PURPOSE OF THE LAW--- JOHN CALVIN

 THREE Uses of the Law!

John Calvin knew the Truth

The Ten Commandments

The Apostle Paul tells us that the Christian is not under law,

but under grace (Ro.6:15). But if this is true, what use is the

Law of Moses? How ought Christians to relate to the Ten

commandments? John Calvin (1509 - 1564), the great French

Reformer, addressed that question in his "Institutes of the

Christian Religion," Bk.2,ch.7, secs.6-13.

THREE USES OF THE LAW

by JOHN CALVIN

LET US SURVEY BRIEFLY THE FUNCTION AND USE OF 

WHAT IS CALLED the "moral law." Now, so far as I understand it, 

it consists of three parts.

1. The first part is this: while it shows God's righteousness,

that is, the righteousness alone acceptable to God, it warns,

informs, convicts, and lastly condemns every man of his own

unrighteousness. For man, blinded and drunk with self-love, 

must be compelled to know and to confess his own feebleness 

and impurity.

     If man is not clearly convinced of his own vanity, he is

puffed up with insane confidence in his own mental powers, and

can never be induced to recognize their slenderness as long as he

measures them by a measure of his own choice. But as soon as he

begins to compare his powers with the difficulty of the law, he

has something to diminish his bravado. For, however remarkable 

an opinion of his powers he formerly held, he soon feels that they

are panting under so heavy a weight as to stagger and totter, and

finally even to fall down and faint away. Thus man, schooled in

the law, sloughs off the arrogance that previously blinded him.

     Likewise, he needs to be cured of another disease, that of

pride, with which he is sick. So long as he is permitted to stand

upon his own judgment, he passes off hypocrisy as righteousness;

pleased with this, he is aroused against God's grace by I know

not what counterfeit acts of righteousness. But after he is

compelled to weigh his life in the scales of the law, laying

aside all that presumption of fictitious righteousness, he

discovers that he is a long way from holiness, and is in fact

teeming with a multitude of vices, with which he previously

thought himself undefiled.

     So deep and tortuous are the recesses in which the evils of

covetousness lurk that they easily deceive man's sight. The apostle 

has good reason to say: "I would not have known what sin was 

except through the law. For I would not have known what it

was to covet if the law had not said, 'Do not covet'" (Ro.7:7).

     For if by the law covetousness is not dragged from its lair,

it destroys wretched man so secretly that he does not even feel

its fatal stab.

THE LAW STILL HAS POSITIVE VALUE 

The law is like a mirror. In it we contemplate our weakness, the

iniquity arising from this, and finally the curse coming from

both - just as a mirror shows us the spots on our face. For when

the capacity to follow righteousness fails him, man must be mired

in sins. After the sin comes the curse. Accordingly, the greater

the transgression of which the law holds us guilty, the graver

the judgment to which it makes us answerable.

     The apostle's statement is relevant here: 

"through the law we become conscious of sin" (Ro.3:20). Them 

he notes only its first function, which sinners as yet unregenerate

experience. Related to this are those statements: 

"The law was added so that the trespass might increase" (Ro.

5:20), and thus it is "the ministry that brought death" (2 Cor.

3:7), that "brings wrath" (Ro.4:15), and slays. There is no doubt

that the more clearly the conscience is struck with awareness of

its sin, the more the iniquity grows.

     For stubborn disobedience against the Lawgiver is then added

to transgression. It remains, then, to the law to arm God's wrath

for the sinner's downfall, for of itself the law can only accuse,

condemn, and destroy. As Augustine writes: 

"If the Spirit of grace is absent, the law is present only to

accuse and kill us."

CONDEMNATION TO ALL BY LAW

The wickedness and condemnation of us all are sealed by the

testimony of the law. Yet this is not done to cause us to fall

down in despair or, completely discouraged, to rush headlong over

the brink provided we duly profit by the testimony of the law. It

is true that in this way the wicked are terrified, but because of

their obstinacy of heart.

     For the children of God the knowledge of the law should have

another purpose. The apostle testifies that we are indeed

condemned by the judgment of the law, "so that every mouth may 

be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God" (Ro.3:19).

He teaches the same idea in yet another place: "For God has bound

all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them

all" (Ro.11:32).

     This means that, dismissing the stupid opinion of their own

strength, they come to realize that they stand and are upheld by

God's hand alone; that, naked and empty-handed, they flee to

His mercy, repose entirely in it, hide deep within it, and seize

upon it alone for righteousness and merit. For God's mercy is

revealed in Christ to all who seek and wait upon it with true

faith. In the precepts of the law, God is but the rewarder of

perfect righteousness, which all of us lack, and conversely, the

severe judge of evil deeds. But in Christ His face shines, full

of grace and gentleness, even upon us poor and unworthy sinners.

THE LAW MAKES US SEEK GRACE 

Augustine often speaks of the value of calling upon the grace of

His help. For example, he writes to Hilary: "The law bids us, as

we try to fulfill its requirements, and become wearied in our

weakness under it, to know how to ask the help of grace." Again,

to Innocent of Rome: "The law commands; grace supplies the

strength to act"

     Again Augustine writes, "The law was given for this purpose:

to make you, being gnat, little; to show that you do not have in

yourself the strength to attain to righteousness, and for you,

thus helpless, unworthy, and destitute, to flee to grace."

     Afterward he addresses God: "So act, 0 Lord; so act, O merciful 

Lord. Command what cannot be fulfilled. Rather, command

what can be fulfilled only through thy grace so that, since men

are unable to fulfill it through their own strength, every mouth

may be stopped, and no one may seem great to himself. Let all be

little ones, and let all the world be guilty before God." 

THE LAW RESTRAINS WRONG-DOERS 

2. The second function of the law is this: at least by fear of

punishment to restrain certain men who are untouched by any

care for what is just and right unless compelled by hearing the

dire threats in the law. But they are restrained, not because

their inner mind is stiffed or affected, but because, being

bridled, so to speak, they keep their hands from outward

activity, and hold inside the depravity that otherwise they 

would wantonly have indulged. Consequently, they are neither 

better nor more righteous before God. Hindered by fright or 

shame, they dare neither execute what they have conceived 

in their minds, nor openly breathe forth the rage of their lust.

     Still, they do not have hearts disposed to fear and obedience  

toward God. Indeed, the more they restrain themselves, the more 

strongly are they inflamed; they buRN and boil within,

and are ready to do anything or burst forth anywhere - but for

the fact that this dread of the law hinders them. Not only that -

but so wickedly do they also hate the law itself, and curse God

the Lawgiver, that if they could, they would most certainly

abolish Him, for they cannot bear Him either when He commands

them to do right, or when He takes vengeance on the despisers of

His majesty. All who are still unregenerate feel - some more

obscurely, some more openly - that they are not drawn to obey 

the law voluntarily, but impelled by a violent fear do so against

their will and despite their opposition to it.

     But this constrained and forced righteousness is necessary

for the public community of men, for whose tranquility the Lord

herein provided when He took care that everything be not

tumultuously confounded. This would happen if everything were

permitted to all men. Nay, even for the children of God, before

they are called and while they are destitute of the Spirit of

sanctification, so long as they play the wanton in the folly of the

flesh, it is profitable for them to undergo this tutelage.

THE PRINCIPAL USE OF THE LAW

3. The third and principal use, which pertains more closely to

the proper purpose of the law, finds its place among believers in

whose hearts the Spirit of God already lives and reigns. For even

though they have the law written and engraved upon their hearts

by the finger of God (Jer.31:33; Heb.10:16), that is, have been

so moved and quickened through the directing of the Spirit that

they long to obey God, they still profit by the law in two ways.

     Here is the best instrument for them to learn more thoroughly 

each day the nature of the Lord's will to which they aspire, and to 

confirm them in the understanding of it. It is as if some servant, 

already prepared with all earnestness of heart to commend himself 

to his master, must search out and observe his master's ways more 

carefully in order to conform and accommodate himself to them. 

And not one of us may escape from this necessity. For no man has 

heretofore attained to such wisdom as to be unable, from the daily 

instruction of the law, to make fresh progress toward a purer 

knowledge of the divine will.

     Again, because we need not only teaching but also

exhortation, the servant of God will also avail himself of this

benefit of the law; by frequent meditation upon it to be aroused

to obedience, be strengthened in it, and be drawn back from the

slippery path of transgression.

     In this way the saints must press on; for, however eagerly

they may in accordance with the Spirit strive toward God's

righteousness, the listless flesh always so burdens them that

they do not proceed with due readiness. The law is to the flesh

like a whip to an idle and balky ass, to arouse it to work. Even

for a spiritual man not yet free of the weight of the flesh the

law remains a constant sting that will not let him stand still.

Doubtless David was referring to this use when he sang the

praises of the law: "The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the

soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the

simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the

heart. The commandments of the LORD are radiant, giving light 

to the eyes" (Ps.19:7-8).

     Likewise: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my

path" (Ps.119:105), and innumerable other sayings in the same

Psalm (e.g., Ps.119:5).

     These do not contradict Paul's statements, which show not

what use the law serves for the regenerate, but what it can of

itself confer upon man. But here the prophet proclaims the great

usefulness of the law: the Lord instructs by their reading of it

those whom He inwardly instills with a readiness to obey. He lays

hold not only of the precepts, but the accompanying promise of

grace, which alone sweetens what is bitter. For what would be

less lovable than the law if, with importuning and threatening

alone, it troubled souls through fear, and distressed them

through fright? David especially shows that in the law he

apprehended the Mediator, without whom there is no delight 

or sweetness.

THE LAW MOST NOT BE DONE AWAY 

     Certain ignorant persons, not understanding this

distinction, rashly cast out the whole of Moses, and bid farewell

to the two tables of the law. For they think it obviously alien

to Christians to hold a doctrine that contains the "ministry of

death" (2 Cor.3:7).

     Banish this wicked thought from our minds! For Moses has

admirably taught that the law, which among sinners can engender

nothing but death, ought among the saints to have a better and

more excellent use. When about to die, he decreed to the people

as follows: "Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared

to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey

carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words

for youth, they are your life. By them you will live long in the

land you are crossing the Jordan to possess" (Dt.32:46-47).

     But if no one can deny that a perfect pattern of

righteousness stands forth in the law, either we need no rule to

live rightly and justly, or it is forbidden to depart from the

law. There are not many rules, but one everlasting and

unchangeable rule to live by. For this reason we are not to refer

solely to one age David's statement that the life of a righteous

man is a continual meditation upon the law (Ps.1:2), for it is

just as applicable to every age, even to the end of the world.

     We ought not to be frightened away from the law or to shun

its instruction merely because it requires a much stricter moral

purity than we shall reach while we bear about with us the prison

house of our body. For the law is not now acting toward us as a

rigorous enforcement officer who is not satisfied unless the

requirements are met. But in this perfection to which it exhorts

us, the law points out the goal toward which throughout life we

are to strive. In this the law is no less profitable than

consistent with our duty. If we fail not in this struggle, it is

well. Indeed, this whole life is a race 1 Cor. 9:24-26); when its

course has been run, the Lord will grant us to attain that goal

to which our efforts now press forward from afar.

                             ................

Adapted from John Calvin, "The Institutes of the Christian

Religion," trns. Ford Lewis Battles, ed. John T. McNeill

(Philadelphia, Pa.: Westminster Press, 1977), Vol.1, pp, 354-362.

NOTE:

John Calvin understood the purpose of the Law, that it is NOT Law

OR Grace, but it is Law AND grace.

Now you need to study my study called "Saved by Grace."

Keith Hunt

Entered on my Website March 2008