Not unto Salvation – The Law of God: Questions and Answers

Not unto Salvation

The Law of God: Questions and Answers

Of what use, really, is the Law of God?

Ephesians 2:8, 9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Many contemporary Christians apparently cannot think about the Law of God apart from salvation. It almost never fails: Whenever I have preached anywhere on the Law of God, someone will always confront me at the door, wagging his finger and insisting that we are not saved by the Law. I always agree and explain that I did not in any way suggest that we are.

Nevertheless, this is what people hear. In the minds of some people, if you insist that the Law has some use, they can only understand it as being a means to salvation, and they (rightly) reject it as such.

We know that we are saved by grace, that’s true. None of our own doing is involved, save to receive what God, by His Spirit, has awakened us to receive—the Kingdom of God. In a larger sense, however, we are saved by the Law in the fact that Jesus’ righteousness and suffering fulfilled all that the Law requires for wretched sinners to enjoy the favor and presence of God. But we have nothing to contribute to that.

Jesus’ work of redemption was according to the requirements, demands, and promises of the Law of God. That’s a good thing, I think we can all agree.

But only Jesus could fulfill the Law so as to earn salvation by so doing. Yet it was not His salvation, but ours, which was thereby secured.

So it is an unlawful use of the Law to insist, in any way, that our keeping the Law of God contributes in any way to our being saved. We are not saved by obeying the Law of God. And we are not saved by believing in Jesus and keeping the Law of God.

We are saved by grace through faith. The Law of God, of course, comes into our salvation, but never in any ways as a means, only as a fruit.

But more on that further on.

For a fuller discussion of the uses of the Law, and why it remains useful today, order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store. And while you’re at the website, be sure to read T. M.’s weekly comments on worldview and to subscribe to our thrice-weekly newsletter, Crosfigell.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.