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The law of God 1.
GOD gave Adam a law, written in his heart, that required his full
obedience; also one command in particular, namely, that he must not eat
the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Thereby Adam and all
his posterity were bound to personal, complete, exact and perpetual
obedience. God promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened
death upon the breach of the law, and endued Adam with power and ability
to keep His law. 2.
The same law that was first written in man's heart continued to be
a perfect rule of righteousness after Adam fell into sin, and was given by
God upon Mount Sinai in the form of ten commandments, written in two
tables. The first four commandments constitute our duty towards God
and the remaining six our duty to man. The ten are known as the
moral law. 3.
Besides the moral law God also gave to the people of Israel
ceremonial laws which served as types of things to come. They fell
into two main groups. In one group were rites, partly relating to
worship, which pre-figured Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and
the blessings He procured for us. The other group contained a
variety of instructions about moral duties. By divine appointment
all these ceremonial laws were to be observed, but only until they were
abrogated in New Testament days by Jesus Christ, the true Messiah and only
law-giver who was empowered by the Father to terminate them. 4.
To the people of Israel God also gave sundry judicial laws which
applied as long as they remained a nation. The principles of equity
which appear in them are still valid, not because they are found in Moses'
laws but in virtue of their unchanging character. 5.
Obedience to the moral law remains for ever binding upon both
justified persons and all others, and that in respect of the actual
content of the law, and also of the authority of God, the creator, who is
its author. In the gospel Christ in no way cancels the necessity for
this obedience; on the contrary He greatly stresses our obligation to obey
the moral law. 6.
So far as the law is a covenant of works under which justification
or condemnation is awarded, it has no application to true believers.
Yet in certain other ways it is of great use to them as well as to others,
for as a rule of life it informs them of the will of God and instructs
them in their duty. This done, it directs and binds them to obey it.
It also reveals to them the sinful defilement of their natures, their
hearts and their lives, so that as they examine themselves by the light of
the law, they may be convicted more deeply of sin, and caused to humble
themselves on account of it and to hate it the more. At the same
time the law also gives them a clearer sight of their need of Christ, and
the perfection of Christ's own obedience to the law. Similarly, as
the law forbids sin, it causes the regenerate to fight against the evil
inclinations to sin that they find in themselves. Furthermore, the
threatenings of the law are of value in showing the regenerate what their
sins deserve, and what afflictions their own disobedience may cause them
in this life, even while they stand delivered from the curse and the
unrestricted rigor of the law. In similar manner the promises attached to
the law intimate God's approbation of obedience and set forth the
blessings which flow from the fulfillment of the law, but with the proviso
that those blessings do not accrue to men from the law viewed as a
covenant of works. The fact that a man does good and refrains from
evil because the law encourages the former and deters from the latter, is
no evidence that the man is under the law and not under grace. Ezek. 36:27; Gal. 3:2,1.
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