Today's Blog is written by Martin Davids; a member of Manor Park Church
Over the next few
weeks I intend write (DV) a series of blogs on the 10 Commandment and their
importance to the Christian today. Before we begin let us look briefly at the
importance of the law.
Whilst it is true that the Reformation emphasised grace over law,
the law of God was never rejected by the Reformers. John Calvin, himself wrote
of what has become known as the “Threefold Use of the Law” in order to show the
importance of the law for the Christian life.
The Law is a mirror.
The Reformers
often spoke of the law of God as a mirror.
This mirror reflects two things. Firstly,
the perfect character of God – why is something virtuous? It is because it
reflects the very nature of God. When we
speak of an attribute of God, for example love, holiness, compassion– this is
not some external standard to which God measures up to – rather we are saying
this is what God IS. Conversely, sin is
not just breaking an arbitrary rule that God made up, rather it is going
against the very nature of God.
How many times
have you looked in a mirror only to notice a smudge of dirt? Often our first
response is to say to a friend “Why didn’t you tell me that was there?” The
implication being that if they were a good friend they would have told you and
saved your embarrassment. This is the
second use of the Law. God uses the law
as a mirror to show us our sins and imperfections. It is very easy to deny our sins when we
can’t see them but when the mirror of the law is held up to our faces it
reveals the truth.
The Law brings knowledge of sin.
Many years ago I
was teaching an R.E. lesson and I was talking about sin and a young lad around
9 told me that he couldn’t sin because “he was not a Christian.”. I made sure to tell him that Christians did
not have a monopoly on sin. This amusing misunderstanding happened because the
world does not understand sin. In
Romans 7:7 Paul tells us that if it were not for the law we would not know what
sin was. “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had
not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have
known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not
covet.” We human beings have an amazing
ability to be blind to our own sins.
This is fantastically illustrated in an evangelism technique made
popular by New Zealand evangelist Ray Comfort known as the ‘Good Person’ test. Ray asks people in the street “Are you a good
person?” to which they inevitably answer “Yes.”
He then takes them through the 10 commandment to show that they have
broken every one and are not a good person at all. The law then, tells us what is sinful and
holds us to that standard.
The Law is
our Schoolmaster
As a child of
around 10, I feared going into year 6 because of the teacher who was known to
be fearsome and strict. I even vaguely remember trying to convince my mum to
have me transfer to the other class just to avoid him. Yet as a man there is not one teacher I
remember with greater respect and fondness than that year 6 teacher. Martin Luther said, “The first duty of the
gospel preacher is to declare God’s Law and to show the nature of sin, because
it will act as a school master and bring him to everlasting life which is in
Jesus Christ.” John Wesley who said, “Before I preach love, mercy, and grace, I
must preach sin, Law, and judgment.” Charles Spurgeon said, “They will never
accept grace until they tremble before a just and holy Law.” J.C. Ryle, “People who will never set their
faces decidedly toward heaven and live like pilgrims until they really feel
they’re endanger of hell. Let us expound and beat out the Ten Commandments and
show the length and breadth and depth and height of the requirements of the
Law. This is the way of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. We cannot do
better than to follow His plan.” John Stott wrote, “We cannot come to Christ to
be justified until we’ve first been to Moses to be condemned. Once we have gone
to Moses and acknowledged our sin, guilt and condemnation, we must not stay
there. We must leave Moses and go to Christ.”
Summing it up.
If we tell the
lost sinner that they need to be saved they could rightly ask “Saved from
what?” This is where the law, as our schoolmaster, teaches us something. By studying or meditating on the law of
God, we attend the school of righteousness. We learn what pleases God and what
offends Him. It teaches us what sin is and how
serious it is. That God is holy and we
are not and that we stand condemned before him without hope or recourse. Then the Gospel applies the balm of a Saviour
who died to take our sins and give is His righteousness that we might stand
justified before God.
Song for the day
A very simple song
extolling the Law of the Lord taken from Psalm 19:7-11 Song "The Law of the
LORD is Perfect" by Esther Mui. It
can be found here
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise
the simple.
8 The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing
the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening
the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true; they
are righteous altogether.
10 They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much
fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the
drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them Your servant is warned;
In keeping them there is
great reward.
Prayer for the day
Our loving Father,
We thank you for your law, a light to guide us in
this darkened world. May we come to love
your law, to bury
it deep with our hearts that we will not sin before you. Lord as we seek to meditate upon your Word I
pray that it will convict us, challenge us, comfort us and bring us ever closer
to you.
Father we
acknowledge that we cannot keep the law so we thank you for sending your Son
who kept the law perfectly and died on our behalf exchanging His perfect life
for our filthy rags that we might become the righteousness of Christ.
With that thought
let us live every day seeking to be more like our Saviour who loved you law and
was obedient to death even death on a cross.
Amen.
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