The law is not dead
Rather, it is the very expression of the living God’s righteous holiness. Since it is not dead, all men still owe obedience to it, Luke 17:10. It is not made dead to the believer, Rom. 7:13.
Matthew Henry points out in his commentary on Rom. 3:31 that Paul teaches that justification by faith does not nullify the law, or make it dead. Scroll to the last paragraph. It reads, ‘though we do say that the law will not justify us, yet we do not therefore say that it was given in vain, or is of no use to us. No, we establish the right use of the law. [And …] though we cannot be saved by it as a covenant, yet we own it, and submit to it, as a rule in the hand of the Mediator, subordinate to the law of grace …’.
The law is good
It is not in Exodus 20 that the Bible tells us the law is holy, spiritual, good, and our delight. Rather, it is in Romans 7 where Paul wrestles with his sin in the face of the law of God.
And, if he were but a natural man he would have immediately sprung into Antinomianism. He would have said, “God rid me of this law”. Instead, the very thing he says is that the law is spiritual and good; that it bears the very character of God himself. See especially verses 12, 14 & 22. And, he says that he personally delights in the law after the inward man, verse 22.
And what does Paul cry instead of ‘rid me of this law’? He cries ‘deliver me from this body of death’, verse 24. The body of death is our sin.
Good but powerless
While the law shows us what righteousness looks like, it cannot empower us to live righteous lives. The law is good, but it is weakened by the flesh, Rom. 8:3. So, it is not the law, but grace through union with Christ that produces the fruit of righteous living, Titus 2:11–12, Eph. 2:8.
Ferguson writes in The Whole Christ, pg. 157, “that without understanding and tasting union with Christ himself, both the legalist and antinomian remain wrongly related to God’s law“. And they are inadequately related to grace. The legalist and the antinomian do not rightly celebrate the marriage of duty with delight in Christ.
Acknowledging that the law has no power; the wholesale removal of that law seems to provide a harmless refuge from legalism. But the problem is not the law. It is the wrong attitude of heart toward the law.
So, the legalist relates to the law as a covenant of works. Once weary of that, his remedy is antinomianism and no relationship to the law. He sees no further point in keeping the law.
However, only by understanding and tasting* union with Christ through faith, will the believer receive the grace to love the law, and the power to produce what the law requires. This is sanctification.
*(Note, I did not write ‘experience’ union with Christ).
Are we dead to the law?
Yes, Romans 7:4 teaches that all believers died in Christ (with him on the cross) to the law as a way to be saved. And, it teaches that we are united and ‘married’ to Christ (with him in his resurrection) as the way to be saved.
Paul never taught that the law died to the believer as the antinomians teach. He taught only that the believer died to the law. That also means that the law no longer can condemn him. Christ nailed that condemnation and guilt to the cross in his body for our justification.
Ferguson says that this continued existence of the law does create a tension for and in the believer. That is because the believer, in his imperfect state of sanctification, is now married to Jesus Christ, the new husband. And he recognizes that he fails to keep the law during this mortal pilgrimage. Ferguson Lectures PDF, p #37.
We are dead to sin
Paul teaches in Rom. 6:2, that the Christian is dead to sin.
But this is not the same as saying that sin is dead in us. Upon our justification by faith, we now live out of Christ, our new ‘husband’; but not perfectly. This is the tension Ferguson speaks of, we desire to obey perfectly, but sin remains in us.
But Paul makes the point that we do bring forth fruit for God in that union with Christ.
We are alive in Christ
Union with Christ (regeneration), sanctifies us unto new life in Christ. This perfect union is foundational to the realm of sanctification in our earthly life. Without understanding this, we begin to think that obedience is by our power, by our own instigation.
But like justification, sanctification is also by faith. We live out of our union with Christ by faith. There is no other way to live out of Christ and unto Christ. And Hoeksema is clear that we experience our salvation by faith through sanctification, not through justification.
From God’s hand
So, Adam received the law from the Father. But Satan removed it from God’s hand. So did Eve, and Adam. Moses received it from the hand of the covenant God who brought Israel out of the bondage of Egypt/sin. New Testament believers receive it from the hand of Christ, through faith. We must never look at the law without understanding that our relationship to it is the fruit of our union with Christ.
The Law apart from Christ says, “Do this, and you shall live”. But the Law from the hand of Christ says, “Live, and you shall do this.” At conversion, Christ mediates the law for the Christian to be our rule of life. We are already justified by grace, and set beyond the reach of condemnation, Rom. 8:1. Therefore, it is the peculiar privilege of believers to do good works and obey the law.
According to Ferguson, both legalists and antinomians have a double error. Not only do they have a wrong view of the law. Ultimately, they have a wrong view of grace, be it revealed in law, or in gospel.
Not a means
The law is not a means to salvation, but it’s the moral shape that salvation takes. Once united to Christ, we are made spiritually alive, and given a lively faith. And by the hand of Christ, the Spirit uses the law to guide us. When we exercise our faith, we use the law in righteousness to God’s glory.
The pastor of the gospel is like the map-reader with the law of God in his hand. He leads the people in the way of perfect righteousness following Christ. His preaching of Christ’s Word powerfully brings the grace of God in the giving of the law, Rom. 10:14-17.
Our relationship to the law in Christ
We can see with Calvin that Christ is the life of the law. Through our union with Christ, the law itself is full of life. We can appreciate the clarity of the law only when we gaze fully into Christ’s face. Especially Book 2.7.12.
“David specially shows that in the law he saw the Mediator, without whom it gives no pleasure or delight.” ~Institutes, last sentence of 2.7.12.
And when we do gaze into the law, we see something of the unveiled face of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Cor. 3:7-18. And so, we thrill to its clarity. We rejoice in its depth of exposition. We seek the Spirit’s guidance for its application. And because of Christ himself, we say with Paul that we are in law to Christ, through the gospel.
“Paul could have said, of course, that he was in grace to Christ. If he had, every Antinomian who has ever breathed on the earth could have said amen. But Paul says that what he is in to Christ, is the law”. Ferguson Lectures PDF p #43.
Is antinomianism hyper-grace?
Hyper-grace teachers echo the antinomian ideology and reject the law as a rule for life. Antinomianism is no different than hyper-grace.
