In every generation, the relationship between the law and the gospel is fiercely debated, as if the two are at odds with one another. We’re under grace now, not law, some claim, while others pridefully parade their law-keeping, believing it merits their salvation. Neither position is correct. 

In this podcast, Scott Brown and Jason Dohm cut through the confusion and show how law and gospel work together for our good. The law, they explain, is a reflection of who God is in all His moral perfections, so to argue that it’s now abrogated is an affront to His eternal character. Because no man can perfectly keep the law, it therefore drives sinners to the Gospel, as Christ bore the curse of the law as the only perfect lawkeeper, making the way for salvation. Once redeemed, the Christian should strive to grow more in God’s likeness each day and joyfully exclaim, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97). 

Welcome to the Church and Family Life podcast. So there's there's a raging debate about the relationship between the law and the gospel. And we're both preaching through the book of Romans right now. Paul, it was on Paul's mind. It was on Paul's mind.

Romans 3.28. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith, apart from the deeds of the law. He says that so there's so many clear statements about the law of God in the book of Romans. But I can't think about the law of God without thinking about a sermon that Charles Spurgeon preached called the Perpetuity of the Law of God. I want to read you what he said.

I'm going to read you two paragraphs. First of all, we are not under the law as a method of salvation, but we delight to see the law in the hand of Christ and desire to obey the Lord in all things. He says, there is no abrogation of it nor amendment of it. It is not to be toned down or adjusted to our fallen condition, but every one of the Lord's righteous judgments abideth forever. So that sort of frames actually the two sides of the difficulty in discussing all of this.

I'm in Romans chapter 10 right now. Romans chapter 10 verse 4, Paul says, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes, and it's to everyone who believes in Jesus. So you can get in a lot of trouble putting the period in the wrong place in that sentence. Christ is the end of the law, period. No, that's not what Paul said.

Paul said Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. So it's not right for us to conclude that the law no longer has an ongoing function in the life of the Christian. The Reformers believed, and all the Confessions have put this in writing, but the Reformers believed that there was a three-fold purpose of the law. One, to show that we need a Savior. It's a mirror.

You hold it up and it shows you yourself, and it shows you yourself as you are with all the imperfections. It allows you to hold this perfectly righteous standard up and say, there is something wrong with me, I need to be saved. But that's not the only purpose of the law. The second purpose of the law is to restrain evil in society. Paul teaches in Romans that the law of God is written on our hearts, but we're master self-deceivers, and so it's good to have it in writing because when things shift in our hearts as we deceive ourselves, the writing on the page doesn't move.

And to publish you shall not steal cuts down on theft a lot, especially if you put penalties along with it. So the law in the Bible tells us what we should do, what we shouldn't do, and gives us penalties for when we disobey. That's incredibly helpful for restraining evil in society. And then thirdly, to provide a standard for believers. The law is a reflection of what God is like in all of his perfections.

It tells us what he loves, it tells us what we hate, and as we grow in Christ-likeness, that actually means to grow in loving what he loves and hating what he hates. And so, as Christians desire to honor God, it tells us how to honor God. As Christians desire to please God, it tells us how to please God. Paul says in Romans 7 22, for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. In other words, he delighted in it on the one hand, yet he also says the law kills.

The law kills him. You know, one of the things that bothers me, and I've seen this, you know, for decades, When people are taking the Lord's Supper, they are so heavy with condemnation often, and they're so solemn and almost morbidly solemn. And I want to stand up and say, don't you know that Jesus Christ has set you free from the curse of the law? This should actually be the happiest time. And I do know where we ought to examine ourselves, you know, according to a righteous standard.

Right, there's a sober-mindedness. There's a sober-mindedness of it. But there, and, you know, how do you, Jason, how do you explain that to people, particularly in a moment like the Lord's Supper? It also points forward to the wedding supper of the Lamb, the marriage supper of the Lamb. Well, we will not be thinking about all our imperfections because we'll be thinking about the Savior who purged them all.

Scott, you just used a phrase, the curse of the law. That brings us perfectly to Galatians chapter 3. I was baiting you. I know. Yeah, I took the bait.

I took the bait. So Galatians chapter 3 is such a helpful location, such a helpful chapter in the Bible because it gives us both law and gospel, and it tells us the relationship between them. So here's what Paul writes in Galatians chapter 3 starting in verse 10. Paul writes, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no one is justified by the law on the side of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith.

Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them." So if you want righteousness by law keeping, Paul is defining it here by quoting Deuteronomy. Cursed is everyone who does not continue. So we're not talking about a good day, week, month, year, decade. We're talking about across the course of a lifetime, unbroken, in all the things which are written by the book of the law. So that is the righteousness which is of the law, that is righteousness by law keeping.

It can't just be a good day or even a good decade. It has to be an unbroken lifetime of obedience. That's how you can be declared righteous by law keeping. So then he continues in verse 13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So this is the teaching really of the whole New Testament, really of the Bible, is that God offers the exchange of law-keeping records.

He offers you to have Jesus' law-keeping record become yours, and your law-keeping record becomes His. And He pays the debt of it and satisfies the penalty of it on the cross, and then you get the relationship that Jesus enjoys with the Father because he stands as your substitute. The perfect law keeper. He kept the law because we couldn't. So later in the chapter Paul says this, this is now Galatians 3 24, therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

So the law is a teacher, not to teach you how to be right in the eyes of God, again, only a perfect keeping of the law across the expanse of a total, total expanse of a lifetime, it gives you that kind of righteousness, but to teach you that you're not righteous so that you'll give up trying to earn God's favor by law keeping and flee to Christ to take your place. It's a tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified or declared righteous by faith, by trusting in Jesus. Yeah. And at the same time, you know, we're encouraged to walk by the law of God. Proverbs 28, 9, One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

Proverbs 28-7, keeping the law makes you a discerning son. He says, whoever keeps the law is a discerning son. Proverbs 29, 18, happy is he who keeps the law. Of course, we're not talking about perfection. We can't find perfection in law keeping.

But the law is a tutor. It shows us the right way to walk and it condemns us for the wrong way to walk to steer us really back to Christ. Yeah, Psalm 197, oh how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day. This thought that a Christian would sort of have a sour view of the law is so wrong. The law is good.

God loves the law because it reflects His perfections. So to say anything about the law as if it's not something that was good, the law was never the problem. The law is a reflection of righteousness. We are the problem, and Christ is the solution to that problem. So it is true that the law stands as an instrument to condemn those who are not in Christ and that the substitutionary payment hasn't been made for them.

But for people in Christ to think of the law as a bad thing is so wrong because it actually reveals God to us in his perfections. We should love it. Oh, how I love your law. Yeah, you know, it does so many helpful things to us. The Baptist Confession of 1689 is a great section on the law of God.

It's so clear. It clears up all kinds of matters of civil laws, ceremonial laws, and moral law. But I'm just going to quote from the sixth paragraph of the confession. It directs and obligates us to live according to its precepts. It's good we need direction.

We shouldn't be following our own hearts unless our hearts are really consistent. The law in our hearts is consistent with the law of God, but it says it also exposes the sinful corruptions of their natures, hearts, and lives as they examine themselves in light of the law. They come to a further conviction of humiliation for and hatred of sin. How life-giving is that to grow in hatred of sin? That's one of the great things about the law.

It does drive you to Christ, the only law keeper, but it also teaches you how to hate sin, which is the best thing you can ever do. Yeah, Jeremiah 17, the heart of man is desperately wicked, and we're so prone to self-deceit. It's so good to have our written unmoving record that keeps us connected with God's view of all these things. Can I recommend a book? Yeah.

So my favorite book on the topic, I haven't read them all, but I've read some. This is my favorite. It is J.C. Ryle, Holiness. And so, the book is about holiness, but it's really about justification and sanctification and the relationship that they have each other, which is really at its core is a law in the gospel.

Here's what he says. Here's the summary of the book, but get the book anyway, read the whole book. J.C. Ryle says that law and gospel are distinct and not keeping them distinct, there are terrible errors associated by that, so we can never talk about them as if they are exactly the same thing, because they're not, they are distinct, but they're inseparable. So anytime we start separating justification and sanctification, gospel and law, we're not doing what the authors of Scripture did.

They maintain the distinctions, that's incredibly important, but they keep them together because that's how you find them in Scripture. Distinct, but inseparable. Yeah. So what does it mean when the apostle Paul says that we are no longer under the law? So we are no longer under the law as a record for our standing with God.

Meaning, our standing with God is not dependent on our law keeping record because Jesus has fulfilled the law on behalf of his people. It isn't that law keeping doesn't matter, it's that we haven't kept the law, but Jesus has, and he's willing for us to have his law keeping record based on faith, based on our trust. Another way to say that is we're no longer under the curse of the law because he has become the sin for us. Scott, the unbeliever has to stand on his or her own law-keeping record. And so the law for an unbeliever is the instrument of condemnation, and it's really an instrument of self-condemnation.

You have condemned yourself because we wouldn't obey God. With Christ and faith in Christ, because his law-keeping record becomes ours and all of our sins are dealt with and paid for in Jesus's work on the cross, then we're no longer under that system any longer. So to love the law of God is to love all of its purposes? Yeah, this is true. Yeah.

We still need it. The indwelling presence of the Spirit is incredibly powerful and essential to the life of the believer, but that doesn't render the Word of God of no value to the believer. It's actually an instrument in the hand of the Spirit to help the people of God. Yeah, our consciences are dulled and defiled, and we need something to sharpen up our conscience. It actually calibrates them.

It calibrates them, yeah. It calibrates our consciences. Our consciences aren't right sometimes. We think things are right when they're not actually right, or we think things are wrong and they're not actually wrong, and we need to be always calibrating them to the Word of God. So Paul says the law is good if one uses it lawfully.

The unlawful use is to use it to pat yourself on the back. The lawful use is to be directed by it and made thankful for the perfect law keeper, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, I think the law has something to say to definitely, or the Word of God has something to say to people who have taken the law and isolated it, separated it from the gospel. They become toxic, corrosive. They become very judgmental.

They become very proud. They become very legalistic. The Word of God has something to say to them. The Word of God also has something to say to people who have grabbed ahold of the gospel and then think that that means that the law has nothing to say to them. This is not the perspective of the New Testament writers.

Let me say it a different way. There are certain things that you cannot separate. You can't separate the law and the gospel. It's like you can't separate faith and works. You can't separate truth and love.

You can't separate divine sovereignty and human responsibility. You can't separate love and obedience because they're so inextricably connected. When we separate them, we end up with definitions that aren't the right definitions. In other words, when you separate law from gospel, you end up with a twisted definition of both. Yeah.

Amen. Okay, law and gospel. What a blessing it is to be relieved from the curse of the law. And I hope that people have really, really happy moments in the Lord's suffer. But appropriately sober, sobered by the realities of their life, but the Lord Jesus Christ has set sinners free.

It's not fair that he would set such people free. It doesn't make sense. We've talked about this a lot. It's scandalous. It's a scandal to think that God would set sinners free because of a substitute.

And that really is at the heart of the law in the gospel. Yeah, well, I've heard Paul Washer say this, I've read Lloyd Jones saying this, every once in a while you ought to be accused of being an antinomian, meaning The gospel is so scandalous in the nature of it, which is free grace, that every once in a while if you're not accused of being an antinomian, then probably you're not preaching it right. Well, that's what happened to the apostle Paul. He says, as it has been slanderously reported, you know, their conversation is just. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, it's good to be slandered for a free gospel. Amen. OK, Jason, thanks. Always a pleasure. Hey, and thanks for joining us on the Church and Family Life podcast, and we really hope you can be with us next time.

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