Law
And
Gospel
By Ron Smith
Max Lucado and others teach that keeping the law saved people in the Old
Testament, but now we are saved by faith alone. However, they fail to see that it has always been impossible
to be saved by the law because of man’s sin nature. It is impossible now and it was
impossible then.
They say that salvation by
faith alone was a new doctrine.
But Paul’s teaching of salvation by faith alone was not a new
teaching. Paul got it from the Old
Testament. I would like to examine
some Old Testament examples of it; the same place Paul got it.
Cain’s sacrifice was
rejected and Abel’s was accepted.
If salvation had been by works, then Cain’s sacrifice would have
been sufficient. By faith
Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain. (Heb 11:4)
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to
boast about, but not before God.
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (Rom 4:2,3)
For You do not desire
sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a
contrite heart-- These, O God, You will not despise. (Psalm 51:16,17)
Notice that David
contrasts the sacrifice of the ceremonial law with a broken and contrite
heart. What does a contrite heart
have to do with faith? It is the
result of faith.
Then Samuel said:
“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in
obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to
heed than the fat of rams. (1Sa
15:22)
Saul’s unbelief, fear, and doubt caused him to substitute
works for faith. Samuel shows how
faith without works is dead faith and that outward ritual can be an effort to
substitute the “obedience of faith” which Paul mentions in Romans
16. Now to him that is of power
to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the
world began,
But now is made
manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment
of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of
faith. (Rom 16:25,26)
Notice
that Paul says, “my gospel…for the obedience of faith.”
Paul
clearly taught that obedience could not be divorced from faith. He taught that through faith we
establish the law (Rom 3:31). In
Ephesians 2:8-10 he taught that faith made us new creatures (“created
unto good works”).
Jeremiah
prophesied that God would make a new covenant that would differ from the one
written on stone. This one would
be the law of God written in our hearts.
(Jer 31:31-34) Which law
would that be? The only law. The one that God gave on Mt.
Sinai. The difference is that it
would now be in our hearts instead of external. How would God do this?
By means of the Holy Spirit and making us new creatures. Abraham, David, Samuel, and Jeremiah
were examples of those who already had God’s law written there.
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousand
rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, The fruit of my
body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require
of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:7,8)
Under
the law, there is no mercy. There
is only a requirement to obey.
Only under grace is there mercy.
We are saved by grace through faith and not by the works of the
flesh. Only faith can bring
mercy. This is what Paul taught,
and he got it from the Old Testament with the help of the “Spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ.”
For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and
the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6)
The “knowledge of God” is synonymous with faith. Faith is “seeing”
God’s truth and glory. Faith
comes by Divine revelation. It is
the gift of God; not of works.
When God makes us see His Truth, that in itself is faith. When one sees he believes, and when one
believes, he sees. This vision is
irresistible because by definition, what one is convinced of in his heart and
soul is irresistible. (That is
what is meant by “irresistible grace.”) We are slaves to what we believe in our subconscious. That results in the “obedience of
faith.” It results in a
living faith as opposed to a dead one.
Notice how Hosea contrasts mercy with sacrifice, and knowledge
of God with burnt offering. He makes mercy synonymous with the knowledge of
God.
Does
this mean that God never endorsed circumcision, sacrifices, and other
ceremonial laws? By no means. Truly obedient people were still
required to do those things, but not as a substitute for the heart obedience of
faith. The same principal applies
today. We are still required to
use the means
of grace such as baptism, communion, praise, outward worship, giving, Sabbath
keeping, Bible reading, etc. But
we are not to trust in these works for salvation.
Why
the change, then, from the ceremonial law of the Old Testament? 1. Because the ceremonial laws could no
longer be kept since God was about to destroy the temple. 2. Old Testament ceremonial law was given as a type and shadow
of the real thing, which is fulfilled in Christ. 3.Because even the Jews were not required to keep some of
those laws if they lived outside the Promised Land. 4. Because it
was revealed to Paul that if the Gentiles had been required by God to become
Jews, Christianity would have been greatly hindered from spontaneous growth.
Paul’s
Gospel was the one that had been hidden from the ages, but was now
revealed. He said, “…
my gospel … the mystery kept secret since the world began.” (Rom 16:25)
The
mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. (Col 1:26)
How
was it hidden before? It had not
been clearly revealed that the Gentiles would be grafted in to the Jewish
tree. The symbolical meanings of
the law had not been clearly revealed before Christ rent the veil in two. For example, the true temple is the
church. Ezekiel saw it in his
vision of the temple with the river of life flowing out of it. I think everyone knows that this is one
of “scriptures” to which Jesus referred when He said,
“…as the scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of
living water.” The true high
priest is Christ. The animal
sacrifices were types of our worship and a type of Christ, the Lamb of
God. Circumcision was a type of
baptism. The Promised Land was a
type of the whole world. Gentiles
that are baptized into Christ are Israelites, Jews, Levites, and members of the
house of David. Thus, the lost
tribes are both Gentiles and Jews who are God’s elect scattered
universally. He is currently sending
his messengers (angels) to gather His elect “from
the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Mat 24:31) Unclean animals represented the gentiles. (Acts 10:12ff) (“You are what you eat.”)
This was clearly the apostolic method of interpreting the
prophets.
Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of
speech--
unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children
of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.
But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil
remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken
away in Christ.
But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their
heart.
Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken
away. (2 Cor 3:12-16)
Paul’s
“boldness of speech” meant that he was unveiling the mystery that
had been hidden since the world began.
Moses had given the truth in a “veiled” manner, using types
and shadows, which were passing representations of the “end” or
goal. The “end” is
Christ, the Alpha and Omega. They
were shadows of things to come, but the substance of those shadows is revealed
in Christ.
Paul
said the meats, drinks, and new moon Sabbaths were “a shadow of things
to come, but the substance is of Christ”. (Col 2:17)
The
apostle said the Jews “serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly
things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the
tabernacle.’” (Heb
8:5)
For
the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of
the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually
year by year, make those who approach perfect. (Heb 10:1)
This
was true in Old Testament times as well as now. The ceremonial law simply represented the invisible things
that are now revealed. But
unbelieving Israel continued to focus on those temporary and very visible
objects, which were about to pass away with the destruction of Jerusalem.
While
we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:
for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen
are eternal. (2Co 4:18)
Through
faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that
things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Heb 11:3)
I
was at an R.C. Sproul conference sitting next to a Reformed Baptist. The speaker said, “Law and grace
ran concurrently in the Old Testament.” I poked the guy next to me in the ribs and said,
“Still do.” Then at
lunch break, he had to argue with me.
“No,” he said. “The
law passed away.” I said,
“Do you mean that we are now to be lawless?” “Well, uh,” he
stuttered, “We are now under a new law.” I said, “Where do you find that new law?” He did not seem to have an answer.
No. We are not under law. We are under grace. Not even a new law. But when the Bible says,
“we,” it means we Christians.
Unbelievers are still under condemnation because they are still under
the law. It is the law that
condemns them, not Christ.
For
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the
world through Him might be saved.
(John 3:17)
If
the law had passed away for unbelievers, then there would be no such thing as
sin because the very definition of sin is the transgression of the law.
Whosoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the
law. (1John 3:4)
One
who is under grace is not under law because the law is now written in his
heart. God had promised that this
would be the difference between the Old Covenant and the New – internal versus
external law.
But this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I
will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts… (Jer 31:33)
Those
who are new creatures in Christ love God’s law because it is in their
hearts. One who hates stealing
needs no law that says, “Thou shalt not steal.” The same is true with all of the
commandments. The “blessed
man” meditates in His law day and night, and says “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the
day.” (Psalm 119:97)
Those
who hate God’s law are still under it. They are also under its condemnation. That is why they hate it. They are antinomians. This is one way one can tell if he has
been born again or not.
Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the
Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For
assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle
will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever
therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so,
shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches
them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to
you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven”. (Mat
5:17-20)
“Destroying” the
law and “fulfilling” it are not the same. The only way the moral law can be fulfilled is by having it
placed in the heart. The only way
to fulfill the ceremonial laws is by understanding that they were types and
shadows. The only way to fulfill
the civil law is by the governments of the nations being converted to Christ and
using the “spirit” of God’s law as the foundation of all
civil law.
Paul said “we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully,
knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the
lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and
profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
for fornicators,
for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any
other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
according to the glorious
gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.” (1 Tim 1:8-11)
He
says that we may use the law lawfully.
How? By using it for the
lawless. Furthermore, he says that
this was “according to the glorious gospel.”
The
Puritans such as John Bunyan, Solomon Stoddard, Jonathon Edwards, and Whitfield
used the preaching of the law “lawfully” to bring conviction to
sinners. Once convicted, they
preached the gospel because one will not come to Christ until he sees he needs
a Savior. Only the law can bring
that realization. That is its
function. It cannot save, but it
is our schoolmaster to bring us to the One that can save.
Even
Finney and Wesley understood this principle in preaching, and used it
profusely.
Jesus
used it with the Samaritan woman when He pointed out that the man she was
living with was not her husband.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit by means of trouble uses the law. It is called “the spirit of
judgment and burning” in Isaiah 4:4.
When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of
Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of
judgment and by the spirit of burning.
In
Whitfield’s sermon entitled The Duty Of A Gospel Minister, he said, “O
sinners, I would fain turn to preach the comforts of the gospel, but I must
speak a little more of the law to you.” Solomon Stoddard taught that the fear of hell causes men to
not sin. Edwards used the law in Sinners
In The Hands Of An Angry God. These Puritans specialized
in how to preach the gospel, and got stupendous results. That was their specialty. God help us to learn from the experts.
956-585-4402
Ron Smith
scronnie@aol.com