BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17

BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. I, No. 1 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1978 September 1978 God's Word, Our Yardstick by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. Day by day we make decisions on how to act, we form attitudes and cultivate emotions, we set goals for ourselves and try to attain them. We do these things individually, as well as in various groups: our family, friends, church, community, occupation, state. In all of these contexts the kind of people we are, the kind of goals we have, and the kind of rules we observe in decision-making are ethical matters. All human behavior and character is subject to appraisal according to moral values; every one of our attainments (whether they be aims that are fulfilled or character traits that are developed) and every one of our actions (whether they be mental, verbal, or bodily behavior) express an unspoken code of right and wrong. All of life is ethical. But there are many moral values which are recommended to us. There are numerous implicit codes of right and wrong. We go through every day in the midst of a plurality of ethical viewpoints which are in constant competition with each other. Some people make pleasure their highest value, while others put a premium on health. There are those who say we should watch out for ourselves first of all, and yet others tell us that we should live to be of service to our neighbor. What we hear in advertisements often conflicts with the values endorsed in our church. Sometimes the decisions of our employers violates laws established by the state. Our friends do not always share the code of behavior fostered in our family. Often we disagree with the actions of the state. All of life is ethical, but making ethical decisions can be confusing and difficult. Every one of us needs a moral compass to guide us through the maze of moral issues and disagreements that confront us every moment of our lives. To put it another way, making moral judgments requires a standard of ethics. Have you ever tried to draw a straight line without the aid of a standard to follow, like a ruler? As good as your line may have seemed initially, when you placed a straight-edge up to it the line was obviously crooked. Or have you ever tried to give an exact measurement of something by simple eyeball inspection? As close as you may have come by guessing, the only way to be sure and accurate was to use a proper standard of measurement, like a yardstick. And if we are going to be able to determine what kind of persons, actions, or attitudes are morally good, then we will need a standard here as well. Otherwise we will lead crooked lives and make inaccurate evaluations. What should our ethical standard be? What yardstick should we use in making decisions, cultivating attitudes, or setting goals for ourselves and the groups in which we move? How does one know and test what is right and wrong? In ancient Greece and Rome the city or state was taken as the ultimate authority and yardstick in ethics. Caesar was lord over all when moral questions were raised. Over against the totalitarian, divinized state the early church proclaimed the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The "ruling authorities" (Rom. 13:1) were told that "all authority in heaven and earth" resided in the resurrected Messiah (Matt. 28:18). Accordingly the apostle John portrayed the political "beast" of Revelation 13 as requiring that his own name be written on men's foreheads and hands (vv. 16-17), thereby symbolizing that the state's law had replaced the law of God, which was to be written on the forehead and hand (cf. Deut. 6:8). That is why those who stand in opposition to the beast are described as "those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14:1, 12). God's people insist that the state does not have ultimate ethical authority, for God's law is the supreme standard of right and wrong. The medieval church, however, came to foster two yardsticks of ethics; a standard for religious ethics found in the revealed scriptures, and a standard for natural ethics found in man's reason as it examined the world. Of course that left some ethical decisions or evaluations independent of the word of God, and those religious issues which remained under the umbrella of the Bible were ultimately decided by the Pope. Thus the medieval world was ripe for tyranny in both a secular state and despotic church. Over against this the Reformers challenged the traditions of men and reasserted the full authority of God's word, declaring "sola scriptura" and "tota scriptura" (only Scripture and all of Scripture). The final standard of faith and practice, the yardstick for all of life (personal as well as social morality), was the Bible. That is why the Puritans strove to let God's word form their lifestyle and regulate their behavior in every sphere of human endeavor. A holy God required them to "be holy in all your conduct" (I Peter 1:15), and the standard of holy living was found in God's holy law (Rom. 7:12). Accordingly the Puritans even took God's law as their yardstick for civil laws in the new land to which they eventually came, and we have enjoyed the fruits of their godly venture in this country for three centuries now. The attitude of the Reformers and Puritans is nicely summarized in Robert Paul's painting which hangs in the Supreme Court Building, Lausanne, Switzerland; it is entitled Justice Instructing the Judges and portrays Justice pointing her sword to a book labeled "The Law of God." Nevertheless, with the coming of the alleged "Enlightenment," the yardstick of ethics progressively shifted from the law of God in the Bible to human laws fostered by independent reason and experience. A neutral or critical attitude toward the inspired Scripture undermined its recognized authority over all of life, and modern ethics has come to be characterized by an autonomous spirit — an attitude of "self-law." The yardstick of ethics would be found within man or his community. Butler located it in man's conscience, Kant in man's reason, and Hegel in the Absolute state. The one thing shared by all schools of modern ethics is an antipathy to taking moral direction from the Bible, for to do so is viewed as outdated ignorance, unreasonable prejudice, undemocratic and impractical. Being uncomfortable and irritated by the holy requirements of God's law for every aspect of human conduct, "modern" men reject this shackle upon their personal liberty and desires, and they ridicule its provisions for social justice . The predictable result in Western culture is the tension between an unrestrained, tyrannical state on the one hand and the liberated, unrestrained individual on the other. Statism and anarchy pull against each other. The immoral policies of the state are matched by the immoral lives of its citizens. In earlier ages this kind of situation was redressed by the church as it served the function of preservative "salt" in the earth (Matt. 5:13). But today vast numbers of theologians have thrown away the biblical yardstick of ethics and substituted something else for it, and the outcome has been the loss of any respectable, vigorous, reforming ethic in the contemporary church. "Thus saith the Lord" has been reduced to "it seems to me (or us)." Bonhoeffer said that "God is teaching us that we must live as men who can get along very well without Him" (Letters and Papers from Prison). Not only does Frank Sinatra sing out modern man's testimony for Western culture, "The record shows I took the blows, and did it my way," but the German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg delivers the modern church's response: "The proclamation of imperatives backed by divine authority is not very persuasive today" (Theology and the Kingdom of God). The Bible no longer directs all of life because its requirements are deemed stifling and are viewed in advance as unreasonable. Men repudiate God's "interference" in their lives by His commandments. This attitude of lawlessness (I John 3:4) unites all men because of their sin (Rom. 3:23). Even theologians today pretend to be ethical authorities in their own right who know better than the Bible what is right and wrong. In Christian Ethics and Contemporary Philosophy (ed. Ian Ramsey) Graeme de Graaff says, "There is no room in morality for commands, whether they are the father's, the schoolmaster's or the priest's. There is still no room for them when they are God's commands." The leading advocate of situation ethics in our day, Joseph Fletcher, tersely concludes that "Law ethics is still the enemy." And these lawless attitudes continue to filter down to the local level. A "liberated" woman writes in The Reformed Journal (1975): "I thank God that as a reformed Christian I worship a God of grace and not a God of rules." By contrast the biblical attitude is expressed by the apostle John when he says "The love of God is this, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome" (I John 5:3). Believers in Jesus Christ do not wish to be a law unto themselves, unfettered by external divine requirements. They welcome and love the biblical standard of right and wrong — no matter what it may stipulate for any aspect of life. God's holy law is not a burden to them, and they are not constantly searching for substitutes which will be more pleasing to the autonomous attitude of their age. They do not prefer self-law to God's law, for they recognize that it is impossible to draw straight lines and make accurate measurements in ethics without the infallible yardstick of God's word. All of life is ethical, we have said. And all ethical judgments require a dependable standard of right and wrong. Jesus said, having just declared that He will eternally reject all those who practice lawlessness, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock (Matt. 7:24-27). Will your life be founded upon the sure rock of God's word, or the ruinous sands of independent human opinion? Will your ethical decisions be crooked and inaccurate, following foolish and lawless standards, or will you wisely employ the yardstick of God's revealed word? (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics. Craig Press, 1977, esp. chapter 1. The book may be ordered from me for $10.50 at 1219 Pineview Dr., Clinton, MS 39056; include check and address.) Copyright 1978, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. I, No. 2 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1978 October 1978 The Entire Bible, Our Standard Today by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. All of life is ethical, and all of the Bible is permeated with a concern for ethics. Unlike the organization of an encyclopedia, our Bible was not written in such a way that it devotes separate sections exclusively to various topics of interest. Hence the Bible does not contain one separate, self-contained book or chapter that completely treats the subject of ethics or moral conduct. To be sure, many chapters of the Bible (like Exodus 20 or Romans 13) and even some books of the Bible (like Proverbs or James) have a great deal to say about ethical matters and contain very specific guidance for the believer's life. Nevertheless, there will not be found a division of the Bible entitled something like 'The Complete List of Duties and Obligations in the Christian Life." Instead, we find a concern for ethics carrying through the whole word of God, from cover to cover — from creation to consummation. This is not really surprising. The entire Bible speaks of God, and we read that the living and true God is holy, just, good, and perfect. These are attributes of an ethical character and have moral implications for us. The entire Bible speaks of the works of God, and we read that all of His works are performed in wisdom and righteousness — again, ethical qualities. The world which God has created, we read, reveals God's moral requirements clearly and continuously. History, which God governs by His sovereign decree, will manifest His glory, wisdom and justice. The apex of creation and the key figure in earthly history, man, has been made the image of this holy God and has God's law imbedded in his heart. Man's life and purpose take their direction from God, and every one of man's actions and attitudes is called into the service of the Creator — motivated by love and faith, aimed at advancing God's glory and kingdom. Accordingly the entire Bible has a kind of ethical focus. Moreover the very narrative and theological plot of the Bible is governed by ethical concerns. From the outset we read that man has fallen into sin — by disobeying the moral standard of God; as a consequence man has come under the wrath and curse of God — His just response to rebellion against His commands. Sin and curse are prevailing characteristics, then, of fallen man's environment, history, and relationships. To redeem man, restore him to favor, and rectify his wayward life in all areas, God promised and provided His own Son as a Messiah or Savior. Christ lived a life of perfect obedience to qualify as our substitute, and then died on the cross to satisfy the justice of God regarding our sin. As resurrected and ascended on high, Christ rules as Lord over all, bringing all opposition into submission to His kingly reign. He has sent the Spirit characterized by holiness into His followers, and among other things the Holy Spirit brings about the practice of righteousness in their lives. The church of Christ has been mandated to proclaim God's good news, to advance His kingdom throughout the world, to teach Christ's disciples to observe everything He has commanded, and to worship the Triune God in spirit and in truth. When Christ returns at the consummation of human history He will come as universal Judge, dispensing punishment and reward according to the revealed standard of God's word. On that day all men will be divided into the basic categories of covenant-keepers and covenant-breakers; then it will be clear that all of one's life in every realm and relationship has reflected his response to God's revealed standards. Those who have lived in alienation from God, not recognizing their disobedience and need of the Savior, will be eternally separated from His presence and blessing; those who have embraced the Savior in faith and submitted to Him as Lord will eternally enjoy His presence in the new heavens and earth wherein righteousness dwells. It is easy to see, then, that everything the Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation has an ethical quality about it and carries ethical implications with it. There is no word from God which fails to tell us in some way what we are to believe about Him and what duty He requires of us. Paul put it in this way: "Every scripture is inspired by God and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, in order that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16-17). If we disregard any portion of the Bible we will — to that extent — fail to be thoroughly furnished for every good work. If we ignore certain requirements laid down by the Lord in the Bible our instruction in righteousness will be incomplete. Paul says that every single scripture is profitable for ethical living; every verse gives us direction for how we should live. The entire Bible is our ethical yardstick, for every bit of it is the word of the eternal, unchanging God; none of the Bible offers fallible or mistaken direction to us today. Not one of God's stipulations is unjust, being too lenient or too harsh. And God does not unjustly have a double-standard of morality, one standard of justice for some and another standard of justice for others. Every single dictate of God's word, then, is intended as moral instruction for us today if we would demonstrate justice, holiness, and truth in our lives. It is important to note here that when Paul said that "every scripture is inspired by God and profitable" for holy living, the New Testament was not as yet completed, gathered together, and existing as a published collection of books. Paul's direct reference was to the well known Old Testament scriptures, and indirectly to the soon-to-be-completed New Testament. By inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul taught New Testament believers that every single Old Testament writing was profitable for their present instruction in righteousness, if they were to be completely furnished for every good work required of them by God. Not one bit of the Old Testament has become ethically irrelevant according to Paul. That is why we, as Christians, should speak of our moral viewpoint, not merely as "New Testament Ethics," but as "Biblical Ethics." The New Testament (2 Tim. 3:16-17) requires that we take the Old Testament as ethically normative for us today. Not just selected portions of the Old Testament, mind you, but "every scripture." Failure to honor the whole duty of man as revealed in the Old Testament is nothing short of a failure to be completely equipped for righteous living. It is to measure one's ethical duty by a broken and incomplete yardstick, God expects us to submit to His every word, and not pick-and-choose the ones which are agreeable to our preconceived opinions. The Lord requires that we obey everything He has stipulated in the Old and New Testaments — that we "live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). Our Lord responded to the temptation of Satan with those words, quoting the Old Testament passage in Deuteronomy 8:3 which began "All the commandment that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do" (8:1). Many believers in Christ fail to imitate His attitude here, and they are quite careless about observing every word of God's command in the Bible. James tells us that if a person lives by and keeps every precept or teaching of God's law, and yet he or she disregards or violates it in one single point, that person is actually guilty of disobeying the whole (James 2:10). Therefore, we must take the whole Bible as our standard of ethics, including every point of God's Old Testament law. Not one word which proceeds from God's mouth can be invalidated and made inoperative, even as the Lord declared with the giving of His law: "Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it" (Deut. 12:32). The entire Bible is our ethical standard today, from cover to cover. But doesn't the coming of Jesus Christ change all that? Hasn't the Old Testament law been either cancelled or at least reduced in its requirements? Many professing believers are misled in the direction of these questions, despite God's clear requirement that nothing be subtracted from His law, despite the straightforward teaching of Paul and James that every Old Testament scripture — even every point of the law — has a binding ethical authority in the life of the New Testament Christian. Perhaps the best place to go in Scripture to be rid of the theological inconsistency underlying a negative attitude toward the Old Testament law is to the very words of Jesus himself on this subject, Matthew 5:17-19. Nothing could be clearer than that Christ here denies twice (for the sake of emphasis) that His coming has abrogated the Old Testament law: "Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish." Again, nothing could be clearer than that not even the least significant aspect of the Old Testament law will lose its validity until the end of the world: "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the slightest letter or stroke shall pass away from the law." And if there could remain any doubt in our minds as to the meaning of the Lord's teaching here, He immediately removes it by applying His attitude toward the law to our behavior: "Therefore whoever annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven." Christ's coming did not abrogate anything in the Old Testament law, for every single stroke of the law will abide until the passing away of this world; consequently, the follower of Christ is not to teach that even the least Old Testament requirement has been invalidated by Christ and His work. As the Psalmist declared, "Every one of Thy righteous ordinances is everlasting" (Ps. 119:160). So then, all of life is ethical, and ethics requires a standard of right and wrong. For the Christian that yardstick is found in the Bible — the entire Bible, from beginning to end. The New Testament believer repudiates the teaching of the law itself, of the Psalms, of James, Paul, and Jesus himself when the Old Testament commandments of God are ignored or treated as a mere antiquated standard of justice and righteousness. "The word of our God shall stand forever" (Isa. 40:8), and the Old Testament law is part of every word from God's mouth by which we must live (Matt. 4:4). (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics. Craig Press, 1977, esp. chapter 2. The book may be ordered from me for $10.50 at 1219 Pineview Drive, Clinton, MS 39056; include check and address.) Copyright 1978, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. I, No. 3 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1978 November, 1978 God's Uniform Standard of Right and Wrong by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. If something was sinful in the Old Testament, it is likewise sinful in the age of the New Testament. Moral standards, unlike the price of gasoline or the changing artistic tastes of a culture, are not fluctuating. In this country there was a time when driving your car at 65 miles per hour was permissible; now any speed above 55 is illegal. But God's laws are not like that: just today, unjust tomorrow. When the Lord makes a moral judgment He is not unsure of Himself, or tentative, or fickle. Unlike human lawmakers God does not change His mind or alter His standards of righteousness: "My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of My lips" (Ps. 89:34). When the Lord speaks, His word stands firm forever. His standards of right and wrong do not change from age to age: "All His precepts are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness" (Ps. 111:7-8). Accordingly Jesus spoke with unmistakable clarity when He said, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of the law to fail" (Lk. 16:17). The coming of God's righteous Son surely could do nothing to change the righteous character of God's laws, even the least of them, for then they would be exposed as unjust and less than eternal in their uprightness. So Christ issues this severe warning: "whoever annuls one of the least of these commandments and so teaches others shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:19). The advent of the Savior and the inauguration of the new age do not have the effect of abrogating the slightest detail of God's righteous commandments. God has not changed His mind about good and evil or what constitutes them. We can be very glad that God sticks by His word in this way. The authority of His word for human life is as permanent as that word by which He created and governs the world (cf. Ps. 19:1-14; 33:4-11). If God's word to us were not as stable as this, if He was subject to moods and changed His mind from time to time, then we could not rely on anything He told us. If God's law has a fluctuating validity, then so might His promises! If we say that a commandment given by God in the Old Testament is no longer a standard of righteousness and justice for day, then we can equally anticipate that a promise of salvation given by God in the New Testament will in some future day no longer be a permanent guarantee of His favor toward us. But praise the Lord that His word is stable! He never lets us down as did our human parents and human rulers with commands that are unfair and promises that are not kept. Whatever God says endures and cannot be emptied of validity (cf. John 10:35). God's gracious salvation and the justice of His law shall not be abolished but endure forever: Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation (Isa. 51:4-8). The righteous law of God which condemns our sin is as permanent as the good news from God which promises salvation from sin's judgment. It is important to remember this, especially when some would tell us that the coming of the New Testament does away with our obligation to the Old Testament's commandments (or many of them anyway). The division of the Bible into two "Testaments" is better understood in the biblical sense of two "Covenants." Prior to the coming of Christ men lived under the Old Covenant which anticipated the Messiah and His work of salvation; after the coming of Christ and His saving work we live under the New Covenant (cf. Lk. 22:20; I Cor. 11:25). Within the "old covenant" scriptures we find a few particular covenants, such as those made with Abraham and with Moses. The Abrahamic covenant is often characterized in terms of promise, and the Mosaic covenant is remembered for its strong element of law. Now some people would say that New Covenant believers are under the Abrahamic covenant of promise today, but not the Mosaic covenant with its laws. However that is far from the outlook of the scriptural writers. In Galatians 3:21 Paul addresses this question to those who speak of being under one or the other covenant: "Is the law contrary to the promises of God?" And his inspired answer is "May it never be!" The fact is that all of the covenants of the Old Covenant (that is, all of the Old Testament covenants) are unified as parts of the one overall covenant of grace established by God. Paul spoke of Gentiles who were not part of the Old Covenant economy which included the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants as "strangers to the covenants of the promise" (Eph. 2:12). There were many, progressively revealed aspects to the single promise of God in the Old Testament: many administrations of the one overall covenant of grace. Thus the various covenants of the Old Covenant were all part of one program and plan. Not only were they harmonious with one another, but they are unified with the New Covenant which was promised in Jeremiah 31 and is enjoyed by Christians today (cf. Heb. 8:6-13). There is one basic covenant of grace, characterized by anticipation in the Old Covenant and by realization in the New Covenant (cf. John 1:17). Given the unity of God's covenant throughout history and the Bible, then, is it true that Christians living under the New Covenant are not obliged to keep the Old Covenant law (the commandments of the Old Testament, especially those given by Moses)? Every covenant established by God not only declares His gracious work on behalf of His people, but lays down stipulations which they are to observe as a sign of fidelity and love to Him. For instance, the giving of the law at Sinai (Ex. 20-23) was preceded by God's gracious deliverance of Israel from bondage (cf. Ex. 19:4; 20:2). God identified Himself as Lord of the covenant and rehearsed His gracious dealings with His people (Deut. 14), and then with that foundation and background He delivered His law (Deut. 5fl.). We see illustrated here that even the Mosaic covenant characterized by law is a gracious covenant. The law which we read in the Old Testament is a provision of God's grace to us (Ps. 119:29, 6264). Every covenant carries stipulations which are to be kept, we have seen. But prior to that we saw that all of the covenants of God are unified into one overall Covenant of Grace, fully realized with the coming of Christ in the New Covenant. So if there is one covenant enjoyed by the people of God throughout the ages, then there is one moral code or set of stipulations which govern those who would be covenant-keepers. Therefore, we must answer that of course New Testament believers are bound to the Old Testament law of God. His standards, just like His covenant, are unchanging. This perspective is confirmed by the word of God. When we inquire as to what is new about the New Covenant under which Christians now live, we must allow the Lord to define the proper answer. We cannot read into the idea of a "New Covenant" just anything we wish or can imagine. The revealed terms of the New Covenant are given to us in both Jeremiah 31:33-34 and Hebrews 8:812, and when we look at them we find that the New Covenant is far from suppressing or changing the law or moral standard by which God's people are to live! Just the opposite is true. Contrary to those who think that the Mosaic law is not applicable to the New Testament believer, Scripture teaches us: "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds and I will write them upon their hearts" (Heb. 8:10). The establishment of the New Covenant does not imply the abrogation of the Mosaic law or its depreciation in any sense! The idea of a new law is ruled out altogether, for it is the well known law of God which He says He will write upon the hearts of New Covenant believers. Unlike the Old Covenant where God found fault with the people for breaking His commandments (Heb. 8:8-9), the New Covenant will give internal strength for keeping those very commandments. It will write the law on believers' hearts, for out of the heart are the issues of life (Prov. 4:23). The Holy Spirit of God will indwell the heart of believers, writing God's law therein, with the result that they will live according to the commandments. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances" (Ezek. 36:27). As Paul writes in Romans 8:4, those who now walk according to the Spirit have the requirement of the law fulfilled within them. As J. Gresham Machen said, "The gospel does not abrogate God's law, but it makes men love it with all their hearts" (What is Faith?). Psalm 89:34 was cited above: "My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of My lips." God's covenant law is one, unchanging moral code through Old and New Testaments. Once God has spoken His law and expressed His righteous standards He does not alter it. Indeed He pronounces a warning and curse upon anyone who would dare tamper with His stipulations in the slightest. Times may change, and human laws may be altered. But God's law is an eternally just and valid standard of right and wrong. One of the requirements of His law, which reflects His holy character, is the prohibition of using a double-standard (Deut. 25:13-16; Lev. 19:35-37). It is ungodly to use one measure or yardstick with some people, and then use an altered measure with others. "Divers weights and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 20:10). Accordingly God requires that we have but one standard or moral judgment, whether it be for the stranger or the native (Lev. 24:22; Deut. 1:16-17; cf. Num. 15:16). He abhors a double-standard of right and wrong, and we can be sure that He does not judge in such a fashion. Something that was sinful in the Old Testament is likewise sinful for us in the New Testament, for God's standards are not subject to fluctuation from age to age. He has one uniform standard of right and wrong. (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics, Craig Press, 1977, esp. chapter 8 and appendix 1. The book may be ordered from me for $10.50 at 1219 Pineview Dr., Clinton, MS 39056; include check and address.) Copyright 1978, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. I, No. 4 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1978 December, 1978 God's Unchanging Holiness and Law by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. There is a sense in which the aim of every man's life is to be like God. All men are striving to imitate God in one way or another. Of course not all attempts to be like God are honored by the Lord and rewarded with His favor, for there is a radical difference between submitting to the Satanic temptation to be like God (Gan. 3:5) and responding to Christ's injunction that we should be like God (Matt. 5:48). The first is an attempt to replace God's authority with one's own, while the second is an attempt to demonstrate godliness as a moral virtue. The basic character of godly morality was made manifest in the probation or testing placed upon Adam and Eve in the Garden. God had granted them permission to eat of any tree of the garden, save one. They were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil not because its fruit was injected with some literal poison that was not good for them, but as a test of whether they would live solely under the authority of God's word to them. God had forbidden it. Would they, despite their empirical research and personal desires, submit to His command on His simple say-so? Would they do their duty on the sheer basis that it was their duty? Or would they evaluate the command of God on the basis of some external standard of reasonableness, practicality. and human benefit? The outcome of the story is all too well known. Satan beguiled Eve, denying what God had told her, and thereby leading her to assume the authoritative, neutral position of determining for herself whether God's "hypothesis" or Satan's "hypothesis" was true. Satan implied that God's commands were harsh, too stringent, unreasonable. He in effect condemned the supreme, absolute, and unchallengable authority of God. He went on to suggest that God is in fact jealous, prohibiting Adam and Eve from eating of the tree lest they become like Him — lest they become rivals to Him in determining what is good and evil. Thus our first parents were led to seek a lifestyle which was not bound by law from God; thus they were tempted into deciding for themselves what would count as good and evil. Law would not be laid down to them by God, for they would lay it down for themselves. Demonstrating sin's lawlessness (I John 3:4) they became "like God" — law-givers of their own making and authority. God's law, which should have been their delight, became burdensome to them. By contrast, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, lived a life of perfect obedience to the laws of God. When Satan tempted Him to depart from the path of utter obedience to God's commands, the Savior replied by quoting from the Old Testament law: you are not to tempt the Lord your God, you are to worship and serve Him alone, and you are to live by every word that proceeds from His mouth (Matt. 4:1-11). Here we have the very opposite of Adam and Eve's response to Satan. Christ said that the attitude which in genuinely godly recognizes the moral authority of God alone, does not question the wisdom of His dictates, and observes every last detail of His word. This is man's proper path to God-likeness. To live in this fashion displays the image or likeness of God that man was originally intended to be (Gen. 1:27), for it is living "in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24). Genuine godliness, as commanded in the Scripture, is gained by imitating the holiness of God on a creaturely level — not by audacious attempts to redefine good and evil in some area of life on your own terms. Jesus concluded His discourse on God's law in the Sermon on the Mount by saying, "Therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48) . Those who are not striving to become rivals to God by replacing His commands according to their own wisdom will rather endeavor to reflect His moral perfection by obeying all of His commands. John Murray has said, We cannot suppress the generic character of this statement, 'Ye therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect'. It covers the whole range of divine perfection as it bears upon human behavior, and it utters the most ultimate consideration regulative of human disposition and conduct. The reason of the biblical ethic is God's perfection; the basic criterion of ethical behavior is God's perfection; the ultimate goal of the ethical life is conformity to God's perfection .... And shall we say that this standard can ever cease to be relevant? It is to trifle with sanctities which ever bind us as creatures of God, made in His image, to think that anything less than perfection conformable to the Father's own could be the norm and the goal of the believer's ethic (Principles of Conduct). God expects of His people nothing less than full conformity to His holy character in all of their thoughts, words, and deeds. They must emulate His perfection in every aspect of their lives. As Murray says, this standard of ethics ever binds the believer and never ceases to be relevant. This standard is just as authoritative and valid today as it was in the Old Testament. According to the Old Testament ethic God's holiness was the model for human conduct: "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2). This is also the precise model of moral conduct for the New Testament believer: "but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'" (I Peter 1:15-16). There has been no alteration or reduction of the standard of moral behavior between the Old and New Testaments. God's permanent requirement over all of life is God-imitating holiness. In all ages believers are required to display throughout their lives the holiness and perfection of their God. They ought to be like God, not in the Satanic sense which amounts to lawlessness but in the biblical sense which entails submission to God's commands. Obviously, if we are to model our lives on the perfect holiness of God we need Him to tell us what the implications of this would be for our practical behavior. We need a perfect yardstick by which to measure holiness in our lives. The Bible teaches us that the Lord has provided this guide and standard in His holy law (cf. Rom. 7:12). The law is a transcript of the holiness of God on a creaturely level; it is the ultimate standard of human righteousness in any area of life, for it reflects the moral perfection of God, its Author. The intimate relation which the law bears to the very person of God is indicated by the fact that it was originally written by the finger of God (Deut. 9:10) and deposited in the ark of the covenant which typified the throne and presence of God in the Holy of Holies (Deut. 10:5). Moreover, this law must be acknowledged to have a very special place or status because it has the exclusive qualities of God himself attributed to it. According to Scripture, God alone is holy (Rev. 15:4), and good (Mark 10:18). Yet God's law is likewise designated holy and good (Rom. 7:12, 16; I Tim. 1:8), and obedience to it is the standard of human good (Deut. 12:28; Ps. 119:68; Micah 6:8). God is perfect (Deut. 32:4; Ps. 18:30; Matt. 5:48), and the law which He has laid down for us is accordingly perfect (Ps. 19:7; James 1:25). Every statute revealed by God authoritatively defines the holiness, goodness, and perfection which God's people are to emulate in every age. The Puritans were zealous to live in the moral purity which reflects God's own. Consequently they upheld the honor and binding quality of every command from God. The feeling of Thomas Taylor was typical of them: "A man may break the Princes Law, and not violate his Person; but not Gods: for God and his image in the Law, are so straitly united, as one cannot wrong the one, and not the other" (Regula Vitae, The Rule of the Law under the Gospel, 1631). If God turned back His law, said Anthony Burgess, He would "deny his own justice and goodness" (Vindiciae Legis, 1646). Thus the Puritans did not, like many modern believers, tamper with or annul any part of God's law. "To find fault with the Law, were to find fault with God" (Ralph Venning, Sin, the Plague of Plagues , 1669). Therefore, in Puritan theology the law of God, like its author, was eternal (cf. Edward Elton, God's Holy Minde Touching Matters Morall, 1625), and as such "Christ hath expunged no part of it" (John Crandon, Mr. Baxters Aphorisms exorcized and Anthorized, 1654). Unlike modern theologians who evaluate God's requirements according to their cultural traditions and who follow the Satanic temptation to define holiness according to their own estimate or moral purity, the Puritans did not seek schemes by which to shrink the entire duty of man in God's law to their preconceived notions. Yenning concluded, "Every believer is answerable to the obedience of the whole Law." As usual, the Puritans were here eminently scriptural. God's holiness is the standard of morality in Old and New Testaments, and that holiness is reflected in our lives by obeying His every commandment. "Sanctify yourselves, therefore, and be ye holy, for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statutes and do them" (Lev. 20:7-8). And a life that is truly consecrated to God, one which is genuinely holy, respects every dictate from God. He says that the way to "be holy to your God" is to "remember to do all My commandments" (Num. 15:40). To lay aside any of God's law or view its details as inapplicable today is to oppose God's standard of holiness; it is to define good and evil in that area of life by one's own wisdom and law, to become a rival to God as a law-giver. Of course this suppression of God's own standard of moral perfection — the transcript of His holiness in the law — is a blow at the very heart of biblical ethics. It is to be "God-like" in exactly the wrong way. it is to seek moral perfection for some aspect of life originally covered by God's law, but now according to one's one determinations of good and evil. This was the untoward character of Adam's rebellion against God's holy word, His own law replaced God's. The law reflects the holiness of God, and God's holiness is o permanent standard of morality. Moreover, God's character is eternal and unchanging. "I am the Lord, I change not" (Mal. 3:6). There is no variableness in Him (James 1:17). From everlasting to everlasting He is God (Ps. 90:2). Therefore, because His holiness is unchanging, the law which reflects that holiness cannot be changed. Whether we read in the Old or New Testaments, we find that a man's attitude toward God's law is an index of his relationship to God himself (Ps. 1; Rom. 8:1-8). As John so plainly says, "The one who says 'I have come to know Him,' and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (I John 2:4). God's unchanging holiness and thereby His unchanging law is an abiding standard of knowing Him and being like Him. (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics. Craig Press, 1977, esp. chapter 5 and appendix 3. The book may be ordered from me for $10.56 at 1219 Pineview Drive, Clinton, MS 39056; include check and address.) Copyright 1978, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 1 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 January, 1979 Christ's Perfect Righteousness, Our Model by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. The Bible was written over many years, by many people, and about many things. Yet central to the Bible is the person of Jesus Christ. He is of paramount importance throughout. We know that He was, as the Word of God, active at the creation of the world (John 13), and that He providentially upholds all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). After Adam's fall into sin through disobedience to God's command, relief from the wrath and curse of God was promised in terms of one who, as the seed of the woman, would crush Satan (Genesis 3:15). The entire Old Testament prepares for the coming of this promised Messiah — the prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15-19), priest (Psalm 110:4), and king (Isaiah 9:6-7) of God's own choosing. The New Testament gospels tell us of His life and saving ministry, and Acts tells us of the work He continued to do through His church. The epistles are letters written from Him through His chosen servants (e.g., Galatians 1:1) to His elect people, who constitute His kingdom. The final prophetic book of the Bible is "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." His church now labors to make all nations His disciples (Matthew 28:18-20), and at the consummation of history Christ will return again to judge all mankind (Acts 17:31). From beginning to end, the Bible speaks of Jesus Christ who is "the Alpha and the Omega" (Revelation 22:13). He is the key to God's special revelation and the one who should have pre-eminence in our lives (Colossians 1:18). It is easy to understand why. Because of our sinful disobedience to God's commandments Christ came to atone for our offenses and become our eternal Savior. As such He deserves our undying devotion and gratitude. As the resurrected and ascended Son of God, Christ is Lord over all and deserves our obedience and service. The lifestyle and ethic of those who have been redeemed by Christ as Savior and Lord, then, will naturally center or focus on Him. At many times in the history of the church Christian living has been understood most generally as "the imitation of Christ." Because Christ is the central personage of the Bible, there is a sense in which Biblical ethics can likewise be summarized as imitating Christ — striving to be like Him, taking His behavior as the model of Christian ethics. Indeed, to take upon oneself the name of "Christian" is to be a disciple or follower of Christ (cf. Acts 11:26). Believers take their direction from the example and teaching of Christ. Accordingly, Biblical ethics is the same as Christ-ian ethics. What specifically can be said about a Christ-like ethic of morality'? If we wish to imitate the moral perfection of Christ, what will this entail? A short survey of Biblical teaching discloses that God does not save His chosen people by lowering His moral standards; the very reason why those people need His saving mercy is because they have violated His moral standards. If such standards were expendable or arbitrary, then God could choose to ignore their transgression and save people by sheer fiat or decree of pardon. However the law could not be thus ignored. To save His people God sent His only-begotten Son to die sacrifically in their place. In order to qualify as the Savior, Christ lived a life of perfect obedience to the commandments of God. In order to atone for sins, Christ died in alienation from the Father to satisfy the law's demand for punishment. Consequently in His life and death Christ perfectly obeyed the law of God, and this has unavoidable implications for Christian ethics — for imitating the Christ portrayed throughout the Bible. The Scriptures regard the work of Christ as that of obedience. In defining the purpose of His Messianic advent, Christ said "I have come down from heaven to do the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38). The pivotal event in the accomplishment of redemption was Christ's laying down His life and taking it up again — His death and resurrection; in these things Christ was obeying His Father's commandment (John 10:17-18). His work of atonement was performed in the capacity of a suffering servant (cf. Isaiah 52:13-53:12). As such He was subjected to the law (Galatians 4:5) and justified us by His obedience (Romans 5:19). So then, obedience to the will and commandment of God was crucial to the life and ministry of our Savior. As our great High Priest He was sacrificed to discharge the curse of the law against our sin (Galatians 3:13; Hebrews 2:17-3:1; 4:14-5:10). As the prophet of the law, Christ rendered its proper interpretation and peeled away the distorting traditions of men (Matthew 5:17-48; 15:1-20). And because He obeyed the law perfectly and hated all lawlessness, Christ has been exalted as the anointed King (Hebrews 1:8 9). Therefore we see that Christ's saving work and His three-fold office are determined by His positive relation to the law of God, the permanent expression of His holy will. As one could readily expect, since Christ is the exact representation of God's nature (Hebrews 1:3) and since the law is a transcript of the holiness of God, Christ embodied the law perfectly in His own person and behavior. Christ challenged His opponents with the stunning — virtually rhetorical — question, "Which of you convicts me of sin?" (John 8:46). Of course, no one could, for Christ alone was in a position to declare, "I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love" (John 15:10). Christ was tempted at every point with respect to obeying the commands of God, yet He remained sinless throughout (Hebrews 4:15). Because He kept the law perfectly, Christ had no need to offer up sacrifice for His own sins (Hebrews 7:26-28). Instead He offered Himself up without spot to God, a lamb without blemish as the law required, in order to cleanse us of our sins (Hebrews 9:14). As the Old Testament had foretold, "righteousness will be the belt about His loins" (Isaiah 11:5), and the Messiah could declare "Thy law is within my heart" ( Psalm 40:7-8; Hebrews 10:4-10). We read in Galatians 4:4 that "when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law." Christ was neither lawless nor above the law; He submitted to its every requirement, saying "it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). He directed the healed to offer the gift commanded by Moses (Matthew 8:4), kept the borders of His garments (9:20; 14:36), paid the temple tax (17:24-27), attended to the purity of the temple (21:12-17), etc. He directed His followers to do those things which conformed to the law's demand (Matthew 7:12), told the rich young ruler to keep the commandments (19:17), reinforced the Old Testament law by summarizing it into two love commandments (22:40), indicted the Pharisees for making God's commandments void through traditions of men (Mark 7:6-13), and insisted that even the most trite or insignificant matters of the law ought not to be left undone (Luke 11:42). Speaking of the moral teaching of Christ, Herman Ridderbos says, "It is the 'ethics' of obedience in the full sense of the word . . . . If, therefore, the question is asked by what Jesus' commandments are regulated, the ultimate answer is only this: by God's will as it is revealed in his law . . . . Jesus' ethical preaching does not have a deeper ground than the law as the revelation of God's will to Israel, the people of the covenant. Again and again it is the law, and only the law, the meaning and purpose of which is also the meaning and purpose of Jesus' commandments" (The Coming of the Kingdom, Presbyterian and Reformed, 1962, pp. 290-291). In the light of these things we recall how Jesus severely warned His followers not even to begin to think that His coming had the effect of abrogating even the slightest letter of the law; teaching that even the least commandment had been annulled would eventuate in one's demotion in the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:17-19) . Throughout His life and teaching, then, Jesus upheld the law's demands in the most exacting degree. Moreover, Christ submitted to the law of God even to the very point of suffering its prescribed penalty for sin. He died the death of a criminal (Philippians 2:8) , taking upon Himself the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13) and canceling thereby the handwriting which was against us because of the law (Colossians 2:14) . "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities .... Jehovah has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:4-6). Sin cannot avoid the dreadful judgment of God (Nahum 1:2-3; Habakkuk 1:13), and therefore God does not save sinners without righteousness and peace kissing each other (Psalm 85:9-10); He remains just, while becoming the justifier of His people (Romans 3:26). Accordingly the law's demands could not be arbitrarily pushed aside. Christ had to come and undergo the curse of the law in the place of His chosen people; He had to satisfy the justice of God. That is why it can be said that the death of Christ is the outstanding evidence that God's law cannot be ignored or abrogated. According to the law there is no remission of sin apart from the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22; Leviticus 17:11). "Therefore it was necessary" that Christ offer up himself in sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 9:23-26). The necessity of the law's continuing validity is substantiated by the saving death of Christ on our behalf. Christians should be the last people to think or maintain that they are free from the righteous requirements of God's commandments. Those who have been saved are in need of that salvation because God's law will not be ignored as they transgress it, and they have been saved by Christ necessarily living and dying by all of the law's stipulations. Although our own obedience to the law is flawed and thus cannot be used as a way of justification before God, we are saved by the imputed obedience of the Savior (I Corinthians 1:30; Philippians 3:9). Our justification is rooted in His obedience (Romans 5:17-19). By a righteousness which is alien to ourselves — the perfect righteousness of Christ according to the' law — we are made just in the sight of God. "He made the one who did not know sin to be sin on our behalf in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). It turns out, then that Christ's advent and atoning work do not relax the validity of the law of God and its demand for righteousness; rather they accentuate it. Salvation does not cancel the law's demand, but simply the law's curse: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). He removed our guilt and the condemning aspect of the law toward us, but Christ did not revoke the law's original righteous demand and obligation. Salvation in the Biblical sense presupposes the permanent validity of the law. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit indwelling all true believers in Jesus Christ makes them to grow into likeness to Christ — "to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13,15; cf. Galatians 4:19). Christian ethics is a matter of imitating Christ, and for that reason it does not call us to flee from the law but to honor its requirements. We are to have in ourselves the attitude which was in Christ Jesus, who humbled himself and became obedient (Philippians 2:5, 8). We are to follow in His steps of righteous behavior (I Peter 2:21), showing forth righteousness because the Holy Spirit unites us to Him (I Corinthians 6:15-20). The Biblical ethic, then, is the Christ-ian ethic of following after the example of Christ's obedience to God's law. John expresses this point clearly: "Hereby we know that we are in Him: he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked" (I John 2:5-6). And as we have abundantly seen above, Christ walked according to the commandments of God. We cannot escape the conclusion that the Christian ethic is one of obedience to God's law, for Christ's perfect righteousness according to that law is our model of Christian living. From beginning to end the Bible centers on Jesus Christ. From beginning to end His life was lived in conformity to the law of God. And from beginning to end the Biblical ethic of imitating Christ calls us likewise to obey every command of God's word. (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics, Craig Press, 1977, chapter 6; it may be ordered for $10.50 from me at 1219 Pineview, Clinton, MS 39056). Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 2 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 February, 1979 God's Spirit, The Dynamic for Lawful Living by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. We have seen previously that God's holy character, of which the law is the transcript, is unchanging and beyond challenge; accordingly God's holy law cannot be altered today or brought into criticism by men's traditions. We have also observed that Christ's perfect obedience, which is the model for the Christian's behavior, was rendered to every detail and facet of God's commandments; accordingly every believer who makes it his aim to imitate the Savior must be submissive to the law of God as honored by Christ. The character of God the Father and the life of God the Son both point to the law of God as morally binding for Christians today. The work of God the Spirit, therefore, cannot be viewed as in any way detracting from our obedience to God's law, or else the unity of the Triune Godhead would be dissolved and we would have three gods (with separate wills and intentions, diverse attitudes and standards) rather than one. The truth is, as presented by Scripture, that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit "of God" (I Cor. 2:12) and is given by the Father (John 14:16; 15:26; Acts 2:33). He is likewise designated the Spirit "of the son" (Galatians 4:6; cf. Phil. 1:19; Romans 8:9) and is sent by Christ (John 15:26; 16:7; 20:22; Acts 2:33). The Holy Spirit does not work contrary to the plans and purposes of the Father and Son but rather completes them or brings them to realization. The harmony of His workings with the Father and Son is illustrated in John 16:15, where we read that everything possessed by the Father is shared with the Son, and in turn what is possessed by the Son is disclosed by the Spirit. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work as one. They are not in tension with each other. Consequently we should not expect that the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives would run counter to the character of the Father and the example of the Son. We should not expect that this Spirit, who inspired the writing of God's holy law, would work contrary to that law by undermining its validity, replacing its function, or leading us away from obedience to it. When we think of Biblical ethics or Christian behavior we should think of a Spirit-filled and Spirit4ed life. The Holy Spirit gives new life to us (John 3:3 -8), renews us (Titus 3:5-6), and enables us to make profession of faith in Christ (1 Cor. 12:3); indeed, without the work of the Spirit in a person he cannot be a Christian at all (Romans 8:9; Galatians 3:2). The Holy Spirit illumines the believer (Ephesians 1:17), leads him (Romans 3:14), and writes God's word upon his heart (2 Cor. 3:3); by the Spirit we can understand the things freely given to us by God (I Cor. 2:12-16). The Spirit seals the believer (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30), indwells him with inner refreshment as an ever-flowing river of living water (John 14:17; Romans 8:9; I Cor. 3:16; John 7:38-39), and constitutes the downpayment from God of our eternal inheritance (Ephesians 1:14). The "Spiritual" man—the believer as subject to such influences of God's Spirit- will show the dramatic effects or results of the Spirit's ministry in his life. By the Spirit he will put to death the sinful deeds of his body (Romans 8:13), for the Spirit produces holiness in the lives of God's people (2 Thessalonians 2:13; I Peter 1:2). Being filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), the believer's life will manifest worship, joyful praise, thanksgiving, and submission to others (vv. 19-21). Christians are to walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16), thereby evidencing the harvest of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (vv. 22 24). Christian living and behavior, then, can be summarized as "living by the Spirit." This has far-reaching consequences for believers. In the first place it indicates that salvation necessitates sanctification in one's life. The believer in Christ is not only saved from his moral guilt before God, but he is also saved from the moral pollution in which he formerly lived. Christianity is not merely a matter of believing certain things and anticipating eternal comfort; it does not start and end with forgiveness for our sins be cause we have come to Christ as Savior. Christianity likewise requires living continually under the Lordship of Christ, eliminating indwelling sin, and walking righteously before God. The Christian is one who has been freed not only from the curse of sin, but from the bondage of sin as well. Christian experience extends beyond the moment of belief and pardon into the daily exercise of pursuing sanctification without which no one will see God (Hebrews 12:14). It entails life in the Holy Spirit, which can only mean progressive holiness in one's behavior. We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) — unto a life of obedience: "we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works" (v. 10). If living by the Spirit indicates that salvation must bring sanctification, then it means that salvation produces a life of glad obedience to God's law. Salvation frees one from sin's bondage so that he can walk lawfully (James 1:25; Galatians 5:13-14), which is to say lovingly (cf. I John 5:1-3), for the leading evidence of the Spirit's work in one's life is love (Galatians 5:22). Those who have been saved by faith must be diligent to exercise the good works of love (Titus 3:5-8; James 2:26; Galatians 5:6), and the standard of good behavior and loving conduct is found in God's revealed law (Psalm 119:68; Romans 7:12,16; I Timothy 1:8; John 14:15; 2 John 6). The Holy Spirit works in the believer to bring about conformity to the inspired law of God as the pattern of holiness. The "requirement of the law" is "fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:4). When God puts His Spirit within a person it causes that person to walk in the Lord's statutes and keep His ordinances (Ezekiel 11:19-20). Therefore, since salvation requires sanctification, and since sanctification calls for obedience to the commandments of God, the New Testament teaches us that Christ "become the author of eternal salvation unto all those who obey Him" (Hebrews 5:9). This does not contradict salvation by grace; it is its inevitable outworking. Sadly, the church today often tones down the demands of God's law out of a misconceived desire to exalt God's grace and avoid any legalism wherein salvation is grounded in one's own law-works. Rather than finding the proper place for God's law within the plan of salvation and pursuing its function within the kingdom of Christ, the church frequently promotes an easy believism which does not proclaim the need for heartfelt repentance, clearly manifest the sinner's utter guilt and need of the Savior, or follow up conversion with exhortation and discipline in righteous living. Of course without the law of God which displays the unchanging will of God for man's attitudes and actions in all areas of life there is a corresponding de-emphasis on concrete sin for which men must repent, genuine guilt which drives men to Christ, and specific guidelines for righteous behavior in the believer. Taking Paul out of context, some churches and teachers would make their message "we are not under law but grace." They would present evangelism and Christian nurture as though mutually exclusive of concern for God's righteous standards as found in his commandments. They would focus on the extraordinary work of the Spirit in a supposed second blessing and the charismatic gifts. The whole of the Biblical message and Christian life would be cast into a distorted, truncated, or modified form in the interests of a religion of pure grace. However God's word warns us against turning the grace of of God into an occasion or cause of licentious living (Jude 4); it insists that faith does not nullify God's law (Romans 3:31). One has to be deceived, Paul says, to think that the unrighteous could possibly inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. 6:9-10). Those who demote even the slightest requirement of God's law will themselves be demoted in the Lord's kingdom (Matthew 5:19). The answer to legalism is not easy believism, evangelism without the need for repentance, the pursuit of a mystical second blessing in the Spirit, or a Christian life devoid of righteous instruction and guidance. Legalism is countered by the Biblical understanding of true "life in the Spirit"; therein God's Spirit is the gracious author of new life, who convicts us of our sin and misery over against the violated law of God, who unites us to Christ in salvation that we might share His holy life, who enables us to understand the guidance given by God's word, and who makes us to grow by God's grace into people who better obey the Lord's commands. The precise reason that Paul asserts that we are under grace and not the condemnation or curse of the law is to explain how it is that sin does not have dominion over us — to explain, that is, why we have become slaves to obedience and now have lives characterized by conformity to God's law (Romans 6:13-18). It is God's grace that makes us Spiritual men who honor the commandments of our Lord. The answer to legalism is not to portray the law of God as contrary to His promise (Galatians 3:21) but to realize that, just as the Christian life began by the Spirit, it must be nurtured and perfected in the power of the Spirit as well (Galatians 3:3). The dynamic for righteous living is found, not in the believer's own moral strength, but in the enabling might of the Spirit of God. We are naturally the slaves of sin who live under its power (Romans 6:16-20; 7:23); indeed, Paul declares that we are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1). However, if we are united to Christ in virtue of His death and resurrection we have become dead to sin (Romans 6:3-4) and thus no longer live in it (v.2). Just as Christ was raised to newness of life by the Spirit (I Timothy 3:16; I Peter 3:18; Romans 1:4; 6:4, 9), so also we who have His resurrection power indwelling us by the life-giving Spirit (Ephesians 1:19-20; Philippians 3:10; Romans 8:11) have the power to live new lives which are freed from sin (Romans 6:4-11). The result of the Spirit freeing us from sin is sanctification (v. 22). The gracious power of the new and righteous life of the Christian is the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. Here is the antidote to legalism. We must observe in this regard that the Holy Spirit does not replace the law of God in the Christian's life, nor does He oppose the law of God in our behavior. The gracious Spirit who empowers our sanctification does not speak for Himself, giving a new pattern for Christian behavior (John 16:13). Rather He witnesses to the word of the Son (John 14: 23-26: 15:26; 16:14). The Spirit is not an independent source of direction or guidance in the Christian life, for His ministry is carried out in conjunction with the already given word of God (cf. I Cor. 2:12-16). In terms of our sanctification this means that the Spirit enables us to understand and obey the objective standard of God's revealed law. It does not mean that Christians who are indwelt by the Spirit become a law unto themselves, spinning out from within themselves the standards by which they live. What the Spirit does is to supply what was lacking in the law itself — the power to enforce compliance. "What the law could not do, weak as it was through t he flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:3-4). God's law is still the blueprint for sanctified behavior — this is completely unaffected by the Spirit's ethical ministry in the believer. The Holy Spirit does not oppose that law in the slightest degree but, instead, empowers obedience to it. "I will put My Spirit within.you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances" (Ezekiel 36:27). Whereas the letter of the law brought death to man because he was unable of himself to comply with it, the Spirit of God enlivens men so that they can conform to God's standards (2 Cor. 3:6). Therefore the sure test of whether someone has the Spirit abiding in him or not is found in asking if he keeps the commandments of God (I John 3:24). A Biblical view of the work of the Holy Spirit reinforces the validity of God's law for the Christian, showing how the law (as pattern) and the Spirit (as power) are both indispensable to sanctification. (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics. Craig Press, 1977, esp. chap. 7. The book may be ordered from me for $10.50 at 1219 Pineview Drive, Clinton, MS 39056; include check and address.) Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 2 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 February, 1979 God's Spirit, The Dynamic for Lawful Living by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. We have seen previously that God's holy character, of which the law is the transcript, is unchanging and beyond challenge; accordingly God's holy law cannot be altered today or brought into criticism by men's traditions. We have also observed that Christ's perfect obedience, which is the model for the Christian's behavior, was rendered to every detail and facet of God's commandments; accordingly every believer who makes it his aim to imitate the Savior must be submissive to the law of God as honored by Christ. The character of God the Father and the life of God the Son both point to the law of God as morally binding for Christians today. The work of God the Spirit, therefore, cannot be viewed as in any way detracting from our obedience to God's law, or else the unity of the Triune Godhead would be dissolved and we would have three gods (with separate wills and intentions, diverse attitudes and standards) rather than one. The truth is, as presented by Scripture, that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit "of God" (I Cor. 2:12) and is given by the Father (John 14:16; 15:26; Acts 2:33). He is likewise designated the Spirit "of the son" (Galatians 4:6; cf. Phil. 1:19; Romans 8:9) and is sent by Christ (John 15:26; 16:7; 20:22; Acts 2:33). The Holy Spirit does not work contrary to the plans and purposes of the Father and Son but rather completes them or brings them to realization. The harmony of His workings with the Father and Son is illustrated in John 16:15, where we read that everything possessed by the Father is shared with the Son, and in turn what is possessed by the Son is disclosed by the Spirit. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work as one. They are not in tension with each other. Consequently we should not expect that the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives would run counter to the character of the Father and the example of the Son. We should not expect that this Spirit, who inspired the writing of God's holy law, would work contrary to that law by undermining its validity, replacing its function, or leading us away from obedience to it. When we think of Biblical ethics or Christian behavior we should think of a Spirit-filled and Spirit4ed life. The Holy Spirit gives new life to us (John 3:3 -8), renews us (Titus 3:5-6), and enables us to make profession of faith in Christ (1 Cor. 12:3); indeed, without the work of the Spirit in a person he cannot be a Christian at all (Romans 8:9; Galatians 3:2). The Holy Spirit illumines the believer (Ephesians 1:17), leads him (Romans 3:14), and writes God's word upon his heart (2 Cor. 3:3); by the Spirit we can understand the things freely given to us by God (I Cor. 2:12-16). The Spirit seals the believer (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30), indwells him with inner refreshment as an ever-flowing river of living water (John 14:17; Romans 8:9; I Cor. 3:16; John 7:38-39), and constitutes the downpayment from God of our eternal inheritance (Ephesians 1:14). The "Spiritual" man—the believer as subject to such influences of God's Spirit- will show the dramatic effects or results of the Spirit's ministry in his life. By the Spirit he will put to death the sinful deeds of his body (Romans 8:13), for the Spirit produces holiness in the lives of God's people (2 Thessalonians 2:13; I Peter 1:2). Being filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), the believer's life will manifest worship, joyful praise, thanksgiving, and submission to others (vv. 19-21). Christians are to walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16), thereby evidencing the harvest of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (vv. 22 24). Christian living and behavior, then, can be summarized as "living by the Spirit." This has far-reaching consequences for believers. In the first place it indicates that salvation necessitates sanctification in one's life. The believer in Christ is not only saved from his moral guilt before God, but he is also saved from the moral pollution in which he formerly lived. Christianity is not merely a matter of believing certain things and anticipating eternal comfort; it does not start and end with forgiveness for our sins be cause we have come to Christ as Savior. Christianity likewise requires living continually under the Lordship of Christ, eliminating indwelling sin, and walking righteously before God. The Christian is one who has been freed not only from the curse of sin, but from the bondage of sin as well. Christian experience extends beyond the moment of belief and pardon into the daily exercise of pursuing sanctification without which no one will see God (Hebrews 12:14). It entails life in the Holy Spirit, which can only mean progressive holiness in one's behavior. We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) — unto a life of obedience: "we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works" (v. 10). If living by the Spirit indicates that salvation must bring sanctification, then it means that salvation produces a life of glad obedience to God's law. Salvation frees one from sin's bondage so that he can walk lawfully (James 1:25; Galatians 5:13-14), which is to say lovingly (cf. I John 5:1-3), for the leading evidence of the Spirit's work in one's life is love (Galatians 5:22). Those who have been saved by faith must be diligent to exercise the good works of love (Titus 3:5-8; James 2:26; Galatians 5:6), and the standard of good behavior and loving conduct is found in God's revealed law (Psalm 119:68; Romans 7:12,16; I Timothy 1:8; John 14:15; 2 John 6). The Holy Spirit works in the believer to bring about conformity to the inspired law of God as the pattern of holiness. The "requirement of the law" is "fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:4). When God puts His Spirit within a person it causes that person to walk in the Lord's statutes and keep His ordinances (Ezekiel 11:19-20). Therefore, since salvation requires sanctification, and since sanctification calls for obedience to the commandments of God, the New Testament teaches us that Christ "become the author of eternal salvation unto all those who obey Him" (Hebrews 5:9). This does not contradict salvation by grace; it is its inevitable outworking. Sadly, the church today often tones down the demands of God's law out of a misconceived desire to exalt God's grace and avoid any legalism wherein salvation is grounded in one's own law-works. Rather than finding the proper place for God's law within the plan of salvation and pursuing its function within the kingdom of Christ, the church frequently promotes an easy believism which does not proclaim the need for heartfelt repentance, clearly manifest the sinner's utter guilt and need of the Savior, or follow up conversion with exhortation and discipline in righteous living. Of course without the law of God which displays the unchanging will of God for man's attitudes and actions in all areas of life there is a corresponding de-emphasis on concrete sin for which men must repent, genuine guilt which drives men to Christ, and specific guidelines for righteous behavior in the believer. Taking Paul out of context, some churches and teachers would make their message "we are not under law but grace." They would present evangelism and Christian nurture as though mutually exclusive of concern for God's righteous standards as found in his commandments. They would focus on the extraordinary work of the Spirit in a supposed second blessing and the charismatic gifts. The whole of the Biblical message and Christian life would be cast into a distorted, truncated, or modified form in the interests of a religion of pure grace. However God's word warns us against turning the grace of of God into an occasion or cause of licentious living (Jude 4); it insists that faith does not nullify God's law (Romans 3:31). One has to be deceived, Paul says, to think that the unrighteous could possibly inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. 6:9-10). Those who demote even the slightest requirement of God's law will themselves be demoted in the Lord's kingdom (Matthew 5:19). The answer to legalism is not easy believism, evangelism without the need for repentance, the pursuit of a mystical second blessing in the Spirit, or a Christian life devoid of righteous instruction and guidance. Legalism is countered by the Biblical understanding of true "life in the Spirit"; therein God's Spirit is the gracious author of new life, who convicts us of our sin and misery over against the violated law of God, who unites us to Christ in salvation that we might share His holy life, who enables us to understand the guidance given by God's word, and who makes us to grow by God's grace into people who better obey the Lord's commands. The precise reason that Paul asserts that we are under grace and not the condemnation or curse of the law is to explain how it is that sin does not have dominion over us — to explain, that is, why we have become slaves to obedience and now have lives characterized by conformity to God's law (Romans 6:13-18). It is God's grace that makes us Spiritual men who honor the commandments of our Lord. The answer to legalism is not to portray the law of God as contrary to His promise (Galatians 3:21) but to realize that, just as the Christian life began by the Spirit, it must be nurtured and perfected in the power of the Spirit as well (Galatians 3:3). The dynamic for righteous living is found, not in the believer's own moral strength, but in the enabling might of the Spirit of God. We are naturally the slaves of sin who live under its power (Romans 6:16-20; 7:23); indeed, Paul declares that we are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1). However, if we are united to Christ in virtue of His death and resurrection we have become dead to sin (Romans 6:3-4) and thus no longer live in it (v.2). Just as Christ was raised to newness of life by the Spirit (I Timothy 3:16; I Peter 3:18; Romans 1:4; 6:4, 9), so also we who have His resurrection power indwelling us by the life-giving Spirit (Ephesians 1:19-20; Philippians 3:10; Romans 8:11) have the power to live new lives which are freed from sin (Romans 6:4-11). The result of the Spirit freeing us from sin is sanctification (v. 22). The gracious power of the new and righteous life of the Christian is the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. Here is the antidote to legalism. We must observe in this regard that the Holy Spirit does not replace the law of God in the Christian's life, nor does He oppose the law of God in our behavior. The gracious Spirit who empowers our sanctification does not speak for Himself, giving a new pattern for Christian behavior (John 16:13). Rather He witnesses to the word of the Son (John 14: 23-26: 15:26; 16:14). The Spirit is not an independent source of direction or guidance in the Christian life, for His ministry is carried out in conjunction with the already given word of God (cf. I Cor. 2:12-16). In terms of our sanctification this means that the Spirit enables us to understand and obey the objective standard of God's revealed law. It does not mean that Christians who are indwelt by the Spirit become a law unto themselves, spinning out from within themselves the standards by which they live. What the Spirit does is to supply what was lacking in the law itself — the power to enforce compliance. "What the law could not do, weak as it was through t he flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:3-4). God's law is still the blueprint for sanctified behavior — this is completely unaffected by the Spirit's ethical ministry in the believer. The Holy Spirit does not oppose that law in the slightest degree but, instead, empowers obedience to it. "I will put My Spirit within.you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances" (Ezekiel 36:27). Whereas the letter of the law brought death to man because he was unable of himself to comply with it, the Spirit of God enlivens men so that they can conform to God's standards (2 Cor. 3:6). Therefore the sure test of whether someone has the Spirit abiding in him or not is found in asking if he keeps the commandments of God (I John 3:24). A Biblical view of the work of the Holy Spirit reinforces the validity of God's law for the Christian, showing how the law (as pattern) and the Spirit (as power) are both indispensable to sanctification. (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics. Craig Press, 1977, esp. chap. 7. The book may be ordered from me for $10.50 at 1219 Pineview Drive, Clinton, MS 39056; include check and address.) Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 3 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 March, 1979 The Gracious Ethic of Faith and Love By Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. Those who are genuine believers in Christ know very well that their salvation cannot be grounded in their own works of the law: "not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy He saved us, . . . that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:5-7). The believer's justification before God is grounded instead in the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:11; Rom. 5:19); it is His imputed righteousness that makes us right before the judgment seat of God (2 Cor. 5:21). "A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" (Rom. 3:28). Consequently, a truth that is dear to the heart of every Christian is the summary provided by Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9, "by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God — not of works, lest any man should boast." Salvation is grounded in the grace of God, and the instrumental means by which we gain it is saving faith. The law does not save us but rather strikes us dead (Rom. 7:9; 2 Cor. 3:6-7). It is true, therefore, that the Christian life and ethic should be characterized by the grace of God and saving faith; the believer's behavior should be a reflection of his faith in the mercy of God. The Christian ethic ought not to stand in opposition to salvation by grace through faith. As Paul said, "by the grace of God we have had our behavior in the world" (2 Cot. 1:12), and the Christian life can be designated "the good fight of faith" (I Tim. 6:12). However this does not mean that the Christian life is one of antagonism to the law of God, as many people seem to infer. It is too often thought that, since the law condemns us and cannot save us, grace and faith release us from any obligation to God's law. A gracious ethic of faith, we are told, cannot tolerate rules, regulations, or commands from God that would be "legalism," it is said. But such thinking and reasoning is not biblical. Such antinomian implications must be corrected by God's word. God's law defines my sin and thereby my need for the Savior. Christ has saved me from the guilt and power of sin just because the law of God is so important; it displays the kind of life required by God, and the consequences of disobedience to it cannot be ignored. In being saved from the wrath of God upon law-breakers, I will naturally desire now to keep the formerly transgressed standard of God's law. In that light we can observe that Scripture portrays law and grace as correlative to each other. God's grace operates within the parameters of His law — in justifying His people God does not violate His own justice (Rom. 3:26). And God's law is gracious (Ps. 119:29). The two support each other: the law promotes the fulfillment of God's promise (Rom. 5:20-21), and God's grace works to fulfill the law (Rom. 8:3-4). When Paul says that we are saved by grace through faith, he immediately adds that as God's workmanship we are expected to walk in good works (Eph. 2:10). Although it is popular today to look upon the law as an intolerable burden for modern man, the beloved apostle wrote that for the believer God's law is not burdensome (I John 5:3). When the Psalmist reflected upon the loving kindness of the Lord, he longed to be taught His statutes and rose at midnight to render thanks for His righteous ordinances (Ps. 119:62-64). Moses viewed the giving of God's law as a sure sign of His love for the people (Deut. 33:2-4). All of God's people, throughout both testaments, have a heart which longs to obey the commandments of the Lord, for the law is established against the background of God's mercy toward His people (e.g., Ex. 20:2). The first-hand experience of God's redemption is a strong motive for keeping the law (Deut. 7:10-11). The grace of God, that is, brings men to exclaim: "I long for thy salvation, O Lord, and Thy law is my delight" (Ps. 119:174). Paul, for exam. pie, wrote "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Rom. 7:22). God's law, you see, had been graciously written upon his heart (Heb. 10:16). In Romans 6 Paul discusses the implications of being under God's grace. He begins by asking whether we should continue in sin (law-breaking) so that grace might abound; his answer is a dramatic "God forbid!" (vv. 1-2). Those who have had their old man crucified with Christ, those who are united with Christ in His death and resurrection, those who have risen with Him must walk in newness of life, no longer in bondage to sinful living (vv. 3-11). So Paul exhorts us, "Let not sin reign in your mortal body so that you should obey its lusts; neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness." Those who are saved by grace from the power of sin should be finished with violating God's law. Instead they must, as alive from the dead, present their members as instruments of righteousness (vv.12-13). Now why is this? How can it be that we are obliged to obey the righteous requirements of God's law if we are saved by grace? Paul answers: "Because sin shall not have dominion over you: you are not under law, but under grace" (v. 14). Ironically, although many groups have used this declaration out of context to support release from the law's demand, the verse is one of the strongest biblical proofs that believers must strive to obey the law of God! Because we are no longer under the curse of the law and shut in to its inherent impotence in enabling obedience — because we are under God's enabling grace, not under law — we cannot allow violations o f the law (i.e., sin: I John 3:4) to dominate our lives. It is in order that the righteous ordinance of the law be fulfilled in us that God has graciously put His Spirit within our hearts (Rom. 8:4). "So then, shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? God forbid!" (Rom. 6:15). "The grace of God has appeared unto all men, bringing salvation, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age," for Christ has "redeemed us from every lawless deed" (Titus 1:11-14). God's grace upholds His law. It is to be expected, therefore, that Paul would ask the following question and supply the obvious answer: "Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary we establish the law" (Rom. 3:31). Faith which does not bring obedient works -. that is, faith which is divorced from God's law is in fact insincere and, dead (James 2:14 26). This kind of faith cannot justify a man at all. The Westminster Confession of Faith is true to Scripture when it teaches that "good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith" (XVI.2). By saving faith, the Confession says, a man will yield obedience to the commands of Scripture (XIV.2) . Genuine saving faith always is accompanied by heart-felt repentance from sin and turning unto God, "purposing and endeavoring to walk with Him in all the ways of His commandments" (XV.2). We conclude, then, that the Christian's life of grace and faith is not one which is indifferent or antagonistic to the law of God. God's grace and saving faith establish the validity of the law. The same can be said for the basic Christian ethic of love. Because God has shown His love toward us, we are now to live in love to Him and our neighbor (Eph. 5:1-2; I John 4:7-12, 16-21). On these two love commandments -toward God and toward our neighbor (as taught m the Old Testament, Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18) — hang all the law and the prophets, said Jesus (Matt. 22:37-40). Indeed, "love is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom. 13:10). But in the thinking of Jesus and the apostles does this mean that Christians can dispense with the law of God or repudiate .its details? Not at all. Moses had taught that loving God meant keeping His commandments (Deut. 30:16), and as usual Jesus did not depart from Moses: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). The love which summarizes and epitomizes Christian ethics is not a vague generality or feeling that tolerates, for instance, everything from adultery to chastity. John wrote: "Hereby we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments" (I John 5:2-3). Love summarizes the law of God, but it does not abrogate or replace it. As John Murray once wrote, "the summary does not obliterate or abrogate the expansion of which it is a summary" (Principles of Conduct, p. 192) . God's commandments give the specific character and direction to love as exercised by the believer. Rather than being a law unto itself (autonomous), love is a reflection of the character of God (I John 4:8) and must therefore coincide with the dictates of God's law, for they are the transcript of God's moral perfection on a creaturely level. God has loved us in that He saved us by grace through faith. Accordingly the Christian life ought to reflect the principles of grace, faith, and love; without them it is vain and insignificant. However, far from eliminating the law of God, a gracious ethic of faith and love establish the permanent validity of - - and our need for — the Lord's commandments. (For further reading along these lines, see Theonomy in Christian Ethics. Craig Press, 1977, esp. chapter 11. It may be ordered from me for $10.50 at 1219 Pineview Dr., Clinton, MS 39056; include check and address.) Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 4 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 April 1979 The Morality With Blessed Consequences by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. We have said earlier that all of life is ethical: people are constantly making moral decisions, forming attitudes, and setting goals. We have also noted that there are many competing views of ethics. Let us delineate three basic approaches to ethical decision-making and ethical evaluating of ourselves, our actions, and our attitudes. First, some people weigh all moral issues and make their choices according to a norm or standard of good and evil. Second, others will determine how actions and attitudes are to be morally graded on the basis of one's character — his traits, intentions, or motives. Third, there will be others who see the consequences which follow from a person's behavior as counting the most in ethical planning and evaluating; if the results which come from some action (or the anticipated results) are beneficial (or more beneficial than alternatives), then the action is deemed morally good and acceptable. In summary we can call these the normative, motivational, and consequential approaches to ethics. (Sometimes the technical designations are rendered as the deontological, existential, and teleological approaches to ethics.) Not only did we earlier observe that all of life is ethical, and that there are many perspectives on ethics from which to choose, we also commented that the Bible has a focus on ethics from beginning to end. Interestingly enough, the Bible's permeation with ethical concerns is expressed along the lines of all three of the ethical perspectives we have just outlined. That is, the Bible looks to the standard which we are to follow, encourages a certain kind of character and motivation in us, and sets before us goals or consequences we should pursue. The normative and motivational perspectives have been somewhat explored already. We have seen that God has lovingly and graciously set down in His inspired word a code of moral behavior for His creature to follow; the commandments or law of God constitute the norm of ethics for all men, whether they accept it or not. God's law is found throughout the Bible and is fully valid as a standard of morality today. This is a uniform standard, binding all men in all ages, for it reflects the unchanging holiness of God. It was this law which Christ perfectly obeyed as our Savior, thereby leaving us an example to follow, and it is this law which the Holy Spirit fulfills in us by sanctifying us daily. Thus the Bible gives us the law of God as our normative approach to morality; when God the Lawgiver speaks, His voice is one of authority and must be obeyed. His standard is absolute — unqualified, all-embracing, and beyond challenge. We have also seen the kind of character which God requires in those who meet His favor. The moral man is one characterized by a holiness which reflects the nature of God — as expressed in His revealed law. The follower of Christ will attempt to emulate the Savior's virtues — as corresponding to God's law. The genuinely Spiritual man will follow the leading of God's Spirit — thereby walking in the paths of God's commandments. What we see, then, is that the motivational approach to ethics is not to be divorced from, or set in contrast to, the normative approach to ethics. Christians will want the grace of God that saved them to be manifest in their actions and attitudes; they will want to live out every moment of life in a faithful and loving way so as to be a witness to what God's faithful love has done for them. And again, when we look at Scripture to find the implications of a gracious lifestyle which is characterized by faith and love, we learn that God's law shows us our way. The motivational and normative approaches to ethics, therefore, go hand in hand in the word of God. Let us now turn to the consequential approach to ethics according to the Bible. Consequences are important when we evaluate our past actions or contemplate future decisions. Paul communicates this well in saying that we would have to be deceived to think God could be mocked. Evil living will not bring about happiness and blessing, for then the justice and holiness of our God would be a mockery. Rather, says Paul, "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7). Those who live according to their rebellious nature will suffer corruption, while those who live by God's Spirit will gain eternal life (v. 8). And on that basis Paul exhorts believers, "let us not be weary in well-doing." Why? Because "in due season we will reap, if we faint not" (v. 9). It is noteworthy here that Paul focuses on the benefits which will accrue to us if we engage in well-doing. It is not — contrary to modern-day versions of Christian asceticism — somehow ignoble or sub-ethical for a Christian to be motivated by the thought of reward for righteous living. God often sets before us the prospect of divinely granted benefits as an incentive for moral living. For instance, Jesus said "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things (daily provisions of life) shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33). Paul taught that "Godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come" (I Tim. 4:8). The Old Testament prophet Malachi exhorted God's people that if they would obey Him (here, by bringing in their tithes), God would open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing for which there would not be enough room to take in (Mal. 3:10). Even earlier, the great leader of the Israelites, Moses, had written that obedience to the Lord would result in blessings on the society's children, crops, rain, herds, cities, and fields; it would bring peace to the people from without and prosperous economy and health from within (Deut. 7:1215; 11:13-15; 28: 1-14; 30: 15, 19; Lev. 26: 3-12). in ethical decision-making, then, we should properly consider the end, aim, or consequences of our behavior. Doing the right thing or having a proper attitude will result in benefits. But benefits for whom? Should our aim be to benefit ourselves, the other person, or the society as a whole? The Bible indicates that each of these is a subordinate, but vital, interest we should have. For example, when Christ commands, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt. 22: 39), He tells us to seek the benefit of the other just as we seek our own benefit. Hence Paul tells husbands to love their wives (the other) as their own bodies (the self) precisely because nobody hates himself (Eph. 5:28-29). Egoism (note: not egotism) and altruism both have a place in Christian ethics. So does a concern for the wider collection of people in one's society. Thus the Bible often exhorts the interest of the one to be relinquished for the benefit of the many (e.g., 2 Cor. 8:9; Phil. 1:24). However, all of these interests are subordinate to the one supreme goal for all of our actions: the kingdom of God. Within that kingdom the varying interests of one's self, the other, and the many are all harmonized. Our Lord plainly declared that we were to "Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness." The Kingdom of Christ is to have top priority when we contemplate the consequences of our actions, for Christ has pre-eminence over all (Col. 1:18). It will be for our good, our neighbor's good, and our society's good if all of our actions and attitudes are governed by an interest in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. So then, how do we pursue that kingdom? How do we gain the benefits which God promises to those who will live according to His righteousness? Obviously, by obeying the King and manifesting His righteousness in our lives. God's word shows us how to do just that by setting down the law of the Lord for us. The law, that is, is a pathway to divine benefits — not an ugly, dour, painful course for believers. It is not only a demand, it is something to desire! As John said, "His commandments are not burdensome" (I John 5:3). They are the delight of the righteous man who receives God's blessing (Ps. 1). !f we wish to have a morality which promises blessed consequences, then our morality must be patterned after the law of God. Consider what God's word says about following the commandments of God. It brings to us life and well-being (Deut. 30: 15-16), blessing and a strong heart that does not fear (Ps. 119:1-2; 112: 5-7). Obedience produces peace and security (Ps. 119:28, 165, 175; Prov. 13:6; Luke 6:4648). The Lord's lovingkindness is upon those who obey His precepts (Ps. 103: 17-18), and they walk in liberty (Ps. 119:45; Jas. 2:25). As indicated a!ready above, keeping God's word results in prosperity with respect to all of our daily needs and interests (cf. Joshua 1:7) . Moreover, collective obedience will bring blessing upon a society as well. "Righteousness exalts a nation" (Prov. 14:34), giving it health, food, financial well-being, peace, and joyous children. In short, we see that a consequential approach to ethics cannot be functional without the normative approach as well; the two work together because the way of blessing is diligent obedience to the law of God. Seeking first the righteousness of Christ's kingdom requires heartfelt obedience to the dictates of the King, and in response to that He grants us every blessing for this life and the next. We see again, then, why the validity or authority of God's law cannot be dismissed today. Without that law we would be lost when it comes to pursuing the benefit of ourselves, others, and our society in all of our moral actions and attitudes. As God clearly says, He has revealed His law to us for our good (Deut. 10:13). Opponents of God's law, therefore, cannot have our good genuinely in mind; they wittingly and unwittingly mislead us into personal and social frustration, distress, and judgment (Prov. 14:12). (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics. Craig Press, 1977, esp. chapter 24. The book may be ordered from me for $10.50 at 1219 Pineview Dr., Clinton, MS 39056; include check and address. ) Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 5 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 May, 1979 New Testament Endorsement For The Old Testament Law by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. In previous studies we have traced numerous lines of biblical thought which teach and require the validity of God's commandments — all of them throughout Old and New Testaments — and their continuing authority in our lives. Because we live in an age which is so antagonistic to God-given directives, and because such vast portions of the current church is likewise disinclined toward God's revealed stipulations, it is crucial that we pay close attention to the precise teaching of God's inspired, unerring, and authoritative word. Biblical ethics is not opposed to the law of God; rather, that law is essential to Christian morality. The wise men will establish his moral perspective on the rock-foundation words of Christ in Scripture. Therein we are instructed that God is unchanging in His standards for righteousness, not altering them from age to age or from person to person. Since God's law defined righteousness in the Old Testament, it continues to define righteousness for us today. God has no double-standard. Whether the Christian strives to imitate the holiness of God, to model his behavior after the life of Christ, or to be led by the Spirit, he will invariably be directed by Scripture to heed the law of God; the law is a transcript of God's unchanging holiness, the standard of righteousness followed by the Savior, and the pattern of sanctification empowered by the Spirit. The continuing authority of God's law today, then, is inherent to a biblically based theology. Time does not change or wear out the validity of God's commands, and a change of geography or locality does not render them ethically irrelevant. With the coming of the New Covenant and the spreading the church throughout the world we still read in Scripture that the law of God is to be written on our hearts, and we are to disciple all nations and teach them to observe whatsoever the Lord has commanded. The Biblical doctrines of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Covenant of Grace all harmonize in pointing to the abiding validity of God's inspired law. If one takes a normative approach to ethics, a motivational approach to ethics, or a consequential approach to ethics, he is always brought to the same conclusion: God's law is authoritative for contemporary ethics. The norm which God has given to direct our lives and to define our sin is revealed in His law, a law from which we are to subtract nothing; since the Lawgiver has not altered His law — indeed, the Son of God has confirmed that law for His followers — it must remain valid for us today. If we turn to the motivational approach to ethics, our concern will be to live in a way appropriate to our gracious salvation; we will want to be the kind of people who are characterized by faith and love. Scripture shows us that those who are grateful for God's grace will strive to live in obedience to His commandments; rather than canceling the commandments of God in ethics, faith establishes the law, and love is a summary of the law's requirements. So then, a motivational approach to ethics — like the normative approach — declares the current validity of God's law. Finally, the consequential approach to ethics evaluates actions and attitudes according to their beneficial results or comparative lack thereof. Christ teaches us in His word that the primary goal of our moral behavior is the kingdom of God; when we make it that, every temporal and eternal blessing will be ours. The righteousness of this kingdom is defined by the law of the King, and thus Scripture promises that obedience to the law of God will eventuate in outstanding blessings for our selves, our neighbors, and our society. In short, the law of God was revealed for our good. Therefore, the validity of God's law has been substantiated in previous studies by the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith and by all of the major perspectives on ethics. The present authority of the Lord's commandments is inescapable of any honest reading of God's word. Moreover the validity of God's law extends to all of His righteous commandments. None can be subtracted from the stipulations which bind us without His authority; and such subtraction has no biblical warrant. Both Old and New Testaments teach God's people to live by every word from God's mouth, for God does not alter the words of His covenant. Every one of His ordinances, we are taught is everlasting. Accordingly Christ emphatically taught that His advent did not in the least abrogate one jot or tittle of the Old Testament law; according to His teaching, even the minor specifics of the law were to be observed — as a measure of our standing in the kingdom of God. Paul maintained that every Old Testament scripture has moral authority for the New Testament believer, and James pointed out that not one point of the law was to be violated. Reflecting the unchanging righteousness of God, every commandment has abiding validity for us. To subtract even the least commandment is to transgress God's explicit prohibition and to be least in the kingdom of God. Hence the morality of the Old Testament is identical with that of the New. There are many ways in which the New Testament undergirds the summary statements which have been rehearsed above. Attention to the teaching of the New Testament will disclose the emphatic endorsement it gives to the Old Testament law of God. For instance, the New Testament is concerned that men who are guilty of sin be redeemed by Christ and learn to live without sinning by the power of the Holy Spirit; because sin is defined as transgression of God's law (I John 3:4; Rom. 7:7), the thrust of the New Testament message presupposes the validity of God's law for today. Then again, throughout the New Testament the believer's perpetual moral duty is that of love, and yet love is defined by the New Testament in terms of God's law (Matt. 22:40; Rom. 13:10; I John 5:2-3). Consequently the New Testament message and morality are squarely founded on the validity of God's law. Without that foundation, the gospel would be expendable, and the Christian walk would be aimless and self-serving. We can briefly summarize a number of other ways in which the New Testament indirectly but forcibly indicates the authority of all of God's laws for this age. Oftentimes the people who are introduced in the New Testament as blessed or favored by God are characterized as obedient to God's law in particular — for instance, Elisabeth, Zacharias, Joseph, and Mary (Luke 1:6; 2:21-24, 27, 39). During his ministry on earth Christ often appealed to the law of God to bolster his teaching (John 8:17), vindicate his behavior (Matt. 12:5), answer his questioners (Luke 10:26), indict his opponents (John 7:19), and give concrete identity to the will of God for men (Matt. 19:17). He taught his disciples to pray that God's will would be done on earth (Matt. 6:10), and after his resurrection He directed them to teach all nations to observe whatsoever He had commanded (Matt. 28:18-20). In all of these ways without elaborate introductions or explanations for departing from a general principle or perspective — the New Testament simply assumes the standing authority of every command of the Lord found in the Old Testament. If the Old Testament law were invalidated by the advent or work of Christ, the preceding examples would be incredibly out of character and call for some convincing explanation. Yet none was needed. Jesus affirmed with solemn authority that not even the least commandment of the entire Old Testament was to be taught as without binding validity today (Matt. 5:19), for according to his perspective "Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35). Accordingly Christ reaffirmed elements of the decalogue, for example "Thou shalt not kill" (Matt. 19:18). He also cited as morally obligatory, aspects of the Old Testament case law: for instance, "Thou shalt not defraud" (Mark 10:19), and "Thou shalt not test the Lord thy God" (Matt. 4:7). He even cited with approval the penal code of the Old Testament with respect to incorrigible delinquents (Matt. 15:4). He expected the weightier matters of the law to be observed without leaving the minor details undone (Luke 11:42). He was concerned that His own behavior be correctly seen as in accord with God's law (Mark 2:25-28), and He directed others to live by the law's regulations (Mark 1:44; 10:1719). None of this could make sense except on the obvious assumption that all of the Old Testament law continues to be an authoritative standard of morality in the New Testament era. Because that law is indeed our standard of ethics, Christ the Lord will one day judge all men who commit lawless deeds (Matt. 7:23; 13:41). The apostolic attitude toward the law of the Old Testament parallels that of Christ. The keeping of the law is greatly significant (I Cot. 7:19), for the believer is not without the law of God (I Cor. 9:20-21). Law-breaking is not to have dominion over the believer (Rom. 6:1213; I John 3:3-5), for the Holy Spirit fulfills the ordinance of the law within him (Rom. 8:4). The law is written on the New Covenant believer's heart (Heb. 8:10), so that those who loyally follow Christ are designated by John as those "who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus" (Rev. 12:17; 14:12). The apostles often supported their teaching by appealing to the law (e.g., I Cor. 14:34; Jas. 2:9) — its general precepts found in the decalogue (e.g., "Thou shalt not steal," Rom. 13:9), the case law applications of those details (e.g., "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treads," I Tim. 5:18), the penal code (e.g., "If I am an evildoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die," Acts 25:11; cf. Deut. 21:22; Rom. 13:4), and even "holiness" requirements in the ceremonial law (e.g., 2 Cor. 6:14-18). We must conclude that anyone whose attitude toward the Old Testament law is informed by the teaching and practice of the New Testament must maintain the law's full and continuing validity today. Those who, in the name of a distinctive "New Testament ethic," downgrade or ignore the Old Testament law are sternly warned by the Apostle John: "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (I John 2:4). In genuinely Biblical ethics the Old Testament will not be pitted against the New at any point. (For further reading along these lines, see Theonomy in Christian Ethics, esp. chapter 12. The book may be ordered from me for $10.50 at 1219 Pineview Dr., Clinton, MS 39056; enclose check and address.) Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 6 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 June, 1979 The Categories and Continuity of God's Law by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. The law of the Lord is fully and forever valid; as such it holds moral authority over all men today, just as it did previously during the Old Testament era. This biblical truth has been substantiated in numerous ways in past studies — from cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, direct assertions of God's word, and all three of the major perspectives on ethics. Christ spoke clearly and forcefully on the subject when He said, "Do not think that I have come to abrogate the law or the prophets; I have come not to abrogate, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, until heaven and earth pass away, until all things have come about, not one letter or stroke shall by any means pass away from the law. Therefore, whoever breaks the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be, called least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:17-19). Those who oppose keeping the law or paying attention to its details today have a great deal to explain and :defend in light of the teaching of. God's word - for instance the strong affirmation of the Lord quoted above. If the validity of the law (or a portion thereof) has expired in the New Testament, as some claim, then what are we to make of scriptural assertions that God does not alter His covenant word, does not allow subtraction from His commandments, is unchanging in His moral character (which the law reflects), and does not have a double-standard of right and wrong? Why then is the writing of the Old Testament law on our hearts central to the New Covenant? Why does the Bible say His commandments are everlasting? Why do New Testament writers say that the entire Old Testament is our instruction in righteousness and to be obeyed? Why do they cite its stipulations with authority and use them to bolster their own teaching? Why are we expected to model our behavior on Christ's, while we are told that He obeyed the law meticulously and perfectly? Why does the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit entail the observance of God's law? Why does love summarize the law in particular? Why does faith establish the law for us to keep, and why does God's grace teach us to walk in the law's path of righteousness? Why are we told in numerous ways that the law brings blessing to those who heed it? Why are the law's requirements never criticized or explicitly repudiated in the New Testament? Why are those who do not keep the law but claim to know the Savior called liars? God's inspired word says all of these things and more. What reply can the detractors from God's law today make in the face of such insurmountable evidence of the law's full validity? The reply that is commonly, albeit fallaciously, made is that we find details in the Old Testament law which are somehow too strange or harsh to obey today, or we find particular requirements in the law which we in fact do not and should not observe in our day. Of course, such replies as these do not face the issues raised above. Surely God was completely aware of the law's details when He revealed those truths in His word which, as observed above, contradict the relaxing, ignoring, or disobeying of His law. If Scripture does not make an exception for us, we do not have the moral prerogative to make exceptions for ourselves when it comes to the law's authority over us. No extrabiblical standard, reason, or feeling can be legitimately used to depart from the law of God, for God's word has supreme and unchallengable authority. If the Lord says that His commands are to be kept, no creature may draw His word into question. So then, the attempt to belittle obedience to God's law today by pointing to allegedly odd or harsh requirements in that law is doomed to theological failure. It also borders on disrespect for the Lawgiver whose holiness is transcribed for the creature in God's law. "O man, who are you who replies against God?" (Rom. 9:20) . It is never our place to become judges of the law, for our calling to be doers of the law (Jas. 4:11). Nevertheless, there do seem to be Old Testament requirements which are not kept by New Testament Christians, and there are some legal provisions which seem culturally outdated or at least inapplicable to our modern world. How are we to accommodate that fact — without becoming judges of the law and without disregarding Christ's declaration that every minor detail of the law has enduring validity? The answer lies in recognizing the nature of the various Old Testament laws, seeing the kind of categories into which they fell. That is, it is necessary to understand the laws of God according to their own character, purpose, arid function. Only in that way will the law be "lawfully used" (cf. I Tim. 1:8). The most fundamental distinction to be drawn between Old Testament laws is between morel laws and ceremonial laws. (Two divisions within each category will be mentioned subsequently.) This is not an arbitrary or ad hoc division, for it manifests an underlying rationale or principle. Moral laws reflect the absolute righteousness and judgment of God, guiding man's life into the paths of righteousness; such laws define holiness and sin, restrain evil through punishment of infractions, and drive the sinner to Christ for salvation. On the other hand, ceremonial laws — or redemptive provisions — reflect the mercy of God in saving-those who have violated His moral standards; such laws define the way of redemption, typify Christ's saving economy, and maintain the holiness (or "separation") of the redeemed community. To illustrate the difference between these two kinds of law, the Old Tenement prohibited stealing as a moral precept, but it also make provision of the sacrificial system so that thieves could have their sins forgiven. When Christ came He obeyed perfectly every moral precept of God's law, thereby qualifying as our sinless Savior; in order to save us, He laid down His life as a sacrificial lamb in atonement for our transgressions, and thereby giving fulfillment to the Old Testament foreshadows of redemption. While the moral law sets forth the perpetual obligation of all men if they are to be perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect, the ceremonial law is "the gospel in figures," proclaiming God's way of redemption for imperfect sinners. The ceremonial law can be seem to have sub-divisions: (1) laws directing the redemptive process and therefore typifying Christ — for instance, regulations for sacrifice, the temple, the priesthood, etc., and (2) laws which taught the redemptive community its separation from the unbelieving nations — for instance, prohibitions on unclean meats (Lay. 20:22-26), on unequal yoking of animals (Deut. 22:10), and on certain kinds of mixing of seed or cloth (Deut. 22:9, 11). None of these laws are observed today in the manner of the Old testament shadows, and yet they are confirmed for us. The principle they taught is still valid. For instance, the ceremonial law prescribed the necessity of shed blood for atonement (Lev. 17:11), and accordingly when Christ made atonement for our sans once for all, "it was therefore necessary" that He shed His blood for us (Heb. 9:22-24); the Old Testament redemptive system called for a passover lamb to be sacrificed, and Christ is that for us (I Cor. 5:7; I Peter 1:19). The ceremonial law separated Israel from the nations by requiring a separation to be drawn between clean and unclean meats and by prohibiting the unequal yoking of animals; in the New Testament the outward form of such laws has been surpassed — the spreading of the redeemed community to the Gentiles renders all meats clean (Acts 10), and the sacrifice of Christ has put the system of ordinances which separated the Jews and Gentiles out of gear (Eph. 2:11-20) — but their basic requirement of holy separation from the unclean world of unbelief is still confirmed and in force (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1). The ceremonial law is therefore confirmed forever by Christ, even though not kept in its shadow-form by New Testament believers. The moral law of God can likewise be seen in two subdivisions, .the divisions having simply a literary difference: (1) general or summary precepts of morality — for instance, the unspecified requirements of sexual purity and honesty, "thou shalt not commit adultery" and "thou shalt not steal," and (2) commands which specify the general precepts by way of illustrative application — for instance, prohibiting incest, homosexuality, defrauding one's workers, or muzzling the ox as he treads. The Puritans termed these case-law applications of the decalogue "judicial laws," and they correctly held that we are not bound today to keep these judicial laws as they are worded (being couched in the language of an ancient culture that has passed away) but only required to heed their underlying principles (or "general equity," as they called it). The Old Testament required that a railing be placed around one's roof as a safety precaution, since guests were entertained on the flat roofs of houses in that ancient society; with our slopped roofs today we do not need to have the same literal railing, but the general underlying principle might very well require us to have the fence around our backyard swimming pool — again, to project human life. There is abundant evidence that the New Testament authoritatively cited and applied these case-law illustrations to current situations. To use examples mentioned above, the New Testament echos the Old Testament law in prohibiting incest (I Cor. 5:1), homosexuality (Rom. 1:26-27, 32), defrauding employees (Mark 10:19), and muzzling the ox as he treads (I Tim. 5:18). Many more examples or ethical injunctions outside of the Decalogue being enforced in the New Testament are available. Therefore, we conclude that Jesus has forever confirmed the moral laws of God, their summary expressions as well as their case-law applications. By recognizing the various categories of God's Old Testament law we can readily understand the continuing validity of every stroke of God's commandments for today. It is simply a matter of properly reading the law itself. (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics, Craig Press, 1977, esp. chapter 9. The book may be ordered from me for $10.50 at 1219 Pineview Dr., Clinton, MS 39056; include check and address.) Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 7 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 July, 1979 God's Law In New Testament Ethical Themes (Part I) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. The New Testament utilizes a large number of expressions and concepts in communicating moral instruction to God's people — so large that one short study cannot mention them all. The variety of themes found in New Testament ethics helps to drive home to our hearts God's message and demand. It covers our moral obligation from many perspectives, offers us numerous models and motivations for a proper manner of life, and facilitates the production and maintenance of ethical maturity in us. Yet the large variety of New Testament ethical themes does not imply a correspondingly large diversity of ethical systems or conflicting expectations. God is consistent and changes not (Mal. 3:6); with Him there is no variableness or turning (Jas. 1:17). His word does not equivocate, saying "yes" from one perspective but "no" from another (2 Cor. 1:18; cf. Matt. 5:37). Therefore His standards of conduct do not contradict each other, approving and disapproving of the same things depending upon which theme in New Testament ethics we are considering. The Lord prohibits us from following conflicting authorities (Matt. 6:24) and requires our behavior in the world to reflect "godly sincerity" — that is, unmixed attitude and singleness of mind or judgment (2 Cor. 1:12). New Testament ethical instruction thus shows a diversity of expression but a unity of expectation. This is simply to say that all of the various moral themes in the New Testament are harmonious with each other. As we survey a few of these New Testament themes, it will be significant to note how they consistently assume or explicitly propagate the standard of God's Old Testament law — which, given the unchanging character of God and the consistency of His ethical standards, is not at all surprising. God's law is woven throughout the ethical themes of the New Testament. Kingdom Righteousness The central demand of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is that of a righteousness befitting the kingdom of God. Righteousness and God's kingdom are intimately related: persecution for the sake of righteousness is rewarded in the kingdom (Matt. 5:10), and the Lord requires a righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees in order to enter the kingdom at all (Matt. 5:20). Just as Moses delivered a divine pronouncement from the Mount, asserting God's standard of righteousness, so also Jesus speaks from the mount with God's requirement of righteousness, confirming every detail of even the least commandment in the Old Testament (Matt. 5:19). He proclaimed, "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness!" (Matt. 6:33). How is such kingdom righteousness to be accomplished? Jesus explained in the Lord's prayer: when we ask "Thy kingdom come," we are praying "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10). The doing of God's will, which Jesus found in the Old Testament law, is crucial to the New Testament theme of kingdom righteousness. God is portrayed in the New Testament as a God of righteousness (John 17:25), and the fruit that He brings forth in people is that of righteousness (Eph. 5:9) . "If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been begotten of Him" (I John 2:29), and "whosoever does not practice righteousness is not of God" (I John 3:10). As Paul says, we are not to be deceived: "the unrighteousness shall not inherit the kingdom of God," and as examples of the unrighteous he lists violators of God's law (I Cor. 6:9-10). Kingdom righteousness, then, is demanded of all believers. "Follow after righteousness" can serve for Paul as a short summary of Timothy's moral duty (I Tim. 6:11 ). But where is the character of this kingdom righteousness to be found for New Testament writers? What does righteousness entail in behavior and attitude? Paul tells Timothy that an all-sufficient "instruction in righteousness" is found in every scripture of the Old Testament (2 Tim. 3:16-17), thereby encompassing the law of God found therein. In fact, speaking of the Old Testament law, Paul categorically declares that "the commandment is ... righteous" (Rom. 7:12). Kingdom righteousness, therefore, cannot be understood as contrary to the righteous commandments of the King. In Paul's perspective it is "the doers of the law" who shall be accounted righteous (Rom. 2:13). Righteousness in the New Testament is portrayed as having absolutely no fellowship with lawlessness (the Greek word for "iniquity," 2 Cor. 6:14). To love righteousness is precisely to hate all lawlessness (Heb. 1:9). God's law cannot be discarded or despised by those who would practice the righteousness of God's kingdom according to the New Testament understanding of ethics. That entails, as we have seen, every last commandment in every scripture of the Old Testament — "uprightness" allows no deviation from perfect conformity to God's rule (cf. Deut. 6:25). The Way of Righteousness In his second epistle Peter describes New Testament Christianity as "the way of righteousness" (2:21). "The Way" was an early designation for the Christian faith (e.g., Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:22), probably stemming from Christ's own self-declaration that He was "the way" (John 14:6). The expression is adapted throughout the New Testament, where we read of "the way of salvation" (Acts 16:17), "the way of God" (Matt. 22:16; Acts 18:26), "the way of the Lord" (Acts 18:25), "the right ways of the Lord" (Acts 13:10), "the way of peace" (Luke 1:79; Rom. 3:17), "the way of truth" (2 Peter 2:2), and "the right way" (2 Peter 2:15). However the distinctive terminology of 2 Peter 2:21 is "the way of righteousness," and Peter treats the phrase "the holy commandment" as interchangeable with it in this verse. Professing Christians who know the way of righteousness and then turn back from the holy commandment are apostates. Michael Green says in his commentary here that it is "a fair inference from the text that the first stage in their apostasy was the rejection of the category of law .... Rejection of God's law is the first step to the rejection of God, for God is a moral being" (Tyndale N.T. Comm., P. 120). The "way of righteousness" describes the true kingdom of God in the New Testament. Thus New Testament Christianity cannot be set over against the law of God, opposing its standard, for such opposition would amount to turning away from the holy commandment delivered by our Lord and Savior (cf. 2 Peter 3:2). Christ himself spoke of "the way of righteousness" in connection with the ministry and message of John the Baptist: "John came unto you in the way of righteousness" (Matt. 21:32). Of course John was preeminently a righteous preacher belonging to the era of the law and prophets (Matt. 11:11, 13). He proclaimed that the coming of God's kingdom demanded repentance (Matt. 3:2), the confession of sin (3:6), and bringing about the good fruit worthy of repentance (3:8, 10). As the last preacher in the era of the law and prophets (and forerunner of the Lord), it must be obvious what the standard of sin, repentance, and good fruit would have been for John and his hearers — the law of God. Confirmation of that is found in the details of his preaching where the requirements of God's law were expounded (Luke 3:10-14, 19; Mark 6:18). John came in "the way of righteousness, " applying God's law. This was only to be expected of the one who fulfilled the awaited coming of Elijah to restore all things (Matt. 11:14; 17:10-13). The angelic message of John's coming birth makes it clear that the ministry of Elijah which John would perform was according to the pattern of Malachi's prophecy: "Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah comes" (Mal. 4:4 -5; cf. v. 6 with Luke 1:17). John's preaching in "the way of righteousness" was anything but antagonistic to the law of the Lord found in the Old Testament. Likewise, those who belong to "the way of righteousness" today must recognize the important place which the law of God has in Christian ethics. Of course, whether we consider the righteousness of God's kingdom or the way of righteousness, our attention must be focused on God Himself as the model of all righteousness. The faithful described in Revelation 15 who have been victorious over the Beast are portrayed as singing to the Lord, "righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the ages" (v. 3). Those who extol the righteousness of God here are believers who resisted the Beast's attempt to replace God's law with his own (cf. Rev. 13:16 and Deut. 6:8), and the song which they sing is designated "the song of Moses, the servant of God" — a phrase reflecting Joshua 22:5, "Only take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded you, to love Jehovah your God, and to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments, and to cleave unto Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul." The righteousness of God is expressed in His law. Accordingly the kingdom righteousness demanded by Christ and the apostles and the "way of righteousness" encompassing the Christian faith both assume and apply the law of God. Whenever these themes appear in New Testament ethics, they are expressive of the standard of God's commandments as found throughout the Old Testament. Such was the understanding of the New Testament writers themselves. (Corollary reading to this study can be found in my Theonomy in Christian Ethics. Craig Press, 1977. It may be ordered from me for $10.50 at P.O. Box 720161, Atlanta, Ga. 30328; include check and address.) Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 8 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 August, 1979 God's Law In New Testament Ethical Themes (Part II) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. Holiness and Sainthood A biblical concept closely related to that of righteousness is the concept of holiness. While the former emphasizes a just and upright conformity with a standard of moral perfection, the latter lays stress on utter separation from all moral impurity. However the norm for both is the same in Scripture. An unrighteous man cannot be deemed .holy, and an unholy person will not be seen as righteous. Above all God is "the Holy One" (I John 2:20; as applied to Christ, Mark 1:24; John 6:69; Acts 3:14; Rev. 3:7). When He saves us and draws us to Himself, He makes us holy — that is, "sanctifies" us — as well. We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world "in order that we should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 1:4); from the beginning God chose us to be saved in believing the truth and in holiness (sanctification) produced by the Holy Spirit (2 Thes. 2:13). By His own sacrifice and the work of reconciliation accomplished by His death (Heb. 10:14; Col. 1:22), Christ sanctifies the church, aiming to present it as holy and without blemish before God (Eph. 5:26-27). It is God who makes us holy (I Thes. 5:23), especially through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in us (I Peter 1:2). Holiness is thus an important ethical theme in the New Testament. Believers are called by God precisely to be holy ones — that is "saints" (Rom. 1:7; I Cor. 1:2). Christians in a particular locality or church are customarily designated God's "saints" (Acts 9:13, 32; Rom. 15:25; 2 Cor. 1:1; Phil. 4:22); these holy ones are those for whom the Holy Spirit makes intercession (Rom. 8:27), to whom. God makes known His mysteries (Col. 1:26), and for whom we are to show acts of love (Col. 1:4; Rom. 12:13; Heb. 6:10; I Tim. 5:10). They have been chosen, redeemed, and called to be "sanctified," which is to say set apart, consecrated to God's service, or holy before Him. The inclusion of the Gentiles in God's redemptive kingdom means that they have become "fellow-citizens with the saints" (Eph. 2:19) in the "commonwealth of Israel" (2:12). Accordingly the church is made up of those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy ones or "saints" (I Cor. 1:2). Christians are "holy brothers" (Heb. 3:1), a "holy temple of God" (I Cor. 3:17; Eph. 2:21), purged vessels of honor "made holy for the Master's use" and ready for every good work (2 Tim. 2:12). Any conception of New Testament ethics which skirts holiness or encourages anything contrary to it is in diametric opposition to the text of God's word. Holiness of life is an inescapable requirement of God's people. They must present their bodies as holy sacrifices (Rom. 12:1) and their members as servants of righteousness unto sanctification or holiness (Rom. 6:19). God has called them to holiness rather than uncleanness (I Thes. 4:7) and freed them from sin so that they might produce the fruit of holiness (Rom. 6:22). As believers we must establish our hearts unblameable in holiness before God (I Thes. 3:13) and see to it that our behavior in the world is in holiness (2 Cor. 1:12). Everywhere we turn in the New Testament, the ethical theme of holiness keeps reappearing; its demand is constant. Paul's stirring exhortation summarizes this demand well: "let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. 7:1). What is the character of this holiness which the New Testament takes as a pervasive moral theme? By what standard is holiness measured and where is concrete guidance in holiness found? The fact that Christians are to be holy is so often stated in the New Testament that we must certainly assume that the norm or criterion of holiness was already well known; little needs to be said to explain to New Testament readers what this holiness requires. The suggestion is unavoidable that the Old Testament standards of morality already sufficiently defined the holiness which God sought in His people. Hebrews 12:10 indicates that God chastens us so that we may become "partakers of His holiness," and thus New Testament holiness is nothing less than a reflection of God's character on a creaturely level. How does one who is a sinner in thought, word, and deed come to know what God's holiness requires of him? Peter makes it clear what is implicit in the pervasive New Testament theme of holiness when he writes: "even as He who called you is holy, be yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it stands written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy' "(I Peter 1:15-16). Here Peter quotes the Old Testament law from such places as Leviticus 11:44-45; 19:2, and 20:7, where it is evident that God's people would be sanctified and be holy by following all the statutes of God's revealed law. Christ was surely including the Old Testament in His reference, when He prayed that His people would be sanctified by the word, of truth (John 17:17). Indeed, Paul explicitly says that the Old Testament law is our standard of holiness today even as it was for the saints of Israel: "So then the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good" (Rom. 7:12). In the book of Revelation John leaves no doubt about the place of God's law in the holiness of God's people. He defines the "saints" (holy ones) precisely as "the ones keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (14:12; cf. 12:17). In the moral theology of Jesus, Peter, Paul, and John the concept of holiness explicitly conforms to the law of God found in the Old Testament word of truth. We therefore see again that New Testament ethics cannot be pitted against God's law without doing damage to a central theme of the New Testament scriptures. Separation from the World Another ethical theme in the New Testament, one which is closely allied with that of holiness (i.e., "separation" unto God and away from defilement), is the theme of separation from the world. Of course, this does not denote a desire to withdraw from the affairs of life or the community of men. Christ made this abundantly clear in praying for us in this fashion: "I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from evil (or the evil one)" (John 17:15). When the New Testament speaks of separation from the world, the term "world" is used for the unethical state of sinful rebellion against God. The "course of this world" is Satanic and makes one a disobedient child of wrath (Eph. 2:2-3). "Friendship with the world is enmity with God," says James (4:4), and therefore true religion is "to keep oneself unspotted from the world" (1:27). The "world" is understood as the locus of corruption and defilement (2 Peter 1:4; 2:20). John puts it dramatically and clearly when he says, "the whole world lies in the evil one" (I John 5:19) — even as his gospel continually shows that "the world" is understood as the domain of disobedience, disbelief, and ethical darkness (John 1:29; 3:17, 19; 4:42; 6:33, 51; 8:12; 9:5; 12:46, 47; 16:8). John says elsewhere that "all that is in the world" is "the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the vainglory of life" (I John 2:15-17). Hebrews 12:14 exhorts us to "follow after...the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord," indicating that those who are acceptable to God must be "set apart" (sanctified) unto Him and "separated" from the sinful pollution of the world. This entails cleansing from defilement (2 Cor. 7:1), leading a spotless life (2 Peter 3:14) — all language reminiscent of the purity and sacrificial laws of the Old Testament. 2 Timothy 2:19 summarizes the New Testament theme of separation from the world: "Let every one that names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness." How is this to be done however? What is the nature of such separation from unrighteousness and defilement? By what standard does the New Testament Christian separate himself from "the world"? James instructs us that the word of God — which for James surely included the Old Testament scriptures of his day — is the key to this ethical separation: "putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves" (1:21-22). We can put away worldly vice and corruption by doing what is stipulated in the word of God, including the stipulations of the Old Testament and its law: "he that looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues, not being a hearer who forgets it but a doer that practices it, this man shall be blessed in his doing" (1:25). Paul's theology agrees with this. "For the grace of God has appeared to all men, bringing salvation, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age" — looking for the appearance of Christ who "redeemed us from every lawless deed" (Titus 2:11-14). Salvation provided by Christ enables us, by avoiding lawless behavior, to deny the unethical direction of worldliness. In his commentary on this passage Calvin wrote, "The revelation of God's grace necessarily brings with it exhortations to a godly life .... In God's Law there is complete perfection to which nothing else can ever be added." Paul exhorts us to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness" (Eph. 5:11), and it is evident that for Paul the Old Testament law directed God's people in how to avoid such evil fellowship. Citing the law at Deuteronomy 22:10, Paul said "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?" (2 Cor. 6:14). Further citing the Old Testament regarding the laws of holiness by which Israel was "separated from" the Gentile nations, Paul goes on to write: "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you" (v. 17). An example of these Old Testament laws which separated Israel from the world is found in Leviticus ' 20:22-26, where we see that the observation of these laws (e.g., distinguishing unclean from clean meats) was but symbolic of separation from worldly customs. How was this accomplished? "You shall therefore keep my statutes and all mine ordinances and do them" (v. 22). Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 9 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 September, 1979 God's Law In New Testament Ethical Themes (Part III) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. The Good, Well-pleasing, and Perfect Will of God A passage expressing the ethical themes of holiness and separation from the world is Romans 12:1-2. Paul there says, "Therefore I beseech you, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well -pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service; and do not be conformed to this world (age), but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the will of God, the good and well-pleasing and perfect." Going beyond the themes of holiness and separation, Paul speaks of the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. These same concepts are combined in the benediction at the end of the book of Hebrews: "Now the God of peace...make you perfect in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen" (13:20-21). Perhaps the most fundamental ethical concept in either the Old or New Testament is that of the will of God. All ethical decisions and moral attitudes of God's people must be in accord with the will of the Lord by which He prescribes what is good, or well-pleasing, or perfect in His sight. Anything conflicting with that will is immoral and displeasing to God, quite naturally. Jesus said that His "meat" was to do the will of the Father who sent Him (John 4:34), and that those who were to be deemed members of His family were those who did the will of the heavenly Father (Matt. 12:50); we manifest whose children we are by our righteous behavior or lack of the same (I John 3:1). Christ taught His disciples to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10). Doing God's will is not merely a matter of words but of concrete acts of obedience (Matt. 21:28-31); the will of God must be done from the heart (cf. Eph. 6:6). Therefore, not those who cry "Lord, Lord," but only those who do the will of the Father in heaven will enter into the kingdom (Matt. 7:21); those who know the Lord's will and fail to do it will be beaten with many stripes (Luke 12:47). On the other hand, if a man does the will of God, he will be able to discern the doctrine which comes from God (John 7:17), and his prayers will be heard (John 9:31; cf. I John 5:14). While the world and its lusts pass away, he who does the will of God abides forever (I John 2:17). Consequently Paul can encapsulate New Testament ethics in one stroke, saying "Be not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17). Indeed, we are to aim to stand perfect, fully assured in all the will of God (Col. 4:12) . Well, where do we learn, understand, and become assured of God's will? The New Testament offers little by way of an explicit answer to such a question. We learn that the will of God stands over against the lusts of men (I Peter 4:2), and in a very few cases we are told what the will of God specifically requires (e.g., abstaining from fornication and giving thanks in all things, I Thes. 4:3; 5:18). However there is no detailed discussion of the requirements of God's will, and concrete guidance in God's will as such is not systematically explored. Why not? Especially since the will of God is such a crucial ethical theme, we might have expected differently. The answer lies in recognizing that the common conviction of the inspired New Testament writers is that the will of God has been given a specific and sufficient explication in the Old Testament already. It is simply assumed that one can speak of "the will of God" without explanation because it is obvious that God's will traces back to the revelation of His will in the law previously committed to scripture. Accordingly I Samuel 13:14 can be quoted about David, "a man after My heart who will do all My will" (Acts 13:22), and it is expected that the reader will recall that in the Old Testament setting of this statement David is contrasted with Saul precisely with respect to the keeping of God's commands. Paul convicts those who glory in God and claim to know His will, and yet transgress the law, thereby dishonoring God (Rom. 2:17-18, 23). And John would add, "And hereby we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that says, 'I know Him,' and keeps not His commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him" (I John 2:3 -4). In the New Testament, God's will is assumed to be found in His law and commandments. The good, goodness, or good works is also a key theme in New Testament ethics. John says, "Beloved, imitate not that which is evil but that which is good. He that does good is of God; he that does evil has not seen God" (3 John 11). Paul declares, "Faithful is the saying, and concerning these things I desire that you affirm confidently, to the end that they who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works" (Titus 3:8). Although guarding diligently the truth that salvation is by grace through faith, Paul nevertheless taught that "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before prepared that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). By what standard, then, do we judge what is ethically good? Again, the New Testament is here resting on the revelation of God's law for its understanding of the ethical theme of the good. When asked what good thing should be done to inherit eternal life, Jesus responded "If you would enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matt. 19:16-17) — and He makes it crystal clear that He is referring to the Old Testament law (vv. 18-19). Likewise Paul could state without qualification that "the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good .... I consent unto the law that it is good" (Rom. 7:12, 16). Elsewhere he expresses the common outlook of the Christian faith, "we know that the law is good" (I Tim. 1:8). New Testament ethics also strives to realize what is well-pleasing unto God. Paul says, "we make it our aim...to be well-pleasing unto Him" because all will appear before His judgment seat to receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad (2 Cor. 5:9-10). Elsewhere Paul identifies the kingdom of God with righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, "for he that herein serves Christ is well-pleasing to God" (Rom. 14:17-18). Those who have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but who walk rather as children of the light, the fruit of which is all goodness, righteousness, and truth, are actually "proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord" (Eph. 5:911). Thus it is basic to New Testament morality that our actions and attitudes should be well -pleasing in the sight of God, but how can we make them so? How does anyone know what pleases God or not? It is unusual for Paul to give a specific or concrete instance (e.g., Phil. 4:18) for this broad concept. However at one point when he does so, it is not difficult to see what his ethical standard was. In Colossians 3:20 Paul instructs children to obey their parents, "for this is well-pleasing in the Lord." The commandments of the law, therefore, can serve and did serve as detailing what is well-pleasing to God, even in New Testament morality. Perfection is another moral theme of the New Testament which deserves our attention. Paul would have believers "stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God" (Col. 4:12). John discourses against fear because it is inconsistent with being made perfect in love (I John 4:18), and for John love is tested by adherence to God's commandments (cf. 5:2-3) . James teaches that steadfastness through trials will have "its perfect work," so that we are lacking in nothing (1:2-4), and he sees every perfect gift—in contrast to sin—as coming from God above (1:17). With an insight into the special power of sins of the tongue, James tells us that if any man does not stumble in word he is a perfect man (3:2). Studying perfection as a moral concept in the New Testament, we once again are taken back eventually to the standard of God's law. Christ taught that our perfection must be modeled after the heavenly Father: "Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). Significantly, this exhortation follows and summarizes a discourse on the full measure of the Old Testament law's demands (vv. 21-48). When Christ was later approached by one who presumed to be obedient to the law, Christ taught him that to be perfect he would need to renounce every sin against God's commandments and every hindrance to complete obedience to them (Matt. 19:21) . Accordingly we learn that God's law is our standard of moral perfection today. James instructs believers that the man who is blessed of God is the one who is a doer of the word he has heard, having "looked into the perfect law" (Jas. 1:25). We may return now to Romans 12:2, where Paul's ethical guidance to the New Testament believer is to follow the will of God, that which is good, well -pleasing, and perfect. We have seen that the New Testament consistently assumes as common knowledge and explicitly applies the truth that the commandments of God's law in the Old Testament are a sufficient and valid standard of God's will, of the good, of the well-pleasing to the Lord, and of perfection. Whenever these themes appear in the New Testament scriptures the authority of God's law is repeatedly being applied. Our obligation to that law is reinforced many times over when Paul summarizes the ethical standard for New Testament morality as "the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God." God himself is to receive the glory for bringing our lives into conformity with this unchallengeable norm for Christian conduct. He is the One who, through the ministry of His Son, makes us "perfect in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight" (Heb. 13:20-21). Every attempt to reject the law of God in the New Testament era meets with embarrassment before the text of the New Testament itself. The righteousness of God's kingdom, the way of righteousness, holiness and sainthood, separation from the world, and the good, well-pleasing, perfect will of God all require that our behavior conform to the standard of God's commandments as revealed once and for all in the Old Testament. This standard is woven implicitly throughout New Testament ethical teaching. (For corollary reading to this study, see my Theonomy in Christian Ethics. Craig Press, 1977. It may be ordered for $10.50 from me at P.O. Box 720161 Atlanta, Ga. 30328). Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 10 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 October, 1979 God's Law In New Testament Ethical Themes (Part IV) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. We have observed that God's law is essential to many of the key themes of New Testament morality, such as righteousness, holiness, and the will of God. This fact underscores the continuing validity of the Old Testament commandments in the age of the New Testament. Those commandments are the implicit standard of kingdom righteousness, separation from the evil world, and anything which is good, perfect, and well-pleasing to God. The Stature of Christ The implicit endorsement of God's law in Christian ethics is evident from other New Testament ethical concepts as well. For instance, Paul exhorts us to attain unto "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13); he wishes for Christ to be "formed" in us (Gal. 4:19) because God foreordained us "to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8:29). What does the stature of Christ entail as a moral standard for believers? Christ came to fulfill all righteousness (Matt. 3:15), to do God's will (Heb. 4:7, 9), and to establish the New Covenant wherein God's law is written on our hearts (Heb. 10:14-18). He sinlessly kept God's commandments (John 8:46; 15:10; Heb. 4:15; 7:26-28), being perfect in His obedience (Heb. 5:8-9). To qualify as God's anointed (i.e., the Messiah, the Christ) He demonstrated a hatred of all lawlessness (Heb. 1:8-9). Our aim is to attain the Savior's stature of obedience to God's law (cf. Heb. 5:9), keeping His works (Rev. 2:26), walking as He walked (I John 2:5-6; I Peter 2:21), and purifying ourselves as He is sinlessly pure (I John 3:3,5). If the stature of Christ is our moral standard, then the Old Testament law must be kept in Christian ethics. Resurrection Life Another New Testament ethical theme is the newness of resurrection life. Because Christ's resurrection power works in us (Eph. 1:19-20; Phil. 3:10), and because we are spiritually united with the resurrected Savior, we are to walk in newness of life and not to live in sin (Rom. 6:2-4); sin no longer has dominion over us (Rom. 6:8-9, 13-14). Christ's resurrection power in us effects righteous living by means of the Holy Spirit uniting us to the Savior (Rom. 6:22; 7:4; 8:9-11 ). Therefore resurrection life in the believer is something of an ethical concept. We walk in newness of life, no longer being dead in trespasses and sin. What does this mean for the validity of God's law to one who "serves in newness of the Spirit"? Paul asks, "What shall we say then? Is the law sin?" His answer is immediate: "Certainly not!" (Rom. 7:7). Quite the contrary. For one who enjoys resurrection life in Christ by means of the Spirit the law is the standard of righteousness exposing sin (Rom. 7:7-11), is holy, just, and good (7:12), and is Spiritual (7:14). Paul affirms "I consent unto the law that it is good" (7:16). New life in Christ and resurrection power from the Spirit bring obedience to the once spurned law of God. Thus the test for whether the Spirit abides in us is the keeping of God's commandments (I John 3:24). John also teaches us that we know that we have passed from death to new life by our love for the brethren, which is evidenced in keeping God's commandments (I John 3:14; 5:2). Resurrection life as an ethical concept in the New Testament reinforces the validity of God's Old Testament law. Spiritual Freedom A theological and moral theme closely allied to that of new life in the resurrected Savior is the theme of freedom in the Holy Spirit. Jesus declared, "Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin" (John 8:34), and only the Son of God can truly set us free from that bondage (8:36). He does this by applying the redemption which He has accomplished for us in His death and resurrection — applying redemption through the Holy Spirit, who frees us from the bondage of sin and death (Rom. 8:1-2). This Spiritual freedom does not give us the prerogative to live or behave in just any way we please however; Spiritual freedom is not the occasion of moral arbitrariness. Paul says, "Being made free from sin now and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification" (Rom. 6:22). The Holy Spirit does not give us the freedom to sin — that is, the freedom to transgress God's law; rather, the Spirit gives us the freedom to be the slaves of Christ and produce holy behavior. The regenerate man is happy and willing to "serve the law of God" (Rom. 7:25). The very bondage from which the Spirit releases us is described by Paul as precisely the sinful nature's inability to be subject to the law of God (Rom. 8:7). Obviously, then, freedom from this inability must now mean being subject to the law of God! This freedom does not turn the grace of God into licentiousness (cf. Jude 4) but inclines the heart of those once enslaved to sin to the Spirit-given law (Rom. 7:14). "The ordinance of the law" is to be "fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:4). Therefore the Bible makes it quite clear that our Spiritual freedom is not liberty from God's law, but liberty in God's law. James calls the commandments of God "the perfect law of liberty" (2:25), thereby combining two descriptions of the law given by the Psalmist: "The law of the Lord is perfect" (Ps. 19:7) and "I will walk at liberty, for I seek Thy precepts" (Ps. 119:45). Genuine freedom is not found in flight from God's commands but in the power to keep them. God's Spirit frees us from the condemnation and death which the law brings to sinners, and the Spirit breaks the hold of sin in our lives. However the freedom produced by the Spirit never leads us away from fulfilling God's law: "For you, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Gal. 5:13-14). When Paul teaches that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17), it is just in the context of the Spirit's New Covenant ministry of writing God's law upon the believer's heart and thereby enabling obedience to that law (2 Cor. 3:3-11; cf. Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 11:20). Consequently the ethical concept of Spiritual freedom in the New Testament is anything but indifferent to the law of God. The Spirit frees us from lawbreaking for the purpose of law-keeping. Love One of the most conspicuous ethical themes in the New Testament is that of love. Indeed, the New Testament is a story about love — God's love for sinners (John 3:16) and their subsequent love for Him and others (I John 4:19). One of the most sustained ethical essays in New Testament literature is in fact a discourse on the necessity, supremacy, and characteristics of love (I Cor. 13). Love is at the heart both of the gospel and of Christian behavior (I John 4:10-11). Few who are knowledgeable of the New Testament writings will deny that love summarizes in one word the Christian ethic. It is noteworthy that the New Testament writers demonstrate the ethical authority of love by reference to the Old Testament law. Why is love so important? What gives love its ethical preeminence7 Why must the dictates of love be respected? What makes love such an authoritative standard? Precisely that it communicates the substance of the law's demands! In summarizing our moral duty in love, Christ actually quoted the love commands from the Old Testament case law (Matt. 22:37-39). He said that love to God and neighbor were crucial because "On these two commands hang the whole law and prophets" (v. 40). Love is a moral necessity for Paul precisely because it fulfills the law (Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14). Likewise James considers love the fulfillment of the royal law (2:8), and John specifically writes, "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments" (I John 5:3). The assumption of the New Testament writers and the development of their thought, therefore, is that God's law is morally authoritative; and because love expresses that law, love too is a fitting standard of moral guidance. The foundational authority of love is thus the law of God. The Fruit of the Spirit and the Golden Rule The same can be said for other New Testament summaries of our moral duty. A prominent pattern of godly living is set forth by Paul in the list of "the fruit of the Spirit," which Paul sets over against the fruit of the sinful nature (or flesh) in Galatians 5:16-24. The attitudes or character traits mentioned by Paul as the outcome of the Spirit's work in a believer's life ("love, joy, peace...") are a model for Christian morality. Yet Paul makes it clear that the ethical authority of these traits rests on the underlying authority of God's law. Having listed the Spirit's fruit, Paul explains why these traits are so important in Christian ethics: "against such there is no law" (v. 23). In the same way we can observe that the popular and pervasive summary of New Testament living known as the "golden rule" — whatever you would have men do to you, do even so unto them — is presented as morally authoritative by Christ just because "this is the law and the prophets" (Matt. 7:12). The golden rule communicates the essential demand of the law of the Old Testament, and as such it is a standard of ethics which we must respect. Thus we observe that the most common summaries of New Testament morality — whether love, the fruit of the Spirit, or the golden rule — derive their importance and binding character from the law of God which they express. The presupposition of the New Testament authors is continually and consistently that the Old Testament law is valid today then. Any attempt to speak of New Testament ethics apart from kingdom righteousness, or the holiness of Christ's saints and their separation from the world, or the good, well-pleasing, perfect will of God, or the stature of Christ, or resurrection life, or Spiritual freedom, or love, or the fruit of the Spirit, or the golden rule is bound to be inadequate. And any attempt to understand these concepts apart from the Old Testament law is bound to be inaccurate. Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 11 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 November, 1979 God's Law In New Testament Moral Judgments (Part I) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. The Old Testament law of God gives definitive substance to many of the central themes of New Testament ethics — as we have illustrated before. When we ask what it means to follow the will of God or to be holy, as the New Testament requires, we find that the law of God defines these ethical themes. Likewise the law of God is assumed in notions like kingdom righteousness or the golden rule. That law functions as a standard and a guide when we heed New Testament exhortations to attain the stature of Christ or demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit. New Testament ethical themes, then, will quite often take the validity of God's Old Testament commandments for granted. The complete, continuous, and thus contemporary validity of the Old Testament law which is assumed without challenge in many themes of New Testament ethics is brought out explicitly in moral judgments which fill the pages of the New Testament. In particular circumstances, when some kind of moral evaluation, direction, or exhortation is called for, New Testament preachers and writers often show that they stand firmly on the Old Testament law in making the judgments that they make. They treat and utilize the standing rules of ethics as found in the Old Testament as though these rules were meant for them to keep — even though these rules were given many, many years earlier, before the advent of Christ our Savior. Particular instances of ethical decision-making in the New Testament illustrate, then, once again that the commandments of God found in the Old Testament have not been discarded, repudiated, or ignored as somehow no longer authoritative and valid. Use and Validity Imagine that you wake up some morning to an exasperating problem: the plumbing under the kitchen sink needs repair and a pool of water sits on the floor. After you mop up the mess you stop and take thought as to what should be done to solve your plumbing problem. You think about calling a plumber but reject that plan as too expensive and perhaps unnecessary. Upon reflection you come to believe that you might very well be able to repair the plumbing yourself — if only you had some good direction. Therefore you conclude that you will go down to the public library this morning and check out a self-help book on kitchen plumbing. Add one more feature to this scenario, namely, that you are reasonably informed as to the operating procedures of a public library. That is, you realize that the library is not open all of the time and that only those with library cards may have the privilege of checking out books. So then, let us go back to your decision to check out a self-help book on plumbing this morning. What does such a decision tell us about your current beliefs? Among other things it tells us that you believe (rightly or wrongly) that the public library is open this morning, that you have a library card there, and that the library card is still valid. If you decided to use the library's self-help plumbing book this morning but knew either that the library was closed, that you had no card, or that your card was expired, you would most likely be irrational or a crook. People do not normally plan to use things which are closed down (e.g. the library), non-existent, or expired (e.g. your library card). Likewise when you wait in line at the Chevron station, fill your car's tank with gas, and then hand the attendant your Chevron credit card, you are expecting that the card is still valid. Whether you scrupulously check the expiration date on the credit card before submitting it for payment to the attendant or not, the very fact that you use the card reveals the assumed validity of that card. And the attendant's acceptance of that card shows that he too believes it to be a valid one. When something has expired or is no longer valid, we do not have the authority to use it. Dishonesty aside, an expired library card or invalid credit card is useless. On the other hand, the use of something indicates its validity. Much of the same can be said regarding rules. Invalid or expired rules have lost their authority and as such are useless (except for purposes of historical illustration). A professor may draw laughs from his class by reading some of the city ordinances which were on the books a century ago, but a policeman would be out of place in trying to enforce them. A rule which has been repealed, amended, or replaced is no longer authoritative and cannot be used as a rule any longer. Thus if a rule is put to use, the assumption must be that it is (or is thought to be) a valid rule. When a football referee allows a touchdown to count which was accomplished by means of a forward pass, it is futile for the other team to complain against the pass on the ground that the forward pass was once illegitimate in football. The old prohibition against the forward pass has been repealed, and football is now played by slightly different rules. When a baseball umpire does not allow a designated hitter to bat for the pitcher, it is evident that the umpire is taking National League rules to be valid instead of American League rules. The use of the particular rule instead of alternative rules demonstrates the current authority and validity of the particular rule. For this reason a driver who is stopped by a highway patrolman for travelling sixty-five miles per hour will not avoid a ticket by appealing to the former law which set the maximum speed at sixtyfive. The use of the fifty-five mile per hour speed law by the courts and police establishes the validity of this law over against the older one. We do not use expired rules if we are informed and honest. Rule Use in the NT Looking at library cards and credit cards, and reflecting on civic rules and sports rules, we have seen that the use of them assumes their validity. Invalid cards and rules are unauthoritative. We can now apply this reasonable insight to the practice of the New Testament speakers and writers. Like policemen and umpires, the inspired speakers and writers of the New Testament were called upon to make decisions on the basis of rules; they needed to draw moral judgments in particular situations. When that time came, which rules did they utilize? Did they — as infallibly informed in their utterances — ignore the moral rules (commandments) of the Old Testament as though they were expired, inapplicable, or invalid? What does New Testament usage of the Old Testament law tell us about that law's authority today? The current validity of the standing rules of Old Testament morality is challenged or circumscribed by many within the Christian church today. We find some who teach that the New Testament Christian has nothing whatsoever to do with the law of the Old Testament; the believer, it is said, is not bound to the law at all. We find others who would put stiff limits on the extent of the Old Testament law's validity; the believer, they say, is bound to follow only a portion of the Old Testament moral code (usually the ten commandments). But what does the inductively ascertained practice of the New Testament speakers and writers reveal about this? Do they ignore the law in moral judgments? In ethical decision-making do they restrict themselves to the decalogue? Simply put, the answer is obviously "No." The New Testament speakers and writers show themselves more than willing to put the Old Testament law — decalogue and extradecalogue — into service in critical moral judgments. They do not treat the Old Testament commandments like an expired library card or a repealed speed limit. Just the opposite is the case! They make free and unexplained use of the Old Testament law, thereby assuming its moral authority for the New Testament age (extending from Christ to the consummation). Moreover the use of the Old Testament law in New Testament moral judgments is quite thorough. It is not limited to a single New Testament writer (although that would be enough to establish the law's authority), to a single New Testament book (although, again, the authority of one infallible document is sufficient), or to one restricted Old Testament source. In contexts of moral application New Testament citations and allusions are taken from portions of Genesis, Proverbs, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Zechariah; however, even more frequently and consistently does the New Testament make moral judgments on the basis of the Law portion of the Old Testament, citing Exodus 20, 21, 22, 23, Leviticus 11, 18, 19, 20, 21,24, 25, Numbers 18, 30, and Dueteronomy 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27. The moral use of these Old Testament passages will be found scattered throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Romans, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, I Timothy, Hebrews, James, I Peter, I John, and Revelation. Therefore, the attempt to reject or circumscribe the authority of the Old Testament law made by some Christian teachers today will over and over again meet embarrassment before the text of the New Testament. (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics. Craig Press, 1977. The book may be ordered from me for $9.50 at 412 E. Quincy, Orange, CA 92667; include check and address.) Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. II, No. 12 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1979 December, 1979 God's Law In New Testament Moral Judgments (Part II) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. Illustrative Texts An examination of some of the texts wherein New Testament speakers and writers made moral judgments can illustrate how they took the Old Testament law as a valid ethical standard. Specifically we can see how the current authority of the law was not viewed by them as restricted to the decalogue. We can begin for convenience with the discussions of Jesus with His opponents and inquirers. Of course His greatest opponent was Satan, the tempter who had led Adam astray from obedience to God. Christ, the second Adam, directly encountered Satan in a forty day period of temptation in the wilderness. Satan repeatedly tempted Jesus to depart from the course of redemption laid down by the Father, and each time Jesus overcame the temptation by citing the authoritative word of God. For instance Satan tried to entice Jesus into a test of God's care and fidelity, challenging Him to leap from the pinnacle of the temple. Now many years earlier Israel — also in the wilderness — was lured into testing the care and fidelity of God (Exodus 17:1-7). As a result the law of God recorded: "You shall not put Jehovah your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah" (Deut. 6:16). Such a law would surely seem conditioned by its historical setting and restricted to its Jewish recipients, if any law does. Yet in the face of the Satanic temptation Jesus cited this very commandment to thwart His adversary: "Jesus said unto him, 'Again it stands written, You shall not make a test of the Lord your God' "(Matt. 4:7). Clearly the law of God was deemed valid and was not restricted to the ten commandments. Of course Jesus also deemed the ten commandments to be authoritative — but not uniquely so. When He was asked to judge which commandments should be kept in order to enter eternal life, He made use of a portion of the decalogue (Matt. 19:16-19; Mark 10:17-19). However at the same time He included the relevant case law, "Do not defraud" (Mark 10:19, from Deut. 24:14), and the summary command, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 19:19, from Lev. 19:18). He used the extradecalogical commands just as authoritatively as the decalogue's own requirements. Indeed, when asked to judge which was the greatest commandment in the entire Old Testament, Jesus did not go to the ten commandments at all, but chose rather two laws outside of the decalogue: love God with all of your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12: 28-31, from Deut. 6:4-5 and Lev. 19:18). Distilling the Old Testament's moral demand into these two particular extradecalogical laws was apparently already known and discussed in Jesus' day (Luke 10: 25-28). It was a commonplace among the rabbis to distinguish between "heavy" and "light" commands in the Old Testament, the heavier laws being those from which more commands could be deduced than others. Such rabbinic efforts can be traced to the Old Testament itself, where its 613 precepts are summarized in a different number of principles by various writers: eleven by David (Ps. 15), six by Isaiah (Isa. 33:15), three by Micah (Micah 6:8), and one by Amos (Amos 5:4) and by Habakkuk (Hab. 2:4). According to Jesus the "greatest" commandments — the "first of all" — on which "the whole law hangs" were the extradecalogical love commandments (Matt. 22:33, 36; Mark 12:28, 31). The problem with the Pharisees, said the Lord, was precisely that they attended to the minor details of the law (tithing) and "have left undone the weightier matters of the law — justice, and mercy, and faith" (Matt. 23:23), that is, "the love of God" (Luke 11:42). It is important at just this point that we pay attention to Jesus' words, for He does not encourage exclusive attention to the weightier, love commandments of the Old Testament law. He says quite precisely, "these you ought to have done and not to have left the other undone." Our obligation to the weightier matters of the law does not cancel our obligation to the minor details. Consequently, the practice of Jesus does not encourage a disregard for the details of God's law, as though New Testament moral duty is circumscribed to a small sub-section of the Old Testament law. Jesus was often challenged by the traditionalists (who took their authority from outside of the Scriptures) about His activities on the Sabbath. In His defense He would response, "Have you not read in the law ...?" (Matt. 12:5; John 7:23), citing the Sabbath activity of the priests. Were the law outmoded by His coming, of course, such a vindication of His behavior would have been baseless. Over and over again Jesus could show that the traditionalists — whose boast was in the details of the law — were actually violating and twisting the law's demands (e.g., Matthew 5:21-48). On an occasion when Christ's disciples were accused by the Pharisees of violating their traditions, Christ replied that the traditionalists actually transgressed the commandment of God in order to preserve their traditions instead (Matt. 15:3, 6-9). It is striking to note the specific illustration which Jesus chooses to use (among many available ones) in this particular moral judgment. He says that while the law of God requires honor for one's parents and death for those who dishonor them, the Pharisees allow a subterfuge by which one can withhold financial aid to his parents (Matt. 15:4-5). The Mosaic law which Christ holds up as valid — the standard by which to judge the Pharisaical performance — is the detail of the law (commonly ridiculed today) which requires the death penalty for cursing one's parents! Another illustration of Jesus' use of the Old Testament's moral standards (outside the decalogue) can be found when He lays down instructions for the new organization of the people of God. As the church replaced national Israel in the plan of redemption it needed its own operating instructions, for instance regarding discipline. In the moral judgment delivered by Christ regarding this matter He asserted the demand of the Old Testament law: "at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established" (Matt. 18:16, cf. Jn 8:17, based on the law at Deut. 17:6 and 19:15) — the same Old Testament law of legal evidence promoted by Paul (I Tim. 5:9). The use of the Old Testament law in matters of sexual relations, payment to workers, and revenge toward enemies further substantiates the New Testament dependence on the law's validity. When Paul prohibits marrying an unbeliever, he cites the Old Testament requirement that unlike animals are not to be yoked together (2 Cor. 6:14, from Deut. 22:10). "Be not unequally yoked together" is a well-known verse used by many pastors to discourage their young people from marrying outside the faith, and yet many of these same pastors will elsewhere insist that the believer is not under the requirements of the Old Testament law! When Paul was confronted with the wicked situation of incest within the church, his moral judgment on the matter was taken from the Old Testament prohibition (I Cot. 5:1, based on Lev. 18:8 and Deut. 22:30). Ask just about any evangelical pastor today whether incest is immoral from a biblical standpoint, and he will surely insist that it is — thereby enlisting the moral standards of the Old Testament, even if he proclaims elsewhere that they are repealed and invalid. Or ask him about homosexuality. When Paul delivered an apostolic judgment as to the immorality of homosexuality he specifically reiterated the Old Testament standard (Rom. 1:26-27, 32, from Lev. 18:22 and 20:13). Turning from sexual to economic ethics we again find that the New Testament makes unhindered use of the Old Testament commandments in Christian moral judgments. Paul's argument that congregations should pay their pastors is especially enlightening as to the extent of the law's validity. He argues from the case law principle of the Old Testament that "You shall not muzzle an ox as it treads" (I Cor. 9:9, from Deut. 25:4), thereby revealing the assumed contemporary authority of the laws outside the decalogue. An invalid rule would be useless here. But even more striking is Paul's willingness to appeal to the moral principle embodied in one of the ceremonial laws! Pastors should earn their livelihood from the gospel ministry because priests derived their sustenance from the alter (I Cor. 9: 13-14, based on such texts as Lev. 6:16, 26; 7:6, 31ff.; Num. 5:9-10; 18:8-20, 31; Deut. 18:1). Pastors who wish to teach consistently the invalidity of the Old Testament law might accordingly stop drawing pay from their congregations. In a related economic matter James delivered a moral judgment regarding the rich who fraudulently withhold their workers' pay, basing his judgment on the Old Testament law requiring prompt pay for workers (James 5:4, from Lev. 19:13 and Deut. 24:14-15). In financial matters, no less than in sexual matters, the New Testament practice was to utilize the Old Testament moral standards of God's law. The same is true for interpersonal matters. Few Christians will dispute the New Testament standard that we ought not to avenge ourselves but rather go to the one who wrongs us and show him his fault (Rom. 12:19; Matt. 18:15), and yet this standard is taken over directly from the Old Testament law at Leviticus 19:17-18. Another commonly endorsed New Testament ethical judgment which is in fact based on the Old Testament law is the injunction to care for one's enemies (Matt. 5:44; Rom. 12:20, rooted in the illustration of Ex. 23:4-5). As often as Christians condemn private vengeance and hatred of one's enemies, they reaffirm the continuing authority of God's law (even if unwittingly). One cannot escape the authoritative use of the Old Testament law in New Testament moral judgments. Upon reflection, one should recognize that such a use teaches the full validity of God's law today. Invalid rules might be used in fallacious moral judgments, but not in inspired ones. Copyright 1979, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. III, No. 1 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1980 January, 1980 Old and New Testament Views of God's Law by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. The purpose of the present study will simply be to compare and contrast the outlook on the law of God which we find in the Old and New Testaments. Granted, there are many ways to summarize the theology of law in either testament; the present is only one among many. However it hopefully serves a useful purpose: that of stressing the continuity between Old and New Testaments regarding God's law — over against contrary misconceptions fostered by some teachers — and of indicating salient points of discontinuity — over against the baseless fears of some that those who acknowledge the continuing validity of God's law today suppress or ignore important differences. Continuity Between the Testaments I. God's law is perpetual in its principles. (A) The commandments of God are not deemed a uniquely Mosaic administration but as obliging man from the beginning. (1) Before man's fall into sin God delivered to him commandments which were his moral obligation, for instance the creation ordinances of marriage (Gen. 2:24), labor (Gen. 2:15), and the Sabbath (Gen. 2:1-3), as well as the cultural mandate of dominion over creation (Gen. 1:28). Paul too would view the standards of morality as in force from the very beginning, being constantly communicated through general revelation (Rom. 1:18-21). In particular, the creation ordinances (e.g., Matt. 19:5) and cultural mandate (e.g., I Cor. 10:31) are applied in the New Testament. (2) The Old Testament shows that, as the New Testament teaches (Rein. 5:13-14), between Adam and Moses law was in the world. The Adamic covenant established a marital order (Gen. 3:16) and the requirement of labor (Gen. 3:19) which are both authoritative in the New Testament (I Tim. 2:12-14; 2 Thes. 3:10). The Noahic covenant reaffirmed the cultural mandate (Gen. 9:1) and revealed God's standard of retribution against murderers (Gen. 9:6), which are again valid in the New Testament (e.g., Rom. 13:4). In the Abrahamic covenant we see that Abraham had commandments, statutes, and laws to keep (Gen. 18:19; 26:5), and the New Testament commends to us Abraham's obedient faith (Jas. 2:21-23; Heb. 11:8-19). Moreover, prior to the special revelation of the Mosaic law we can see the perpetual validity of its moral standards in the example of God's judgment on Sodom (Gen. 19), punished for violating the case law against homosexuality (Lev. 18:23) — for their "lawless deeds" according to the New Testament (2 Peter 2:6-8). Indeed, according to Paul, all men know God's moral standards through general revelation — showing "the work of the law written in their hearts" (Rom. 2:14-15). This universal communication of God's law is as broad as His ethical demands, not being restricted narrowly to the ten commandments (e.g., Rom. 1:32, where condemned homosexuals are said to know "the ordinance of God"). (B) The principles of God's law are perpetual because they reflect the character of God, who is unchanging. Leviticus 20:7-8 declares, "Be holy, for I am Jehovah your God, and you shall keep My statutes and do them"; this is how God's people sanctify themselves — becoming holy as God is holy (I Peter 1:15-16) or imitating His perfection (Matt. 5:48, in the context of the law's demands). The Old Testament teaches that the law of God is perfect (Ps. 19:7), being holy, just, and good like God (Deut. 12:28; Neh. 9:13), and the New Testament viewpoint is the same: the law is perfect (Jas. 1:25), holy, just, and good (Rom. 7:12). II. God's law is thorough in its extent. (A) His commandments apply to matters of the heart, and not simply external affairs. In the Old Testament God required His people to seek Him with all their hearts (Deut. 4:29) and to circumcise their hearts (Deut. 10:16), even as the New Testament continues to show that we are to love Him with all of our hearts (Matt. 22:37) and submit to His law in our thoughts, attitudes, and intentions (e.g., Matt. 5:21-48). (B) God's law applies to every area of life. The commandments of God called His people to love Him with everything they had (Deut. 6:4-6), throughout the day (v. 7), at home and away from home (v. 9), whether in thought or deed (v. 8). Indeed, man was to live by every word from God's mouth (Deut. 8:3, 6). Likewise the New Testament requires that every aspect of man's life and being be given over to the love of God (Matt. 22:37) and that God's people demonstrate their holiness "in all manner of living" (I Peter 1:15-16). (C) God's law is a standard for all nations (not simply Israel). Deuteronomy 4:6, 8 clearly taught that the commandments delivered by Moses to Israel were to be her wisdom in the sight of the nations, who would exclaim "what great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law?" Similarly Paul indicates that the standards of God's law are declared through natural revelation and are binding upon all men (Rom. 1:32; 2: 14-15). Because the nations once occupying Canaan violated the standards of God's law, God would punish them by expelling them from the land (Lev. 18:24-27) — even as He would expel Israel if she violated His laws (Deut. 30:17-18). The moral standard and the judgment on disobedience were the same, then, between Israel and the nations. Accordingly Paul teaches that all men, Jews and Gentiles, have sinned by violating God's law (Rom. 2:9, 19-20), and Jude declares that God will judge all ungodly men for all of their ungodly deeds (Jude 14-15). Where the Old Testament taught that "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people" (Prov. 14:34), the New Testament teaches that whatever Christ has commanded is to be propogated to the nations (Matt. 28:20). God's law binds all men at all times in all places. To this point we have seen that the Old and New Testament agree perfectly that the law of God is perpetual in its principles — not being uniquely Mosaic, but reflecting the eternal character of God — and thorough in its extent — touching matters of the heart, applying to all areas of life, and binding all mankind to obedience. At this juncture it will be important to add that: III. God's law is complementary to salvation by grace. (A) The law was not to be used as a way of justification. In the Old Testament it was understood that in God's sight "no man living is righteous (or justified)," for if God marks iniquities no man can stand (Ps. 143:2: 130:3). Instead, "the just shall live by faith" (Hab. 2:4). The Psalmist saw that "Blessed is the man unto whom Jehovah imputes not iniquity," and "He that trusts in Jehovah, lovingkindness will compass him about" (Ps. 32:2, 10). Old Testament saints were not saved by law-obedience but by faith in the coming Savior, typified in the sacrifices of the Old Testament system. Likewise the New Testament declares in no uncertain terms that "by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight" (Rom. 3:20). Indeed, "if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing" (Gal. 2:21). God's law is the standard of righteousness, but because sinners cannot conform to that standard their salvation must come by God's grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9). This was true in both Old and New Testaments. (B) Obedience to God's law is harmonious with grace and saving faith. The Old Testament indicates that God's law was specially revealed to Israel in the context of His redeeming and delivering His people from bondage (Ex. 19:4; 20:2); those who were willing to keep His law had already been shown His grace. In this vein David could sing, "Grant me thy law graciously" (Ps. 119:29) — feeling no tension between a proper use of God's grace and law. Those who were justified by faith in the Old Testament, such as Abraham and Rahab, were those who were so renewed by God's grace that they were willing to obey His demands (cf. James 2: 21-25). Those who were justified and living by faith, due to the grace of God, desired to obey the commandments of God out of respect for His authority, love of His purity, and gratitude for His salvation. The same holds true for saints in the New Testament. Paul says that we have not been saved by good works, but we have been saved for good works — that is, in order to live obediently before God (Eph. 2:10). According to him God's grace teaches us to renounce lawless deeds (Titus 2:11-14), and by faith we actually establish — rather than nullifying — the law of God (Rom. 3:31 ). (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics. Craig Press, 1977. The book may be ordered from me for $9.50 at 412 E. Quincy, Orange, CA 92667; include check and address.) (To be continued) Copyright 1980, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. III, No. 2 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1980 February, 1980 Old and New Testament Views of God's Law (Part II) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. [Continuity Between the Testaments, continued] It is evident that what the Old Testament said about the law of God is also what the New Testament says about the law of God. The Old Testament said that God's law is perpetual in its principles, thorough in its extent, and complementary to salvation by grace. The New Testament teaches the same things about God's law. Such continuity between the testaments extends further to the teaching that: IV. God's law is central to His one covenant of grace. (A) The law can epitomize or stand for the covenant itself. We read in Genesis 17:10, 14 that circumcision could represent the very covenant itself that God made with Abraham. In like manner, the stipulations of the Mosaic law could be used to stand for the covenant itself, as in Exodus 24:3-8 (cf. Heb. 9:19-20). Just as circumcision is the covenant, so also is the law God's covenant. This is why the tables of law and commandment which God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai (Ex. 24:12) can actually be called "the tables of the covenant" (Deut. 9:9, 11, 15). Accordingly, when Jeremiah speaks of the New Covenant which is to come, he indicates that the law of God is central to its provisions: "I will put my laws into their mind, and on their heart will I write them" (Jer. 31:33). This is quoted when the New Testament reflects upon the character of the New Covenant (Heb. 8:10), using these words as a summary for the whole (Heb. 10:16). Concern for the covenant, then, entails concern for the law of God in both Old and New testaments. (B) The law given through Moses served the Abrahamic covenant of promise, rather than being antithetical to it. According to the Old Testament, it is precisely as the God of Abraham and it is just because of the covenant made with Abraham that God dealt with Moses in a covenantal fashion (Ex. 2:24; 3:6). The exodus or deliverance granted to the Israelites through Moses was a realization of the promise made to Abraham (Ex. 6:1-8). God had promised in the Abrahamic covenant to be a God to Abraham and his seed, who would become God's people (Gen. 17:7-8). This same blessing was held forth in God's deliverance through Moses (Ex. 6:7). In particular, this Abrahamic promise would be the reward for conformity to the Mosaic law: "If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them .... I will be your God, and you shall be my people" (Lev. 26:3, 12). The Old Testament did not recognize an antagonism between the Abrahamic covenant of promise and the Mosaic covenant of law. Neither does the New Testament. Paul reflects with inspired accuracy on the relationship between the Abrahamic promise and the Mosaic law (cf. Gal. 3:17) and asks, "Is the law then against the promises of God?" His answer is decisive: "May it never be!" (Gal. 3:21). The law rather served to bring about the fulfillment of the promise made with Abraham (Gal. 3:19, 22, 29) . The Mosaic law which established the commonwealth of Israel at Sinai is deemed by Paul as one of "the covenants of the promise" (Eph. 2:12). Throughout Scripture the law is congruent with the promise. (C) Likewise, the Abrahamic promise which is realized in Christ serves the purposes of the Mosaic law. The Old Testament perspective was that the people who enjoyed the promise ought to obey the law of God. It was expected that when Israel received what "the God of your fathers has promised unto you," the people would "keep all his statutes and his commandments" as revealed by Moses (Deut. 6:1-3). Likewise the New Testament sees those who belong to Christ — the one to whom Abraham's promise was given (Gal. 3:16) — as the seed of Abraham and heirs according to promise (Gal. 3:7, 29) . They receive the promise by faith and thus should not desire to be under the law as a way of justification lest they fall from grace (Gal. 3:2, 6-14, 24-26; 4:21; 5:4). However those who enjoy the Abrahamic promise in Christ do so by a faith working through love (Gal. 5:6), which is to say a faith that obeys the law (Gal. 5:13-14) — a faith that walks by the Spirit and thereby does not violate the law (Gal. 5:16-23). God's Son of promise makes us to walk after the Spirit so that we keep the ordinance of the law (Rom. 8:3-4). Therefore, we observe that the promise serves the law, even as the law serves the promise, and this reciprocal relation is revealed in both the Old and New Testaments alike. The law plays an integral role throughout God's one covenant of grace. V. God's law is taken by His people as a redemptive token and delight. The preceding discussion of the law of God has focused on its objective character and function. It is important that we also take note of the subjective attitude which is expressed toward the law of God in both Old and New Testaments. The negative polemic against the law which is often heard today cannot be squared with the feeling and evaluation of the inspired biblical writers. According to them: (A) Obedience to the law is their token of redemption, proof of their love, and sign of their dedication to the Lord. The Old Testament taught that the very meaning of God's law and obedience to it was that God had delivered His people (Deut. 6:20-25; e.g., 5:15). Indeed not keeping the commandments of God was identified as forgetting one's redemption (Deut. 8:11-17), and it was clear that salvation was far from those who did not desire God's statutes (Ps. 119:155). Similarly in the New Testament, where life eternal is to "know Christ" (John 17:3), we indicate that "we know him if we keep his commandments," and it is a lie to say that one knows Christ who does not keep his commandments (I John 2:3-4). The Old Testament said that those who loved the Lord would obey His commandments (Deut. 10:12-13), and New Testament love for the Lord is proved in the same way (John 14:15; I John 5:3). Dedication to God and His purposes was signaled in the Old Testament by adherence to God's law (Deut. 26:17; Joshua 22:5). Things are not different in the New Testament, where those who choose to follow Christ rather than the beast are identified as "those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 12:17; 14:12). In either Old or New Testament it would be unthinkable for a redeemed saint, who loved the Lord and was dedicated to Him, to spurn, criticize, or disobey the law of God. (B) God's law was to be loved as a delight and blessing. Although men may scoff, the delight of the godly man is found in the law of the Lord (Ps. 1:2; 119:16); that man is happy, said the Old Testament, who greatly delighted in God's law (Ps. 112:1). Paul's New Testament viewpoint was identical: "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Rom. 7:22). To John the law of God was such a joy that he could declare, "His commandments are not burdensome" (I John 5:3b). it is sin — that is, violation of God's covenant law in both testaments (Joshua 7:11; Isa. 24:5; I John 3:4) — that is detested by God's people, for it brings death (Rom. 6:23). Apart from man's sinful inability, the law itself is ordained rather unto life (Lev. 18:5; Neh. 9:29; Ezek. 20:11, 13, 21; cf. Prov. 3:7-8). It is not the Old Testament only that recognizes this fact. Paul discerns the connection between obedience to the law and life in the Spirit (Rom. 8:2-4, 6-7, 12-14) and confesses that, apart from his sinful corruption, the law is meant to communicate life (Rom. 7:10). Anything that is against the law's demands, then, is also against health-giving (sound) doctrine, according to I Timothy 1:8-10 (cf. I Tim. 6:3). God gave us His law for our good, and for that reason Old and New Testament writers rejoice in it. It is to our shame if we do not emulate their attitude. (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics, Craig Press, 1977. The book may be ordered from me for $9.50 at 412 E. Quincy, Orange, CA 92667; include check and address.) (to be continued) Copyright 1980, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. III, No. 3 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1980 March, 1980 Old and New Testament Views of God's Law (Part III) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. [Continuity Between the Testaments, continued] The common testimony of the two Testaments is that God's law is perpetual in its principles, thorough in its extent, complementary to salvation by grace, central to God's one covenant of grace, and taken by His people as a redemptive token and delight. The two bodies of inspired literature have a single testimony to the character, status, and significance of the law of the Lord. For that reason it should not prove surprising for us to learn further that both Old and New Testaments teach that: VI. God's law is eternal and is not to be altered. In a day when many view the law of the Lord as arbitrary, expendable, or temporary in its authority for the life of man, it is highly valuable to observe the outlook of the inspired writers. Moses wrote that forever it would go well with God's people to observe the commandments which He revealed (Deut. 12:28). David exclaimed that "All his precepts are sure; they are established forever and ever" (Ps. 111:78; cf. 119:152). Indeed, the eternal authority of God's commands characterizes each and every one of them: "Every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth forever" (Ps. 119:160). Looking unto the fearful day of the Lord when the wicked will be consumed with fire (Mal. 4:1), the prophet Malachi pronounces as one of the final words of the Old Testament, "Remember the law of Moses my servant" (4:4). However in the pages of the New Testament we hear the words of one who is far greater than Moses, David, or any prophet of old. Their testimony to the eternal authority of God's law is pale in comparison to the absolutely clear and utterly unchallengeable declaration of Jesus Christ that God's commandments — each and every one — is everlastingly valid: "Truly I say unto you, until heaven and earth pass away, until everything has come about, one letter or one stroke shall by no means pass away from the law" (Matt. 5:18). The Old and New Testaments unite in this doctrine. The voice of the two Testaments is further united in saying that God's law is not to be altered. David recognized that God commands only what is just and right, and thus to depart from His commands is to deviate from moral integrity. 'I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right,. and I hate every false way .... All thy commandments are righteousness" (Ps. 119:128, 172). To change or ignore any of God's commands is necessarily to create an unrighteous or unjust pattern for behavior. Therefore the law itself guards against alterations within itself: "You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it, in order that you may keep the commandments of Jehovah your God" (Deut. 4:2; cf. 12:32). No man has the prerogative to tamper with the requirements laid down by God. Only God himself, the Law-giver, has the authority to abrogate or alter His commandments. Yet the testimony of God incarnate in the New Testament is that the law is not to be changed, even with the momentous event of His coming: "Do not think that I came to abrogate the law or the prophets .... Therefore whoever shall break one of the least of these commandments and shall teach men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:17,19). God's eternal and righteous law is unalterable, according to the joint teaching of the Old and New Testaments. VII. Therefore, we are obligated to keep the whole law today. Anyone who suggests, without authorization from the word of God, that some law of the Old Testament is not binding upon our behavior today would fall under the double censure of both the Old Testament and New Testament writers. Such a suggestion would contradict the perpetuity and extent of God's law as taught in both testaments; it would evidence forgetfulness of God's mercies, violate the covenant, and deprive God's people of one of their delights. Such a suggestion would stand diametrically opposed to the eternality and immutability of the law as set forth in the Old and New Testaments. To challenge the law without direction from the Lord is to grieve and challenge Him, threatening to demote the challenger within God's kingdom. Unless Scripture itself shows us some change with respect to God's law or our obedience to it, the principle which governs our attitude and behavior should be the same as the Bible's categorical assumption — namely, that our instruction in righteous behavior is found in every Old Testament scripture (I Tim. 3:16-17), every point of the law (Jas. 2:10), even the least commandment (Matt. 5:19; 23:23), every word (Matt. 4:4), and every letter (Matt. 5:18). This is clear from the major points — to which both Old Testament and New Testament give assent — that have been reviewed about the law above. Given these agreed upon points, we have no reason to expect that the New Testament would categorically or silently release the believer from his moral duty to God's law. To summarize: we must assume continuity of moral duty between the Old Testament and New Testament. Accordingly, by operating upon this biblical assumption, the burden of Scriptural proof lies directly and heavily upon anyone who would deny the validity or the relevant authority of some particular Old Testament stipulation for our day. The next time you hear someone say, "We need not follow that commandment because it is the Old Testament law," you should say to yourself (if not also to him) "Now wait just a minute .... "That kind of assertion will require some explanation and clear biblical proof before the faithful believer will accept it. Faithful and inspired authors of Scripture — both Old and New Testaments—wrote to just the opposite effect. What has been said above does not in the least deny that there are some forms of discontinuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament—that is, between the old covenant and the new covenant — regarding the law of God. What it does indicate is that any such discontinuity must be taught by God's word and not be brought as a categorical, theological assumption to God's word. We can turn now to such biblically-grounded discontinuities between the old and new covenants. Because the law of God plays a central role in His covenantal dealings with His people, it is altogether appropriate that the contrast between these two covenants should have a bearing on our relationship to that law. Discontinuity Between the Covenants I. The New Covenant Surpasses the Old Covenant in Glory (A) While the Old Covenant was fundamentally a ministration of condemnation and death, the New Covenant is a ministration of righteousness and life. Paul reflects upon the distinctiveness of the new covenant in 2 Corinthians 3, proving that anyone who exalts the law over the gospel (as did the legalistic Judaizers) — anyone who is so absorbed in the commandments that he obscures or overlooks the good news of redemption — has made a grave mistake. The new covenant, teaches Paul, far outshines in glory the law of the old covenant. The law certainly has its glory (2 Cor. 3:9, 11), but despite that glory, what stands out in the old covenant is the feature of condemnation which brings death (3:6, 7, 9). The law is good, indeed ordained unto life. However the sinfulness of man works through the good law to produce death (Rom. 7:12-16). The outstanding feature of the old covenant to Paul's mind was the external tables of the law which, although they commanded good things, could not confer good things. These external ordinances necessarily condemned all unrighteous men and demanded their death: as Paul said, "the letter kills" (2 Cor. 3:6). There is no way that sinful men can be justified by doing the law (Gal. 2:16; 3:11). When Moses returned from receiving the law his face shone with the glory of God, and after reading the law to the people he needed to put up a veil over his face for the sake of the people (2 Cor. 3:7, 13). Paul sees in this fact the double character of the old covenant: (1) it was glorious, but (2) it continually accused and condemned those who, due to sin, could not endure to behold the glory of Moses' face. Nevertheless, when Moses appeared with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, it was only the face of the Savior which shone with God's glory. Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, "has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses" (Heb. 3:3). The old covenant law condemned and killed, but by contrast Christ takes away the curse of the law by enduring its penalty and gives His life-producing Spirit to create an obedient heart in us. Accordingly the new covenant is distinctively "a ministration of the Spirit" or "a ministration of righteousness" (2 Cor. 3:8, 9) which "imparts life" (3:6). Christ "has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do" (Rom. 8:3). Accordingly Paul says that, in contrast to the covenant epitomized by tables of stone, the new covenant "exceeds in glory" (2 Cor. 3:9). (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics, Craig Press, 1977. The book may be ordered from me for $9.50 at 412 E. Quincy, Orange, CA 92667; include check and address.) (to be continued) Copyright 1980, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. III, No. 4 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1980 April, 1980 Old and New Testament Views of God's Law (Part IV) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. [Discontinuity Between the Covenants, continued] The old covenant law commanded good things, but only the gospel could fully confer them; the righteousness demanded by the law was only supplied with the redemptive work of Christ. Thus the new covenant has a greater glory than the old. The old declared the law and thereby condemned. The new satisfies the law and makes us right with God. The leading and far greater glory of the new covenant is that it secures the righteousness of God's people through God's Son and Spirit, rather than serving primarily to condemn sinfulness. The latter function required only the glory, genuine though it be, of stone tablets; the former required God to manifest the glory of His only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Hence Calvin said, "the law, however glorious in itself, has no glory in the face of the gospel's grandeur" (Commentary at 2 Cor. 3:10). As such the approach of the new covenant believer to God's law is significantly different from that of the old covenant believer. Since the threat of the law has now been decisively removed through Christ's expiation and the Holy Spirit's indwelling, the law can be more fully a delight to the believer today. (B) The New Covenant provides the believer with a greater confidence in approaching God. The old covenant law promised forgiveness to the sinner on the basis of animal sacrifices, but the tentativeness of this arrangement was evident from the fact that mere animals were offered up and from the fact that sacrifices were repeated over and over again (Heb. 10:4ff.). There was still some distance between the believer and God, for only the High Priest could come before the very presence of God in the Holy of Holies once a year. A veil separated the people from their God. But with the sacrificial work of Christ which cleanses new covenant believers the veil has been torn in two (Mark 15:58; cf. Heb. 10:20) . Through Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, we can have bold access to the throne of grace. The way into the holy place was not manifest under the old covenant (Heb. 9:8), but under the new covenant we have "boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus" (Heb. 10:19; cf. 4:15-16; 6:18-20). The assurance of forgiveness, the purity of the believer, and the nearness of God are far greater in the new covenant than anything the old covenant law could secure. So Calvin rightly remarks: "The person who still holds to or wishes to restore the shadows of the law not only obscures the glory of Christ but also deprives us of a tremendous blessing, in that he puts a distance between us and God, to approach whom freedom has been granted us by the gospel." (Commentary at Heb. 7:19). (C) Unlike the Old Covenant, the New Covenant has a permanent and unfading glory. In 2 Corinthians 3 Paul likens the glory of the old covenant with its law to the glory which shone in Moses' face after receiving that law (vv. 7, 13). What Paul repeats over and over again is that this glory was "passing away" (vv. 7, 11,13) and had to be veiled (vv. 7, 13-16). But the new covenant has a transforming glory seen in the face of Christ (3:18, 4:4,6); this glory is beheld with unveiled face, permanently and progressively making us over into the same image "from glory to glory." Moses mirrored the glory of God only intermittently with a fading glory—such was the excellence of the old covenant law. WE constantly mirror the unfading glory of Christ who is the very image of God. Indeed, "we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God" (Rom. 5:2). Distinctive to the new covenant is a glory surpassing the law, a glory which can be gazed upon, as well as mirrored, without interruption. What we have found, then, is that the New Testament writers can set the new covenant over against the old covenant by taking the law as their point of departure. Believers today have greater benefits than old covenant believers could have in their relationship to the law. The law stood for the threat of death, God at some distance, and a fading glory. In the new covenant the threat is removed, God draws nearer, and the glory is permanent. This provides us with a different context within which to use the law of God and determines the attitude with which we must approach the law. To be content with the law itself or to emphasize it over and above the gospel would evidence a terribly perverted sense of judgment. The New Covenant puts the law into proper perspective by showing us a far greater glory than the law possessed. II. The New Covenant Surpasses the Old Covenant in Power (A) The New Covenant provides us with further and stronger motivations to obey the law. Everything found in the Scripture is for our instruction in righteousness and our spiritual discipline (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17), and thus we cannot be perfectly furnished unto all good works without paying attention to all aspects of scriptural revelation—its history (e.g., I Cor. 10:6, 11), its promises (e.g., John 14:16-18), its wisdom (e.g., Jas. 3:13-8), its prayers (e.g., Acts 4:24-31), its praise (e.g., Rev. 5:9-14), etc. Each of these functions to equip us better for righteous living. The new covenant provides us with further Scripture that tells us of God's redemptive work, its accomplishment and application. It should serve to make us ever more grateful for what God has done. Redemption, new creation, indwelling of the Spirit, unity of the body — these and many more themes in the new covenant's revelation are motivations for godliness which go beyond the motivations available to old covenant saints. Ethical exhortations in the New Testament are commonly founded on consideration of these new covenant benefits. (B) Unlike the Old Covenant law, the New Covenant empowers obediences to the revealed pattern of righteousness. Looking again at 2 Corinthians 3, where Paul contrasts the old covenant with the new, we read that Paul's new covenant ministry had the effect of changing the hearts of his hearers — as though Christ himself had written upon their hearts (v. 3). God had written the law with His own finger upon two tables of stone at Mount Sinai, but Jeremiah looked forward to the day of the new covenant when God's law would be written upon men's hearts (Jer. 31:33) — hearts made of responsive flesh rather than stone (Ezek. 11:19-20; 36:26). Proverbs teaches that "out of the heart are the issues of life." With the law written upon man's heart he would finally be able to walk in God's commandments and do them. Although the Spirit worked in the lives of old covenant believers to help them obey the law of God, He did so in a way which was both limited and provisional — looking ahead to the great day of Penecostal power. Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 notes that the Spirit is the agent of the writing done upon the new covenant believer's heart (v. 3). The letter of the old covenant brought death, but the Spirit of the new covenant communicates life and righteousness (vv. 6:8-9, 18). What was once external and accusing (the law written on tables of stone) is now internal and activating (the law written on tables of the heart). "The law made nothing perfect" (Heb. 7:19), but the new and "better covenant" has "better promises" — in particular the internalization of the law by means of Christ's sacrificial and priestly work so that the law is kept (Heb. 8:6-10). The "eternal covenant" makes us perfect in every good work to do God's will (Heb. 13:20-21). We find here one of the most dramatic differences between the old covenant law and the new covenant gospel. The new covenant accomplishes what the law required but gave no ability to perform. P. E. Hughes expresses the point well: "The 'fault' of the old covenant lay, not in its essence, which, as we have said, presented God's standard of righteousness and was propounded as an instrument of life to those who should keep it, but in its inability to justify and renew those who failed to keep it, namely, the totality of fallen mankind. The new covenant went literally to the heart of the matter, promising man, as it did, a new and obedient heart and the grace truly to love God and his fellow man (Ezek. 11:19f.)" (A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 297-298). In the preceding outline we already find highly significant discontinuities between the old and new covenants regarding the law of God. The new covenant surpasses the old covenant law, according to the New Testament scriptures, both in glory and power. The new covenant puts the law into perspective and puts it into practice — overcoming its basic threatening character, insecurity, and fading glory by providing further motivations to obedience as well as the power to comply with the law's demands. (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics, Craig Press, 1977. The book may be ordered from me for $9.50 at 2244 East Grove Ave., Orange, CA 92667; include check and address.) Copyright 1980, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. III, No. 5 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1980 May, 1980 Old and New Testament Views of God's Law (Part V) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. [Discontinuity Between the Covenants, continued] III. The New Covenant Reality Supercedes the Old Covenant Shadows (A) The New Covenant Secures the Redemption Foreshadowed in the Old Covenant. One of the greatest points of dissimilarity between the old covenant and the new covenant is found in the area of redemptive rituals, for example the Old Testament sacrifices, priesthood, temple, covenant signs, etc. The way in which the laws pertaining to such redemptive ritual were observed prior to the coming of Christ is much different than the way in which they are observed today. By bringing in the substance foreshadowed in the old covenant and realizing the hope anticipated in the old covenant, the new covenant gives us a new perspective on the laws which regulated expiation, priestly service, and the like. Whereas the old covenant believer looked ahead to the work of the Savior and showed faith by observing the redemptive ritual of the old covenant, the new covenant believer looks back upon the finished work of the Savior and shows faith by clinging to Him for salvation totally apart from the old ceremonies. From Scripture it is evident that the new covenant arrangement is better than the old covenant pertaining to redemption, and accordingly those redemptive laws have been made outwardly inoperative, Here is a discontinuity between the covenants which can be suppressed only at the cost of totally misunderstanding the teaching of the New Testament. The logic of the writer of Hebrews is that, if a new covenant has been given, then it must be a better covenant which as such makes the old covenant outmoded. Moses himself witnessed to the provisionary glory of the administration of God's grace found in the Pentateuch by looking beyond the shadow and promise to the realization to come (Heb. 3:5b). Likewise, Jeremiah, spoke for God of a "new" covenant to come, and that very fact (according to the author of Hebrews) indicated that already the Mosaic administration was deemed obsolete and passing away, ready to vanish (Heb. 8:13). Saying this leads the author of Hebrews right into a discussion of the first covenant's ritual ordinances (9:1ff.). The work of Christ is in every way superior to these. He is "the surety of a better covenant," "a better hope" (7:22, 19) because His priesthood is everlasting (7:21, 24-25) and His sacrifice of Himself is totally efficacious (7:26-28). The very repetition of the old covenant sacrifices demonstrated that they were temporary and imperfect (Heb. 10:4ff.). The superiority of Christ's ministry over the old covenant's levitical ministry is found in the fact that Christ's priestly work is exercised in the true, heavenly tabernacle rather than in the earthly, shadowy one (Heb. 8:2-5). The priestly work carried on in the earthly tabernacle was figurative or anticipatory (Heb. 9:19), whereas Christ's ministry is the realization carried on in a greater tabernacle in heaven (9:11-12, 23-24). The levitical ritual of the old covenant revealed by Moses was parabolic of the present order in the new covenant (9:9a). In themselves the priestly rituals of the old covenant could not perfect the conscience as Christ does (9:9b); thus they were necessarily temporary, used until the time that everything is made right (9:10). The old covenant saints greeted the promises of God from afar (Heb. 11:13). By contrast, Christ fulfills the promises and secures redemption, the promised inheritance, and transforming power by His saving work (9:15; cf. 8:6-10). The redemptive rituals of the Old Testament law, then, could not perfect the believer; they were but a shadow of the good things to come (Heb. 10:1). Accordingly, with the accomplished work of the Redeemer now in the past, we no longer use or apply the Old Testament laws regulating sacrifices, the priesthood etc. in the same way. Discontinuity is definitely to be observed. And it is precisely the word of God which instructs us to see an altered application of those laws; indeed we are warned against reverting back to the imperfection of the outmoded administration of God's grace in the Old Testament levitical system. It is not surprising that the earliest Christians were accused of opposing the temple and the Mosaic law's rituals (e.g., Acts 6:14; 21:28). The new covenant word teaches that some of God's old covenant ordinances were not intended to be continuously observed in the same manner throughout redemptive history. With the coming of the Savior and His perfect priestly work, necessarily the levitical priesthood has been changed (Heb. 7:12). Hence the sacrifices, feasts, etc. of the old order are not binding upon the believer today in their shadow forms (cf. Col. 2:13-17). They are observed today by faith in Christ. (B) The New Covenant Redefines the Covenant People of God. Under the old covenant order, Israel was constituted as a nation and adopted as the people of God, but under the new covenant the people of God is an international body comprised of those who have faith in Christ. The kingdom has been taken from the Jews (Matt. 8:11-12; 21:41-43; 23:37-38; I Cor. 14:21-22), and the church is now "the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:16), "the commonwealth of Israel" (Eph. 2:12), the "kingdom of priests" (I Peter 2:9), the "twelve tribes" of the Dispersion (Jas. 1:1; I Peter 1:1), and the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:7, 29). Faithful Israel of old is included within one household of God comprising the church (Heb. 3:1-6); Israelites and Gentiles are separate branches, but part of one olive tree of faith (Rom. 11:17-18). Thus the New Testament church is the restoration of Israel (Acts 15:15-20), and the new covenant to be made with Israel and Judah is actually made with the apostles who are foundational to the church (Luke 22:20; cf. Eph. 2:20). This biblically-grounded redefinition of the people of God brings with it some corresponding alterations in the application of the Old Testament law. (1) Because the new covenant does not define God's people as an earthly nation among others, it does not require political loyalty to national Israel as did the old covenant (Phil. 3:20). Christ's kingdom, unlike Old Testament Israel, is not be to defended with the sword (John 18:36; cf. 2 Cor. 10:4). (2) Because the significance of Canaan as the promised land of inheritance has passed away with the establishment of the kingdom which it foreshadowed (cf. Gal. 3:16; cf. Gen. 13:15; Heb. 11:8-10; Eph. 1:14; I Peter 1:4), old covenant laws which are directly concerned with this land (e.g., division of the land into family portions, locations of the cities of refuge, the levirite institution) will find a changed application in our day. (3) The separation from unholy peoples required by God through the dietary laws, which symbolized this separation by a separation made between clean and unclean meats (cf. Lev. 20:22-26), will no longer be observed by avoidance of the Gentiles (Acts 10) or typified by abstaining from certain foods (Mark 7:19; Acts 10:15; Rom. 14:17). This separation for the Christian is now from any ungodliness or compromising unbelief anywhere they may be found (2 Cor. 6:14-18) . IV. The New Covenant Surpasses the Old Covenant in Finality. (A) It surpasses the old covenant law in clarity. With the giving of further relevant information in the scriptures of the new covenant, God's moral requirements are made even clearer to us. For instance, Christ corrects misinterpretations and narrowing of the law's demand (Matt. 5:21-48). Moreover, His own life is an illustration of what the law would have us do and thus is a new example of what love requires. The radical character of love is so dramatically displayed in the atonement that the old commandment of loving one another can be considered a"new command"; Christ's explanation of love surpasses that of the old covenant when He says that His people are to love one another "even as I have loved you" (John 13:34-35; cf. 15:12-13; I John 2:7-11; 3:11-18, 22-24; 4:7-11). (B) The new covenant surpasses the old in its efficiency. Through the Old Testament God's moral demand was progressively revealed and explained; a revelation of His requirements would be followed by later revelations which amplified the first. However, with the coming of the new covenant, the law of God will receive no further additions. The canon is complete and closed. Once and for all God has set down the moral standards which we are to faithfully apply to our lives. Everything needed for complete equipping in righteous living has now been given (2 Tim. 3:16-17). (C) The new covenant brings greater responsibility for obedience. With the giving of new light and new power in the new covenant, the responsibility of men to obey the voice of God is increased. To whom much is given much is required (Luke 12:48). God no longer overlooks any people's disobedience but requires all people everywhere to repent because of His appointed Judge and Day (Acts 17:30-31). The revelation of the new covenant is even more inescapable than that of the old covenant (Heb. 12:25), and to it we should give "the more earnest heed" (Heb. 2:1-4). Our study of the new covenant scriptures has shown us, in summary, that there are definite discontinuities between the new covenant relation to the law and that of the old covenant. The new covenant surpasses the old in glory, power, realization, and finality. (For further reading along these lines see Theonomy in Christian Ethics, Craig Press, 1977. The book may be ordered from me for $9.50 at 2244 East Grove Ave., Orange, CA 92667; include check and address.) Copyright 1980, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. III, No. 6 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1980 June, 1980 The Functions of God's Law by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. Previous studies have explored the subject of God's law in Christian ethics from a variety of perspectives. We have learned that there is every theological reason to affirm that believers continue to have an obligation to obey the law of God today. When we ask what the whole Bible has to say about the goal, motive, and standard of Christian morality, the Scripture's answer consistently points to the validity of God's law in our lives. From the normative perspective the Bible teaches: that the entire written word of God is our standard of conduct, that God's covenantal dealings with men (inclusive of His stipulations for His people) are essentially one, that God's unchanging holiness is transcribed for us in His law, that God's Son set an example for us of keeping the law, and that God's Spirit conforms believers to the pattern of righteousness found in the law. From the personal or motivational perspective the Bible shows us that grace, faith, and love all operate to produce compliance with the holy standard of God's commandments. From the teleological or consequential perspective the Bible explains that the law of the Lord was revealed for the good of His people, and thus a promised blessing rests upon individuals and societies which submit to God's stipulations for our attitudes and actions. The theological conclusion that God's law continues to be a valid rule of life today enjoys the specific support of New Testament texts which bear on the subject as well. We have explored the way in which New Testament authors treat the legal requirements of the Old Testament, only to find that further endorsement is given to the law's validity today. This has been observed in the use of the law found in the teaching of Jesus and the apostles, the assumed authority of the law in key New Testament ethical themes, and the application of the law incorporated into New Testament moral judgments. Finally, an extensive comparison of what the Old Testament had to say about the law of God with corresponding concerns in the New Testament revealed that there was a common attitude toward the law and a presupposed continuity between the covenants as to God's moral standards in the law — despite the fact that the New Covenant introduced important elements of discontinuity regarding the believer's relationship to the law. In the age of the New Covenant the Old Covenant law of the Lord retains its binding authority. So then, both theological insight and specific New Testament teaching agree in supporting the law of God as a standard of conduct. If one wishes to please the Lord, then one must seek to bring his thoughts, words, and deeds into conformity with the norms laid down in the law of God. Christian ethics is surely concerned with more than the law of God (for instance, it considers issues like ethical enablement, motivation, maturation, discernment, insight, application), but it cannot be concerned with less than the law of God — for the law supplies a pattern and criterion of godly living. Because that pattern and criterion is an unchanging one, the law continues to be a major concern of Christian ethics today. The standard of holiness revealed by the law is not peculiar to Old Testament Jews, nor is it somehow uniquely for those redeemed by God. That standard is universally binding on all created men, being "natural" in the sense that it is appropriate to the Creator-creature relation, and in the sense that it is revealed as binding to all mankind (either through the created realm and conscience, or through special written revelation). The standard of the law remains unmitigated in its demand on our behavior as God's creatures. Failure to comply with it makes us sinners. Christ came, not to remove the standard which constitutes us sinners, but to atone for the sin which we commit. The Spirit which He supplies to believers works to bring obedience to the previously spurned standard of righteousness in the law. At the final judgment, all men will be judged in the light of that same unchanging standard. In whatever age, state, or circumstance man is found, his norm of godliness remains the revealed law of God. Accordingly in 1774 John Newton wrote: "It is an unlawful use of the law, that is, an abuse of it, an abuse of both law and Gospel, to pretend, that its accomplishment by Christ releases believers from any obligation to it as a rule. Such an assertion is not only wicked, but absurd and impossible in the highest degree: for the law is founded in the relation between the Creator and the creature, and must unavoidably remain in force so long as that relation subsists. While he is God, and we are creatures, in every possible or supposable change of state or circumstances, he must have an unrivalled claim to our reverence, love, trust, service, and submission" (Letters of John Newton, London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1960, p. 46). One of the commissioners to the Westminster Assembly was Samuel Bolton, a reverent Reformed scholar who was disturbed by the claims being made in his day by those called "antinomians" (those who were against the law of God as a rule of obedience, on the alleged ground of God's free grace in the New Testament). In 1645, while the Westminster Assembly was still at work, Bolton published a treatise entitled, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom (reprinted, London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1964). In it he laid out argument upon argument from Scripture to prove that we are not free today from the moral obligations of the law of God and that the law was compatible with God's grace. The thrust of Bolton's treatise is summarized in these words from it: "We cry down the law in respect of justification, but we set it up as a rule of sanctification. The law sends us to the Gospel that we may be justified; and the Gospel sends us to the law again to inquire what is our duty as those who are justified" (p. 71). Speaking of Matthew 5:17-18, Bolton said, "this seems to be very full and very plain for the continuance of and obligation to the law," and he went on to buttress his observation by appeal to Romans 3:31; 7:12, 22, 25; James 2:8; and I John 2:4; 3:4. "Therefore, since Christ, who is the best expounder of the law, so largely strengthens and confirms the law (witness the Sermon on the Mount, and also Mark 10:19); since faith does not supplant, but strengthens the law; since the apostle so often presses and urges the duties commanded in the law; since Paul acknowledges that he served the law of God in his mind, and that he was under the law of Christ (I Cor. 9:21); I may rightly conclude that the law, for the substance of it, still remains a rule of life to the people of God. ... If Christ and His apostles commanded the same things which the law required, and forbade and condemned the same things which the law forbade and condemned, then they did not abrogate it but strengthened and confirmed it. And this is what they did: see Matt. 5:19 .... But he that breaks the law does sin, as says the apostle: 'Sin is the transgression of the law' (I John 3:4), and 'Where no law is there is no transgression' (Rom. 4:15). Therefore Christians are bound, if they would avoid sin, to obey the law" (pp. 61,62, 66). Bolton recognized, of course, that the Old Testament corpus of law was easily categorized into moral, judicial, and ceremonial laws — that is, general principles, illustrative applications, and the way of atonement. Bolton saw the ceremonial law as providing the Jews with a way of worship which both anticipated the saving work of Christ and established a separation between God's people and the world (the Gentiles). The judicial law provided "a rule of common and public equity" in civil matters (p. 56). It is evident from chapter 19 of the Westminster Confession of Faith — especially in light of the Larger Catechism's exposition of God's law — that the authors of the Confession saw eye to eye with Bolton in these matters. The law of God as delivered to Moses expresses the same perfect rule of righteousness which was binding upon man as created, even prior to the fall (19.1-2). The corpus of law contained ceremonial laws typifying the saving work of Christ and certain moral instructions pertaining to the holy separation of God's people from the unbelieving world (19.3). It also contained judicial laws particularly worded for the ancient Jewish civil state, the genera, I equity of which continues to bind men (19.4). Although the law is not a way of personal justification, it continues to be a rule of life both for the saved and the unsaved; Christ in the Gospel does not dissolve but rather strengthens this obligation (19.5-7). We must agree with the Publisher's Introduction to the Banner of Truth reprint of Bolton's work against antinomianism: "The slur of 'legalism' often cast upon those who framed the Westminster Confession of Faith finds no justification in this instructive and edifying work" (p. 12). To maintain the full authority of God's law today — a conclusion to which every line of Biblical study drives us — will be unpopular in some degree with many people today, and it will be maligned as "legalism." To that charge John Murray could simply answer: "It is strange indeed that this kind of antipathy to the notion of keeping commandments should be entertained by any believer who is a serious student of the New Testament" (Principles of Conduct, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957, p. 182). Copyright 1980, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. III, No. 7 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1980 July, 1980 The Functions of God's Law (Part II) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. New Testament Opposition to God's Law The New Testament, as does the entire Bible, surely supports the continuing validity of God's law. To say this is simply to submit one's thoughts to the Lawgiver Himself — it is not "legalism." And yet the New Testament contains passages which certainly seem to be taking a decidedly negative attitude toward the law of God. Paul declares that he "died unto the law that I might live unto God" (Gal. 2:19). He says, "you are not under law, but under grace" (Rom. 6:14). Again, "we have been discharged from the law" (Rom. 7:6). For those who believe, we can conclude apparently, "Christ is the end of the law" (Rom. 10:4). In light of such passages some believers are led to see promotion of the law of God as our standard of morality as legalistic bondage. How can Scripture's seeming ambivalence toward God's law be understood in a way which absolves it of contradiction? How can the Bible contain two completely different evaluations of the law of God? Paul himself supplies the resolution to the apparent problem when he delivers his categorical conclusion regarding the status of God's law for the Christian today. He says, "We know that the law is good, if a man uses it lawfully" (I Tim. 1:8). It is indisputable and well established that the law is a good thing, reflecting perfectly the righteous standards of our holy God, the Creator of all men and Redeemer of His chosen people. Paul says '"We know" that the law is good. It should be common knowledge that a positive attitude and submission to the law of God are called for in us. The law is indeed good! To follow it and endorse obedience to its dictates cannot be disapprobated as bad. The law of which Paul speaks is clearly the Old Testament commandments, as the mentioned illustrations in verses 910 demonstrate. These commands are known by all to be good (cf. Rom. 2:14-15; 7:12). Yet Paul immediately qualifies his endorsement of the good character of God's law. He says that the law is good if it is used lawfully. That is, when the law is used according to its own direction and purpose — when the law is lawfully applied — it is a perfectly good thing. However Paul's words imply that there is an unlawful use of God's law, a use which runs counter to the law's character and intent, so that the law's good nature might be perverted into something evil. The abuse of the law is indirectly condemned by Paul. What might such an abuse be? Where do we find an unlawful use of the law?. We need not look far in the pages of the New Testament. Throughout the ministry of Christ and persistently in the epistles of Paul we encounter the Pharisaical and Judaizing attitude that one can by performing works of the law find personal justification before God. Amazing pride and self-deception led the Jews to believe that they might appear righteous in the judgment of a holy God if they but strove diligently to keep the commandments (or at least their external requirements). The Pharisees liked to justify themselves before men (Luke 16:15); they trusted in themselves that they were indeed righteous (Luke 18:9) — so much so that they had no more need for a Savior than a healthy man needs a physician (Matt. 9:12-13). However God knew their hearts all too well. Despite outward appearances of cleanliness and righteousness, they were inwardly foul, spiritually dead, and full of iniquity (Matt. 23:27-28). Because they went about trying to establish their own righteousness, the Pharisees could not submit to the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:3). Within the early church there soon arose a party from among the Pharisees that insisted that the Gentiles could not be saved without being circumcised and keeping in some measure the law of Moses (Acts 15:1,5). Justification may be by grace, they would teach, but not completely so; works of the law were also necessary. Because they would compel the Gentiles to live as Jews in this sense (Gal. 2:14), they were designated "Judaizers." Paul himself could understand this mindset, for it had been his own prior to conversion. He was brought up as a Pharisee concerning the law (Phil. 3:5); at the feet of Gamaliel he was "educated according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers" (Acts 22:3). His own testimony was this: "I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers" (Gal. 1:14). He made his boast in the law (cf. Rom. 2:17-20, 23), and from the perspective of one spiritually dead he could claim that "as to righteousness under the law" he was — in a word — "blameless". (Phil. 3:6). He was once, apart from the law, so deceived as to think he was spiritually alive and righteous, but under the influence of God's Spirit the commandment came home to his consciousness and killed his self-righteous complacency. "I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died" (Rom. 7:9). What Paul discovered is that he had simply not understood the law correctly in the first place. That is why in the midst of his most earnest writing against the Judaizers he can appeal repeatedly to the Law itself (e.g., Gal. 3:6-14, alluding to Gen. 15:6; 12:3; Deut. 27:26; Hab. 2:4; Lev. 18:5; Deut. 21:23). The Old Testament, seeing that in God's sight no man could be justified (Ps. 143:2), promised justification grounded in "the-Lord-our-righteousness" (Jer. 23:6). Righteousness had to be imputed even to the great father of the Jews, Abraham (Gen. 15:6). Thus the Old Testament, abundantly testifying that God's saints were men of faith (cf. Heb. 11), taught that the just shall live by faith (Hab. 2:4). Isaiah proclaimed: "In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified .... This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord" (45:25; 54:17). The ceremonial law delivered by Moses made these truths manifest over and over again during the Old Testament era. Men were not righteous in themselves but needed to be circumcised. Even in their most natural habits their sinful pollution called for ceremonial cleansings. To be found just in the sight of God they had to abhor their sinfulness and seek forgiveness through sacrificial substitution and priestly intercession. In such things the law possessed "a shadow of the good things to come" with the saving ministry of Jesus Christ (Heb. 10:1). By the regenerating and enlightening work of the Holy Spirit Paul came to realize that the law never intended for men to seek personal justification by meritorious works of the law. The law itself presented salvation as a gift rather than as wages. Accordingly, those who prided themselves in the law were in truth the most extreme violators of the law! "Is the law against the promises of God?" Paul asks. Does it teach a method of justification contrary to the gracious way of salvation found in God's promises? Paul's reply is "May it never be!" (Gal. 3:21),."for if there had been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have been of the law. But Scripture shut up all things under sin in order that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." Far from distracting from justification by grace through faith, "the law became our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (v.24). So let us return to Paul's declaration in I Timothy 1:8, "We know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully." By implication there is an unlawful, distorting use of the law-one which abuses it, even while pretending to honor the law. Paul would surely Identify the abusive use of the law as the Pharisaical and Judaizing attempt to make law-works the ground of one's own justification before God. "If righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing" (Gal. 2:21). But "no man is justified by the law" (Gal. 3:11). The fact that God justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5) plainly shows that justification must be grounded in the alien righteousness of Jesus Christ (by His shed blood and resurrection, Rom. 4:25; 5:9); His righteousness is imputed to those who believe upon Him (Rom. 4:3-5; 5:1-2; 2 Cor. 5:21). Consequently, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom. 10:4). Those passages in Paul's writings which seem, then, to take a negative attitude toward the law of God can be correctly harmonized with Paul's equally strong endorsements of the law by distinguishing at least two (among many) uses of the word "law" in Paul's epistles. The revelatory use of "law" is its declaration of the righteous standards of God; in this the law is good. The legalistic use of "law" refers to the attempt to utilize the works of the law as a basis for saving merit; this is an unlawful use of the law and receives Paul's strongest condemnations. Paraphrasing I Timothy 1:8, Paul says that we know the law-as a revelation of God's unchanging will — is good, as long as one uses it lawfully instead of legalistically. (For further reading along these lines see chapter 4 of Theonomy in Christian Ethics. The book may be ordered from me at 2244 East Grove Ave., Orange, CA 92667, for $9.50; include check and address.) Copyright 1980, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. III, No. 8 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1980 August, 1980 The Functions of God's Law (Part III) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. What the Law Cannot Do We have seen that even the good law of God can become an evil thing when abused — when put to a use which is contrary to its character and purpose, It will prove beneficial to try and summarize just what the law cannot do in itself so that we might not fall into the error of using the law unlawfully. (1) In the first place, as discussed just previously, the law cannot contribute anything toward the personal justification of one who stands under its curse for violating its precepts. Before the standard of God's law the sinner will always stand condemned rather than being judged righteous. "By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight" (Rom. 3:20). Those who hope to find acceptance with God on the basis of their own good deeds cannot find His favor. "You have been discharged from Christ whosoever of you are justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace" (Gal. 5:4). The very attempt to gain justification in this manner is futile, for "a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ" (Gal. 2:16). (2) Nor can the law break the stranglehold and power of sin in a person's life. The principle of Christ's life-giving Spirit set Paul free from the principle of sin and death. Thus he said, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son... condemned sin... in order that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled by us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:3-4). By the "flesh" Paul means the sinful nature within man which is at war with God and rebellious against His righteous standards (cf. vv. 6-8). The law of God simply could never overthrow this sinful nature and bring about conformity to its pattern of righteousness. The law could not empower obedience and put a decisive end to the power of disobedience. The law could show what was right, but the faulty character of the sinner prevented the right from being performed. In the face of this failing the law was helpless to amend the situation. However God did condemn sin and destroy its dreadful power by sending His own Son to save sinners. The Son supplied His Spirit to believers to give them the enabling power of obedience to the law. Where they were once impotent, they are now empowered. We must ever remember that the law is a pattern only; it cannot supply the power to follow the pattern. Paul elsewhere expressed this truth by saying, "You are not under law, but under grace" (Rom. 6:14). The person who is "under law" is one whose resources and powers are determined exclusively by the law. The context of Paul's declaration is the key to understanding it correctly. Being "under law" takes a parallel position to having sin reign within oneself (v. 12), to sin having dominion over oneself (v. 14a), to being a servant of sin (v. 17). Instead of being "under law" and by its impotence enslaved to sin, Paul sees the believer as "under grace" instead — that is, under the determining power of God's merciful and mighty work of salvation. This grace makes one over into a servant of righteousness and obedience (vv. 13, 16-18). Now one is under the enabling power of God's grace just so that one can obey the previously transgressed law of God. This conception of Paul's meaning helps us to see his declaration's appropriate place and function in its local context. In its full form, Paul's point is this: "Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under law but under grace. What then? shall we sin since we are under grace and not under law?. God forbid!" (vv. 14-15). In context it is clear that being under law is a position of powerlessness wherein the bondage to sin remains unbroken, whereas being under grace supplies the spiritual strength to break off from sinning and now to obey the righteous standards of God (found in His law). (3) Finally, it is important to remember that the law delivered by Moses never could actually make anything perfect (Heb. 7:19). While it beautifully foreshadowed the saving ministry of Jesus Christ in its ceremonial enactments, the law could never by its repeated sacrifices secure the eternal redemption needed by God's people (Heb. 9:11-12; 10:1-12). Only the coming of the promised Savior, His atoning death, and justifying resurrection could accomplish the hoped for salvation of believers. The law could not accomplish the remission of sins but only witness to its coming reality. Accordingly the ceremonial portion of the Old Testament law was never meant to be literally followed forever in the same manner as it was by Old Testament saints. It was "imposed until a time of reformation" (Heb. 9:10). With the coming of the Savior, the shadows are left behind. The ceremonial system is put out of gear and made inoperative. To insist on keeping these ordinances in the same way as did Old Testament believers would be to disclose in oneself a legalistic attitude toward salvation (Gal. 4:8-10, 5:1-6). It would be retrogressive and disdainful of Christ, to whom the Old Testament ceremonies pointed. In I Corinthians 9:20 Paul describes himself as "not being myself under the law, " even though he became to the Jews as one who was under the law in order that he might win some Jews to Christ. In the next verse he continues to describe himself, now as "not being without law to God, but under law to Christ." If nothing else, this verse refutes any idea that Romans 6:14 ("you are not under law, but under grace") can be interpreted as implying that the person under grace has been released from moral obligation to the law of God. Paul affirms his submission to the law of Christ and thereby to every detail of the Old Testament law as well (Matt. 5:17-19). Indeed, he was not at all without the law of God (cf. Rom. 3:31, 7:22; 8:4). What then does he mean when he says in I Corinthians 9:20 that he is not "under the law"? It would not appear that this expression ("under law") is being used in the same manner in both Romans 6:14 and I Corinthians 9:20. In the former passage it implies bondage to the power of sin, and this is far from what Paul is saying about himself in the latter passage! Those enslaved to sin are lawless, but Paul unmistakably asserts that he is not without God's law in Christ. The phrase "under law" in Romans 6:14 applies indiscriminately to all unbelievers, but in I Corinthians 9:20-21 it applies to only one category of unbelievers — while "without law" describes the remaining category of unbelievers. What, then, does Paul mean in I Corinthians 9:20 by asserting that he himself is not "under the law"? Paul is showing how he became all things to all men for the sake of the gospel (vv. 22-23). "To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews" (v. 20). When with them he acted "as though under the law," even though with others he acted "as though without the law." Does Scripture help us understand how Paul was not thereby acting inconsistently, immorally, and with duplicity?. Yes, it does. The unbelieving Jews had not recoginzed as yet the dramatic change brought in by the redemptive realities of the New Testament; although Christ had realized all that the Mosaic ceremonial law had anticipated, unbelieving Jews continued to follow these rituals. In dealing with such men Paul accommodated himself to these customs to gain a hearing for the gospel, even though he fully knew that they were not in themselves obligatory any longer. The shadows had given way to the Savior. For instance Paul would carry out purification rites (e.g., Acts 21:20-26) and take certain vows (e.g., Acts 18:18) which he knew to be morally indifferent, and he did so to preserve a hearing for the gospel among the Jews. Among the Gentiles, however, he behaved "as though without the law." There was no advantage to pursuing the ceremonies in their presence. They were not like the Jews in this respect — not "kept in ward under the law before faith came," "under a tutor" until arriving at the mature sonship of New Testament believers who enjoy freedom from that tutor of the law (Gal. 3:23-26). The Jews lived under the ceremonial rituals handed down by Moses. In I Corinthians 9:20 Paul, recognizing that these rituals could not actually accomplish salvation and that they were rendered inoperative by the atoning work of Christ, says that nevertheless he acted as though "under the law" in order to gain the Jews for Christ. With some men he conformed to these rites, but with others he did not. He was all things to all men — without ever losing sight of the fact that he was "inlawed to Christ" and thus not at all failing to submit to God's law. (For further reading along these lines, see chapter 10 of Theonomy in Christian Ethics. The book may be ordered from me for $9.50 at 2244 East Grove Ave., Orange, CA 92667; include check and address.) Copyright 1980, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. III, No. 9 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1980 September, 1980 The Functions of God's Law (Part IV) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. Our study of what the law cannot do has found that the law (1) cannot contribute anything to a man's justification, (2) cannot relieve the bondage of sin and enable obedience, and (3) cannot actually accomplish the full salvation foreshadowed by the ceremonial ritual. A thorough study of the literature of the New Testament will show that its depreciatory or negative remarks about the law of God will each and every one be associated with an oversight of the three mentioned inabilities of the law. Failing to see what the law cannot do and was never intended to do, men have tried to use works of the law for personal justification, have vainly sought to obey the law's precepts without God's gracious empowering, and have continued under the outmoded shadows of the Mosaic ritual after the advent of the Savior. To such unlawful uses of the law the New Testament speaks with firm antipathy. Yet none of the well known New Testament passages which speaks against the abuse of the law goes on to release believers from moral obligation to the pattern of righteous living revealed in the law. The standard of the law remains valid, showing us what is good in the sight of God. Accordingly Paul's evaluation has proven very helpful in resolving the apparent conflict over the status of the law within the pages of the New Testament. Paul explained, "We know that the law is good, if a man uses it lawfully" (I Tim. 1:8). What are the lawful uses of the law? What the Law Can and Should Do Before Adam fell into sin, obedience to the law would bring to him life and well-being. Since the fall, however, the law became to sinners a way of condemnation and death; the law cannot bring about obedience in the sinner and cannot be used as a way of justification. Yet the ceremonial shadows of the Old Testament — the gospel in figures-gave promise that God himself would graciously accomplish full salvation for His people, justify them from sin and break the power of rebellion in their lives. God's righteousness is effective in those who have experienced a transition from wrath to grace in their personal lives, so that grateful obedience to God's good law again becomes a way of life and well-being. No longer is God's law ignored. No longer is it replaced with the commandments and wisdom of men. No longer is it misused for the purposes of self-righteousness. Within the life of the believer the law receives its proper due; indeed, it is established by faith (Rom. 3:31). By it we can be blessed. According to Scripture, the law has many legitimate functions. We can try to summarize them in the following list. (1) The law declares the character of God and so reveals His glory. The kind of lifestyle and attitudes which the Lord requires of His people tells us, of course, what kind of God He is. If you wish to see the contrast between the pagan deities and the living and true God of the Bible, simply observe the difference between the things which they command. Moloch demanded child sacrifice, while Jehovah commanded the care and nurture of children — to take but one example. The 19th Psalm extensively applies the attributes of God (perfection, purity, righteousness, truth) to the precepts of God. Throughout the law God reinforces the authority of His commands by following them with the declaration, "I am the Lord." In showing the true and radical demand of the law's requirements (Matt. 5:21-47), Christ was showing us the perfection of God which is desired in us (v. 48). John Newton wrote: "When we use the law as a glass to behold the glory of God, we use it lawfully. His glory is eminently revealed in Christ; but much of it is with a special reference to the law, and cannot be otherwise discerned. We see the perfection and excellence of the law in his life. God was glorified by his obedience as a man. What a perfect character did he exhibit ! yet it is no other than a transcript of the law" (Letters, p. 47). (2) The law displays the demand of God upon our lives as men. By revealing the character of God, the law quite naturally expresses what is required of men if they are going to imitate their Creator. The law's commands show how we are to be like God by propounding the will of God for us. Before delivering the summation of the law in the Decalogue, God spoke to Israel with these words: "Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex. 19:5-6). Obedience to the law is obedience to the voice of the King, the Lord of the covenant, and as such it shows us what it means to be His subjects and servants. For us to pray "Thy kingdom come," is likewise to pray "Thy will be done on earth" (Matt. 6:10). And God's will is communicated by His commandments, telling us what His holiness means on a creaturely level (Lev. 20:7-8). (3) The law pronounces blessing upon adherence to its demands. God's commandments were laid down for our good (Deut. 10:13), and obedience to them is the pure delight of the righteous man (Ps. 1:1-2). Such obedience brings prosperity (Ps. 1:3-4) and good success (Joshua 1:7). The Lord's lovingkindness is upon those who keep His precepts (Ps. 103:17-18), blessing them and their cultures (cf. Deut. 7, 11,28, 30). Indeed, Paul taught that "godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come" (I Tim. 4:8). Seeking the righteousness of God's kingdom above all will be rewarded by the supply of every need (Matt. 6:33). The law insures that when men are just and righteous, they enjoy the life and blessing which imitation of God constitutes. Thus the commandment was ordained unto life (Rom. 7:10), and the man who does the things of the law enjoys life within their sphere (Gal. 3:12). (4) The law provides a definition of sin. By showing us what God is like and what God demands, the law likewise delivers a standard for sin. Sin is lawlessness (I John 3:4). In delineating the righteousness which pleases God, the law simultaneously provides the norm of waywardness and rebellion against God. Where there is no law, there can be no transgression (Rom. 4:15; 5:13). By the law men come to know what sin is (Rom. 3:20; 7:7). (5) The law exposes infractions and convicts of sin. The law is more than simply an objective code of right and wrong by which, if one is interested, he can judge his performance. The law, being Spiritual (Rom. 7:14), is part of that word of God which is living and active — sharper than any two-edged sword, so as to pierce deeply into the recesses of man's heart and bring to the light his darkest character. The law judges the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:12) and produces a conviction of our sinfulness (e.g., Rom. 7:9-13). (6) Even more, the law works to incite rebellion in sinful men. Not only must we recognize that the law cannot enable us to obey its demands, we must also see that the law actually works in the contrary direction — exciting within the rebel further and further expressions of disobedience. Because the mind of the flesh (sinful nature) is unable to be subject to God's law (Rom. 8:7) , that law serves to confirm one's bondage to sin by provoking intensified rebellion. Thus Paul can see in the law the very power of sin (I Cor. 15:56). To understand this one need only reflect on the sad fact that the best way for an owner of a plate glass window to get it broken is for him to post a sign prohibiting the throwing of rocks at it. The very prohibition incites rebellion in the heart. By means of the commandments, then, man's sinful nature "becomes exceedingly sinful" (Rom. 7:13), working in us all manner of sin (Rom. 7:8), causing the trespass to abound (Rom. 5:20). (7) Consequently, the law condemns all transgression as deserving God's wrath and curse. The statement of Galatians 3:10 is blunt and terrifying: "Cursed is every one who does not continue in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them (cf. Deut. 27:26). James intensifies the threat, saying "Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point has become guilty of all" (2:10) . Every infraction of the law brings wrath upon the sinner. All men will be judged for their ungodliness (Jude 6), judged according to their deeds whether good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10), and if found guilty cast into the eternal perdition of second death (Rev. 20:12-15). The wages of sin will be death (Rom. 6:23). Therefore, the law works wrath (Rom. 4:15) upon those who are, by their sinful natures, children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). (To be continued.) Copyright 1980, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. III, No. 10 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1980 October, 1980 The Functions of God's Law (Part V) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. To this point we have seen that the law can and should declare the character of God, display His demands, pronounce blessing upon obedience, provide a definition of sin, expose infractions, incite further rebellion, and condemn all transgressions. These are lawful and appropriate functions of the law of God. To them others can be added. (8) The law drives us to Christ for salvation. Thus far we have noted the unmitigated, absolute, unchanging demand of the law which reflects the holiness of God and thus sets out the evil of man by glaring contrast. Those who would have hoped in their own righteousness for acceptance before God are shown the futility of this hope by looking at the high standard of the law. The law speaks and shuts every mouth, bringing all the world under God's judgment (Rom. 3:19). Sinners apart from Christ have no hope in this world (Eph. 2:12). The sinner's only recourse must be to the free mercy of God's promise. Enlightened as to his guilt, he cries out with Paul, "Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:24). God's gracious answer is Jesus Christ (3: 25), who manifests a righteousness of God apart from our obedience to the law (v. 21) and who justifies us by the free gift of faith (Rom. 3:22-26; 5:18-21; 6:23). In this way the law serves an important function in bringing men to salvation. It demonstrates their need and leaves them no honest option but God's offer of salvation. "Before faith came we were kept in ward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So that the law is become our tutor to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith" (Gal. 3:23-24). This passage is customarily cited for the wording which suggests that the law drives us along to Christ. (9) The law guides the sanctification of the believer. Since the law sets down the pattern of God's holiness for our lives, and since the law was our obligation from the beginning, and since it is precisely the violation of the law which brought about the death of Jesus Christ for sinners, it only stands to reason that those delivered from sin's guilt and bondage should now desire to follow the previously spurned law. Those who have seen the glory of God in His law and have thereby been convicted of their own sin, being driven to Christ for salvation, should strive to bring their thoughts, words, and deeds into conformity to the glorious standard of the law. God says, "You shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you" (Lev. 20:8). Christ gives His Spirit to believers "in order that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled" (Rom. 8:4). The law offers guidance and discernment to the believer (cf. Ps. 119:24, 66, 105; Prov. 6:23) so that he can walk in the light of God's moral perfection rather than in darkness (I John 1:5-7; 2:3-6; cf. 3:4-10; 5:2-3). Christians ought not to sin but rather evidence love toward God and neighbor, and the First Epistle of John tells us that sin is violation of the law, and that love is seen in keeping God's commandments. Accordingly Christians are properly guided in their lives by the law of God. John Newton wrote: "Another lawful use of the law is, to consult it as a rule and pattern by which to regulate our spirit and conversation. The grace of God, received by faith, will dispose us to obedience in general, but through remaining darkness and ignorance we are much at a loss as to particulars. We are therefore sent to the law, that we may learn how to walk worthy of God, who has called us to his kingdom and glory; and every precept has its proper place and use" (Letters, p. 47). Such an outlook led men like Newton to find another use of the law closely associated with its function of guiding sanctification. They often spoke of the law serving "as a test whereby to judge of the exercise of grace" (ibid). Such a concept, although unpopular in our day of easy believism, was very much on the mind of the Apostle John, who wrote "Hereby we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments" (I John 2:3). Obedience to the commandments was for John also a mark that one loved God and loved God's children (I John 5:2-3). It thus appears appropriate that believers should use the law of God as a benchmark by which to gauge and evaluate their growth by God's grace in holiness of character. Because Bolton viewed the law as "a direction of life, a rule of walking to believers," he went on to find that God's law functioned "as a glass (mirror) to reveal the imperfections in our performance of duties," "as a reprover and corrector for sin, even to the saints," and as "a spur to quicken us to duties" (The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, p. 83). (10) The law also serves to restrain the evil of the unregenerate. Although only believers will appreciate aright the glory of God's character revealed in the law, be convicted of their sinful pollution by comparison, and seek to be conformed to the righteous standard of the law, the law also serves a function in the life and experience of the unbeliever. Even if the unbeliever is not duly driven by the condemning finger of the law to the arms of a faithful Savior, the law should be utilized within a civil society to restrain the outward evil of ungodly men. Indeed, in the very passage when Paul tells us that the law is good when used lawfully, the precise lawful use of the law which he has in mind is its restraining function upon rebellious men: "knowing this, that the law was not enacted for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murders of fathers and mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for homosexuals, for menstealers, for liars, for false swearers..." (I Tim. 1:9-10). This may not be a sanctifying effect in the unbeliever's life, but it is nevertheless a preservative function within society which is honored by God. It was intended as one of the proper functions of the law when God revealed it—both through the created realm and through the medium of written legislation. The Traditional "Three Uses" of the Law Our preceding survey has aimed to delineate many facets of the legitimate function of the law as discussed in Scripture. However traditional Reformed thought has tended to summarize all of these various functions under the heading of three main uses of the law. The Reformers recognized quite clearly that the law had not been abolished in the New Testament age, and yet they were keenly aware of the abuses of the law to which the medieval Roman Catholic Church was prone. Therefore, against antinomians they argued for the law's validity, and in order to prevent falling into error in the use of the law they set down the law's proper functions. The "second use" of the law which they identified was called "the pedagogic use of the law." By providing conviction of sin and creating a sense of spiritual need in the sinner, the law was a tutor which brought him to Christ. In his well known Commentary on the Book of Galatians, Luther wrote: "The right use and end, therefore, of the law is to accuse and condemn as guilty such as live in security, that they may see themselves to be in danger of sin, wrath, and death eternal .... The law with this office helpeth by occasion to justification, in that it driveth a man to the promise of grace" (at Gal. 2:17 and 3:19). Certainly no evangelical believer can gainsay that the law properly serves such an end. The "third use" of the law identified by the Reformers was its "didactic use," whereby the law supplies a rule for life to believers. Calvin wrote, "The law is the best instrument for enabling believers daily to learn what that will of God is which they are to follow" (Institutes of the Christian Religion 2.7.12). Although some modern Lutherans have wished to distance themselves from this use of the law, there can be no doubt but that it is endorsed by Luther and by the Formula of Concord. Luther said that apart from appealing to the law for justification, "we cannot sufficiently praise and magnify those works which are commanded of God" (Commentary at Gal. 3:22). To remove the law. from the believer, thought Luther, "is a thing impossible and against God" (Table Talk 286). Accordingly Luther's Small Catechism begins with an exposition of the Decalogue. The Formula of Concord declared, "We believe, teach, and confess that the preaching of the Law should be urged... also upon those who truly believe in Christ , are truly converted to God, and regenerated and are justified by faith" (Article VI. 2). Although the Calvinist branch of the Reformation stresses the law as a good gift of God's grace and the Lutheran branch stresses it as a constraint, they both agree that the law is to be used to form the life of the regenerate believer. (To be continued.) (For further reading along these lines, see Chapter 13 of Theonomy in Christian Ethics, which may be ordered for $9.50 from me at 412 E. Quincy Ave., Orange, CA 92667; include check and address.) Copyright 1980, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved. BIBLICAL ETHICS 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Vol. III, No. 11 © Institute for Christian Economics, 1980 November, 1980 The Functions of God's Law (Part VI) by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D. Traditionally, Reformed thought has summarized the proper uses of the law into three specific functions. It drives the convicted sinner to Christ (the second use) and provides a pattern of sanctification for the regenerated believer (the third use). Some debate has surfaced in the past over the "third" or didactic use of the law, but the Reformed, faith has still persisted in the Biblical affirmation that the law retains its binding validity for the conduct of believers. More recently disagreement has arisen with respect to what the Reformers called the "first use" of the law, which they took to be its "political use" in restraining the ungodly behavior of the unregenerate within society. The Reformers were sure enough of this proper function for God's law that they could call it the first and most obvious use for it. In fact, the very passage where Paul suggests that there are both lawful and unlawful uses of the law of God — I Timothy 1:8 — goes on immediately to illustrate a lawful use of the law as that of curbing the outward civil behavior of unruly men. (vv. 9-10). The law provides an external standard of justice which can be applied within the civil sphere, as is evident from Paul's mentioning of transgressions which can particularly be given cognizance by human law. The law was enacted or laid down, says Paul, for the unruly -such as murderers, kidnapers, homosexuals, perjurers, and the like. The law by its very nature aims to restrain the misconduct of lawless men. In the Publisher's Introduction to the Banner of Truth reprint of Samuel Bolton's marvellous work, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, the civil importance of God's law is pinpointed nicely: "Grievous and alarming is the present-day deterioration in the moral condition of society. For this decay the Church is partly blameworthy because, as the preserving salt of the community, she has largely lost her savour. Modern theology has defected. It has cut itself adrift from the ancient landmarks, and present-day society reaps "the evil thing and bitter" which is the inevitable consequence. The present prevailing theology has not been able to elevate society and halt its moral decline, and unquestionably, one explanation of this is its misunderstanding of the place of the law and its usefulness in the service of the covenant of grace" (pp. 10-11). When men fail to see that God's law is meant to operate as external discipline within society, when they doubt and oppose the "political use" of the law, their societies inevitably suffer the accursed consequences. Carl F. H. Henry puts the matter this way: "Even where there is no saving faith, the Law serves to restrain sin and to preserve the order of creation by proclaiming the will of God .... By its judgments and its threats of condemnation and punishment, the written law along with the law of conscience hinders sin among the unregenerate. It has the role of a magistrate who is a terror to evildoers .... It fulfills a political function, therefore, by its constraining influence in the unregenerate world" (Christian Personal Ethics, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957, p. 355). This political function of the law is undeniable in the Old Testament, where God delivered statutes pertaining to civil matters for His people. These stipulations were integral to the law and order of Old Testament society, and if Paul's New Testament declaration in I Timothy 1:8-10 is to be heeded, these stipulations of God's law are still valuable in modern political ethics. "We cannot dismiss these glimpses of the means of law and order in the Old Testament without remembering that this God-given tradition is emphasized and not abrogated by the Christian gospel .... Though under grace we are under the Law of God and are still accountable to him and responsible to our fellow men that justice and peace prevail" (D. J. Wiseman, "Law and Order in Old Testament Times," Vox Evangelica VIII:19). The law of God continues to have an important political function within the New Testament order, as Donald Guthrie recognizes in saying: "In the New Testament a standard of justice is assumed and there is a clear differentiation between what is right and what is wrong. There are echoes of the Old Testament view of social justice .... The approach to law in general in the New Testament is intricately bound up with the Mosaic Law, which makes extensive provision for social justice .... The importance of this evidence of the sanctity of the law is that it provides a sound basis for social action. For a stable society law is indispensable" ("The New Testament Approach to Social Responsibility," Vox Evangelica VIII: 53-54), An ironic situation has arisen in our day. Evangelical Christians who might be considered to lean toward a more "liberal" position in politics and Evangelical Christians who might be thought to favor a more "conservative" position in politics have at least this one unwitting area of significant agreement: they both wish to make principled and authoritative use of the Old Testament law for social justice. Recent publications which have promoted an active involvement by the believer in relieving the needs of impoverished people around the world have made noteworthy appeal to the law of Jubilee, while many books and articles written to protest the tolerance of homosexuality and/or abortion in our day have made clear and unapologetic reference to the Old Testament prohibitions against them. The law is recognized as having a continued political significance by present-day believers, even when they do not systematically work out a theological foundation for the appeals which are made to the law's authority in contemporary society, and even when they might elsewhere unwittingly contradict that assumed foundation. That foundation is the continuing validity of God's law, even in its social or political relevance. Strangely enough, it is often those who are heirs to the Reformation tradition of maintaining the political use of the law that raise objection to that notion today. In resisting the political use of God's law, in detracting from its political relevance, and in encouraging either indifference to questions of social justice or else alternative standards for it, such men are not aligned with their Reformation forefathers. Luther and Calvin were fully in agreement that God's law was an instrument of civil government, functioning to restrain crime and to promote thereby civil order. Luther taught that, "The first use of the law is to bridle the wicked. This civil restraint is very necessary, and appointed of God, as well for public peace, as for the preservation of all things, but especially lest the cause of the Gospel should be hindered by the tumult and seditions of wicked, outrageous and proud men" (Commentary at Gal. 3:19). Calvin concurs: "The first use of the law is, by means of its fearful denunciations and the consequent dread of punishment, to curb those who, unless forced, have no regard for rectitude and justice. Such persons are curbed, not because their mind is inwardly moved and affected, but because, as if a bridle were laid upon them, they refrain their hands from external acts, and internally check the depravity which would otherwise petulantly burst forth" (Institutes 2.7.10). This continued to be the view of Reformed thinkers through the centuries. At the time of the Westminster Assembly, Samuel Bolton wrote: "First of all, then, my work is to show the chief and principal ends for which the law was promulgated or given. There are two main ends to be observed, one was political, the other theological or divine. The political use is hinted at by the apostle in I Tim. 1:8-9...; that is, it was made for them in such fashion that, if it were not their rule, it should be their punishment. Such is the political use of the law" (True Bounds of Christian Freedom, p. 78). The political use of the law is admittedly negative and merely deterrent in character. It does nothing to regenerate the sinner or make him right with God; it does not touch his heart or bring him any closer to the Savior. Nevertheless, this function of the law is crucial for man's society. When the known ordinances of God's law are spurned by a culture, it has the wrath of God revealed against it in the progressive breakdown of social order and moral decency (e.g., Romans 1). Because this important political use of the law of God is unpopular in many circles today, and because many people educated in the secular environment of our society, carry confused conceptions of what this political function entails, the next few studies will focus on the Biblical doctrine of civil government and the law's place therein. We will see that "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people" (Prov. 14:34), in which case we cannot dismiss the political relevance and use of the law of the Lord. Copyright 1980, Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711 Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics. Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved.