GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

BIBLE DOCTRINE

THE PURPOSE OF GOD'S HOLY LAW
Romans 3:19

Don Fortner


Chapter 60

"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." –Romans 3:19

The person who knows the proper place of the law and the glory of God's free grace, the person who can rest in Christ alone for all that the law requires and all that justice demands, knows the gospel. But that person who mixes law and grace, in any measure whatsoever, as a matter of acceptance before God, has not yet learned the gospel aright.

No two things in the world are more completely opposed to one another than law and grace. They are as opposite as light and darkness. They can no more agree than fire and water. Like oil and water, law and grace simply will not mix. The Scriptures are explicitly clear in asserting this fact (Rom. 11:5-6).

Yet, there is an amazingly well established opinion in the distorted minds of men that law and grace will mix! Though law and grace are diametrically opposed to one another, the depraved human mind is so void of spiritual understanding, and so thoroughly turned away from God, that the most difficult thing in this world for man to do is to discriminate between law and grace. Man insists on mixing that which God has positively put asunder. Because of his foolish ignorance, man wants to find some legal standing before God. This is the thing that Paul opposes throughout all of his epistles. He expends every effort to destroy every remnant of legalism among God's people.

Free from the Law

In Christ, all who believe are free, totally free from the law. That fact cannot be stated too emphatically. There is absolutely no sense in which believers are under the law.

The word law is used 160 times from Romans through 1 John. Not once, not even once, in those 160 references is there a single hint that the believer is in some way, to some degree, for some reason, motivated by, ruled by, under the dominion of, or obligated to the law. Let's look at just a few of the plain, obvious statements of Holy Scripture dealing with this, the most persistent of all heresies.

Was Paul opposed to the law? Did he think the law was an evil thing? Certainly not! In Romans 7, he shows us his own and every true believer's attitude toward God's holy law. "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good…We know that the law is spiritual…I delight in the law of God after the inward man."

The true believer recognizes the purpose of the law; and he highly reverences the law. It is his desire to live in perfect compliance with everything revealed in the law. And recognizing the law's perfection, he refuses to seek acceptance with God on the basis of legal obedience. It is our reverence for the law that keeps us from trying to live by the law. It is the perfect holiness and strict, unbending demands of God's law and justice, which drive us to Christ. This is not licentious doctrine, but holy doctrine.

C. H. Spurgeon once illustrated this fact by telling his congregation of the experience of one he identified as Dr. Chalmers, who said, "I preached morality until there was scarcely a moral person left in the parish. I preached righteousness and goodness until I could hardly find a decent, honest man anywhere around me." Then God saved the man. He began preaching Christ crucified and salvation by the free grace of God in him, and things changed. That is exactly what Paul told Titus would happen whenever the gospel is faithfully preached.

We do not teach sabbath keeping because God forbids it; but we keep the sabbath rest by faith in Christ. – Christ is our Sabbath. We do not teach circumcision because our Lord forbids it; but we are the circumcised. – God the Holy Spirit has circumcised our hearts by the saving operations of his grace in the new birth. We do not teach tithing because God plainly forbids us taking anything from anyone by constraint of law. "God loveth a cheerful giver!" But all believers give. We give ourselves to Christ. – Giving themselves to Christ, God's elect cheerfully give of their means to support the cause of Christ.

Three Great Difficulties

Seeking the conversion of sinners, endeavoring to persuade men to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are faced with three great difficulties.

The first real difficulty in conversion is to get a person lost, really lost. The hardest thing in the world to find is a sinner who is really lost. I know that all who are without Christ are lost in the sense that all are under the wrath of God; but few know it. There are very few men and women walking the streets of any city anywhere in this world who know they are lost, so thoroughly and completely lost that no religious rite or ceremony, no system of works, no law, no code of morality can do them any good. As Joseph Hart expressed it in one of his hymns, –

"What comfort can a Savior bring
To those who never felt their woe?
A sinner is a sacred thing;
The Holy Ghost hath made him so."

There are many who will admit that they are weak, and need a little help. There are some who will even admit that they are sinful, and in need of some atonement. But there are few people in this world who will acknowledge that they are totally and eternally lost, in need of salvation by pure grace alone. Only the Holy Spirit can produce a lost sinner. The first thing that must be done is to get a man lost. Only real sinners seek real grace. Only God the Holy Spirit can convince a sinner that he is a sinner, lost, undone, and under the curse of God's holy law without Christ.

The second real difficulty in conversion is teaching lost sinners the gospel of the free grace of God in Christ. There are few people in this world who have ever heard the gospel, and fewer still who ever really learn it. The gospel of God's free, sovereign, saving grace in Christ proclaims salvation to lost sinners without anything in return from them, – requiring nothing from them. Salvation is the free gift of God, from beginning to end. Even repentance, faith, and good works are gifts of his grace.

It is very difficult for proud sinners to learn the gospel, because it is opposed to our pride. It is opposed to our wisdom. It is opposed to our religious prejudices. It is opposed to our traditions. The gospel contradicts everything the natural man thinks about spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:9-16). God's way is always exactly the opposite of man's way.

The third great difficulty in conversion is bringing lost sinners to rest in Christ alone, trusting him alone for everything they need for acceptance with the holy Lord God (1 Cor. 1:30-31). We must rest entirely upon Christ. We must never grow beyond that. We are to live all the days of our lives trusting that same grace and love that first took us in. We are chosen, redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and kept by grace alone. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him" (Col. 2:6).

"Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I'm come:
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home."

We place no hope whatsoever in our obedience to the law of God. We have neither salvation, nor sanctification, nor reward by our obedience to the law. We trust nothing but Christ alone; and we trust him for all things. Everything God requires from and gives to sinners is in Christ (Eph. 1:3-14).

One Purpose

The law of God has but one proper use spiritually. I grant, the law restrains unrighteous men from behaving as they would were there no penal consequences for their offences (1 Tim. 1:8-10). But spiritually the law has only one proper, lawful use. It was given for only one purpose. It was not given as a code of moral ethics. It was not given as the believer's rule of life. It was not given as a motive for Christian service. It was not given as a measure of sanctification. It was not given to be the grounds of our assurance. It was not given as a basis for reward in heaven. – The only purpose of God's holy law is to identify, expose, and condemn man's sin, shutting him up to Christ alone for acceptance with God.

Before any sinner is converted, he must be convinced of his sin and guilt. That is the only lawful use of the law. Before any man is given the newness of life in Christ, he must be slain by the law. The law is God's deep, cutting plow, by which he breaks up the fallow ground of a sinner's heart and conscience, and prepares the soil of his heart for the gospel. This plowing is a difficult, but necessary process. Yes, there must be more than legal conviction; but legal conviction is an essential part of gospel conviction (John 16:8-11).

Our Only Hope

The sinner's only hope before God is free grace, – free grace flowing to chosen sinners upon the ground of righteousness fulfilled and justice satisfied. This is Paul's doctrine. This is the doctrine of Holy Scripture. This is the doctrine of the gospel.

God the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle to say exactly the same thing to the saints at Galatia. He means for us to get the message.

The law demands a weighty debt;
And not a cent will it abate.
The gospel points to Jesus' blood,
And says, "He made the payment good!"

The law provokes man oft to ill,
And hardened hearts makes harder still.
The gospel shows Immanuel's heart
And melts this hardened sinner's heart!

"Run, run, and work," the law commands,
But gives me neither feet nor hands.
Much sweeter news the gospel brings.
It tells me Christ did everything!


Don Fortner, Pastor
Grace Baptist Church
Danville, Ky.



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