The LORD’s Perfect Law

We are not under bondage to sin; nor are we under bondage to the Law.  Can we sin freely and openly disregarding the law?  No.  Does forcing the observance of the law upon myself and others make me more righteous?  No. 

The freedom of bondage from both sin and law presents a struggle since the sinner saved by grace has been changed, that is, he has been made alive in Christ; nevertheless, he is not yet glorified.  The struggle exists because it keeps us at the Cross of Christ; it presses us to trust in and depend upon the Master, leaning upon His everlasting arms.  We will examine more of that reality in the articles to come through the remainder of Romans 7. 

“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul” (Psalm 19:7). 

The law comes from God and is perfect, good and holy.  Because we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and because His righteousness is imputed unto us while our sin is imputed unto Him, then we understand that the law does not convert us; that comes by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel.  Because the law cannot be observed and obeyed by fallen man, because the law exposes our sin, we can receive the Gospel as the good news it is intended to be. 

Even for those who have not studied the law, as the Jews had, when the Gospel is preached, they must ask, “Why did the God become a Man, sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth?  Why did He leave His celestial glory to die upon a Roman cross?”  

What do we know from what we have learned in this series of articles thus far?  One of the things we have learned is that no man can meet the standard of righteousness expressed in the law.  When the law of God is expressed, sin is exposed, and the Holy Spirit convicts the sinner of sin, being unable to fulfill the law in our flesh.  The Spirit also convicts the sinner of righteousness; that Jesus Christ, the righteous Son, is the only One that is perfectly and sufficiently righteous to keep the Law, and thus becomes the eternal and sufficient sacrifice according to God’s eternal decree.  The Holy Spirit also convicts the sinner of judgment; that God’s divine justice was poured out upon Jesus Christ as the substitutionary Sacrifice, and for those who have believed upon Christ and placed their trust and dependence upon Him as Lord and Savior, and are declared by God to be justified before Him.  And for those who do not receive God’s gracious gift in His one and only Son, they receive the judgment of God’s holy wrath deservedly for their unrepentant sin.

Yet, if the law does not convert us in salvation, does this present a contradiction in what the Psalm declares?  No.  As the conversion of a soul takes place through the effectual calling of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit does use the law to convince the soul of sin, righteousness, and judgment.  The conversion of the dead soul to that of living soul is the converting work of God.  The perfect law, however, does convert the soul already made alive in Christ, however, by reflecting its holiness in and through and by Jesus Christ, the fulfillment, revelation, and expression of the law.  The conversion of our soul takes place when we are being conformed, by God’s grace, to the image of Jesus Christ, being changed from glory to glory.  The law in its glorious fulfillment in Christ keeps us clinging to the Cross, embracing grace, and cleaving to Christ alone because we see that the best of our righteousnesses, though saved, can never attain to the only righteous Man who ever lived, the only Jew who ever kept the law, the only Prophet who ever uttered God’s truth sinlessly, and the only Son who ever wholly obeyed His Father, Jesus Christ.

Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in Him alone for His righteousness and His sufficient sacrifice upon Calvary’s tree.