This week I’ve been highlighting entries from Tom Schreiner’s excellent book 40 Questions About Christians and Biblical Law, which Kregel is publishing.
I thought it’d be fitting to end this week of excerpts with question 40, the final entry in the book, answering the question, “What Role Does the Law Have in Preaching?”
This is a fitting question for the conclusion of this book, and it should be evident by now that we must answer this question at several different levels.
First, we must always preach in light of the story line of the entire Bible. One of the crucial questions we always must ask in investigating any text is where the text lands in terms of the whole flow of redemptive history. The laws of the Mosaic covenant represent a period of time and a covenant that is no longer in force. Therefore, we cannot simply find some law from Exodus or Leviticus and preach it as binding on Christians today, unless we justify such a claim from the whole canon of Scripture. I have argued in this book that some of the laws in the Old Testament are part of the law of Christ and hence are still authoritative commands for believers today. The New Testament reaffirms, for instance, that the prohibitions against idolatry, adultery, murder, and stealing are God’s permanent will for his people. We discern this from reading the whole counsel of God, by relating the old covenant to the new, and by seeing how the New Testament applies God’s law to the lives of those redeemed by Christ. The law of Christ, then, functions as God’s standard for his people today. In other words, we can determine which moral norms to preach as applicable today only when we read the Old Testament from the standpoint of the New Testament. We understand the whole story of Scripture truly when we see it in light of the fulfillment Christ brings.
Second, there is always the danger that a focus on moral norms will crowd out the gospel. The gospel can easily be turned into a self-help program so that radical forgiveness of sins is replaced by ethics, as if our goodness qualifies us to obtain eternal life. The moral norms required for the people of God are a result of the grace of God that has saved us in Jesus Christ. They are the fruit of new life in Christ, not the basis of our new life in Christ. They reflect whether we belong to the people of God; they are not the means by which we become part of the people of God. Biblical preaching emphasizes the importance of good works and godly living, but it always puts the accent on the good news of justification, so that our good works are viewed as a response to the grace of God. Good works are necessary to receive an eternal reward, but faithful preaching is careful to point out that such works are never the basis of our relationship with God. We are called to a godly life of virtue, but virtue must be explicated in light of the gospel, or the call to live in a new way actually may undermine the gospel we proclaim. Any obedience that is ours is a result of the Spirit’s work in our lives (Rom. 8:4). It is as we walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16) and yield to the Spirit (Gal. 5:18) that the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22–23) becomes ours. Hence, our new life is not autonomous. It is not the product of our own strength or moral willpower. We do not become changed people because we are working hard on being gentle, kind, or loving. The new life is supernatural. It is the consequence of being crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20) and experiencing his powerful love for us.
Third, the moral norms of the law have a convicting function. They remind us that we are all sinners (Rom. 1:18–3:20) and that we fall short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23). Some are deeply conscious of their sins, so the message that God loves them and desires them to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4) is liberating. None of us, however, fully grasps the extent of our sinfulness in this life. God uses the moral norms of the law to remind us what it means to love him and to love others. The law of Christ calls upon us to be perfect (Matt. 5:48), but we all fall short of perfection. The law convicts us of our sins and drives us to Christ (Gal. 3:21–25). God intended that the law would enclose all things under sin, so that human beings would understand through the law that they are slaves of sin. The law, then, puts us to death so that we find life in Christ. Faithful preaching reminds us of what is required of us, and the law functions as a hammer (as Luther taught) that breaks us to pieces so that we seek solace and salvation in Christ alone. When it is rightly preached and rightly understood, the law removes the illusion that we can be right with God through our works. It exposes the wickedness of our hearts so that we put our trust in Christ alone for salvation. As a result, we magnify God in Christ for what he has done to save us. We don’t just say that we trust in Christ for salvation. We feel a sense of our utter lostness apart from Christ. We rejoice that Christ has saved us from our own perversity and wickedness. Evil is no longer merely used to describe others, such as Osama bin Laden. We confess and acknowledge our own sin. Such an acknowledgment does not leave us in misery, for we rejoice in the love of God in Jesus Christ that has rescued us as sinners. We do not need to hide our sins from God or anyone else, for we know what it is to be a forgiven sinner. True preaching brings gravity over our sin and gladness over our great salvation.
Finally, we are reminded by Psalms 19 and 119 and the law of Christ that the Lord uses moral norms in our lives as Christians. Those who are filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18) also are filled with the word (Col. 3:16). It is clear from the New Testament epistles that the instruction given to the churches also included moral exhortation. It is evident that the New Testament letters are filled with what is technically called parenesis (exhortations), which trace out what it means to be followers of Christ (cf. Rom. 12:9–21; Eph. 4:17–6:9; Col. 2:20–4:1; etc.). Apparently, biblical writers did not believe that moral norms necessarily quenched life in the Spirit. They were convinced that moral exhortations could be used by the Spirit to inspire believers to trust in God and to live lives that are pleasing to him. Moral exhortations do not necessarily lead to legalism or works-righteousness, even if there is a danger that they can lead in such a direction. Certainly the apostle Paul, whose letters are filled with moral exhortations, believed that such exhortations are helpful in one’s spiritual life and can drive believers to trust in the power of the Spirit and to live in a way that is pleasing to God. Some who understand grace overreact and rule out the “shoulds” and the “oughts” of the New Testament. They become more “biblical” than the Bible! But grace and demand are not necessarily opposed to one another. God’s grace also gives us the ability to live in a way that pleases God, even if we never reach perfection. Paul thought it was helpful to Christians to say that divorce is wrong (1 Cor. 7:10–11), that Christians should marry only fellow believers (1 Cor. 7:39), and that sexual immorality should be forsaken (1 Cor. 6:12–20; 1 Thess. 4:3–8). He did not believe that such commands would lead Christians to become legalists; otherwise, he would not have included these commands.
It is important in preaching, then, to follow the lead of the New Testament. The exhortations in the New Testament must be proclaimed in light of God’s saving work in Christ; but God uses such exhortations to conform us to Christ, and hence we should follow the pattern of New Testament writings in admonishing believers to live in a way that pleases the Lord.
SUMMARY
What role does the law have in preaching? We must consider where a command is in the story line of the Bible and in terms of the redemptive-historical scheme we see in Scripture. The moral norms of the Bible cannot be preached apart from the canonical context and apart from the whole counsel of God. In addition, when we preach God’s commands, we must always preach them in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God saves us by his mercy, and then he gives us commands by which we respond to his grace. It is incredibly easy to turn things around so that law precedes grace, and thereby the moral norms of the law become for us a ladder by which we try to be right with God or to impress him with our works. Obeying God is always a response to his grace; it is never a means by which we become right with God.
