The Necessity Of Law!
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesThe New Testament confirms the importance of comprehending our own sinfulness. In the book of Romans, Paul spends three chapters (Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2; Romans 3) declaring the sinfulness of all men (Romans 3:23) before thoroughly discussing the way of salvation.
Law is essentially a “tutor” (Gal. 3:24) of the receptive heart, given to teach the utter need for God’s saving grace (Ephesians 2:1-8). Without law and its penalty (1 John 3:4; Romans 6:23), grace is meaningless. And without man’s understanding of the reality and gravity of sin in his life, there can be no redemption.
We have no business preaching grace to people who do not understand the implications of God’s law. It is meaningless to expound upon grace to someone who does not know the divine demand for righteousness (Romans 6:13,16,18,19). Mercy cannot be understood without a corresponding grasp of one’s own guilt (Psalm 51:1-4; Isaiah 59:12-13). The gospel (good news) of grace cannot be properly preached to someone who has not heard that God requires obedience (Romans 1:5; Romans 6:17; Romans 16:26; 2 Corinthians 10:5), and that He punishes every disobedience (2 Corinthians 10:6; Hebrews 2:2).
Isn’t it amazing how so many preachers and teachers of God’s word today want to convince the world that we are not under any kind of law to God? We are indeed under law to God today! In fact, there could be no such thing as “sin” without law (1 John 3:4). Today, we are under “the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2); “the perfect law of liberty” (James 1:25); “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:2); and “the law of faith” (Romans 3:27). The words in these passages would not have been used to describe it (law), were it not of legal standing with man.
Since sin is clearly “the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4), we must admit that either we are under law today, or that we can never commit sin!