Presence of Moral Law in the New Testament (5)

Driving home: We know that the law is good, simple assertion, but now necessary qualification. If, if a man use it lawfully.

Martin uses the analogy of food being good if used lawfully (for enjoyment, nourishment, social interaction) but harmful if used unlawfully (to clog arteries, gain excessive weight, or for bulimia) to explain that the law is good if used for its intended purposes.

And as long as it is used for those purposes, and those alone, it is good. The same way I may say to you, food is good, if you use food for the purpose for which it was given. Why was food given? That we might enjoy it in the full spectrum of the various tastes and flavors?

27:12 - 27:38 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He adds a crucial qualification: the law is good 'if a man use it lawfully,' meaning according to God's intended purposes, illustrating this with analogies of food and sexual…

He extends the 'lawfully used' analogy to sexual appetites, which are good within marriage for mutual commitment and procreation, but unlawful and destructive outside of it.

Food is no longer good to you because you are using it in an unlawful way. But the problem is not with the food, it is with your use of it. Our sexual appetites and capacities are good if we use them lawfully. To be the expression of total, selfless mutual commitment in the bonds of marriage, the frequent coming together of a husband and wife is good in and of itself, irrespective of whether it issues in the conception of a child and procreation.

28:32 - 29:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The law is not made for such for they don't exist here on earth. There was only one who ever existed on earth who was the righteous one concerning which that law could find no fault in Him.

Martin quotes Lutheran commentator Lenski, who explains that listing the grossest sins in the Ten Commandments (and Paul's list) includes all lesser manifestations, tracing the 'tree' of sin down to its 'smallest rootlets' in the heart.

But by mentioning the highest the most aggravated the most base expressions of these violations of the law God includes all of the lesser manifestations of sin. Lenski the Lutheran commentator has captured this principle so clearly when he writes the reason for listing the grossest sins throughout the list is the same of that for the wording in the ten commandments. Jesus made it plain in Matthew 5.21 that the commandment thou shalt not kill is dealing with the grossest expression of ill will but it includes within its scope an angry spirit breaking out in abusive speech and in failure to do e...

47:42 - 49:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Be kept from errors on the left hand and on the right by understanding that any view of the law contradicting the gospel is unbiblical.

He uses the imagery of standing before Sinai's thunders and lightning, condemned by the law, to illustrate the sinner's plight and how Christ's perfect law-keeping and substitutionary death provide refuge and righteousness, silencing the law's condemnation for believers.

Never will there be a negation of any of the sweet notes of the gospel when there is a lawful use of the law. Let me try to illustrate that briefly. In the gospel, what does God say to us? We stand before, him as sinners condemned by his law. We hear as it were the thunders upon Sinai. We see the lightning dashing from its craggy peaks and we see the thunderbolts and the lightning and the voice of God and we stand fearful and trembling, condemned and doomed. We say oh God where can I go for refuge and God says my son perfectly kept the law you've broken. I spoke out of heaven on several occasi...

59:20 - 60:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not negate any abiding functions of the law, lest you fall into folly and notorious sins under the guise of magnifying grace.

Martin warns against the folly of becoming 'wiser than God' by negating the law's functions, noting that some of the most notorious sins in Church history occurred when people, under the guise of magnifying grace, removed the Ten Commandments from their conscience, leading to license and sordid acts.

And if anyone tells you, that there are provisions in the Gospel which utterly negate any abiding functions of the law, rear back on your hind legs and turn them to this passage and in grace and loving firmness tell them they're dead wrong. Because when you get wiser than God with respect to what you need, to help keep you in the way of righteousness till you come to the place where there is no more sin, God will chastise you for your folly and some of the most notorious sins committed in the history of the Church have been committed by people who under the guise of magnifying the grace of God...

69:39 - 71:01 Read in full sermon