Apart from the Gospel – The Law of God: Questions and Answers

Apart from the Gospel

The Law of God: Questions and Answers

The Law is part of the Gospel, not its opposite.

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

1 Timothy 1:8, 11

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully… in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

Any teaching of the Law of God apart from the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is unlawful. Any teaching of the Gospel without the Law is another gospel than that which Jesus and the Apostles proclaimed.

This only makes sense. Apart from the Gospel, we cannot understand or obey the Law, so that we should live by it. Without the Law to guide the redeemed, we cannot know what good works God has before ordained for us to walk in (Eph. 2:10).

At the same time, apart from the Law we cannot know our sinfulness or need for the Savior.

Even when, like Daniel or John the Baptist, we are seeking to hold secular authorities accountable to the holy and righteous and good standards of the Law of God, we must not do so apart from the Gospel, lest we give the wrong impression about the nature and purpose of the Law or the meaning or means of salvation.

As we shall see in further explorations of the lawful uses of the Law, the Gospel is the defining key to understanding and obeying the Law of God. And the Law of God can be a key to open the depths of a sinner’s heart to his need for Christ. Thus we must not allow a separation between these, as though, somehow, they were not intimately and inextricably linked with one another.

The Gospel of the Kingdom is the only hope of men. And they only will be great in that Kingdom who keep the Law of God and teach others to do so as well (Matt. 5:17-19). We must keep Gospel and Law together, or we will invariably use the Law in an unlawful manner.

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.