Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2024 11:18:16 GMT -5
The Properties of the Moral Law
The peculiar and distinguishing qualities of the moral law are these:
1. It is universal. It extends to all men, in every age, place, and
condition, and to all their inclinations, thoughts, words, and actions.
“Now we know,” says the Apostle Paul, “that what things soever the
law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth
may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
His sight” (Romans 3:19-20). While it binds all the human race, at all
times and in all places and conditions, it reaches to all the
dispositions, thoughts, and purposes of the heart as well as to all the
words and actions of the life. It extends to every motion and affection
of the soul, and to every part and circumstance of human conduct.
The divine law is a rule for the heart as well as for the life of every
descendant of Adam. “Thy commandment,” says David, “is exceeding
broad” (Psalm 119:96). No finite understanding can reach the
boundary of it or find out how comprehensive it is. It extends to
countless multitudes of things, in every moment and in every
possible circumstance. The moral law, indeed, is summed up in the
Ten Commandments; but it extends itself, notwithstanding, through
the whole Word of God. So extensive are those commandments that
everything which He requires may be reduced to one or another of them.
2. It is perfect. “The law of the Lord,” says David, “is perfect,
converting the soul” (Psalm 19:7). So perfect is it that it binds
everyone to full conformity in the whole man unto the righteousness
of it, and to entire obedience forever—so as to require the utmost
perfection of every duty and to forbid the least degree of every sin
(Larger Catechism, Question 99; Matthew 5:21-48; James 2:10). It
requires all the duty which a man owes to God, to himself, and to his
neighbor; and it demands perfection of obedience. No partial or
defective obedience can be sustained. The smallest degree of
imperfection renders a person vulnerable to the curse; so that
salvation by the law is absolutely unattainable because no man since
the fall can perform the perfect obedience which it demands. The
perfection of every grace, and of every act of obedience, is required in
it. Nothing must be taken from it or corrected in it, and nothing is to
be added to it (Deuteronomy 4:2). The Lord Jesus explained the law,
but He did not in the smallest degree either correct or enlarge it. He
and His apostles taught nothing but what Moses and the prophets
had previously indicated (Matthew 7:12; Acts 26:22). He said,
indeed, to His disciples, “A new commandment I give unto you, that
ye love one another” (John 13:34). This command, however, is not
new as to the substance of it, for it is a summary of the second table
of the law; and therefore it is called “an old commandment which we
had from the beginning” (1 John 2:7); but it is called new because it
is enforced by the new motive and example of the immense love of
Christ in dying for us. This is evident from His words which
immediately follow; “As I have loved you, that ye also love one
another.” Christ also commands us to deny ourselves, and to take up
our cross and follow Him; but these duties are comprised in that of
loving God supremely. The prayer, likewise, which our Lord taught
His disciples contains no petitions but what the saints under the Old
Testament were taught to present to Jehovah (Isaiah 63:16; Psalm
57:11 and 143:10-12; Proverbs 30:8; Psalm 25:11 and 16:1). Indeed,
such is the perfection of the divine law that it cannot require or
sustain anything short of obedience which is absolutely perfect. It
requires not only that there be no direct violation of any of its
precepts, but that there be no appearance of transgressing any of
them—no consent of the heart, no inclination or affection to the
smallest violation of any, no secret delight in evil or desire that it
were lawful—but, on the contrary, that there be a supreme delight in
the purity and perfection of every one of its commands. This law is
despised and dishonored if it is not acknowledged to be so perfect
that nothing can be accepted by it but that which is in all respects
perfect. It demands perfection in the principles, in the parts, in the
degrees, and in the perpetuity of obedience. In a word, such is the
perfection of it that it was sufficient to be the rule even of the
consummate righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself.
3. This law is also spiritual. The Lawgiver is a Spirit, the God of the
spirits of all flesh; and He beholds all the inclinations and affections
of the soul as well as all the deeds of the body. His law therefore is
spiritual (Romans 7:14), requiring internal as well as external
obedience. It reaches the understanding, will, and affections, with all
the other faculties of the soul, as well as all the gestures, words, and
actions of the body. It extends not only to external appearances,
words, and works, but to the dispositions, thoughts, principles,
motives, and designs of the heart, and requires the spiritual
performance of both internal and external obedience (Hebrews 4:12;
Matthew 22:37-39; Leviticus 19:17). It requires that every duty
proceed from spiritual principles such as union with Christ, faith,
love, and every right habit of the soul, so that it is performed in a
spiritual manner, that is, according to a spiritual rule and in the
exercise of the graces of the Spirit, and that it is directed to spiritual
ends, the glory of God in Christ and the eternal enjoyment of Him.
Every man is commanded by it thus “to mind the things of the
Spirit,” and so to “live and walk in the Spirit” (Romans 8:5; Galatians 5:16).
4. It is a holy law. “The law,” says the Apostle Paul, “is holy, and the
commandment holy” (Romans 7:12). The moral law is a fair
transcript of the infinite holiness of God’s nature, and an
authoritative declaration of His will; it binds all the children of Adam
to perfect holiness of heart and of life. It enjoins everything that is
holy, everything which is conformable to those moral attributes and
actions of God which are patterns for our imitation. Since it is
intrinsically pure and holy, it gives no just occasion to the least
motion of sin in the heart; but, on the contrary, it discovers, forbids,
and condemns every inordinate affection, every unholy desire. It is
the immutable and eternal standard of all true holiness, whether of
the heart or of the life; and while it is both the rule and the reason of
holiness, its direct tendency is to encourage and advance it in every
regenerate soul. All the precepts of it are perfectly holy, every way
becoming an infinitely holy God to publish, and rational creatures to
obey. The divine law is so holy that it calls for spotless obedience not
only in the words and actions of the life, but in all the inclinations,
thoughts, and motions of the heart. It reaches not only to the streams
of actual transgression, but to the fountain of original sin, and calls
for perfect holiness of nature as well as of life. Hence the Apostle
Paul, as soon as he discerned the holiness of it, considered the first
motions of irregular desire, even before the will actually consented to
them, as sinful, and bitterly bewailed them as well as firmly resisted
them (Romans 7:7).
5. Moreover, it is perfectly just and equal (Romans 7:12). This
righteous law is exactly suited to our frame as reasonable creatures,
and to our condition in this world. It requires nothing from us but
what we owe to God, to ourselves, and to our neighbor, and what we,
in the first Adam, had sufficient ability to perform. Accordingly the
holy Psalmist says, “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the
heart” (Psalm 19:8). “I will praise Thee with uprightness of heart,
when I shall have learned Thy righteous judgments ” (Psalm 119:7).
The law of God is just and right. Its demands are infinitely equitable.
And therefore, to fret against any command of it, or to wish that it
were in the smallest degree relaxed, is unjust, and is a breach of the
whole law. Seeing it requires nothing but what we already owe to
God, and nothing but what we are under infinite and immutable
obligations to pay to Him. Our obedience to it, supposing that
obedience were perfect, could never merit the smallest blessing from
Him. Were we, indeed, to perform but a single act of obedience more
than we owed to God, we would thereby merit some recompense
from Him. But this is impossible for us ever to do. It is not the
obedience even of a true believer that merits the blessings of
salvation for him, but only the meritorious righteousness of Christ
imputed to him.
6. The law is good, as well as holy and just (Romans 7:12). The
commandments of it are so good that they require nothing but what
is good in itself, and good for the observers of them. “In keeping of
them there is great reward” (Psalm 19:11). They enjoin nothing but
what is conducive to the happiness of both the souls and the bodies
of men. “Great peace,' says the Psalmist, “have they which love Thy
law; and nothing shall offend them” (Psalm 119:165). The Apostle
Paul also says, “Glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh
good; to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile” (Romans 2:10). And
again, “We know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully” (1
Timothy 1:8). The chief ingredient in the happiness of Adam in
innocence was his having this law inscribed on his heart. And no
man since the fall begins to be either good or happy till this promise
begins to be fulfilled to him: “I will put My laws into their minds, and
write them in their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10). It is this that makes a
man a good man, and capable of performing good works. The law,
then, is good, desirable, and excellent. But it is most unreasonable, as
well as sinful, not to love it, and not to delight in performing
universal obedience to it.
7. Last, this law is of perpetual obligation. The precepts of it are
indispensable and perpetual (Psalm 119:89). They continue to direct
and oblige all men to perfect obedience not only through all time, but
through all eternity. “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than
one tittle of the law to fail” (Luke 16:17). “Till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be
fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18). The law as a covenant of works will
continue not only through time, but through eternity, to bind all who
live and die under that covenant; and the law as a rule of life will
continue binding on the spiritual seed of the second Adam through
time and eternity. It is an immutable and an eternal law. “Every one
of Thy righteous judgments,” says David, “endureth forever” (Psalm 119:160).
Is the law of the Lord perfect, and does it require that our obedience
be perfect in its principles, parts, degrees, and continuance? It is
impossible, then, that sincere obedience can entitle a sinner to
eternal life. A man’s faith may be sincere, but if it is not perfect it
cannot be a proper condition of life; it cannot procure for him a right
to eternal life. His repentance also may be deep and sincere; but if it
is not absolutely perfect it cannot afford him the smallest title, either
to the progress or the consummation of life eternal. This is not to be
understood as implying that the law, either as a covenant or as a rule,
requires either perfect or imperfect faith and repentance as the
proper condition of eternal life; but only that no instance of personal
obedience, however sincere that obedience may be, can ever entitle a
sinner to life eternal. His obedience, in general, may be sincere; yet if
it is not absolutely perfect it cannot give him the smallest degree of
title to eternal salvation. These cannot entitle him in the smallest
degree to life, either according to the law as a covenant of works or as
a rule of life. They are necessary as parts of salvation, and as means
of attaining complete salvation, but they cannot be the grounds of a
man’s title to salvation. Nothing can be the ground of a believer’s title
to salvation but the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, received by
faith and imputed to him for justification.
Is the moral law of perpetual obligation? Then it follows that, as a
covenant of works, it retains, and will continue throughout eternity
to retain, its whole authority and obligation over every sinner of
mankind who lives and dies under it. In its covenant form it stands
in full force and can never be repealed. It will continue throughout
all eternity to hold the finally impenitent under both its commanding
and its condemning power. They shall remain forever under an
infinite obligation, both to yield perfect obedience to its righteous
precepts and to give infinite satisfaction for their disobedience of
them. There is no possible way in which a sinner can be freed from
the perpetual obligation of the law as a covenant but by presenting,
in the hand of faith to it, the infinitely perfect and meritorious
righteousness of the second Adam as a full answer to all its high
demands. When this glorious righteousness is received by faith, and
graciously imputed to a man, the law in its covenant form is fully
satisfied with respect to him; and in that form it has nothing more to
demand from him. He now passes from the obligation of the
covenant of works, and comes under the perpetual obligation of the
law as a rule of duty in the covenant of grace—and he will remain
under its infinite obligation, through all eternity. Even the angels in
heaven are under a law as their eternal rule of duty (Psalm 103:20).
And if the holy angels are not without law to God, surely glorified
saints will be under the law to Christ as the eternal rule of their
obedience. And so ardent will their love of this holy and righteous
law be that they will account it their highest honor and their greatest
happiness to continue eternally under the obligation of yielding
perfect obedience to it. No man sincerely loves it, even in an
imperfect degree, but the man who hopes to be under the eternal
obligation of it
The peculiar and distinguishing qualities of the moral law are these:
1. It is universal. It extends to all men, in every age, place, and
condition, and to all their inclinations, thoughts, words, and actions.
“Now we know,” says the Apostle Paul, “that what things soever the
law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth
may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
His sight” (Romans 3:19-20). While it binds all the human race, at all
times and in all places and conditions, it reaches to all the
dispositions, thoughts, and purposes of the heart as well as to all the
words and actions of the life. It extends to every motion and affection
of the soul, and to every part and circumstance of human conduct.
The divine law is a rule for the heart as well as for the life of every
descendant of Adam. “Thy commandment,” says David, “is exceeding
broad” (Psalm 119:96). No finite understanding can reach the
boundary of it or find out how comprehensive it is. It extends to
countless multitudes of things, in every moment and in every
possible circumstance. The moral law, indeed, is summed up in the
Ten Commandments; but it extends itself, notwithstanding, through
the whole Word of God. So extensive are those commandments that
everything which He requires may be reduced to one or another of them.
2. It is perfect. “The law of the Lord,” says David, “is perfect,
converting the soul” (Psalm 19:7). So perfect is it that it binds
everyone to full conformity in the whole man unto the righteousness
of it, and to entire obedience forever—so as to require the utmost
perfection of every duty and to forbid the least degree of every sin
(Larger Catechism, Question 99; Matthew 5:21-48; James 2:10). It
requires all the duty which a man owes to God, to himself, and to his
neighbor; and it demands perfection of obedience. No partial or
defective obedience can be sustained. The smallest degree of
imperfection renders a person vulnerable to the curse; so that
salvation by the law is absolutely unattainable because no man since
the fall can perform the perfect obedience which it demands. The
perfection of every grace, and of every act of obedience, is required in
it. Nothing must be taken from it or corrected in it, and nothing is to
be added to it (Deuteronomy 4:2). The Lord Jesus explained the law,
but He did not in the smallest degree either correct or enlarge it. He
and His apostles taught nothing but what Moses and the prophets
had previously indicated (Matthew 7:12; Acts 26:22). He said,
indeed, to His disciples, “A new commandment I give unto you, that
ye love one another” (John 13:34). This command, however, is not
new as to the substance of it, for it is a summary of the second table
of the law; and therefore it is called “an old commandment which we
had from the beginning” (1 John 2:7); but it is called new because it
is enforced by the new motive and example of the immense love of
Christ in dying for us. This is evident from His words which
immediately follow; “As I have loved you, that ye also love one
another.” Christ also commands us to deny ourselves, and to take up
our cross and follow Him; but these duties are comprised in that of
loving God supremely. The prayer, likewise, which our Lord taught
His disciples contains no petitions but what the saints under the Old
Testament were taught to present to Jehovah (Isaiah 63:16; Psalm
57:11 and 143:10-12; Proverbs 30:8; Psalm 25:11 and 16:1). Indeed,
such is the perfection of the divine law that it cannot require or
sustain anything short of obedience which is absolutely perfect. It
requires not only that there be no direct violation of any of its
precepts, but that there be no appearance of transgressing any of
them—no consent of the heart, no inclination or affection to the
smallest violation of any, no secret delight in evil or desire that it
were lawful—but, on the contrary, that there be a supreme delight in
the purity and perfection of every one of its commands. This law is
despised and dishonored if it is not acknowledged to be so perfect
that nothing can be accepted by it but that which is in all respects
perfect. It demands perfection in the principles, in the parts, in the
degrees, and in the perpetuity of obedience. In a word, such is the
perfection of it that it was sufficient to be the rule even of the
consummate righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself.
3. This law is also spiritual. The Lawgiver is a Spirit, the God of the
spirits of all flesh; and He beholds all the inclinations and affections
of the soul as well as all the deeds of the body. His law therefore is
spiritual (Romans 7:14), requiring internal as well as external
obedience. It reaches the understanding, will, and affections, with all
the other faculties of the soul, as well as all the gestures, words, and
actions of the body. It extends not only to external appearances,
words, and works, but to the dispositions, thoughts, principles,
motives, and designs of the heart, and requires the spiritual
performance of both internal and external obedience (Hebrews 4:12;
Matthew 22:37-39; Leviticus 19:17). It requires that every duty
proceed from spiritual principles such as union with Christ, faith,
love, and every right habit of the soul, so that it is performed in a
spiritual manner, that is, according to a spiritual rule and in the
exercise of the graces of the Spirit, and that it is directed to spiritual
ends, the glory of God in Christ and the eternal enjoyment of Him.
Every man is commanded by it thus “to mind the things of the
Spirit,” and so to “live and walk in the Spirit” (Romans 8:5; Galatians 5:16).
4. It is a holy law. “The law,” says the Apostle Paul, “is holy, and the
commandment holy” (Romans 7:12). The moral law is a fair
transcript of the infinite holiness of God’s nature, and an
authoritative declaration of His will; it binds all the children of Adam
to perfect holiness of heart and of life. It enjoins everything that is
holy, everything which is conformable to those moral attributes and
actions of God which are patterns for our imitation. Since it is
intrinsically pure and holy, it gives no just occasion to the least
motion of sin in the heart; but, on the contrary, it discovers, forbids,
and condemns every inordinate affection, every unholy desire. It is
the immutable and eternal standard of all true holiness, whether of
the heart or of the life; and while it is both the rule and the reason of
holiness, its direct tendency is to encourage and advance it in every
regenerate soul. All the precepts of it are perfectly holy, every way
becoming an infinitely holy God to publish, and rational creatures to
obey. The divine law is so holy that it calls for spotless obedience not
only in the words and actions of the life, but in all the inclinations,
thoughts, and motions of the heart. It reaches not only to the streams
of actual transgression, but to the fountain of original sin, and calls
for perfect holiness of nature as well as of life. Hence the Apostle
Paul, as soon as he discerned the holiness of it, considered the first
motions of irregular desire, even before the will actually consented to
them, as sinful, and bitterly bewailed them as well as firmly resisted
them (Romans 7:7).
5. Moreover, it is perfectly just and equal (Romans 7:12). This
righteous law is exactly suited to our frame as reasonable creatures,
and to our condition in this world. It requires nothing from us but
what we owe to God, to ourselves, and to our neighbor, and what we,
in the first Adam, had sufficient ability to perform. Accordingly the
holy Psalmist says, “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the
heart” (Psalm 19:8). “I will praise Thee with uprightness of heart,
when I shall have learned Thy righteous judgments ” (Psalm 119:7).
The law of God is just and right. Its demands are infinitely equitable.
And therefore, to fret against any command of it, or to wish that it
were in the smallest degree relaxed, is unjust, and is a breach of the
whole law. Seeing it requires nothing but what we already owe to
God, and nothing but what we are under infinite and immutable
obligations to pay to Him. Our obedience to it, supposing that
obedience were perfect, could never merit the smallest blessing from
Him. Were we, indeed, to perform but a single act of obedience more
than we owed to God, we would thereby merit some recompense
from Him. But this is impossible for us ever to do. It is not the
obedience even of a true believer that merits the blessings of
salvation for him, but only the meritorious righteousness of Christ
imputed to him.
6. The law is good, as well as holy and just (Romans 7:12). The
commandments of it are so good that they require nothing but what
is good in itself, and good for the observers of them. “In keeping of
them there is great reward” (Psalm 19:11). They enjoin nothing but
what is conducive to the happiness of both the souls and the bodies
of men. “Great peace,' says the Psalmist, “have they which love Thy
law; and nothing shall offend them” (Psalm 119:165). The Apostle
Paul also says, “Glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh
good; to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile” (Romans 2:10). And
again, “We know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully” (1
Timothy 1:8). The chief ingredient in the happiness of Adam in
innocence was his having this law inscribed on his heart. And no
man since the fall begins to be either good or happy till this promise
begins to be fulfilled to him: “I will put My laws into their minds, and
write them in their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10). It is this that makes a
man a good man, and capable of performing good works. The law,
then, is good, desirable, and excellent. But it is most unreasonable, as
well as sinful, not to love it, and not to delight in performing
universal obedience to it.
7. Last, this law is of perpetual obligation. The precepts of it are
indispensable and perpetual (Psalm 119:89). They continue to direct
and oblige all men to perfect obedience not only through all time, but
through all eternity. “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than
one tittle of the law to fail” (Luke 16:17). “Till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be
fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18). The law as a covenant of works will
continue not only through time, but through eternity, to bind all who
live and die under that covenant; and the law as a rule of life will
continue binding on the spiritual seed of the second Adam through
time and eternity. It is an immutable and an eternal law. “Every one
of Thy righteous judgments,” says David, “endureth forever” (Psalm 119:160).
Is the law of the Lord perfect, and does it require that our obedience
be perfect in its principles, parts, degrees, and continuance? It is
impossible, then, that sincere obedience can entitle a sinner to
eternal life. A man’s faith may be sincere, but if it is not perfect it
cannot be a proper condition of life; it cannot procure for him a right
to eternal life. His repentance also may be deep and sincere; but if it
is not absolutely perfect it cannot afford him the smallest title, either
to the progress or the consummation of life eternal. This is not to be
understood as implying that the law, either as a covenant or as a rule,
requires either perfect or imperfect faith and repentance as the
proper condition of eternal life; but only that no instance of personal
obedience, however sincere that obedience may be, can ever entitle a
sinner to life eternal. His obedience, in general, may be sincere; yet if
it is not absolutely perfect it cannot give him the smallest degree of
title to eternal salvation. These cannot entitle him in the smallest
degree to life, either according to the law as a covenant of works or as
a rule of life. They are necessary as parts of salvation, and as means
of attaining complete salvation, but they cannot be the grounds of a
man’s title to salvation. Nothing can be the ground of a believer’s title
to salvation but the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, received by
faith and imputed to him for justification.
Is the moral law of perpetual obligation? Then it follows that, as a
covenant of works, it retains, and will continue throughout eternity
to retain, its whole authority and obligation over every sinner of
mankind who lives and dies under it. In its covenant form it stands
in full force and can never be repealed. It will continue throughout
all eternity to hold the finally impenitent under both its commanding
and its condemning power. They shall remain forever under an
infinite obligation, both to yield perfect obedience to its righteous
precepts and to give infinite satisfaction for their disobedience of
them. There is no possible way in which a sinner can be freed from
the perpetual obligation of the law as a covenant but by presenting,
in the hand of faith to it, the infinitely perfect and meritorious
righteousness of the second Adam as a full answer to all its high
demands. When this glorious righteousness is received by faith, and
graciously imputed to a man, the law in its covenant form is fully
satisfied with respect to him; and in that form it has nothing more to
demand from him. He now passes from the obligation of the
covenant of works, and comes under the perpetual obligation of the
law as a rule of duty in the covenant of grace—and he will remain
under its infinite obligation, through all eternity. Even the angels in
heaven are under a law as their eternal rule of duty (Psalm 103:20).
And if the holy angels are not without law to God, surely glorified
saints will be under the law to Christ as the eternal rule of their
obedience. And so ardent will their love of this holy and righteous
law be that they will account it their highest honor and their greatest
happiness to continue eternally under the obligation of yielding
perfect obedience to it. No man sincerely loves it, even in an
imperfect degree, but the man who hopes to be under the eternal
obligation of it