Galatians
3:24 So the law was put in charge to lead us
to Christ.
God gave Adam a law as a covenant of works. He
required Adam and all his descendants to obey this law, individually,
completely, perpetually, and in precise accordance with its provisions. God
promised life for keeping it and threatened death for disobeying it, and he
gave man the power and ability to keep it.
After the fall this law continued to be a perfect
rule of righteousness and was given, as such, by God on Mount Sinai in the Ten
Commandments, written on two tablets. The first four commandments establish our
obligations to God and the remaining six our obligations to human beings.
In addition to this law, ordinarily called the moral
law, it pleased God to give the people of Israel, as a pre-Christian assembly
of believers, ceremonial laws, containing many typical ordinances. Some of
these ordinances pertain to worship and foreshadow Christ. All of these ceremonial
laws are now nullified under the New Testament
God also gave the Israelites, as a political body,
various judicial laws. These expired with the state of Israel and make no
further obligation on God’s people than seems appropriate in contemporary legal
codes.
The moral law, however, does pertain to everyone,
saved and unsaved, forever, not just with respect to its content but also in
relationship to the authority of God, the Creator, who gave it. In the gospel
Christ does not in any way remove this obligation, but rather strengthens it.
Although true believers
are not justified or condemned by the law as a covenant of works, the law is
nevertheless very useful to them and to others. As a rule of life, it informs
them of God’s will and of their obligation to obey it. It also reveals to them
the sinful pollution of their nature, hearts, and lives, so that, examining
themselves from its point of view, they may become more convinced of the
presence of sin in them. Thus they gain a better awareness of their need for
Christ and for the perfection of his obedience.
The Westminster Confession of Faith
The Westminster Confession of Faith
