On The Purpose Of The Law
Romans 7:7-12 (ESV)
"What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good."
I am a Religious Studies major. But I am also realistic and I know such a degree has really nothing to do with the part of life that involves feeding myself or my (future) family. So, I also am in the process of getting my General Business minor. What will I do with a General Business minor and a Religious Studies major? What else...? I'm going to start a megachurch. ::sarcasm::
Anyway.
Today I began classes for the semester. One of the courses I am enrolled in is RIL-231, Legal Environment of Business. I know to some, the very utterance of the word "legal" brings to mind the scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off with the kid sitting in class becoming so bored, he falls asleep and awakes in his own mini-puddle of drool. As this is only the first day, I cannot fully say if this is an accurate description of RIL-231. (But I doubt it is. The teacher seems amazing, classmates generally fun and into her teaching style, and I think class will go very well.) However, when I the teacher began a brief overview on what the course was about, the question she posed was "What is the purpose of the law?" She proceeded to give a fairly long legal-sounding definition of the law... which I cannot regurgitate here because I don't have the course text with me, I do not have my notes with me, and I didn't even jot down the entire answer she gave to the question "What is the purpose of the law."
What I DO remember... is as soon as she asked that question, "What is the purpose of the law," I honestly thought, without any hesitation, the following: To bring about the knowledge of sin. Really? That's what I thought? Yup. "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin," Romans 2:20 (ESV). The purpose of the law is to bring the sinner (the individual man or woman) to the knowledge of his or her sin.
The law of God was actually a gift. Now that we have it, we know what he expects of his creation (man) in to how to serve and honor Him. Imagine if God had hidden his law from men. Would that mean that man would not sin? No. Man would still sin, but he would have no knowledge of it... there would be no response to repent of sin if the sinner does not realize he has sin. This is what the law does. It brings about the knowledge of sin. And how kind is our God, to actually let us know what his law is... rather than keeping it from us and yet still smiting us when we do wrong in His sight. He would be just in doing so however... we are the creation, he is the creator. He didn't HAVE to tell us his law. But he did... So that we need not be in a constant state of offense to Him. This is very gracious.
At the same time... the law shows also that we cannot make ourselves righteous. Paul wrote in Galatians 2:21, "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." The law is good... but it does not save us. No amount of good deeds can wash away the stain from the bad. A rapist does not have his crimes paid for just because he gave money to the Red Cross and helped old ladies across the street. That crime is still there. He is still a rapist, good deeds or not. Time does not wash away sin. Only the blood of Christ, shed for his people, can do this. 2 Corinthians 5:21. 1 Peter 2:24. He is the substitutionary atonement. There is no other.
The law is a wonderful gift from God. But its goal is to bring about the knowledge of sin... so that it may be the method God uses to draw his sheep to himself, those responding in repentance and faith in Christ's work alone.
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"What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good."
I am a Religious Studies major. But I am also realistic and I know such a degree has really nothing to do with the part of life that involves feeding myself or my (future) family. So, I also am in the process of getting my General Business minor. What will I do with a General Business minor and a Religious Studies major? What else...? I'm going to start a megachurch. ::sarcasm::
Anyway.
Today I began classes for the semester. One of the courses I am enrolled in is RIL-231, Legal Environment of Business. I know to some, the very utterance of the word "legal" brings to mind the scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off with the kid sitting in class becoming so bored, he falls asleep and awakes in his own mini-puddle of drool. As this is only the first day, I cannot fully say if this is an accurate description of RIL-231. (But I doubt it is. The teacher seems amazing, classmates generally fun and into her teaching style, and I think class will go very well.) However, when I the teacher began a brief overview on what the course was about, the question she posed was "What is the purpose of the law?" She proceeded to give a fairly long legal-sounding definition of the law... which I cannot regurgitate here because I don't have the course text with me, I do not have my notes with me, and I didn't even jot down the entire answer she gave to the question "What is the purpose of the law."
What I DO remember... is as soon as she asked that question, "What is the purpose of the law," I honestly thought, without any hesitation, the following: To bring about the knowledge of sin. Really? That's what I thought? Yup. "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin," Romans 2:20 (ESV). The purpose of the law is to bring the sinner (the individual man or woman) to the knowledge of his or her sin.
The law of God was actually a gift. Now that we have it, we know what he expects of his creation (man) in to how to serve and honor Him. Imagine if God had hidden his law from men. Would that mean that man would not sin? No. Man would still sin, but he would have no knowledge of it... there would be no response to repent of sin if the sinner does not realize he has sin. This is what the law does. It brings about the knowledge of sin. And how kind is our God, to actually let us know what his law is... rather than keeping it from us and yet still smiting us when we do wrong in His sight. He would be just in doing so however... we are the creation, he is the creator. He didn't HAVE to tell us his law. But he did... So that we need not be in a constant state of offense to Him. This is very gracious.
At the same time... the law shows also that we cannot make ourselves righteous. Paul wrote in Galatians 2:21, "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." The law is good... but it does not save us. No amount of good deeds can wash away the stain from the bad. A rapist does not have his crimes paid for just because he gave money to the Red Cross and helped old ladies across the street. That crime is still there. He is still a rapist, good deeds or not. Time does not wash away sin. Only the blood of Christ, shed for his people, can do this. 2 Corinthians 5:21. 1 Peter 2:24. He is the substitutionary atonement. There is no other.
The law is a wonderful gift from God. But its goal is to bring about the knowledge of sin... so that it may be the method God uses to draw his sheep to himself, those responding in repentance and faith in Christ's work alone.
<><
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