Catechism Question 68
Then how is the law of God useful for the Christian?
The law of God is useful to give us a perfect guide to holiness, clearly distinguishing good from evil, so that we might know how the Spirit is working to conform us to God’s image.
Focus and Purpose of this Question
This question is the last of three that will look at the moral law in the life of a believer. We have seen that even as Spirit-filled Christians there will always be a struggle with sin and that the power to obey God does not come from the law but from the Spirit. So is the law of any use in our sanctification? Why even study God’s law? Why have we spent so many questions going through the Ten Commandments in detail?
Although the law does not empower us to obey, it is our guide to what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives. The Spirit is working to make us more like Christ – but how are we to discern the guidance of the Holy Spirit in this process? How do we understand what is holy and what is unholy, what is righteous and what is sinful? The Spirit uses the law to make this clear to us.
As an analogy, consider the Christian life as a trip. The law is the map showing our destination and the route we must take. But the map of the law does not actually get us to our destination. That requires a vehicle – and the Holy Spirit is the vehicle that will get us there. We need the map of the law to know where to go, but we need the vehicle of the Spirit to give us the power for the long journey.
This question is reflecting a different use of the law than we studied earlier in the catechism. In the first part of the catechism (on guilt) we saw that God’s law convicts us of sin to point us to Christ for salvation. Here we are looking at a different aspect of God’s law – how it guides the Christian to know God’s moral will for us. (This is sometimes referred to as the third use of the law.) The same law which convicts us of sin to cause us to look to Christ for salvation is also used by the Spirit to show us the character which the Holy Spirit is working to form in us.
Additional Questions:
Why is God’s law important for the Christian?
Why do Christians need God’s law?
Why do Christians need the Ten Commandments?
Should Christians try to keep the Ten Commandments? Why?
Scripture References:
Romans 7:7, 12
What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet”… 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
Matthew 5:17–19
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
James 2:8–13
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. 12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
Romans 8:3–4
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Ezekiel 36:27
And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Hebrews 8:10
This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Questions for Further Discussion:
Since we can not keep God’s law perfectly, why do we even need it?
Some Christians say we are no longer under the law. They say that Romans 6:14-15 tells us we are no longer under law, and that Romans 10:4 says Christ is the end of the law for everyone who believes. What is wrong with this understanding? In what sense are we no longer under the law because Christ has fulfilled it? In what sense are we still under the law? Did Jesus really come to abolish the law?
In the new covenant, what is the relationship between the believer, the law, and the Holy Spirit? How is the law still useful to the believer?
Can the Christian still pray with the Psalmist “Oh how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long?” (Psalm 119:97). Why or why not?
If we can never perfectly keep God’s law, then why even try? Why should we even teach God’s law if no one – unbeliever or Christian – can keep it?
Additional Information:
This question is based on questions 115 of the Heidelberg Catechism, and questions 13 and 15 of the New City Catechism. Any resources you find on the Heidelberg or New City Catechisms will have a good discussion on this question.
For additional information, see the teachings “The Law and the Spirit in Sanctification” (August 7, 2011), and “The Proper Use of God’s Law” (July 24, 2011).
Suggested Worship Song:
Love Constraining to Obedience (William Cowper, Public Domain)
Available at http://indeliblegrace.bandcamp.com/album/indelible-grace
(Note how in this hymn our attitude towards obeying the law is changed from that of a slave to that of a child, from one of duty to one of choice. All of this has happened because Christ kept the law for us, so that our position is changed and we now can receive the law as a delight rather than just a terror.)
Chorus:
To see the Law by Christ fulfilled,
To hear His pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child
And duty into choice.
No strength of nature can suffice
To serve the Lord aright
And what she has, she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.
(Repeat chorus)
How long beneath the Law I lay
In bondage and distress
I toiled the precept to obey,
But toiled without success.
(Repeat chorus)
Then to abstain from outward sin
Was more than I could do
Now if I feel its power within
I feel I hate it too.(Repeat chorus)
Then all my servile works were done,
A righteousness to raise
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose His ways.