Why the Law Is Difficult #1

You and I, we must understand the role of the moral law in the Christian life, and that's why we're undertaking this entire study as it's so important to understand how the moral law applies to us today. Welcome back to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. You know, it's been said by some that since the Ten Commandments are part of the Mosaic law, which was given to the Israelites, that they don't apply to Christians today. But is that really true? Well, today as Don continues teaching God's people God's Word, he'll shed light on this very complex and at times divisive subject. Open your Bible to Exodus chapter 20 as we get started. Here is Don with part one of a message called, Why the Law is Difficult. Why is it difficult for us to get our mind fully around the moral law of God, the law of God?

Why is that so hard? Why did another apostle find it difficult to understand the things that Paul said about these things? And the reason that we're doing this is kind of twofold. One, I want to give you a kind of a broad sweep of the issues that are involved, but also to kind of lay it before you as a bit of a challenge to your soul. A little bit of a challenge to your motivation and what it is that you want in Bible teaching and in your understanding and in your understanding of your own walk with God. This is an opportunity for us to understand things at a profound level. And for me, anyway, I can only speak for myself.

That's what I want. I don't want a superficial approach to the Word of God. I don't want to simply live on milk. I want some meat in my diet, as the author of Hebrews speaks about in Hebrews chapter 5.

We need some meat. And when we understand these things, it's going to do a number of things, but one thing that it's going to do is it's going to give us a far greater appreciation for the work of Christ on our behalf. As we understand these things, we are going to grow in our reverence of the fact that he obeyed this great law perfectly. And we are going to grow in our understanding of our own sinfulness and how far short we fall of the glory of God. And along with that, as we wed those two things together, we will only grow in our love and our appreciation for Christ because we will have a greater understanding of what he did on our behalf. And rather than just playing, you know, sentimental music off FM Christian music stations about Jesus kind of being like our boyfriend or girlfriend, we're going to actually enter into a sober-minded love for him that is rooted in the truth from Scripture, the truth about the law, the truth about Christ and the truth of our sin and the truth of our salvation. And if we're not going to aim for that in our Christian lives, I don't know what we're doing.

I don't know what kind of games we're playing if that's not what we ultimately want. And so this study is going to help us in that direction. Today I simply want to show you why it's a challenging study to embark upon. I'm going to give you four sections of understanding here. First of all, it's difficult to understand the law simply because of the definition of law.

That's point number one. Why is the law difficult? Number one, the definition of the law itself is difficult in Scripture. It is hard to understand the relationship between the law and the gospel because the very term law is used in many different ways in the Bible. I'm not going to take the time to turn you to texts for these eight assertions that I'm about to make.

If you're interested in them later, you can email the church, email me, and I'll be happy to provide it for you. I just want to give you a sweep just to expose you to the nature of the issues that are involved. The word law is used in at least eight different ways in Scripture.

Eight different ways. The word law identifies the book of Deuteronomy in Deuteronomy 27. In Luke 24, the term law refers to the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, the writings of Moses. And so it refers to Deuteronomy. It refers to all five books written by Moses.

Law goes further. In Matthew 22, it distinguishes the writings of Moses from the writings of the prophets. It's used to draw a distinction between different sections of the Old Testament. Law in Psalm 19 is used as a summary term for all of God's special revelation. In the book of Romans, law refers to the moral law that is the moral code that is written on the hearts of Gentiles, the things that non-Christians and heathen understand implicitly because God wrote it on their hearts. Also in the book of Romans, law can refer narrowly to a single statute of the law, one individual law in the midst of the overall revelation found in the Bible. In Galatians 2, we'll look at this term later, law identifies works that cannot justify you. The works of the law are not able to justify you.

The works that you do in your own strength cannot save you. And law is used to express that principle. And in John chapter 1, the word law identifies the entire Old Testament era, the whole era before Christ, and then grace is realized in the coming of Christ in John chapter 1 verse 17. That's eight different distinct ways that the term law is used just in Scripture. And if you pick up any kind of detailed English dictionary, you'll find over a dozen meanings for the word law just in the English language. Now look, that makes it difficult. That makes it a challenge. That means that we have to understand how law is being used in each individual passage, in each individual text.

We can't just assume the way law is used in one passage is the same meaning that is intended in another passage. That means it takes some patient study. It takes some thought. It takes some reflection. Each context in which the term law is found has its own nuance that must be understood.

That makes it difficult. That means that it takes some effort to study these things and to come to grips with their meaning. And part of the reason that I make that point, thinking of the quote from Ezekiel Hopkins earlier, where he quoted from Romans 6.14, we're not now under the law but under grace, for some superficial teaching, that one verse is used to justify the entire jettisoning. It's used to justify ignoring the law, ignoring the moral law in particular, because we're not under law but under grace. Well, you should see that something's wrong there, that one single verse can't explain everything in light of the nuance that I just described to you. There is no single verse that explains all we need to know about the law of God in the Christian life. And so we realize that we step back from that.

If we're going to be serious Christians, we step back from that. We say, okay, apparently there's some work to be done. Now, there are in the room, many of you are happy to do hard work in other areas. You're happy to do hard work in your garden. You're happy to do hard work in your career.

You're happy to do hard work at home, happy to do hard work in the shop, happy to do hard things for other people. Well, if that's true, then isn't it obvious that for the sake of the glory of God, for the sake of understanding his precious word, isn't it obvious that we should be willing to do some hard work in order to understand it, to apply ourselves, to not resent it, but to embrace it? Look at 2 Timothy 2. In verse 15, it says, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. It takes diligence to understand the word of God.

We're not willing to take a superficial approach. We're not willing to accept a lazy spirit as we come to the word of God. How could we be lazy in light of what Christ has done for us, in light of the work that he has done coming to heaven, going to the cross, going to the grave, coming out alive, ascending into heaven to intercede for us until we're with him in glory?

That was hard work on his part. Well, the least we can do, it seems to me, is to devote the work to understand the word that he's left behind. Turn back a book to 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter 5 in verse 17. My point here is not about the office of elder, but the work.

Verse 17, the elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. It's hard work. It's hard work for us to understand these things, and that's why the law is difficult to understand. It takes labor.

It takes effort. We have to apply ourselves to this. And so, you know, I'm actually, you know, I'm excited. I'm interested. I'm interested to see how this congregation responds to the work that's necessary to understand the law of God. I'm interested to see what the response is. I think this is going to be a good test for where our church is really at to find out how people respond to this.

I'm looking forward to that, and I'm expecting the best, but I realize that this is going to have a winnowing effect on some. But it's worth it. God's word is worth it. Our Christ is worth it. It is worth it to understand what he requires from us in detail so that we can live a life that's pleasing to him in the time that we have left here on the earth.

We want this, even though it's difficult. Is there anything worthwhile that has ever been gained without difficulty in attaining it? Has any athlete at the Olympics ever won a gold medal without doing the hard work of training? Has any champion ever held up the trophy without hard work that led him there? Has anyone ever mastered a musical instrument and brought artistic beauty to our ears without the hard work that was necessary to do it? No.

No. We understand that, and we embrace it in other things in life. What I'm laboring to emphasize here, let's not treat Christ cheaply. Let's not treat his word cheaply by pretending that this is easier than what it actually is. So the law is difficult to understand, first of all, by the very definition of the term itself. Now secondly, secondly, the types of law. The types of law make it difficult to understand the moral law of God. Part of what makes this difficult to understand the relationship between the law and the gospel is this. God gave three kinds of law to Moses. When we're speaking of law, there are different aspects to the law. There's the ceremonial law, as I'm going to explain here in a moment, the ceremonial law, the judicial law, and the moral law. Now, some Bible teachers, again, object to those categories. They say that distinction is not laid out verbally in Scripture, but neither is the word Trinity, which is a linchpin of Christian orthodoxy. That's a false objection.

It's a superficial objection. We believe that our 1689 confession gets it right, and so following that, following what Scripture teaches, we recognize three different types or kinds of law that God gave to Moses. First of all, there is the ceremonial law.

The ceremonial law. That refers to the manner of Old Testament worship. God gave to his people in his revelation to Moses, God required different kinds of sacrifices and priests and rituals and tabernacles, a tabernacle, not plural. He gave his people different sacrifices and rituals to follow in the tabernacle and temple so that they could approach him before the coming of Christ. And that outward form of worship was what they practiced.

It was a shadow that was pointing to Christ. Look at the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, going to the right in your Bibles if you're still in 1 Timothy, Hebrews chapter 10, in verse 1 it says, For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make perfect those who draw near. The law was a shadow that was pointing to a future final sacrifice by the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verses 11 and 12.

Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which never can take away sins. But Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. In the Old Testament the worship was different. Christ had not yet come. And so God ordained these animal sacrifices and different rituals as an avenue of worship to him before the fulfillment that Christ would bring.

The Old Testament worship has been replaced in Christ. And so that ceremonial aspect has been fulfilled by what Christ has done and is no longer practiced. But it's one aspect of the law and that makes understanding the law difficult. Secondly, another aspect to the law is the judicial law.

The judicial law. That refers to the precepts that were given to the Jews in Exodus 21 to 23 to govern their civil state. They were a nation. They were an independent nation under God. And God gave them precepts and regulations and ordinances to govern how civil life in the civil state would be done. These laws governed Israel's daily life in matters of property rights and criminal punishment.

Most Christians believe that those laws were set aside when biblical Israel ceased to exist there in the first century after the destruction of Rome and earlier. You have the ceremonial law, the laws regulating worship, the judicial law regulating the matter of civil state. And then thirdly, thirdly we come upon the moral law. The moral law, which is the subject matter of the Ten Commandments. Generally speaking, moral law refers to the rule of righteousness which God gave in the Ten Commandments. The rule of righteousness that God gave in the Ten Commandments. And as we're going to see, the Ten Commandments summarize. They bring in one concise place the rule of obedience that God has given to man to govern his relations to God and to other men.

The first four are vertical, the last six are horizontal. It's a summary of what God requires from men in their moral accountability to him. That is distinct from the sacrifices.

That is distinct from the civil ordinances. And what you find as we study the moral law, the moral law expressed in the Ten Commandments is based on the unchanging moral nature of God. They are a revelation of his holiness. They show us what God requires.

They are a manifestation of his righteousness. It is an absolute standard of righteousness that applies to all men everywhere at all times. This is like a universal umbrella that is over all of humanity from the beginning of time until the end that we are studying and dealing with. The moral law sets a binding moral obligation for all men for all time.

And that is not set aside by salvation in Christ, as I'm going to explain in a moment. The law still instructs us. The law still teaches us. And so in this age, you and I, we must understand the role of the moral law in the Christian life.

And that's why we're undertaking this entire study. That's why we're undertaking this entire study, as it's so important to understand how the moral law applies to us today. So why is the law difficult? Well, there are a lot of definitions.

There are a lot of different uses of the term that make it difficult. Secondly, there are different kinds of law in the Old Testament. The ceremonial, the judicial, the moral law. And by the way, in case any of you that haven't been with us, you bristle against that idea that the moral law has relevance to the Christian today. We've done a couple of messages on this already, but just reading the New Testament, you find that the New Testament writers are repeatedly appealing to the words of the Ten Commandments, the themes of the New Commandments, in order to enforce the moral obligations of Christian life upon the readers. If the law had been set aside and had no relevance, they would not appeal to it. But they do, again and again. Christ did.

Paul did. And so of course we need to understand these things. Of course we need to know the implications. How are we going to live lives to the glory of God if we're not aware of what he actually requires? And friends, if I can just go on a bit of a tangent here and make this observation. Part of the challenge in our age is that we live in a sentimental age, just so wrapped up in emotion and not clear thinking. We're wrapped up in an age that denies any standard of absolute truth as well, when actually there is absolute truth revealed in God's Word. And so between the combination of emotional and emotional approach to life and a culture that denies the standards of absolute truth, we're in a very vulnerable position by our environment to diminish the importance of the things that we're about to study. This whole study is a frontal assault on that sentimental approach to life and that standard of life and that approach to life that thinks truth is relative. You have your truth, I have mine, and let's not worry about it too much. All of those factors undermine an earnest approach to studying the moral law because we're conditioned to think that it doesn't matter.

It does matter. Well, there's a third thing that makes it difficult to study, the moral law of God. We're kind of going from broad and narrowing things down as we go along here, and that's the use of moral law. The use of moral law. It's difficult to understand the law because it has different purposes, it has different effects. And today I'm just going to summarize the things that we need to understand about it and clarify what it is that we're talking about when we talk about the moral law in the Christian life. Okay? This is really, really serious. We'll start with some negatives and end up with a positive here statement. First of all, so important to understand, so easy to fall off the beam on this very point.

If you're taking notes, be sure to write this down. The moral law is not for justification. The moral law is not for justification. What I mean by that is this, you cannot obey the Ten Commandments and gain salvation by them.

The law was not given for that purpose. You cannot obey God enough in order to earn his favor. You cannot obey God enough to get forgiveness of one sin, let alone the thousands and tens of thousands of others that you've committed. We cannot earn our standing with God through obedience to the moral law.

Scripture is abundantly clear on this. That's Don Green bringing today's lesson to a close. Well, friend, you're listening to The Truth Pulpit and we're glad you were with us today. We hope this message has blessed and encouraged you in your walk with God. If you'd like to hear it again or if you'd like to find out more about our ministry, just visit thetruthpulpit.com. Once more, that's thetruthpulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright, inviting you to join Don Green next time on The Truth Pulpit as he continues teaching God's people God's Word.