Old Testament Reading: Exodus 20:1-17

“And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ‘You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Exodus 20:1–17, ESV)

New Testament Reading: Romans 7:1–8:4

“Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. 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. For 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. For 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 to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 7:1–8:4, ESV)

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Please excuse any typos and misspellings within this manuscript. It has been published online for the benefit of the saints of Emmaus Reformed Baptist Church but without the benefit of proofreading.

Introduction

We have taken a little hiatus from our study of the Ten Commandments to talk about the uses of God’s moral law. In the previous sermon, I said, “it’s one thing to know what God’s law is, it’s another thing to know how it is to be used.” I hope you agree with me, brothers and sisters, that if we love God’s law, we should be concerned to both know what it is and how it is to be used. 

I have said that many have done great damage to themselves and others, not so much because they have failed to understand what God’s law requires and forbids, but because they have misused God’s law. One of the most obvious and well-known examples of this is legalism. The legalist might know what God’s law is – they might have a correct understanding of what God’s law requires and forbids –  and yet they attempt to use God’s law to obtain God’s favor. They attempt to obey God’s law thinking that through their obedience they will be justified before God. “If only I were to worship God alone, avoid idolatry, revere God’s name, and keep the Lord’s Day Sabbath Holy, etc., then God will love me and accept me”, the legalist says. As you can see, the problem is not so much with the legalist’s understanding of what the law is, but with the legalist’s understanding of how God’s law is to be used. It is a deadly error. And Paul the Apostles corrects the error of legalism very clearly in his writings when he says things like this: “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in [God’s] sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20, ESV). In other words, the law is not to be used to obtain justification. No, it cannot, for the law, properly understood, is used to show us our sin.  

I suppose we could spend a long time talking about all of the ways in which the law of God has been misused in the history of the church up to this present day. I won’t do that now. Instead, I wish to present the proper uses of God’s law to you in a positive way. 

Historically the church has confessed that there are three uses of God’s moral law: civil, pedagogical, and normative. I’m not so concerned that you remember those terms, but I think it is important for you to know the concepts those terms represent. 

In the previous sermon, I taught you about the civil use of the moral law. I attempted to show you that God uses his moral law to restrain evil in the world. God, in his mercy, restrains evil in the hearts of men and women, and in societies, in part, by upholding and preserving his moral law. Men and women will try to distort and suppress this law that is within them. Societies will try to ignore it and to rebel against it. But I am saying that God mercifully preserves his moral law, and he uses it to restrain evil in the world even to this present day. We often wonder why the world is so wicked, but really we should marvel over the fact that it is not worse. Why is it not worse? Answer: Because God in his mercy restrains the wickedness of man. And the abiding presence of the moral law in the hearts of men and women is one of the things that God uses. 

In this sermon, we will turn our attention to the two other uses of the moral law, the pedagogical and the normative. 

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Pedagogical

When we speak of the pedagogical use of God’s moral law we are referring to the way in which God uses his law to convict sinners and to drive them to Christ. 

A pedagogue is a strict teacher. Paul uses the Greek word for “pedagogue” to describe the law in Galatians 3:24-25. English translations render that word in a variety of ways: tutor, schoolmaster, or guardian. The point is this: the law is a strict teacher, tutor, schoolmaster, and disciplinarian to those not in Christ. Can you picture an old-school strict teacher with a ruler or switch in their hand? Some of you can! What does the pedagogue do when their student errors or misbehaves? The pedagogue stikes the student with their switch. The pedagogue disciplines. And the scriptures teach that this is one of the ways that the law functions. It magnifies sin. It makes us more aware of sin. It condemns.

If we consider this use of the law in terms of the history of salvation and the various covenants that God has made with man, then it can be said the law God gave to Israel through Moses functioned in this pedagogical way to the extreme. Remember, Israel did not only have the moral law of God. No, God also gave them civil laws and ceremonial laws. I have said in previous sermons that the civil laws of Old Covenant Israel were in some ways very strict. They did not only restrain evil in Israel. Nor did they merely promote justice within Israel. The civil laws that were given to Israel also punished violations of God’s moral law in an unusually strict way. I have said before that this was because Israel was a holy nation. And here I am saying what the Apostle Paul says: the law of Moses magnified sin. It was a pedagogue to Old Covenant Israel (and to the nations that looked in upon them). But the civil and ceremonial laws of Israel had this function, they magnified sin, and this was to drive all nations to Jesus the Messiah. 

If we consider this pedagogical use of the law in terms of the order of salvation  – and by that I mean, if we think of the way that God draws individual people to salvation through faith in the Messiah – then we must acknowledge that God uses his moral law in the process. He uses his moral law to convict the world of sin. God uses his law to make sinners aware of their sin, their guilt before him, and their need for a Savior. 

To put the matter differently, God saves sinners through his law and his gospel. Or to say it another way, God saves sinners through the proclamation of the gospel, but for the gospel to be understood and believed, the law must first condemn.

What is the gospel except for the good news that God, by his grace, has made the forgiveness of sin and the hope of life eternal available to man through the finished work of Christ to be received by faith in him alone? But what is sin? We confess that sin is any lack of conformity unto or violation of God’s law. 

The point is this: it is the moral law of God that makes sinners aware of their sin. God’s law is the standard, and when the Holy Spirit of God draws sinners to salvation through faith in Christ, he first uses the moral law to condemn. This is the pedagogical use of the law. 

So you can see, then, that the law of God and the gospel of God are not contrary to one another. No, if the law is understood and used properly, it works together with the gospel to bring sinners to salvation through faith in the Messiah. The law delivers the bad news, and the gospel delivers the good news. In fact, we may say that the good news of the gospel cannot be understood apart from the bad news that the law brings.  

Friends, please hear me. If you do not have faith in Christ, you are in your sins. You are under God’s wrath and curse. If you die apart from Christ, God will judge you. You will be cast into hell for all eternity. This is what the scriptures so clearly teach. This is what Christ taught. And what do I mean when I say that you are a sinner if not in Christ? I mean that you have missed the mark. You have failed to meet God’s standard for righteousness. And where is this standard found? Answer: God’s moral law. His law teaches that we are to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. In particular, we are to worship and serve God alone, in the way he has prescribed, not with idols, with reverence for God in our hearts, honoring one day in seven as holy unto him as a day for rest and worship. We must honor our father and mother. Indeed, we are to show honor to all people in a way that fits their relationship with us. Never are we to murder (or to hate in the heart). Never are we to commit adultery (or to lust in the heart). Never are we to steal, lie or covet. If I were to ask you, have you kept this law perfectly?, what would you say? I hope you would acknowledge that you have violated God’s law in thought, word, and deed. And this makes you a lawbreaker – a sinner. And what do the scriptures say about the consequences of sin? Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death…” Death. Eternal death – that is to say, eternal separation from God, and eternal judgment – is what our sins deserve. But the apostle continues in Romans 3:23 saying, “…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, ESV). You had better be found in Christ, friend. You had better be united to him by faith and washed clean in his blood. 

Can see how the law of God is used by the Spirit of God as a pedagogue to show men and women their sin and to drive them to Christ through the preaching of the gospel? In fact, that Romans 6:23 verse that was just read shows us that law and gospel are not contrary to one another, but sweetly comply. Again, “For the wages of sin is death…” There is the bad news. “…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, ESV). There is the good news. Consider the bad news and the good news together, and you have the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

So what is the first use of the law that I have taught you? It is the civil use. Here we recognize that God uses his moral law to restrain evil in the world. How do Christians relate to this civil use of the law? Well, we certainly benefit from it to the degree that evil is restrained and justice is upheld within our societies. More than this, we may be used by God to restrain evil within the world as we bring clarity to matters of justice and morality in the societies in which we live. Those in Christ have the scriptures. They have access to the moral law in writing. And those in Christ have the moral law written anew and afresh on their hearts by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. And so they ought to be able to speak with clarity to matters of justice and morality in society, according to their giftedness and callings. 

And what is the second use of the law that I have taught you? It is the pedagogical use. Here we confess that God uses his moral law to condemn sinners and to convict them of sin so that they might see their sin and what it deserves, and be drawn to Christ through the gospel as the Spirit calls them inwardly. How do Christians relate to this use of the law? Well, first of all, I think it is very important to say that Christians are not under the law in this pedagogical sense. Yes, the Spirit of God does use the law to convict the believer of remaining sin, as we will see. But the law does not condemn those in Christ in the way that it condemns those not in Christ. Can you see the difference? Those not in Christ are condemned by the law. By the law, they are made aware of their sin. By the law, they come to see what their sins deserve, namely, God’s wrath. The law brings no comfort at all. It only convinces them of their sin and misery before God. It shows those not in Christ that they are alienated from God. None of this is true of the one who is united to Christ by faith. Those who have believed the gospel – those who have taken refuge in Christ by faith – have had their sins washed away. They are justified in God’s sight. They have been made righteous. They have been adopted as sons and daughters. The wrath of God no longer hangs over them. And this is what the Apostle means when he says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1–4, ESV). Did you hear the good news? “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The law, which once condemned us, condemns us no longer, for the blood of Christ has washed away our sins. Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to us. These gifts, and many others, were given to us by the grace of God Almighty and received by faith in Christ alone. 

You know, Christians are sometimes confused by the way that Paul speaks about the law. Sometimes he says that Christians are no longer under the law. But in other places, he seems to say that the law is still important for the Christian life. To some, this seems like a contradiction, but it is not. The key to understanding this is to be mindful of the different uses of the law, and also to be mindful of the distinctions between the moral law, and the civil and ceremonial laws that God gave to Israel in the days of Moses.

Question: Are we, who live now under the New Covenant, under the civil and ceremonial laws which God gave to Old Covenant Israel? Answer: No. They have been fulfilled by Christ, and have been abrogated and taken away.   

Question: Are we, who live now under the New Covenant, under the law as a covenant of works so that eternal life may be obtained through the keeping of it? Answer: No. The Covenant of Works was broken by Adam. We are born into that covenant, but it is a broken covenant. It’s curses remain, but life is not obtainable through Covenant anymore. This is why our first parents were cast out of the garden and the way to the tree of life was cut off. As Paul says. “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16, ESV).

Question: Are we, who are united to Christ by faith and washed in his blood, under the law as a pedagogue? Answer: No. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1–4, ESV). 

Does this mean, therefore, that the moral law of God is of no use to the believer? No, for there is another use of God’s moral law, and that is the normative use. Let’s turn to that now. 

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Normative

When we speak of the normative use of God’s law we are saying that the moral life of the believer is to be normed, directed, and shaped by God’s moral law, which is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments. 

I’ll attempt to demonstrate this in two points:

One, in regeneration the Spirit of God writes (or should we say, re-writes) the moral law of God on the hearts of his people. This is what that famous passage in Jerimiah 31 says will happen to all who are partakers of the New Covenant. Quoting now Jeremiah: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31–34, ESV)

Notice a two things about this text. First, when the LORD says he will write his law on the hearts of the New Covenant people of God he is clearly alluding to the same moral law which he wrote on stone for the Old Covenant people of God. God does not have two moral laws, but one. The law of Christ is the moral law of God written upon the heart. Two, Jeremiah 31 does not say that no one had the moral law written on their hearts under the Old Covenant. To think that is to miss the point. Certainly, those who had true faith in Old Covenant times were regenerated by the Holy Spirit and had God’s law written on their hearts. They had faith in the promised Messiah. And they were regenerated by Spirit. Regeneration is a blessing of the New Covenant which was earned by Christ, but it was communicated to them ahead of time through the promise of the gospel. King David is an example of this. Read Psalm 119 and consider his love for God’s law! No, here is the unique thing about the New Covenant – all who truly partake of the New Covenant will be regenerate. All who are under the New Covenant will have the law written, not on stone, but on their hearts. This is one of the biggest differences between the Old and New Covenants. Men and women were born into the Old Covenant by natural birth. Some had true faith, but many did not. Some were regenerated by God’s Spirit, but many were not. This is why the scriptures distinguish between the children of Abraham and the true children of Abraham. But men and women are not born into the New Covenant. No, they are born again into the New Covenant. All who are members of the New Covenant have God’s moral law written on their hearts. That is the point of Jeremiah 31:31ff. 

 And here is my point: God’s moral law must matter to the Christian, for God has not merely written it on stone for you, he has written it on your heart.  

So how do when know that God’s moral law – the moral law contained within the Ten Commandments – is the norm or standard for the one in Christ? One, Jeremiah 31 says that the law will be written on the hearts of all the New Covenant people of God. Two, in the New Testament scriptures we find that the moral code for the New Covenant people of God is the same as the moral code of the Old Testament. 

For example, Christ summarized the law of God in this way: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30–31, ESV). Christ did not make this up. He was quoting the Old Testament. And these two laws clearly summarize the two tables of the Ten Commandments.

Consider also how Christ taught the true meaning of the Old Testament laws. He did not change them but taught their true meaning. 

And consider the ways that Christ and the Apostles appealed to the Old Covenant law to establish moral principles for the New Covenant people of God. Listen, for example, to Paul the Apostle in Romans 13:8ff: “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:8–10, ESV). Or consider Paul in his letter to the Ephesians. He wrote to the children saying, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land” (Ephesians 6:1–3, ESV). And consider the way that Paul identified the moral principles contained within the civil laws of Israel (principles of general equity) and applied them to New Covenant church life. He wrote to Timothy saying, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages’” (1 Timothy 5:17–18, ESV). Paul commanded that elders who devote themselves to teaching the scriptures be honored in two ways. They are to be honored with respect, and they are to be honored with financial compensation for their work. What did Paul base this on? The moral principle at the heart of the civil laws given to Israel, “‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages.’”

So many more examples can be given. The point is simple. God’s moral law, which is summarized in the Ten Commandments, remains for the New Covenant people of God. It is our standard and norm. It is written for us, not on stone, as if we are to merely hang it on the walk and try, with our own strength to keep. No, it is written on our hearts by the Spirit. God, by his grace, has not only washed our sins away and imputed Christ’s righteousness to us. He has also renewed us so that we might know and keep God’s law from the heart. 

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Conclusion

Our confession sums all of this up very nicely in chapter 19. I’ll read paragraphs 5 through 7 as we conclude. 

2LCF 19.5. The moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof, and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it; neither doth Christ in the Gospel any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation.

(Romans 13:8-10; James 2:8, 10-12; James 2:10, 11; Matthew 5:17-19; Romans 3:31)

Paragraph 6. Although true believers be not under the law as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified or condemned, yet it is of great use to them as well as to others, in that as a rule of life, informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly; discovering also the sinful pollutions of their natures, hearts, and lives, so as examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against, sin; together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ and the perfection of his obedience; it is likewise of use to the regenerate to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin; and the threatenings of it serve to show what even their sins deserve, and what afflictions in this life they may expect for them, although freed from the curse and unalloyed rigour thereof. The promises of it likewise show them God’s approbation [approval] of obedience, and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof, though not as due to them by the law as a covenant of works; so as man’s doing good and refraining from evil, for the law encourageth to the one and deterreth from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law and not under grace.

(Romans 6:14; Galatians 2:16; Romans 8:1; Romans 10:4; Romans 3:20; Romans 7:7, etc; Romans 6:12-14; 1 Peter 3:8-13)

Paragraph 7. Neither are the aforementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the Gospel, but do sweetly comply with it, the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully which the will of God, revealed in the law, requireth to be done.

(Galatians 3:21; Ezekiel 36:27)