islam module); Rome teaches that the justified truly merit increase of grace and eternal life (Council of Trent, session 6, canon 32; Roman Catholicism module); and the Latter-day Saints' third Article of Faith speaks of salvation through the Atonement by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel (Latter-day Saints module). The gospel says Christ has kept the law for us, so we keep it from love, not for life.

Key texts

• Exodus 20:1-17: The Ten Commandments, beginning with redemption (20:2). Show that God gives the law to a redeemed people.
• Matthew 5:17-20: Jesus came not to abolish but to fulfil the Law and the Prophets. The starting point for any discussion of Christians and the law.
• Matthew 22:37-40: Love for God and neighbour sums up the law. Basis for WSC Q. 42 and the two tables of the Decalogue.
• Romans 3:19-31: The law silences every mouth and brings knowledge of sin; justification is by faith apart from works of law, yet faith upholds the law.
• Romans 7:7-12: The law reveals sin and is holy, righteous and good. Shows the mirror use and defends the law's goodness.
• Galatians 3:10-14, 24: All under the law are under a curse; Christ became a curse for us; the law was a guardian until Christ. Central to law and gospel.
• Colossians 2:16-17: Food, festivals and Sabbaths are a shadow; the substance belongs to Christ. Key text for the ceremonial law and for the Sabbath debate.
• Ephesians 2:8-10: Saved by grace through faith, not by works, yet created for good works. The best short text on the place of works.
• 1 John 5:3: Love for God means keeping his commandments, which are not burdensome. The third use of the law in one verse.

Objections and answers

Try answering each one yourself before you open the response.

Written task

A Hebrew Israelite on the street tells you that real believers must keep the whole Torah, including Saturday Sabbath and the food laws, and a church friend says the Ten Commandments no longer apply to Christians at all. In 300-400 words, explain the Reformed understanding of God's law that answers both. Use the moral, ceremonial and civil distinction, the three uses of the law, and the relationship of law and gospel, with at least five Scripture references. Show why good works matter but do not save.

Hand this in to Mr Scott. He will look for:

• Explains the moral, ceremonial and civil distinction accurately with supporting texts (e.g. Mark 7:19; Col 2:16-17; Heb 10:1; Rom 13:8-10)
• Explains the three uses of the law correctly
• Distinguishes law and gospel and clearly affirms justification by faith alone apart from works
• Answers both legalism and antinomianism fairly, without caricature
• Explains the place of good works as fruit and evidence of faith (e.g. Eph 2:8-10; WCF 16.2)

Further reading

• The Ten Commandments by Thomas Watson: A Puritan exposition of each commandment, drawing out its duties and sins in the spirit of the Shorter Catechism.
• The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance by Sinclair B. Ferguson: Uses the Marrow controversy to show how grace, law and assurance fit together; outstanding pastoral theology.
• From the Finger of God: The Biblical and Theological Basis for the Threefold Division of the Law by Philip S. Ross: A careful defence of the moral, ceremonial and civil distinction from Scripture and church history.