Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr isn’t it, since neither it, nor He has changed in some time. It is true enough that there are plenty of ways to get His law wrong. Just ask Paul. But here are five positive things about the law that I am positive about.
1. It restrains evil. I find myself often frustrated at our overly polite assessment of the human condition. We relegate monsters to history, like the Nazi’s, or to the fringes, like serial killers, all to keep the monster at bay. But we have met the monster, and we are them. We’re the kind of people who get more upset at being cut off in traffic than the horrible truth that our neighbors are cutting their babies to pieces down the street. I am ever eager to get us to a deeper understanding of how bad we are. But, I also want us to understand that because of His grace in His law, we are not as bad as we might be. The law restrains evil, through even the consciences of the ungodly, as they retain some measure of the imago dei.
2. It exposes evil. The law, as a mirror, exposes the truth that we are sinners. This works for both believers and unbelievers alike. For the believer, the law drives us back time and again to the finished work of Christ on our behalf. We can rejoice that our heavenly Father loves us with a perfect and unchangeable love, that all His wrath toward our failures was poured out 2000 years ago. For the unbeliever the law can be used by the Spirit to awaken the unbeliever to his need for Christ.
3. It tells us what we’re supposed to do. Isn’t that wonderful? God has given us in His law all that we need to know about how to please Him. We are not left groping in the dark, not left to follow our own folly. To acknowledge this blessing, of course, in no way diminishes the second blessing. Nor ought affirming the second blessing diminish this third blessing. It’s all good.
4. It shows us how to live a blessed life. One could certainly argue that this is just 3b, that I have stuttered. But the truth is too many of us look at God’s law as some unpleasant requirement, a burden that we not only can’t keep, but that would make us miserable if we did keep it. God’s law, however, is ever and always a pathway to joy. My life has never improved by the power of sin. At each crossroads, each moment of choice, the obedient choice redounds to my blessing. As I honor my father and mother it goes well for me in the land. As I raise my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, they become like olive plants about my table.
5. It shows me who God is. It was Spurgeon I believe who said, when asked to reconcile God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, “I’m not accustomed to reconciling friends.” In like manner the notion that I should turn away from His law to look at Him is wrong. The law of God is not a sinister intrusion into His glory, but a reflection of His glory, of His character. To speak ill of it is to speak ill of Him.
Law friends does not rain on the parade of grace, any more than grace washes away the law. They both flow out of the very heart of our Father. Look to Christ who stood in our place under the curse of the law. But do not curse the law that He kept for us. Instead, let us take up our cross and follow Him.
FOLLOW UP QUESTION: since God doesn’t change, why does His law change?
His law doesn’t change. The application of it does. Theologians wisely distinguish between natural law and positive law. This distinction, however, must be distinguished from natural law and revealed law. The latter distinction separates what we learn about God’s law from the created order, and what we learn from His Word. The former, however, distinguishes between the underlying, unchangeable principles, inherent in the nature of things, and the specific purposes of a particular law.
The most common example is the Old Testament requirement that one build a fence around one’s roof. Do we still have the requirement? Is the American church under a cloud of judgment for not obeying this law? By no means. This is positive law. The natural law is broader- do not put your guests or visitors in danger. In Old Testament Israel the roofs of homes were places for social gatherings. In America that is generally not the case. The consistent law, the principle underlying the specific, the natural law may have as its application here, put a fence around your swimming pool so no one accidentally falls in and drowns. We still are required to pursue the safety of those on our property.
The ceremonial laws are much the same. God told the children of Israel to sacrifice lambs on Passover, so that they would remember God’s deliverance and look to the coming of the Lamb of God. When that Lamb came, the call to remember abides; the natural law does not change. The positive law now changes, such that we remember the once for all coming of the Lamb and His deliverance of us through the bread and the wine of the Lord’s Table.
Under the same heading, the kosher laws follow the same pattern. The positive law said, “Don’t eat the pork.” The natural law said, “Be a set apart and distinct people for Me.” In the new covenant the positive law finds its expression not in our diet, but in our love one for another. The borders of our commonwealth are determined by the faith once delivered, not a blood line that traces back to Abraham. We are still called to be a set apart people, but what sets us apart is what makes us a people, our dependence on the finished work of Christ.
The distinction between positive and natural law, of course, is not always easy to make. We are not free to simply dismiss the outward at will. Consider Nadad and Abihu who apparently thought positive law was this kind of fire and natural law was just fire. Things did not go well for them.
One way we can know the difference, however, is when the Bible itself calls for the change. Jesus said the bread was His body broken, the wine the cup of the New Covenant. Jesus told Peter to eat the pork. This is the same Jesus who told us that not one jot or tittle would pass away from the law. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. His natural law reflects not only the nature of things, but His own unchanging nature. Circumstances may change. Our Lord does not. Neither then does our obligation to obey whatsoever He commands.