The Purpose of the Law

By: Arthur J Licursi

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "You shall not COVET."

Romans 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. (NASB)

 

God knows that no good thing comes out of, or originates from, the flesh of the regenerated Christian (Rom 7:18), or non-Christian – their flesh is equally impotent toward God. The sinful flesh of the body, in which it dwells, will one day be exchanged for an incorruptible body – putting on immortality (1Cor 15:53). Our human spirit is already regenerated 100% by Christ’s indwelling life, our soul is being renewed (2Cor 4:16), but this is body perishing and must be exchanged. However, right now, by the power of the indwelling spirit, and the effect of our identifying with our co-death with Christ, we have power over the sinful body of the flesh (Rom 6:6-7, 8:13). We’ve been made free from the tyranny of the flesh, in which we dwell while living upon this earth. The sinful flesh is reduced to an impotent liar and accuser.

 

God knew of our pitiful flesh a long time ago; …but we don’t know it, that is, until He reveals it to us – usually through our frustration of trying to keep the law – thinking we can get more or Him or please by such effort. You see, the flesh and its proclivity toward sin is activated and made most powerful by one trying to keep the law.  Cor. 15:56bthe power (dunamis, e.g. dynamite) of sin is the lawIn Romans 7 we repeatedly see verses connecting the empowerment of sin to the effort of trying to keep the law.

Romans 7:8-13 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. [9] For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. [10] And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. [11] For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. [12] Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. [13] Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

 

The flesh is useless, impotent, and incapable of being genuinely righteous. The flesh of all mankind is of the sin nature of the Serpent himself, which we all possess as being of the offspring or the lineage of the first Adam.

 

God gave the law via Moses to Israel , in order to expose Israel to the fallen nature of their sinful flesh, as preparation for receiving the Messiah who would one day come to fill their need. The primary purpose of the law, both then and now in the dispensation of the grace of God, is to prove to us that man is sinful and powerless to be righteous, of his own self. The law was not given with the expectation that we could keep it. God knows that we cannot keep the law. After salvation by regeneration we may then have thought, “Now that were saved, I’m going to try to be a good Christian and do all the Christian things that the preachers commonly promote.” We thought that by being saved we were now the normal human that God desires; we did not know this fact of the activity of the fallen flesh we still possess. Actually, God may have permitted us to be tangled up in the effort to keep the law at the hands of law-keeping religion at some church or denomination. My experience was with a law-preaching Baptist church that forbade women to wear sleeveless blouses, open toed shoes, etc., as an outward indication of her apparent righteousness. To the Lord this is all of self-righteousness that Scripture calls “filthy rags”. They preached to us what we should do and should not do, but never showed us they way of the resurrected indwelling Christ’s empowering life within us, as the new us. Yet, God will even redeem erroneous teaching to provide us the black-drop upon which we may receive the light of the truth. Of course, we should come to plainly see that, now, the members of the body of Christ are not under the law. Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Paul tells us Jesus nailed the law to His cross, taking it out of the way. Col. 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

 

Our righteousness is by faith, apart from works of the law – just as was Abraham’s. Romans 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

 

God has an entirely different means of empowering us to live righteously than may have been preached or taught to us – it is by being partakers of and co-operating with the life and nature of Christ Himself who dwells in us as our new life. God gave this revelation of the “mystery” gospel (Rom 16:25) to Paul, for us (Eph 3:1-5). Col. 1:27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 

So, God knows that apart from Christ operating in us we will break the law, but we do not initially know this. Therefore, He gave the law to us and allows us to break it. He let sin become exceedingly sinful in order to slap us in the face, cause us to awake to the reality of our sinful flesh body. In this way we will come to know what God already knows, and we will become aware of our neediness to rely upon Christ. The law was given to cause our sin to be increased, that we might turn to find and receive Christ’s lordship within us and to enjoy grace of His love and empowering life. Romans 5:20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,


God has to bring us to the point where we see, confess and even cry out that we cannot make it by our self-effort no matter how hard we may try to imitate Jesus of Nazareth. We see that Paul came to that place here in Romans 7, crying out for an answer to the dilemma. Romans 7:23-24 but I see a different law (operating principle) in the members of my body, waging war against the law (operating principle)  of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law (operating principle) of sin which is in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

 

Only then will we acknowledge God's wisdom in crucifying us on the cross in Christ.

Romans 6:6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be made of no effect, that we should no longer be slaves to sin

Every person has his specific weakness that God may focus up to get their attention. We must ask God to enlighten us and show us our utter weakness and inability to live righteously out of his own resources. Every person has at least one thing chronic that he cannot overcome in order to get our attention – once we come to see this we soon realize that we can do nothing apart from Him.

John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Once we see that we are unable, we will see that God, by the Spirit of the indwelling Christ in us is able.

Romans 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law (operating principle) of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law (operating principle) of sin and of death.

For Christians, condemnation of God is not an issue; and we now possess a new, overcoming, life in us that overcomes sin and ultimately overcomes death – Christ’s life.

Philip. 2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

If you do not see your own weakness, you will not see and enjoy the power of Christ.   <END>