Before we begin today's episode of Renewing Your Mind, we invite you to stay with us through the end of the program to hear how you can request today's featured teaching series from Ligadier Ministries. We're not just talking about Pure lawlessness here. Again, there are many people who believe that the New Testament has its set of commandments and that obviously as Christians we are obligated to obey the rule of Jesus Christ and the law that He gives to His people. But again, the question is, what about the Old Testament law? Hello and welcome to the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
Today, we continue our study of the significance of the Old Testament law in the life of a Christian.
Some Christians think that because we're under the new covenant now, the law isn't relevant. But as we'll see today, the law of God is indispensable. Let's join Dr. R. C.
Sproll. Recently, I had the opportunity to teach a course to men who were studying for their Doctor of Ministry degree in the seminary. And in the opening day of that course I sprang a pop quiz on them, which, of course, is the bane of every student in every classroom. I asked them in the opening moments of the class to take out a piece of paper and number from one to ten. Then I proceeded to give them one question.
I said, please write down on this paper. The Ten Commandments. In order. And after sufficient time had elapsed, we had them check their papers. Mercifully, I didn't collect them.
and ask them simply to grade themselves. And discovered that 20% of these pastors who were working on their doctor's degree in ministry. were able to get all of the Ten Commandments in order. Eighty percent were not able to do it. And about fifty percent of them were able to name all ten.
but we're not able to do it in order.
Now, you may want to take that same test right now, unless you're driving down the throughway somewhere. At least in your own mind, see if you can think through the Ten Commandments and give them in order, or at least be able to name them all. I've done this frequently at conferences with large groups and found out That less than 10% of the people that I've ask this to in large groups, were able to name all ten, not to mention in order, but just to name all ten of the Ten Commandments. That means that in my little universe, 90% of the people I've asked this question. Are not able to give the Ten Commandments in their entirety.
and I found that somewhat striking, indeed astonishing. And I've asked this question, what does that signify?
Some may say, well, it just simply means that we're not very good at memorizing or that we've moved away from learning by way of rote memory. And we have a basic idea of what the law commands, but just because we can't name all ten of them should be no major concern to us. But when we understand the central significance of the Ten Commandments to the Old Testament, And the Ten Commandments to the New Testament Christian life. It is an amazing thing that even leaders within the Christian world. cannot name these basic Foundational elementary commandments of God.
And I think that what it reflects, partly at least, is something of the climate in which the church is functioning at the end of the twentieth century. Historians and analysts have suggested that we are living in perhaps the most anti Nomian. In the History of the Church.
Now that's a fancy word, antinomian. I think we all know what. means against. And gnomion comes from the Greek word gnomos, which means law. And so antinomianism is that theory within theology that the law of God, at least the Old Testament law, is in no way binding.
or relevant to the Christian life. We read frequently in the New Testament passages such as the Apostle Paul writes that we are no longer under law, but we are under grace. And that is routinely taken to mean that we are no longer responsible in any way. To conform to the law of the Old Testament, because the Old Testament law was only relevant to people in Israel, in the theocratic system of that day. And all of that was done away with the entrance of Christ and the beginning of the new covenant and the establishment of the Christian church.
John tells us. That the law came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And in that contrast, we see that we're no longer under the law. meaning the law has no binding significance or influence upon us. I was engaged in Some theological debate with one branch of Christendom, and I mentioned that this particular school of thought.
Was characteristically anti-Nomian in its theology. And one of the leading scholars from that branch. Wrote me a lengthy letter in which he protested my charge of anti-nominism. against his group. And he said to me, We are not antinomian because we believe that every Christian is responsible to obey the commandments of Christ that are found in the New Testament.
We simply Believe that the Old Testament law has no bearing or relevance to the New Testament Christian. And I responded to him by saying, Historically, the term antinomian, as it has been used throughout church history, refers precisely to the statement that he has just made, and that he just gave the classic definition of antinomianism by saying that the Old Testament law has no relevance to the New Testament law. Christian.
So We're not just talking about Pure lawlessness here. Again, there are many people who believe that the New Testament has its set of commandments and that obviously as Christians we are obligated to obey the rule of Jesus Christ and the law that He gives to His people. But again, the question is, what about the Old Testament law? Now this is no easy problem to deal with. For several reasons.
The first of which is That we see in the scripture itself that certain elements of the Old Testament law have clearly been. Abrogated In a sense. For example, The ceremonial law of the Old Testament The ceremonial law refers To the rites and rituals that were performed in the worship experience of Israel. For example, the offering of sacrifices. The offering of sacrifices was not just simply a suggestion that God gave to Israel.
It was by his command that they had to celebrate the Day of Atonement and they had to make their burnt offerings and so on. And all of those ceremonies, the New Testament tells us. were shadows or types Of the final sacrifice that was to be offered once for all in the death of Jesus. And in fact, we see the New Testament struggle with that group who were trying to influence the New Testament church to continue with these ceremonies. And that group was called the Judaizers, who insisted that the Old Testament rituals be.
continued in perpetuity. in the New Testament church. And of course, that view was hotly contested and fiercely resisted by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians, as well as. by the author of Hebrews. And the thinking was this, that after Christ has offered the perfect sacrifice once and for all, if we reverted back to the types and the shadows, we would in effect be denying the fullness of light that has come and the total fulfillment of all of this ceremony in the perfect sacrifice of Christ that is made once for all.
And so historically, the Christian Church, in terms of her orthodoxy, has made it clear that we are not to continue these cultic ceremonial practices of rite and ritual from the Old Testament. Also, we find a segment of the law in the Old Testament. called the dietary. Laws. Which We remember, God gave to Israel, and He prescribed what foods they were allowed to eat.
What foods were considered unclean? They were not allowed to eat pork, for example. And we know that in the New Testament, when the New Testament church expanded to include Gentiles who followed a different rule of diet. The question became a hot issue in Jerusalem, and the first ecumenical council of the church was the Council of Jerusalem that's recorded in Acts 15. Where this question of diet was brought up and Peter had had the vision.
Whereby Christ had told him not to declare unclean things that he has now made clean. And the list of prohibited foods was greatly reduced by the Council of Jerusalem. We were not allowed to eat blood and so on. But for the most part, the restrictions of diet that were established in the Old Testament were now lifted. In the economy of the New Testament situation.
So we see two ways in which it seems to be plain that. The laws of the Old Testament are seen as no longer absolutely binding upon the lives of Christians.
Now again, historically, the church made a distinction among these different types of law, the dietary laws, the ceremonial laws, and then looked at the third group, which was called the moral law. of the Old Testament.
Now, before we go any further with this, let me Give a little caveat. Keep in mind That as Helpful as this distinction may be, Where you say there's the moral law, and then there's the dietary, the ceremonial law, or the civil law of Israel, which is another question altogether. But we look at these distinctions, keep in mind that for the Jew in the Old Testament period, These distinctions would have been basically meaningless because. All of the law was moral. To the Old Testament Jew.
That is, it was a moral issue. To Daniel, to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, whether or not they obeyed the dietary laws of God while they were in exile. It was a moral issue for Israel whether the people of Israel obeyed the ceremonial law. They saw these as moral mandates, of course.
So That's a given, but we still understand why this distinction has been made. That the idea is that still there is a substantive. stratum of law in the Old Testament that seems to continue Into The Life of the New Testament Church.
Now, one of the important texts that we find in the New Testament is found in the Sermon on the Mount. Where Jesus makes this observation, think not, he said, that I came to loose. or to destroy the law. but to fulfill it.
Well In the same regard, the Apostle Paul, when he speaks in glorious terms of how we have been redeemed from the curse of the law and that we are no longer under the law, He's careful. To warn us against jumping to the very conclusion that antinomians do. Namely, that we have disestablished the law and completely removed the law from any consideration to the life of the Christian. He says that the law is not a bad thing, that the law is holy. and that the law is to be established.
And the whole tenor of the apostolic writing of the New Testament in James, for example, when he talks about the royal law of obedience in the teachings of Jesus himself. where many of the Old Testament laws are reiterated. For the benefit of the Christian church, we see that the substantive. Content of the moral law of the Old Testament still has a vitally important. Place in the New Testament community.
But again, the question is. What is that Place.
Now this was a question during the Reformation period, and one of the most significant and important contributions to the Reformation that was made by John Calvin In his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Was his exposition of what he called the threefold use. Of the law. The threefold Use of the law. In other words, What Calvin was saying.
is that there are three distinct ways in which the Old Testament law is very useful. Two the New Testament Christian. Three distinct ways. And he differed at some fine points from Luther on this, but Luther also believed that the law. had a significant role in the life of the Christian.
And so what I want to do with the rest of the time I have today is give an exposition of these three uses of the law.
Now first what I'll do is simply state them. and then expand upon them individually. The three uses of the law that Calvin outlined were, first of all, the law's use or function as a mirror. The second is the laws function As restraint. And the third use of Which is called simply in theology the tertius usus.
That's the Latin for third use. The tertius uses of the law, which Calvin saw as the most important, was what we regard as the Revelatory Use or function. of the law. The revelatory function. of the law.
Well, let's Look at them now in order, beginning. With the first Use of the law. as a mirror.
Well, what Calvin had in mind here was this. But We have to understand that the law of God is not something that exists abstractly Hanging suspended, Somewhere in the distant universe, east of the sun and west of the moon. It's not that God had to go to a heavenly mountain and climb the mountain and receive from some greater God tablets of stone by which God Himself was called to be obedient. but rather the source For the Old Testament moral law. Is found in God Himself.
Now, that raises a question that was a fierce question in the Middle Ages. And that is the question: is God himself Outside of the law. Or is God himself bound by some greater law? And that controversy was called the X Lex controversy. controversy.
I said ex lex, not ex lax. Exlex means outside of or apart from law lex. Lex means law. And the idea was this. Is there some Law above God.
To which God owes obedience and allegiance. That is, does God function sub Lego? Is God under law himself?
Well, the theologians of the Middle Ages said a thousand times no. We have to scratch out sub Lego, because if we said that God was under some law that was outside of himself, there would be something higher than God. And that something higher than God would have to be God. and God would no longer be God.
So, that there's no law outside of God that imposes obligation upon him.
Well, if that's the case Wouldn't it follow, then? That God is lawless. He can do whatever he wants. If he is not sublago, Then he must be ex lex. He must be outside of all law.
And can act in an arbitrary, capricious, or whimsical manner. without any sense. of order.
Well, what the Middle Ages theologians did was said We'll X that out too and say a pox on both of your houses. And that God is neither under law nor apart from law. But there is a third alternative, namely, that God is a law unto himself.
Now how does that differ from being axlax? What that means simply. that the behavior of God is never lawless. The actions of God. Are always in conformity to The law of God's own nature.
His own character. which is inherently righteous. which is eternally holy. All of his actions. Come forth.
According to who he is. As we look at this question of law. It's important for us to remember. That the fundamental problem In all of creation. is the problem of evil.
The fundamental problem in our lives. Is the problem of sin. And sin and evil both. are defined In light of law. The Fall of Adam and Eve was a transgression against the law of God.
Absolute wickedness. In the scriptures. is associated with Lawlessness. The supreme manifestation of evil incarnate. Is the man of lawlessness.
So when we deal with this question of law. particularly with respect to the law of God. We are not dealing with a peripheral matter, a tangential question. But something that comes to the core of our lives as human beings. We're supposed to live.
before the face of God. Quorum Day. That was R. C. Sproll from his series, God's Law and the Christian.
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Well, you heard Dr. Sproll mention corum deo. That may be a new phrase to you. Here he is now to explain what it means. Literally what it means is Before the The face of God.
And what Luther was saying simply was this: that the Christian life means to live all of your life. In the presence of God. You know, sometimes we behave. and perform with our lives not for God, but for an audience. That's here.
And that our behavior when we're in secret may be different. from how we behave when we're in the presence of people whose judgment or approval we seek. We think, for example, of the prodigal son when he pled with his father to receive his inheritance early. How he squandered that money, but before he squandered that inheritance, what did he do? He went away into a far country.
Or he was anonymous. where no one knew him. Where he didn't feel like he had to live under the scrutiny of somebody who might possibly disapprove. of what he was doing.
Now, Luther says we should live our whole lives. Not as people seeking the cover of darkness. Where we have a secret life, a private life that is hidden. from the gaze of our friends or of authorities, but that our lives should be lived openly in the presence of God. Before the face of God, practicing a kind of consciousness of God from moment to moment.
Now we add to that a couple of other ideas. The big idea of Christianity is to live. to live all of one's life in the presence of God. Under The authority of God and to the honor and to the glory of God. Amen.
Well, on Monday, we will be joined by Ligator Teaching Fellow Rev. Joel Kim to discuss Paul's letter to the Colossians. We hope you'll join us beginning Monday here on Renewing Your Mind.
