Topic Archives: The Law

‘. . . he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sins of Israel.’ -Numbers 25:13 ‘Beginning in 1776, adultery was illegal in America. That ended in 2003 with the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas. That took two hundred and twenty-seven years. From 2003, homosexual marriage continued to be illegal […]

As we consider the state of the church today there is much to discourage us. We think of the conformity to the spirit of the world, the lack of depth in Christian experience, the absence of heart religion, the paucity of the fear of God, the disregard of the Lord’s day, the lax attitude to […]

Romans 2:14, 15 – ‘(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and […]

Contentment is the proper attitude we should have to our position in life; The Shorter Catechism (Ans. 80) includes ‘full contentment with our own condition’ among the duties that are required by the Tenth Commandment – which declares: ‘Thou shalt not covet’. Matthew Poole (on Col. 3:5) explains covetousness as ‘an immoderate desire after, and […]

Paul and the Law: Keeping the Commandments of God Brian S. Rosner, Principal of Ridley Melbourne, delivered the inaugural Leon Morris Memorial Lecture on 27 June at the College, where Leon Morris had been Principal from 1964 to 1979. Fittingly, the lecture brought resolution to what some have seen as a conflict between Law and […]

The Psalmist asks, ‘Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?’ How, in other words, may he lead a holy life? And, in this Psalm of praise to God, he thus answers his own question: ‘By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word’ (Psa. 119:9). For, as The Shorter Catechism puts it, the Bible ‘is […]

I spoke on the phone yesterday with a south London vicar whose parish had been hit by rioters. Actually, ‘rioters’ is not quite the word. The disorders straight after the death of Mark Duggan may have been riots with the associations of protest that brings, but by now a better word than rioters is looters, […]

There are some profound and practical implications contained in the way that the Ten Commandments are stated. One of the easiest things that anyone reading them can observe is how they are cast in negative terms. We are not to have any gods before the Lord God our redeemer; we are not to make and […]

God expressed the Moral Law in the Ten Commandments. Those commandments list ten specifications of our duty to our redeeming Lord and to our fellow man. When Jesus was asked which of the Ten Commandments should be regarded as the greatest he answered in terms of man’s duty to love the Lord and to love […]

I have been thinking about the grace of God, not so much in terms of how that grace affects us as the Lord’s redeemed people, but rather in terms of how such grace has affected our Lord himself. Such thinking is not a matter of mere human speculation, for there is much teaching about it […]

Three uses of the law are commonly identified in relation to the believer: (1) the civil use, (2) the law as schoolmaster, (3) the law as a teacher. (1) The civil use of the Law. In commenting on Galatians 3:19, Luther writes: The first use of the law is to bridle the wicked. This civil […]

THE LAW IS VERY GOOD AND PROFITABLE It is exceeding necessary for us to know this use of the Law. For he that is not an open and a public murderer, an adulterer, or a thief, holds himself to be an upright and godly man; as did the Pharisee, so blinded and possessed spiritually of […]

Incorporating the Law into the gospel presentation does many things. It primarily shows the sinner that he is a criminal, and that God is his judge. The Law (in the hand of the Holy Spirit) stops his mouth and leaves him guilty before God (see Romans 3:19-20). It reveals that he deserves nothing but judgement […]

PREACHING THE MORAL LAW – REFORMERS AND PURITANS There is the importance of understanding the biblical antithesis of law and gospel The annual Westminster Conference was held at Westminster Chapel London on December 11 and 12. The usual number of men and women were present, over two hundred, and mainly men. As we walked to […]

In 1964 the Banner of Truth was encouraged by the Rev. J. Marcellus Kik of Silver Spring, Maryland, then an associate editor of Christianity Today, to republish Samuel Bolton‘s The True Bounds of Christian Freedom. It is a classic study of the law of God and its relationship to the Christian. This is the book’s […]