The Law of God by Ralph Swanson (English)
THE LAW OF GOD
A HANDBOOK FOR CHRISTIANS
BY RALPH SWANSON
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1 The Attempt to Escape the Law
Chpater 2 What is the Law of God?
Chapter 3 The Use of the Law
The First Use
The Second Use
The Third Use
Chpter 4 The Importance of the Law
(In Relation to Other Doctrines)
Sin and Law
Redemption and the Law
Conversion and the Law
The Law as a Covenant
gLoveh and the Law
Christian Liberty and the Law
Chapter 5 The Holy Law of God
Chapter 6 Preaching the Law
Appendix A Scripture Used to Defend Antinomianism
Appendix B The Sabbath
Appendix C gPicturesh of Christ
The Ten Commandments
Bibliography
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He that is dark as touching the scope, intent, and nature of the Law is also dark as touching the scope, nature, and glory of the Gospel. I say therefore, if thou wouldst know the authority and power of the Gospel, labor first to know the power and authority of the Law. For I am verily persuaded that the want of this one thing, namely, the knowledge of the Law is the one cause why so many are ignorant of the otherc Again, that man that doth not know the nature of the Law, that man doth not know the nature of sin; and that man that knoweth not the nature of sin, will not regard to know the nature of a Savior.
With this quotation by John Bunyan in THE DOCTRINE OF LAW AND GRACE UNFOLDED(1659), we introduce the second book of this series. It has been our conviction that a number of the most important areas of Chrsitian truth and knowledge remain virtually unknown to many in the churches. We sing the words, gI know I shall see in His beauty The King in whose Law I delight,h but have only indistinct notions of what that Law is. With this in mind, we have prepared this Manual to aid Christians in the study of Godfs Holy Law.
The Word of God is a sharp, two-edged sword(Heb. 4:12). The two cutting edges have been called the Law and the Gospel. Only those sinners who mourn from being cut with the Law will be comforted by the good news of the Gospel. The message of justification by the Grace of God becomes a meaningless and irrelevant platitude outside of the context of the condemnation and guilt of a broken Law.
Not only has much of the visible church abandoned the Law in evangelism, but it is becoming relatively unknown as Godfs standard for the Christianfs behavior. Our prayer is that this handbook will be of great spiritual value to each one who reads it and that it will encourage you toward more diligent sutday of the Word.
Ralph Swanson
Dec. 1977
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Chapter 1
THE ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE THE LAW
During the last half of the 20th century, we are seeing an accelerated movement against law and authority. Since God is the ultimate authority and lawgiver, this rebellion may be seen as increasing sin against the Law of God. Unfortunately, this has not been restricted to the gworldh but is quite obvious in much of the visible church also. The Law, probably the second most important teaching of the Word, has fallen into disuse, and ignorance about its meaning is widespread. The purpose of this manual is to explore this problem that confronts the Christian, to discover the use of the Law and God, and to study the meaning of the Law of God itself.
Man and The Law in History
Our first parents did not set a good example for their descendants to follow. God created Adam and Eve with his Moral Law written in their hearts[Rom. 2:15]. Besides this, God gave them a special law forbidding them to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon the penalty of death[Gen. 2:17]. Apparently it was not long before they rebelled against their Creator. By this disobedience they caused all mankind that followed them by natural generation to fall into a state of sin, misery, and spiritual death, under the wrath and curse of God. Man thus entered his present hopeless condition. Godfs intervention in mercy is his only hope of deliverance.
The people of the antediluvian world [between Adam and the Flood] quickly departed from the Law of God following the Fall. Adam and Evefs first son killed his brother; lawlessness increased, so that by the time of Noah, his and his family alone were chosen to be preserved from the judgment that destroyed the earthfs entire population.
The period from the Flood to the giving of the Law in codified form to Moses and the Israelites at Sinai proved to be little better. Even the gbesth of the people whose lives and faith have been chronicled by God in the Bible made gross violations of Godfs Law. Practically every type of perversion to the Moral Law is recorded between Genesis 9 and Exodus 20. However, now, after God gave his Will in a more definite way at Sinai, one would think that visible sin would be almost eliminated! Such was not the case. Even with threatenings and penalties to the extent of death for the breaking of many of the precepts, infractions seemed to have abounded in most periods of Israelfs history. The gentile world continued as they were before, not having the Law given to them in an oral or written form directly by God.
However, with the rise of governments, God impressed rulers to order much of their domain according to many of his moral precepts. Most of the ancient civilizations also patterned their laws to some extent after what they knew of Israelfs Law in addition to the Law that was written in their conscience.
After the coming of our Lord Jesus and His command to reach the Gospel to the ends of the world, we can see the effect of Godfs Law in many countries and in many eras. Outward conformity to Godfs Law occurred among the general populace in periods of religious revival even in the unregenerate. This can especially be noted in Europe, in the countries where the protestant reformation took place with its return to Biblical teaching, and also in Great Britain and America in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Even though there have always been the forces of the devil and fallen human nature pulling society away from God and His Law, this rebellion has intensified in the past 100 years. Not only has Godfs Moral Law been under attack, but all law including Godfs Laws which control the physical universe, the world of gnature.h Darwin helped to introduce the concept that it was impossible to speak of gabsoluteh law as he believed the universe evolved by means of chance variations. The only real glawh was the gLaw of change.h This has come to mean that moral glawh is actually only social custom and statistical averages of a particular society. Our courts have adopted this philosophy as their decisions are now made on the basis of society gnormsh and attitudes rather than on the absolutes of the Law of God.
Not only has man rejected God, his Maker, and His Law for manfs behavior, but he is actively and purposefully trying to break this Law to somehow gproveh his autonomy and that God does not really exist after all! Declaring oneself outwardly of being an atheist has become popular, even in certain gchurches,h and condoning the acceptance of the most radical and bizarre forms of sin is now commonplace among many well-known public figures. Practically unthought of sins a few years ago are now being acted out by increasing numbers in many of the formerly gChristian and civilizedh countries of the world.
Organized Religion and God's Moral Law
Unfortunately, much of organized Christianity throughout history has reflected the thinking and mood of the world. The spirit of our age is permissiveness and lawlessness. This has had great influence on the church with "situation ethics" becoming the doctrin of many. Just to mention a case in point, the humanistic notion of population control has caused the legalization of murder in the abortion of unwanted children in much of the world. Since t his was legalized in the United States, more have been killed than the six million Jews Hitler killed. Many churches ["synagogues of Satan" might be a better description of them!] are now wholeheartedly endorsing this policy.
Not only has the church been greatly affected by the opinion of the wicked of the world, but antinomianism [the doctrine that God's Moral Law has no use to believers in the New Testament era] from time to time has invaded the organized church. This is true in our present century as many professing believers assert that the Old Testament and even parts of the New Testament are not for this present "dispensation". These deceived people even reject portions of the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ such as his "Sermon on the Mount" found in Matthew 5-7. Some extreme views go so far as to declare that only a few pages of Scriptures are for us today!
The term "legalism" in theology used to designate a theory of justification by works. However this has been redifined in much of the church as meaning the obligation of obedience to the Moral Law in the Christian life, carrying with it the bad meaning of the former usage. All this with man's natural tendency to hate the Moral Law of God has caused it to fall into great disuse in most of Christendom.
The Church in Japan
Regrettably, practices and attitudes from the western world have a great influence in Japan. The churches often reflect the same weakenesses as seen in America and in other countries, show great strength, particularly in the face of persecution. However, the Moral Law of God has received little attention in many places. One glaring evidence of this is the idolatry permitted [or winked at] as professing Christians do not separate themselves completely from Buddhist and Shinto traditional practices.
"They feared Jehovah, and served their own gods." [II Kings 17:33]
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Chapter 2
WHAT IS THE LAW OF GOD?
The word "law" [torah in Hebrew, nomos in Greek] has many uses in the Scripture. The word "law" is used over 300 times in the Old Testament and over 250 times in the New Testament. It can refer to a law in general, a principle, a force or influence impelling to action[Rom. 7:21, 23a], The Law given at Sinai, the Moral Law, the ceremonial part of the Law, the 5 books of Moses [the Pentateuch], to mention the most important uses. Because we are studying the Moral Law of God, we will only investigate this usage. This occurs about 200 times in the Bible signifying the revealed will of God with respect to human conduct.
From the creation of Adam and Eve, God gave man his Moral Law, implanted in the human conscience and bound mankind to perfect and perpetual obedience of it by the whole person, in soul and body. [He also gave Adam and Eve a special command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.] After the fall into sin, this Moral Law continued to be the perfect rule of righteousness from Adam to Moses. However, God was pleased to give a summary of his Moral Law to Israel in about the year 1444 BC. To use the wording of the answer to Question 98in the Larger Catechism: "The Moral Law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments, which were delivered by the voice of God upon Mount Sinai, and written by him on two tables of stone; and recorded in the twentieth chapter of Exodus; the first four commandments containing our duty to God, and the other six our duty to man."
Various supplemental details of the Moral Law are found throughout the Old and New Testaments that relate back to the main principles found in the Ten Commandments. In Chapter 5, we will look at some of these commands. Also, the first 4 commands of the Moral Law can be further condensed as seen in [1]Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Matthew 22:37, etc., as perfect love toward Jehovah God. The last 6 commands which is our duty toward man can be summed up as it is in Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 22:39, etc., "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself". The apostle Paul reduces the Law even further in one word, "love". We have then one duty but it has many forms. The Law tells us how to perform this duty. Each separate commandment requires love and obedience. Sin is defined as any failure to completely obey the Moral Law as well as actual disobedience of it. Holiness means perfect conformity to the Law of God, which is the expression of the divine will, God's standard has never changed. [Matthew 5:18]
Besides the Moral Law, God gave certain other kinds of commandments. Therefore the "Mosaic Law" or the Law given during the year that the children of Israel camped at Mt. Sinai [also called Mt. Horeb] can be divided into three categories: The Moral Law, The Ceremonial Law, and The Civil Law.
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11.03.2006.