The New Testament Explicitly Supports the Continuing Validity of the Law

In arguing for the continuous validity of the law, Greg Bahnsen employs a two-fold trinitarian approach from Chapters 3 to 10 in his book, "By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today." In chapters 6 to 8, Dr. Bahnsen used the ontological Trinity as his basis for argument. He believes that the holiness of the Father, the righteousness of Jesus, and the leading of the Holy Spirit all prove the continuing validity of the law. In chapters 3, 5, 9, and 10, Dr. Bahnsen utilized the trinitarian ethical approach - the normative, consequential, and motivational aspects of ethics to prove his point. Here in chapter 11, he advances his argument further by claiming that the New Testament explicitly validates the present applicability of the law. And he does this in three ways: by citing three general affirmations in the New Testament, by showing the role of the law in the life and teachings of Jesus, and by giving the overview of the teachings of the apostles on the subject. 

Three-fold Affirmations

The New Testament simply presupposes the ongoing validity of the law due to the fact that "sin is defined as transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4; Romans 7:7)" (p. 89). And this is also true since love summarizes Christian life in the New Testament, which can only be understood "in terms of God's law ( Matthew 22:40; Romans 13:10; 1 John 5:2-3)" (ibid.). Furthermore, without the law of God, New Testament morality would be "aimless" and without direction. 

Jesus' Life and Teachings

Jesus parents' and close relatives are described as faithful in obeying the law of God (Luke 1:6; 2:21-24, 27, 39). Jesus himself constantly appealed to the law during his earthly ministry (Matthew 4: 7; 5:19; 6:10; 7:21-23; 12:5; 15:4; 19: 17-18; 28:18-20; Mark 1:44; 2:25-28; 10:17-19; Luke 10: 26; 11:42; John 7:19; 8:17; 10:35). 

The Teachings of the Apostles

For the apostle Paul, keeping God's commands counts in Christian life (1 Corinthians 7:19). In fact, Christians life is described as obedience to God's commandments (Revelation 12:17; 14:12) or the other way of putting it is that God expects us to keep the law (James 2:8-10). Furthermore, purity is expected from us (1 John 3:3), and we are admonished to allow no sin to reign in our body (Romans 6: 12-13). Even the seemingly minor matters such as women's silence and submission in the churches are according to the Law (Romans 14:34). Moreover, the laws of God are wriiten on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10), and we are given the promise that the requirements of the law are fulfilled in us according to the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:4). As a whole, by loving one another, we are able to fulfill the law (Romans 13: 8-10). 

Source: Bahnsen, G. L. (1985). By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics. 

The Benefits of Obedience Validate the Law

Now in Chapter 10 of Dr. Greg Bahnsen's book, By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today we read the second ethical argument for the continuing validity of biblical law. This time it's the consequential perspective of Christian ethics.

Summary of the Three Ethical Perspectives

Let us compare the consequential perspective to the other two ethical perspectives - the normative and the motivational. The normative concerns itself with ethical standard of right and wrong. The motivational is about intentions. And the consequential is about results of one's decision and action. From this perspective, if the result is good, the decision and action are also considered morally good. 

All these three ethical perspectives are taught in the Bible. The focus of the book is the normative. In previous chapter, we learned that in the motivational perspective, the ethics of grace and love actually validate the law. The present article summarizes the consequential perspective. 

The Biblicality of Consequential Perspective

Consequences of our actions are clearly taught in the Bible. Take for instance the apostle Paul's admonition in Galatians 6: 7 to 9. Commenting on the passage, Dr Bahnsen said: 

"Paul communicates this well in saying that we would have to be deceived to think God could be mocked. Evil living will not bring about happiness and blessing, for then the justice and holiness of our God would be a mockery....Those who live according to their rebellious nature will suffer corruption, while those who live by God's Spirit will gain eternal life....It is noteworthy here that Paul focuses on the benefits which will accrue to us if we engage in welldoing" (pp. 80-81). 

So the consequential perspective is related to the "the thought of reward for righteous living" (p.81). It concerns about benefits that God bestows "as an incentive for moral living" (ibid.). Other biblical texts that teach this include Matthew 6:33; 1 Timothy 4:8, and Malachi 3:10. Basing on Pentateuch, Dr. Bahnsen summarized:

"....Moses, had written that obedience to the Lord would result in blessings on the society's children, crops, rain, herds, cities, and fields; it would bring peace to the people from without and prosperous economy and health from within (Deut. 7:12-15; 11:13-15; 28:1-14; 30:15, 19; Lev. 26:3-12)" (pp. 81-82). 

So this ethical perspective is all about making a serious consideration of the outcome or the end of our decisions and actions. This tells us that "Doing the right thing or having a proper attitude will result in benefits" (p. 82). 

Thinking of Benefits

Now, is thinking of the benefits for our actions selfish? Is it self-serving? In this discussion about the consequential perspective, Dr. Bahnsen explained the nature of this benefit. He believes that thinking about personal benefits, the benefits of others, and the benefits of the society as a whole have their own proper place, but subordinate to the kingdom of God as the top priority. He cites passages like Matthew 22:39, 2 Corinthians 8:9, Ephesians 5:28-29, and Philippians 1:24 to prove his point. However, he is careful to distinguish personal concern, which he describes as "egoism" from "egotism" (ibid.). For him, both egoism and altruism have their own appropriate places "in Christian ethics, as does a concern for the wider collection of people in one's society" (ibid.). Moreover, as already mentioned, "all of these interests are subordinate to the one supreme goal for all of our actions: the kingdom of God" (ibid.). He thinks that within the kingdom of God, "the varying interests of one's self, the other, and the many are all harmonized" (ibid.). As for me, I consider these two sentences as a conclusion of this point:

"The kingdom of Christ is to have top priority when we contemplate the consequences of our actions, for Christ has pre-eminence over all (Col. 1:18). It will be for our good, our neighbor's good, and our society's good if all of our actions and attitudes are governed by an interest in the kingdom of Jesus Christ" (pp. 82-83). 

The Way to Pursue God's Kingdom

After understanding the proper place of benefits, how about the procedure to pursue to them? In discussing this procedure, Dr. Bahnsen reintroduced his main thesis - the continuing validity of divine law. The way to pursue the kingdom of God is through obedience, and it only makes sense in connection to the law of God. Dr. Bahnsen explains: 

"Biblical law is a pathway to divine benefits - not an ugly, dour, painful course for believers. It is not only a demand, it is something to desire! As John said, "His commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3). They are the delight of the righteous man who receives God's blessing (Ps. 1). If we wish to have a morality which promises blessed consequences, then our morality must be patterned after the law of God" (p. 83).

The Benefits of Obedience (ibid.) 

And the list of benefits of obedience to divine law that Dr. Bahnsen gave is very encouraging: 

• Life and well-being (Deut. 30:15-16)

• Blessing and a strong heart that does not fear (Ps. 119:1-2; 112:5-7)

• Peace and security (Ps. 119:28, 165, 175; Prov. 13:6; Luke 6:46-48)

• Enjoying the Lord's loving-kindness (Ps. 103:17-18),

• Walking in liberty (Ps. 119:45; Jas. 2:25)

• Prosperity with respect to all of our daily needs and interests (cf. Joshua 1:7)

• Blessing upon a society (Prov. 14:34), giving it health, food, financial well-being, peace, and joyous children. 

Conclusion

The consequential perspective cannot be separated from the normative. They work together. Dr. Bahnsen concludes: 

"We see again why the validity or authority of God's law cannot be dismissed today. Without that law we would be lost when it comes to pursuing the beneficial consequences for ourselves, others, and our society in all of our moral actions and attitudes. As God clearly says, He has revealed His law to us for our good (Deut. 10:13). Opponents of God's law, therefore, cannot have our good genuinely in mind; they wittingly and unwittingly mislead us into personal and social frustration, distress, and judgment (Prov. 14:12)" (p. 84).

Source: Bahnsen, G. L. (1985). By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics. 

Grace and Love Validate the Law

Biblical Passages to Read: Romans 7:9; 2 Corinthians 3:6-7; Titus 3:5-7; Galatians 3:11; Ephesians 2:8; Romans 3:28; 5:19; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 2 Corinthians 1:12; 1 Timothy 6:12.

In chapters 6 to 8 of Dr. Greg Bahnsen's book, "By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today," we learned the trinitarian arguments about the continuing validity of God's law. In this chapter and the next, chapters 9 and 10, we will explore two additional arguments; this time from the other two ethical perspectives. Since the book focuses on the normative ("deontological") aspect of Christian ethics, the remaining two ethical arguments are the motivational (also called "existential") and consequential (technically known as "teleological"). In the summary of the present chapter, we will just confine ourselves with motivational ethics. 

The motivational perspective of Christian ethics is related to the influence of grace and love to our obedience to the law. Understanding this is so important especially these days where the mindset that the ethics of grace and love have canceled out the law of God is prevalent. This kind of thinking says Dr. Bahnsen is "unbiblical" and "antinomian" (p. 72).

The Ethic of Grace Validates the Law of God

Dr. Bahnsen repeatedly emphasized that it is a misconception to associate the argument of the continuing validity of divine law with salvation by means of our obedience to it. He has already established that no one can completely meet the law's demands for it is an expression of God's perfect character. And so salvation is based purely on God's act of grace and is received by faith. 

The law of God showed us that we are sinners and in need of a Savior. It shows the kind of life God requires from us, and that is perfect obedience. No man can fulfill such requirement except Jesus. And so only Jesus is qualified to save us from the power of sin. 

The Bible consistently teaches that those who experience the grace of God would now have the will, the desire and the power to keep the law of God. Grace is the backround for Christian obedience. And not only that, the operation of both grace and law cannot be separated in the new life. At this point, let me just enumerate the insights made by Dr. Bahnsen concerning the relationship between law and grace (pp. 73-76):

• God's grace operates within the parameters of His law-in justifying His people, God does not violate His own justice (Rom. 3:26). 

• God's law is gracious (Ps. 119:29). 

• Both grace and law support each other: the law promotes the fulfillment of God's promise (Rom. 5:20-21), and God's grace works to fulfill the law (Rom. 8:3-4). 

• When Paul says that we are saved by grace through faith, he immediately adds that as God's, workmanship we are expected to walk in good works ( Eph. 2:10). 

• Although it is popular today to look upon the law as an intolerable burden for modern man, the beloved apostle wrote that for the believer God's law is not burdensome (1 John 5:3).

• When the Psalmist reflected upon the loving kindness of the Lord, he longed to be taught His statutes and rose at midnight to render thanks for His righteous ordinances (Ps. 119:62-64).

• Moses viewed the giving of God's law as a· sure sign of his love for the people (Deut. 33:2-4).

• All of God's people, throughout both testaments, have a heart which longs to obey the commandments of the Lord, for the law is established against the background of God's mercy toward His people (for example, Ex. 20:2). 

• The first-hand experience of God's redemption is a strong motive for keeping the law (Deut. 7:10-11). 

• The grace of God, that is, brings men to exclaim: "I long for Thy salvation, 0 Lord, and Thy law is my delight" (Ps. 119:174). 

• Paul wrote, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Rom. 7:22). God's law, you see, had been graciously written upon his heart (Heb. 10:16). 

• In Romans 6, Paul discusses the implications of being under God's grace. He begins by asking whether we should continue in sin (law-breaking) so that grace might abound; his answer is a dramatic "God forbid!" (vv. 1-2). Those who have had their old man crucified with Christ, those who are united with Christ in his death and resurrection, those who have risen with Him must walk in newness of life, no longer in bondage to sinful living (vv. 3-11). So Paul exhorts us, "let not sin reign in your mortal body so that you should obey its lusts; neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness." Those who are saved by grace from the power of sin should be finished with violating God's law. Instead they must, having been made alive from the dead, present their members as instrumeI)ts of righteousness (vv. 12-13). Why is this? How can it be that we are obliged to obey the righteous requirements of God's law if we are saved by grace? Paul answers: "Because sin shall not have dominion over you: you are not under law, but under grace" (v. 14). Ironically, although many groups have used this declaration out of context to support release from the law's demand, the verse is one of the strongest biblical proofs that believers must strive to obey the law of God! Because we are no longer under the curse of the law and shut in to its inherent impotence in enabling obedience - because we are under God's enabling grace, not under law - we must not allow violations of the law (i.e., sin: 1John 3:4) to dominate our lives. It is in order that the righteous ordinance of the law may be fulfilled in us that God has graciously put His Spirit within our hearts (Rom. 8:4). "So then, shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? God forbid!" (Rom. 6:15). 

• "The grace of God has appeared unto all men, bringing salvation, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age," for Christ has "redeemed us from every lawless deed" (Titus 2:11-14). 

• God's grace upholds His law. It is to be expected, therefore, that Paul would ask the following question and supply the obvious answer: "Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary we establish the law" (Rom. 3:31). 

• Faith which does not bring obedient works-that is, faith which is divorced from God's law - is in fact insincere and dead James 2:14-26). This kind of faith cannot justify a man at all. 

• The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) is true to Scripture when it teaches that "good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, are the" fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith" (XVI:2). By saving faith, the Confession says, a man will yield obedience to the commands of Scripture (XIV:2). Genuine saving faith always is accompanied by heart-felt repentance from sin and turning unto God, "purposing and endeavoring to walk with Him in all the ways of His commandments" (XV:2). 

Conclusion: "We conclude, then, that the Christian's life of grace and faith is not one which is indifferent or antagonistic to the law of God. God's grace and saving faith establish the validity of the law" (p. 76). 

The Ethic of Love Also Validates the Law of God

Similar truth is applicable to the ethic of love. Instead of invalidating the law of God, love in fact endorses it. Let us see what Dr. Bahnsen has to say about this (pp. 76-77): 

• Because God has shown His love toward us, we are now to live in love to Him and our neighbor (Eph. 5:1-2; 1John.4:7-12, 16-21). On these two love commandments - toward God and toward our neighbor (as taught in the Old Testament [Deut. 6:5, Lev. 19:18])-hang all the law and the prophets, said Jesus (Matt. 22:37-40). Indeed, "love is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom. 13:10). But in the thinking of Jesus and the apostles, does this mean that Christians can dispense with the law of God or repudiate its details? Not at all. Moses had taught that loving God meant keeping His commandments (Deut. 30:16), and as usual Jesus did not depart from Moses: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). 

• The love which summarizes and epitomizes Christian ethics is not a vague generality or feeling that tolerates, for instance, everything from adultery to chastity. John wrote: "Hereby we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments" (1 John 5:2-3). 

• Love summarizes the law of God, but it does not abrogate or replace it. As John Murray once wrote, "the summary does not obliterate or abrogate the expansion of which it is a summary."

• God's commandments give the specific character and direction to love as exercised by the believer. Rather than being a law unto itself (autonomous), love is a reflection of the character of God (1 John 4:8) and must therefore coincide with the dictates of God's law, for they are the transcript of God's moral perfection on a creaturely level. 

Conclusion: "God has loved us in that He saved us by grace through faith. Accordingly the Christian life ought to reflect the principles of grace, faith, and love; without them it is vain and insignificant. However, far from eliminating the law of God, a gracious ethic of faith and love establishes the permanent validity of-and our need for-the Lord's commandments" (p. 77). 

Source: Bahnsen, G. L. (1985). By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics.

The Spirit's Power for Living

My initial impression in reading the 8th chapter of "By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today" is as if I am taking a pneumatology class. The only difference is the wealth of biblical references and is particularly focused on Christian behavior. 

Chapter 8 is the third and last part of Dr. Greg Bahnsen's trinitarian approach in proving the continuing validity of God's law. In this chapter he provided the summary of the previous two chapters. After providing the summary, Dr. Bahnsen shifts to the role of the Holy Spirit by explaining the common work of the Triune God, the meaning of life by the Spirit, sanctification, the law of God, the prevailing attitude towards the law of God, and the real answer to legalism. 

Summary of the Last Two Chapters

"We have seen previously that God's holy character, of which the law is the transcript, is unchanging and beyond challenge; accordingly God's holy law cannot be altered today or brought. into criticism by men's traditions. We have also observed that Christ's perfect obedience, which is the model for the Christian's behavior, was rendered to every detail and facet of God's commandments; accordingly, every believer who makes it his aim to imitate the Savior must be submissive to the law of God as honored by Christ. The character of God the Father and the life of God the Son both point to the law of God as morally binding for Christians today" (p. 62).

The Trinity Work as One (pp. 62-63)

• The work of God the Spirit cannot be viewed as in any way detracting from our obedience to God's law; otherwise the unity of the Triune Godhead would be dissolved and we would have three gods (with separate wills and intentions, diverse attitudes and standards) rather than one. 

• The truth is, as presented by Scripture, that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit "of God" (1 Cor. 2: 12) and is given by the Father (John 14:16; 15:26; Acts 2:33). 

• He is likewise designated the Spirit "of the son" (Gal. 4:6; cf. Phil. 1:19; Rom. 8:9) and is sent by Christ (John 15:26; 16:7; 20:22; Acts 2:33). 

• The Holy Spirit does not work contrary to the plans and purposes of the Father and Son but rather completes them or brings them to realization. The harmony of His workings with the Father and Son is illustrated in John 16:15, where we read that everything possessed by the Father is shared with the Son, and in turn whatever is possessed by the Son is disclosed by the Spirit. 

• The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work as one. They are not in tension with each other. Consequently, we should not expect that the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives would run counter to the character of the Father and the example of the Son. We should not expect that this Spirit, who inspired the writing of God's holy law, would work contrary to that law by undermining its validity, replacing its function, or leading us away from obedience to it. 

Life By The Spirit (pp. 63-64)

Dr Bahnsen summarized Biblical ethics as living a "Spirit-filled," or "Spirit-led" life or simply "living by the Spirit." And then he enumerated the qualities of this kind of life:

• The Holy Spirit gives new life to us (John 3:3-8), renews us (Titus 3:5-6), and enables us to make profession of faith in Christ (1 Cor. 12:3); pp. 63-64

• Without the work of the Spirit, a person cannot be a Christian at all (Rom. 8:9; Gal. 3:2). 

• The Holy Spirit illumines the believer (Eph. 1:17), leads him (Rom. 8:14), and writes God's word upon his heart (2 Cor. 3:3); 

• By the Spirit we can understand the things freely given to us by God (1 Cor. 2:12-16). 

• The Spirit seals the believer (Eph. 1:13; 4:30), indwells him with inner refreshment as an ever-flowing river of living water Uohn 14:17; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 3:16; John 7:38-39), and constitutes the down payment from God on our eternal inheritance (Eph. 1:14). 

• The "Spiritual" man - the believer as subject to such influences of God's Spirit - will show the dramatic effects or results of the Spirit's ministry in his life. By the Spirit he will put to death the sinful deeds of his body (Rom. 8:13), for the Spirit produces holiness in the lives of God's people (2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2). 

• Being filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), the believer's life will manifest worship, joyful praise, thanksgiving, and submission to others (vv. 19-21). 

• Christians are to walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16), thereby evidencing the harvest of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (vv. 22-24). 

Sanctification (pp. 64-65)

The other biblical term to describe the Christian life is sanctification. 

• The believer in Christ is not only saved from his moral guilt before God, but he is also saved from the moral pollution in which he formerly lived. Christianity is not merely a matter of believing certain things and anticipating eternal comfort; it does not start and end with forgiveness for our sins because we have come to Christ as Savior. Christianity likewise requires living continually under the Lordship of Christ, eliminating indwelling sin, and walking righteously before God. 

• The Christian is one who has been freed not only from the curse of sin but from the bondage of sin as well. Christian experience extends beyond the moment of belief and pardon into the daily exercise of pursuing sanctification without which no one will see God (Heb. 12:14). 

• It entails life in the Holy Spirit, which can only mean progressive holiness in one's behavior. We are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9)-unto a life of obedience: "we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works" (v. 10). 

• If living by the Spirit indicates that salvation must bring sanctification, then it means that salvation produces a life of glad obedience to God's law.

Leading of the Holy Spirit and the Law of God (pp. 64-66)

• Salvation frees one from sin's bondage so that he can walk lawfully (James 1:25; Gal. 5:13-14), which is to say lovingly (cf. 1 John 5:1-3), for the leading evidence of the Spirit's work in one's life is love (Gal. 5:22). 

• Those who have been saved by faith must be diligent to exercise the good works of love (Titus 3:5-8; James 2:26; Gal. 5:6), and the standard of good behavior and loving conduct is found in God's revealed law (Ps. 119:68; Rom. 7:12,16; 1 Tim. 1:8; John 14:15; 2 John 6). p. 65

• The Holy Spirit works in the believer to bring about conformity to the inspired law of God as the pattern of holiness. The "requirement of the law" is "fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Rom. 8:4). 

• When God puts His Spirit within a person it causes that person to walk in the Lord's statutes and keep His ordinances (Ezk. 11:19-20). 

• Therefore, since salvation requires sanctification, and since sanctification calls for obedience to the commandments of God, the New Testament teaches us that Christ "became the author of eternal salvation unto all those who obey Him" (Heb. 5:9). This does not contradict salvation by grace; it is its inevitable outworking.

Undermining God's Law (pp. 66-67)

• Sadly, the church today often tones down the demands of God's law out of a misconceived desire to exalt God's grace and avoid any legalism wherein salvation is grounded in one's own law-works. 

• Rather than finding the proper place for God's law within the plan of salvation and pursuing its function within the kingdom of Christ, the church frequently promotes an "easy believism" which does not proclaim the need for heart-felt repentance, clearly manifest the sinner's utter guilt and need of the Savior, or follow up conversion with exhortation and discipline in righteous living. 

• Without the law of God which displays the unchanging will of God for man's attitudes and actions in all areas of life, there is a corresponding de-emphasis on concrete sin for which men must repent, genuine guilt which drives men to Christ, and specific guidelines for righteous behavior in the believer. 

• Taking Paul out of context, some churches and teachers would make their message "we are not under law but grace." They would present evangelism and Christian nurture as though mutually exclusive of concern for God's righteous standards as found in his commandments. They would focus on the extraordinary work of the Spirit in a supposed second blessing and the charismatic gifts. 

• As a result, the whole of the Biblical message and Christian life would be cast into a distorted, truncated, or modified form in the interests of a religion of pure grace. 

• However, God's word warns us against turning" the grace of God into an occasion or cause of licentious living (Jude 4); it insists that faith does not nullify God's law (Romans 3:31). One has to be deceived, Paul says, to think that the unrighteous could possibly inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Those who demote even the slightest requirement of God's law will themselves be demoted in the Lord's kingdom (Matt. 5:19).

The Answer to Legalism (pp. 67-69)

• The answer to legalism is not easy believism, evangelism without the need for repentance, the pursuit of a mystical second blessing in the Spirit, or a Christian life devoid of righteous instruction and guidance. 

• Legalism is countered by the Biblical understanding of true "life in the Spirit." In such living, God's Spirit is the gracious author of new life, who convicts us of our sin and misery over against the violated law of God, who unites us to Christ in salvation that we might share His holy life, who enables us to understand the guidance given by God's word, and who makes us to grow by God's grace into people who better obey the Lord's commands. 

• The precise reason that Paul asserts that we are under grace and therefore not under the condemnation or curse of the law is to explain how it is that sin does not have dominion over us-to explain, that is, why we have become slaves to obedience and now have lives characterized by conformity to God's law (Rom. 6:13-18). 

• It is God's grace that makes us Spiritual men who honor the commandments of our Lord.

• The answer to legalism is not to portray the law of God as contrary to His promise (Gal. 3:21) but to realize that, just as the Christian life began by the Spirit, this life must be nurtured and perfected in the power of the Spirit as well (Gal. 3:3). 

• The dynamic for righteous living is found, not in the believer's own strength, but in the enabling might of the Spirit of God. We are naturally the slaves of sin who live under its power (Rom. 6:16-20; 7:23); indeed, Paul declares that we are dead in sin (Eph. 2:1). However, if we are united to Christ in virtue of His death and resurrection we have become dead to sin (Rom. 6:3-4) and thus no longer live in it (v. 2). Just as Christ was raised to newness of life by the Spirit (1 Tim. 3:16; 1 Pet. 3:18; Rom. 1:4; 6:4,9), so also we who have His resurrected power indwelling us by the life-giving Spirit (Eph. 1:19-20; Phil. 3:10; Rom. 8:11) have the power to live new lives which are freed from sin (Rom. 6:4-11). The result of the Spirit freeing us from sin is sanctification (v. 22). 

• The gracious power of the new and righteous life of the Christian is the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. Here is the antidote to legalism. We must observe in this regard that the Holy Spirit does not replace the law of God in the Christian's life, nor does He oppose the law of God in our behavior. The gracious Spirit who empowers our sanctification does not speak for Himself, giving a new pattern for Christian behavior (John 16:13). Rather He witnesses to the word of the Son (John 14:23-26; 15:26; 16:14). The Spirit is not an independent source of direction or guidance in the Christian life, for His ministry is carried out in conjunction with the already given word of God (cf. 1 Cor. 2:12-16).

• In terms of our sanctification this means that the Spirit enables us to understand and obey the objective standard of God's revealed law. It does not mean that Christians who are indwelt by the Spirit become a law unto themselves, spinning out from within themselves the standards by which they live. What the Spirit does is to supply what was lacking in the law itself- the power to enforce compliance. "What the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Rom. 8:3-4).

Conclusion

"God's law is still the blueprint for sanctified behavior. This is completely unaffected by the Spirit's ethical ministry in the believer. The Holy Spirit does not oppose that law in the slightest degree but, instead, empowers obedience to it. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances" (Ezk. 36:27). Whereas the letter of the law brought death to man because he was unable of himself to comply with it, the Spirit of God enlivens men so that they can conform to God's standards (2 Cor. 3:6). Therefore the sure test of whether someone has the Spirit abiding in him or not is found in asking if he keeps the commandments of God (1 John 3:24). A Biblical view of the work of the Holy Spirit reinforces the validity of God's law for the Christian, showing how the law (as pattern) and the Spirit (as power) are both indispensable to sanctification" (p. 70). 

Source: Bahnsen, G. L. (1985). By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics.

The Model Righteousness of Jesus

Reading the 7th chapter of By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today, is like having a crash course in Christology, biblical law, and Christian ethics. This is the 2nd part in Bahnsen's trinitarian approach to prove the continuing validity of biblical law. 

After reading the chapter, I was impressed with the wealth of exegetical insights and biblical material. I think this is a good material for teaching the adult Sunday School. And so I decided to reorder this chapter into an outline format. In doing this, I place a couple of paragraph here and there under the section, which I think is most suitable. 

The theme of the whole chapter is Jesus' model of righteousness. Dr. Greg Bahnsen structured the chapter's content under three major divisions:

• The centrality of Jesus throughout the Bible

• Jesus' life is in complete conformity to the law of God

• Christian life understood as imitating Christ means following the same moral standard

The Centrality of Jesus Throughout the Bible

1. From creation to the promise of His coming as the Messiah

• He was as the Word of God, active at the creation of the world (John 13)

• He providentially upholds all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). 

• He was the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). 

• The entire Old Testament prepares for His coming as the prophet (Deut. 18:15-19), priest (Ps. 110:4), and king (Isa. 9:6-7).

2. The New Testament speaks of the centrality of Jesus. 

• The Gospels tell of His life and saving ministry

• Acts tells us of the continuation of His work through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church

• The epistles are His letters through His chosen servants (for example, Galatians 1:1) to his elect people

• The book of Revelation is His revelation 

• His church now labors to make all nations His disciples (Matt. 28:18-20)

• At the consummation of history, He will return again to judge all mankind (Acts 17:31). 

• From beginning to end, the Bible speaks of Jesus Christ who is "the Alpha and the Omega" (Rev. 22:13).

• He is the key to God's special revelation and the one who should have preeminence in our lives (Col. 1:18).

Jesus' Life, in Complete Conformity to the Law of God

Under this section, Rushdoony discussed the relationship between Jesus and the law of God. The life of Jesus is described as a life of perfect obedience to the perfect moral standard of God.

"A short survey of Biblical teaching discloses that God does not save His chosen people by lowering His moral standards; the very reason why those people need His saving mercy is because they have violated His moral standards. If such standards were expendable or arbitrary, then God could choose to ignore their transgression and save people by sheer fiat or decree of pardon. However, the law could not be thus ignored. To save His people, God sent His only-begotten Son to die sacrificially in their place. In order to qualify as the Savior, Christ lived a life of perfect obedience to the commandments of God. In order to atone for sins, Christ died in alienation from the Father to satisfy the law's demand for punishment. Consequently in His life and death Christ perfectly obeyed the law of God, and this has unavoidable implications for Christian ethics - for imitating the Christ portrayed throughout the Bible."

The Scriptures regard the work of Christ as that of perfect obedience:

• In defining the purpose of His Messianic advent, Christ said "I have come down from heaven to do the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38). 

• The pivotal event in the accomplishment or redemption was Christ's laying down His life and taking it up again - His death and resurrection; in these things Christ· was obeying His Father's commandment (John 10:17-18). 

• His work of atonement was performed in the capacity of a suffering servant (cf. Isa. 52:13-53:12). As such He was subjected to the law (Gal. 4:5) and justified us by His obedience (Rom. 5:19). Obedience to the will and commandment of God was therefore crucial to the life and ministry of our Savior. 

• As our great High Priest He was sacrificed to discharge the curse of the law against our sin (Gal. 3:13; Heb. 2:17 -3:1; 4:14-5:10). 

• As the prophet of the law, Christ rendered its proper interpretation and peeled away the distorting traditions of men (Matt. 5:17-48; 15:1-20). 

• And because He obeyed the law perfectly and hated all lawlessness, Christ has been exalted as the anointed King (Heb. 1:8, 9). 

We see here that Christ's saving work and His three-fold office are determined by His positive relation to the law of God, the permanent expression of His holy will.

• Since Christ is the exact representation of God's nature (Heb. 1:3) and since the law is a transcript of the holiness of God, Christ embodied the law perfectly in His own person and behavior. 

• Christ challenged His opponents with the stunning-virtually rhetorical-question, "Which of you convicts me of sin?" (John 8:46). Of course, no one could, for Christ alone was in a position to declare, "I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love" (John 15:10).

• Christ was tempted at every point with respect to obeying the commands of God, yet He remained sinless throughout (Heb. 4:15). 

• Because He kept the law perfectly, Christ had no need to offer up sacrifice for His own sins (Heb. 7:26-28). Instead He offered Himself up without spot to God, a lamb without blemish as the law required, in order to cleanse us of our sins (Heb. 9:14). 

• The Old Testament had foretold, "righteousness will be the belt about His loins" (Isa. 11:5), and the Messiah could declare, "Thy law is within my heart" (Ps. 40:7-8; Heb. 10:4-10).

• We read in Galatians 4:4 that "when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law."

• Christ was neither lawless nor above the law; He submitted to its every requirement, saying "it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matt. 3:15). 

• He directed the healed to offer the gift commanded by Moses (Matt. 8:4), kept the borders of his garments (9:20; 14:36), paid the temple tax (17:24-27), attended to the purity of the temple (21:12-17), etc. 

• He directed His followers to do those things which conformed to the law's demand (Matt. 7:12), told the rich young ruler to keep the commandments (19:17), reinforced the Old Testament law by summarizing it into two love commandments (22:40), indicted the Pharisees for making God's commandments void through traditions of men (Mark 7:6-13), and insisted that even the most trite or insignificant matters of the law ought not to be left undone (Luke 11:12).

• Jesus severely warned His followers not even to begin to think that His coming had the effect of abrogating even the slightest letter of the law; teaching that even the least commandment had been annulled would eventuate in one's demotion in the kingdom of God (Matt. 5:17-19). 

• Christ submitted to the law of God even to the very point of suffering its prescribed penalty for sin. He died the death of a criminal (Phil. 2:8), taking upon Himself the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13) and cancelling thereby the handwriting which was against us because of the law (Col. 2:14). "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.... Jehovah has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:4-6).

• Sin cannot avoid the dreadful judgment of God (Nahum 1:2-3; Habakkuk 1:13), and therefore God does not save sinners without righteousness and peace kissing each other (Ps. 85:9-10).

• Jesus remains just, while becoming the justifier of His people (Rom. 3:26). Accordingly the law's demands could not be arbitrarily pushed aside. Christ had to come and undergo the curse of the law in the place of His chosen people; He had to satisfy the justice of God. That is why it can be said that the death of Christ is the outstanding evidence that God's law cannot be ignored or abrogated. 

• According to the law there is no remission of sin apart from the shedding of blood (Heb. 9:22; Lev. 17:11). "Therefore it was necessary that Christ offer up himself in sacrifice for sin" (Heb. 9:23-26). The necessity of the law's continuing validity is substantiated by the saving death of Christ on our behalf.

• For us to be saved, it was necessary for Christ to live and die by all of the law's stipulations. Although our own obedience to the law is flawed and thus cannot be used as a way of justification before God, we are saved by the imputed obedience of the Savior (1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:9). Our justification is rooted in His obedience (Rom. 5:17-19). By a righteousness which is alien to ourselves - the perfect righteousness of Christ according to the law - we are made just in the sight of God. "He made the one who did not know sin to be sin on our behalf in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21).

• It turns out, then, that Christ's advent and atoning work do not relax the validity of the law of God and its demand for righteousness; rather they accentuate it. Salvation does not cancel the law's demand but simply the law's curse: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13). He removed our guilt and the condemning aspect of the law toward us, but Christ did not revoke the law's original righteous demand and obligation. Salvation in the Biblical sense presupposes the permanent validity of the law. 

Throughout His life and teaching, and even up to the point of death, Jesus upheld the law's demands in the most exacting degree.

Imitating Christ

• At many times in the history of the church, Christian living has been understood most generally as "the imitation of Christ." 

• Because Christ is the central personage of the Bible, there is a sense in which Biblical ethics can likewise be summarized as imitating Christ - striving to be like Him, taking His behavior as the model of Christian ethics. Indeed, to take upon oneself the name of "Christian" is to be a disciple or follower of Christ (cf. Acts 11:26). Believers take their direction from the example and teaching of Christ. Accordingly, Biblical ethics is the same as Christian ethics.

• Christian ethics is a matter of imitating Christ, and for that reason it does not call us to flee from the law but to honor its requirements. We are to have in ourselves the attitude which was in Christ Jesus, who humbled himself and became obedient (Phil. 2: 5, 8). We are to follow in His steps of righteous behavior (1 Pet. 2:21), showing forth righteousness because the Holy Spirit unites us to Him (1 Cor. 6:15-20). Therefore the Biblical ethic is the Christian ethic of following after the example of Christ's obedience to God's law. John expresses this point clearly: "Hereby we know that we are in Him: he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked" (1 John 2:5-6). 

• Christians should therefore be the last people to think or maintain that they are free from the righteous requirements of God's commandments. Those who have been saved were in need of that salvation precisely because God's law could not be ignored as they transgressed it. 

• The Holy Spirit indwelling all true believers in Jesus Christ makes them grow in likeness to Christ - "to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13, 15; cf. Gal. 4:19).

Christ walked according to the commandments of God. Therefore, we cannot escape the conclusion that Christian ethic is one of obedience to God's law, for Christ's perfect righteousness according to that law is our model for Christian living.

• Jesus therefore must have the supremacy in Christian life. Because of our sinful disobedience to God's commandments, Christ came to atone for our offenses and become our eternal Savior. As such, He deserves our undying devotion and gratitude.

• As the resurrected and ascended Son of God, Christ is Lord over all and deserves our obedience and service. Thus the lifestyle and ethic of those who have been redeemed by Christ as Savior and Lord will naturally center or focus on Him

Conclusion

From beginning to end the Bible centers on Jesus Christ. From beginning to end His life was lived in conformity to the law of God. And from beginning to end the Biblical ethic of imitating Christ calls us likewise to obey every command of God's word.

Source: Bahnsen, G. L. (1985). By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics. 

The Perfect Holiness of the Father

Chapter 6 of "By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today," Dr. Bahnsen starts his Trinitarian approach in arguing for the continuing validity of God's law. In this chapter, he focused on God's perfect holiness as the standard revealed in the law. He began the chapter with distinction between two kinds of "God-likeness" - a likeness of God that violates the law and a likeness that faithfully obeys the law. The first likeness is seen in the disobedience of our first parents in the Garden oof Eden. This is counterfeit likeness; it is Satanic. The other likeness, which is genuine is fully seen in the total obedience of Christ to the law even up to the point of death on the Cross. The chapter ends with the Puritan example in their zeal to obey the law of God in all aspects of life.

Here is the excerpt from the book with few revision and additional sub-headings for easy comprehension: 

Two Kinds of God-Likeness 

There is a sense in which the aim of every man's life is to be like God. All men are striving to imitate God in one way or another. Of course not all attempts to be like God are honored by the Lord and rewarded with His favor, for there is a radical difference between submitting to the Satanic temptation to be like God (Gen. 3:5) and responding to Christ's injunction that we should be like God (Matt. 5:48). The first is an attempt to replace God's authority with one's own, while the second is an attempt to demonstrate godliness as a moral virtue. 

Counterfeit God-Likeness - Lawlessness 

The basic character of godly morality was made manifest in the probation or testing placed upon Adam and Eve in the garden. God had granted them permission to eat of any tree of the garden, save one. They were forbidden to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but not because its fruit was injected with some literal poison. This was rather a test of whether they would live solely under the authority of God's word to them. God had forbidden it. Would they, despite their empirical research and personal desires, submit to his command on His simple say-so? Would they do their duty on the sheer basis that it was their duty? Or would they evaluate the command of God on the basis of some external standard of reasonableness, practicality, and human. benefit? 

The outcome of the story is all too well known. Satan beguiled Eve, denying what God had told her. She was led to assume the authoritative, neutral position of determining for herself whether God's "hypothesis" or Satan's "hypothesis" was true. Satan implied that God's commands were harsh, too stringent, unreasonable. He in effect condemned the supreme, absolute, and unchallengeable authority of God. He went on to suggest that God is in fact jealous, prohibiting Adam and Eve from eating of the tree lest they become like Him -lest they become rivals to Him in determining what is good and evil. 

Thus our first parents were led to seek a lifestyle which- was not bound by law from God; thus they were tempted into deciding for themselves what would count as good and evil. Law would not be laid down to them by God, for they would lay it down for themselves. Demonstrating sin's lawlessness (1 John 3:4) they became "like God"-law-givers of their own making and authority. God's law, which should have been their delight, became burdensome to them. 

Genuine God-Likeness - Total Obedience to the Law  

By contrast, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, lived a life of perfect obedience to the laws of God. When Satan tempted Him to depart from the path of utter obedience to God's commands, the Savior replied by quoting from the Old Testament law: you are not to tempt the Lord your God, you are to worship and serve Him alone, and you are to live by every word that proceeds from His mouth (Matt. 4:1-11). Here we have the very opposite of Adam and Eve's response to Satan. Christ said that the attitude which is genuinely godly recognizes the moral authority of God alone, does not question the wisdom of His dictates, and observes every last detail of his word. This is man's proper path to God-likeness. To live in this fashion displays the image or likeness of God that man was originally intended to be (Gen. 1:27), for it is living "in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24). Genuine godliness, as commanded in the Scripture, is gained' by imitating the holiness of God on a creaturely level- not by audacious attempts to redefine good and evil in some area of life on your own terms. 

Jesus concluded His discourse on God's law in the Sermon on the Mount by saying, "Therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). Those who are not striving to become rivals to God by replacing His commands according to their own wisdom will rather endeavor to reflect His moral perfection by obeying all of His commands. John Murray has said, 

"God expects of His people nothing less than full conformity to his holy character in all of their thoughts, words, and deeds. They must emulate His perfection in every aspect of their lives. As Murray says, this standard of ethics ever binds the believer and never ceases to be relevant. This standard is just as authoritative and valid today as it was in the Old Testament."

God's Perfect Holiness 

According to the Old Testament ethic, God's holiness is the model for human conduct: "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2). This is also the precise model of moral conduct for the New Testament believer: "... but like the Holy one who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy' " (1 Peter 1:15-16). There has been no alteration or reduction of the standard of moral behavior between the Old and New Testaments. God's permanent requirement over all of life is God-imitating holiness. In all ages, believers are required to display, throughout their lives, the holiness and perfection of their God. They ought to be like God, not in the Satanic sense which amounts to lawlessness, but in the biblical sense which entails submission to God's commands. 

Obviously, if we are to model our lives on the perfect holiness of God, we need Him to tell us what the implications of this would be for our practical behavior. We need a perfect yardstick by which to measure holiness in our lives. The Bible teaches us that the Lord has provided this guide and standard in his holy law (cf. Rom. 7:12). The law is a transcript of the holiness of God on a creaturely level; it is the ultimate standard of human righteousness in any area of life, for it reflects the moral perfection of God, its Author. 

The intimate relation which the law bears to the very person of God is indicated by the fact that it was originally written by the finger of God (Deut. 9:10) and deposited in the ark of the covenant which typified the throne and presence of God in the Holy of Holies (Deut. 10:5). Moreover, this law must be acknowledged to have a very special place or status because it has the exclusive qualities of God himself attributed to it. According to Scripture, God alone is holy (Rev. 15:4) and good (Mark 10:18). Yet God's law is likewise designated holy and good (Rom. 7:12, 16; 1Tim. 1:8), and obedience to it is the standard of human good (Deut. 12:28; Ps. 119:68; Micah 6:8). God is perfect (Deut. 32:4; Ps. 18:30; Matt. 5:48), and the law which He has laid down for us is accordingly perfect (Ps. 19:7; James 1:25). Every statute revealed by God authoritatively defines the holiness, goodness, and perfections which God's people are to emulate in every age. 

The Puritan Example 

The Puritans were zealous to live in the moral purity which reflects God's own. Consequently they upheld the honor and binding quality of every command from God. The feeling of Thomas Taylor was typical of them: "A man may breake the Princes Law, and not violate his Person; but not God's: for God and his image in the Law, are so straitly united, as one cannot wrong the one, and not the other" (Regula Vitae, The Rule of the Law under the Gospel, 1631). If God turned back His law, said Anthony Burgess, He would "deny his own justice and goodnesse" (Vindiciae Legis, 1646). Thus the Puritans did not, like many modern believers, tamper with or annul any part of God's law. "To find fault with the Law, were to find fault with God" (Ralph Venning, Sin, the Plague of Plagues, 1669). Therefore, in Puritan theology the law of God, like its author, was eternal (cf. Edward Elton, God's Holy Minde Touching Matters Morall, 1625), and as such "Christ has expunged no part of it" (John Crandon, Mr. Baxters Aphorisms Exorcized and Anthorized, 1654). 

Unlike modern theologians who evaluate God's requirements according to their cultural traditions and who follow the Satanic temptation to define holiness according to their own estimate of moral purity, the Puritans did not seek schemes by which to shrink the entire duty of man in God's law to their preconceived notions. Venning concluded, "Every believer is answerable to the obedience of the whole Law." 

As usual, the Puritans were here eminently scriptural. God's holiness is the standard of morality in Old and New Testaments, and that holiness is reflected in our lives by obeying His every commandment. "Sanctify yourselves, therefore, and be ye holy, for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statutes and do them" (Lev. 20:7-8). And a life that is truly consecrated to God, one which is genuinely holy, respects every dictate from God. He says that the way to "be holy to your God" is to "remember to do all My commandments" (Num. 15:40). To lay aside any of God's law or view its details as inapplicable today is to oppose God's standard of holiness; it is to define good and evil in that area of life by one's own wisdom and law, to become a rival to God as a law-giver. 

Of course this suppression of God's own standard of moral perfection - the law's transcript of His holiness- is a blow at the very heart of biblical ethics. It is to be "God-like" in exactly the wrong way. It is to seek moral perfection for some aspect of life which was originally covered by God's law but is now defined according to one's own determination of good and evil. This was the untoward character of Adam's rebellion against God's holy word: His own law replaced God's. 

Conclusion 

The law reflects the holiness of God, and God's holiness is our permanent standard of morality. Moreover, God's character is eternal and unchanging. "I am the Lord, 1 change not" (Mal. 3:6). There is no variableness in Him (James 1:17). From everlasting to everlasting He is God (Ps. 90:2). Therefore, because His holiness is unchanging, the law which reflects that holiness cannot be changed. Whether we read in the Old or New Testaments, we find that a man's attitude toward God's law is an index of his relationship to God himself (Ps. 1; Rom. 8:1-8). As John so plainly says, "The one who says 'I have come to know Him,' and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:4). God's unchanging holiness and thereby His unchanging law is an abiding standard of knowing Him and being like Him.

We cannot suppress the generic character of this statement, 'Ye therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.' It covers the whole range of divine perfection as it bears upon human behavior, and it utters the most ultimate consideration regulative ofhuman disposition and conduct. The reason of the biblical ethic is God's perfection; the basic criterion of ethical behavior is God's perfection; the ultimate goal of the ethical life is conformity to God's perfection.... And shall we say that this standard can ever cease to be relevant? It is to trifle with the sanctities which ever bind us as creatures of God, made in his image, to think that anything less than perfection conformable to the Father's own could be the norm and the goal of the believer's ethic. 

Source: Bahnsen, G. L. (1985). By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics. 

The Uniformity of God's Moral Standard

Chapter 5 of "By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today" argues about the uniformity of God's moral standard in both Testaments. This speaks a lot about the dependability of God's character and His word. Dr. Greg Bahnsen elaborated this subject by explaining that the New Testament did not abolish God's moral standard, that there are manifold administrations of God's covenant of grace, and that the Mosaic covenant itself is gracious. He then explained what's new in the New Covenant, and concluded with God's prohibition about the use of double-standard. 

God's Unchanging Moral Standard 

Read Psalm 89:34; 111:7-8; Matthew 5:19; Luke 16:17; 

If something was sinful in the Old Testament, it is likewise sinful in the age of the New Testament. Moral standards, unlike the price of gasoline or the changing artistic tastes of a culture, do not fluctuate.

Unlike human lawmakers, God does not change His mind or alter His standards of righteousness. When the Lord speaks, His word stands firm forever. His standards of right and wrong do not change from age to age.

Even the coming of God's righteous Son did nothing to change the righteous character of God's laws, even the least of them, for then they would be exposed as unjust and less than eternal in their uprightness. The advent of the Savior and the inauguration of the New Age do not have the effect of abrogating the slightest detail of God's righteous commandments. God has not changed His mind about good and evil or what constitutes them.

God Sticks by His Word

Read Psalm 19:1-14; 33:4-11; Isaiah 51:4-8; John 10: 35

The authority of His word for human life is as permanent as that word by which He created and governs the world. If God's word to us were not as stable as this, if He were subject to moods and changed His mind from time to time, then we could not rely on anything He told us. If God's law has a fluctuating validity, then so might His promises! If we say that a commandment given by God in the Old Testament is no longer a standard of righteousness and justice for today, then we can equally anticipate that a promise of salvation given by God in the New Testament will in some future day no longer be a permanent guarantee of His favor toward us. But praise the Lord that His word is stable! He never lets us down as did our human parents and human rulers with commands that are unfair and promises that are not kept.

The New Testament Did Not Abolish God's Moral Standard

Read Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; 

The division of the Bible into two "Testaments" is better understood in the biblical sense as two "Covenants." Prior to the coming of Christ men lived under the Old Covenant which anticipated the Messiah and His work of salvation; after the coming of Christ and His saving work we live under the New Covenant.

Within the "Old Covenant" scriptures we find a few particular covenants, such as those made with Abraham and with Moses. The Abrahamic covenant is often characterized in terms of promise, and the Mosaic covenant is remembered for its strong element of law. Now some people would say that New Covenant believers are under the Abrahamic covenant of promise today, but not the Mosaic covenant with its laws. However, that is far from the outlook of the scriptural writers. In Galatians 3:21 Paul addresses this question to those who speak of being under one or the other covenant: "Is the law contrary to the promises of God?' And his inspired answer is "May it never be!" The fact is that all of the covenants of the Old Covenant (that is, all of the Old Testament covenants) are unified as parts of the one overall covenant of grace established by God. Paul spoke of Gentiles who were not part of the Old Covenant economy which included the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants as "strangers to the covenants of the promise" (Eph. 2:12).

Manifold Administrations of a Single Covenant 

Read Hebrews 8:6-13; John 1:17

The various covenants of the Old Covenant were all part of one program and plan. Not only were they harmonious with one another, but they are unified with the New Covenant which was promised in Jeremiah 31 and is enjoyed by Christians today. There is one basic covenant of grace, characterized by anticipation in the Old Covenant and by realization in the New Covenant. Given the unity of God's covenant throughout history and the Bible, then, is it true that Christians living under the New Covenant are not obliged to keep the Old Covenant law (the commandments of the Old Testament, especially those given by Moses)? Every covenant established by God-even the Abrahamic (Gen. 17:1)-not only declares His gracious work on behalf of His people, but lays down stipulations which they are to observe as a sign of fidelity and love to Him. For instance, the giving of the law at Sinai (Ex. 20-23) was preceded by God's gracious deliverance of Israel from bondage (cf. Ex. 19:4; 20:2). God identified Himself as Lord of the covenant and rehearsed his gracious dealings with His people (Deut. 1-4), and then with that foundation and background He delivered His law (Deut. 5ff.). The failure of the Mosaic generation can be called a failure in obedience (Heb. 6:4), but this was identical with a failure of faith (Heb. 3:9). The righteousness of the Mosaic law was always to be sought byfaith, not works (Rom. 9:31-32).

The Mosaic Covenant, a Gracious Covenant

Read Psalm 19

The law which we read in the Old Testament is a provision of God's grace to us. Every covenant carries stipulations which are to be kept, as we have seen. But prior to that we saw that all of the covenants of God are unified into one overall Covenant of Grace, fully realized with the coming of Christ in the New Covenant. So if there is one covenant enjoyed by the people of God throughout the ages, then there is one moral code or set of stipulations which govern those who would be covenant-keepers. Therefore, New Testament believers are bound to the Old Testament law of God. His standards, just like His covenant, are unchanging.

The Newness of God's Covenant

Read Psalm 89:34; Jeremiah 31:33-34; Hebrews 8:8-12

When we inquire as to what is new about the New Covenant under which Christians now live, we must allow the Lord to define the proper answer. We cannot read into the idea of a "new Covenant" just anything we wish or can imagine. The revealed terms of the New Covenant are given to us in both Jeremiah 31:33-34 and Hebrews 8:8-12, and when we look at them we find that the New Covenant is far from suppressing or changing the law or moral standard by which God's people are to live! Just the opposite is true. Contrary to those who think that the Mosaic law is not applicable to the New Testament believer, Scripture teaches us: "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds and I will write them upon their hearts" (Heb. 8:10).

The establishment of the New Covenant does not imply the abrogation of the Mosaic law or its depreciation in any sense! The idea of a new law is ruled out altogether, for it is the well known law of God which He says He will write upon the hearts of New Covenant believers. Unlike the Old Covenant where God found fault with the people for breaking His commandments (Heb. 8:8-9), the New Covenant will give internal strength for keeping those very commandments. It will write the law on believers' hearts, for out of the heart are the issues of life (Prov. 4:23). The Holy Spirit of God will indwell the heart of believers, writing God's law therein, with the result that they will live according to the commandments. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances" (Ezk. 36:27). As Paul writes in Romans 8:4, those who now walk according to the Spirit have the requirement of the law fulfilled within them. America's twentieth-century orthodox Protestant leader J. Gresham Machen said, "The gospel does not abrogate God's law, but it makes men love it with all their hearts."!

God's covenant law is one unchanging moral code through Old and New Testaments. Once God has spoken His law and expressed His righteous standards He does not alter it. Indeed He pronounces a warning and curse upon anyone who would dare tamper with his stipulations in the slightest. Times may change, human laws may be altered, but God's law is an eternally just and valid standard of right and wrong.

Conclusion: God Hates Double-Standard.

Read Deut. 25:13-16; Lev. 19:35-37

One of the requirements of his law, which reflects His holy character, is the prohibition of using a double-standard. It is ungodly to use one measure or yardstick with some people, and then use an altered measure with others. "Divers weights and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 20:10). Accordingly God requires that we have but one standard or moral judgment, whether it be for the stranger or the native (Lev. 24:22; Deut. 1:16-17; cf. Num. 15:16). He abhors a double-standard of right and wrong, and we can be sure that He does not judge in such a fashion. Something that was sinful in the Old Testament is likewise sinful for us in the New Testament, for God's standards are not subject to fluctuation from age to age. He has one uniform standard of right and wrong.

Source: Bahnsen, G. L. (1985). By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics. 

Confusing Voices

Confusing voices. That's how I summarized the 2nd chapter in Dr. Greg Bahnsen's book, By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. 

Photo Credit:
http://www.layevangelism.com/qreference/united%20states%20of%20america/justiceliftsthenations.htm

After proving that all of life is ethical that calls for a moral standard, Dr. Bahnsen shared the various moral standards humanity has been using since the ancient Greco-Roman era up to the present time. The State under Caesar was considered supreme over ethical matters during the rule of the Roman Empire. During the Medieval period, two moral standards were recognized: the Bible and human reason. The Bible was used for religious ethics, and reason based on natural law for natural ethics. However, during this period, the Bible's authority was actually superseded by the Church under the leadership of the Pope. In the time of Reformation, the Bible was acknowledged as the final court of appeal in matters of faith and practice. The Puritans followed this standard in all spheres of human life. They even took biblical law as their norm for civil laws. "The attitude of the Reformers and Puritans is nicely summarized in Robert Paul's painting which hangs in the Supreme Court Building, Lausanne, Switzerland; it is entitled 'Justice Instructing the Judges' and portrays Justice pointing her sword to a book labeled 'The Law of God' " (p. 16). Unfortunately, with the advent of the Enlightenment, the standard of morality shifted to "human laws fostered by independent reason and experience" (p.17). The new standard is now "found within man or his community. Bishop Butler located it in man's conscience, Kant in man's reason, and Hegel in the Absolute state" (ibid.).

Contemporary moralities no longer acknowledge the Bible as the norm. It is dismissed as "outdated, ignorant, unreasonable, prejudicial, undemocratic, and impractical" (ibid.). The outcome of this rejection "in Western culture is the tension between an unrestrained, tyrannical state on the one hand and the liberated, unrestrained individual on the other. Statism and anarchy pull against each other. The immoral policies of the state are matched by the immoral lives of its citizens" (ibid.).

Theologians no longer believe in " 'Thus saith the Lord' " (p.18). The favorite phrase these days is " 'it seems to me (or us)' " (ibid.). See the following statements that illustrate the contemporary moralities:

• "God is teaching us that we must live as men who can get along very well without Him." - Bonhoeffer

• "The proclamation of imperatives backed by divine authority is not very persuasive today." - Wolfhart Pannenberg 

• "There is no room in morality for commands, whether they are the father's, the schoolmaster's or the priest's. There is still not room for them when they are God's commands." - Graeme de Graaff 

• "Law ethics is still the enemy." - Joseph Fletcher 

• "I thank God that as a reformed Christian I worship a God of grace and not a God of rules." - Anonymous

Source: Bahnsen, G. L. (1985). By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics. 

The Continuing Validity of Biblical Law

Chapter 1 of Dr. Greg Bahnsen's book, "By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today," focuses on "Specification of Purpose and Position." To me, it's all about clarifications of his stance in the book regarding the validity of Old Testament law for our time. In explaining his position, I see ten misconceptions, which could be actual or potential that readers should avoid to associate with Dr. Bahnsen's thesis. The first two extreme reactions are not included in these misconceptions such as the attitudes that no change has taken place "in how the law should be observed" and "everything has been changed" that makes Christian ethics completely confined to the New Testament (p. 1). 

The basic thesis taken in the book is that the written revelation of God "is necessary as the objective standard of morality for God's people" (p. 2). This revelation is in harmony "with the general revelation made of God's standards through the created order and man's conscience" (ibid.). Throughout this chapter, Dr. Bahnsen repeated several times what he describes as "methodological point," (p. 3) to prove his thesis (I prefer calling it hermeneutical approach). On page 2, he states: ". . . the Bible teaches that we should presume continuity between the ethical standards of the New Testament and those of the Old . . ." Matthew 5: 17-19 is a vital basis for this approach. Again, on page 3, Dr. Bahnsen mentions: "The methodological point, then, is that we presume our obligation to obey any Old Testament commandment unless the New Testament indicates otherwise." And still on the same page, he adds: ". . . the New Testament does not teach any radical change in God's law regarding the standards of socio-political morality." And finally on page 7: "It is advocated that we should presume the abiding authority of any Old Testament commandment until and unless the New Testament reveals otherwise." Refusing this thesis, the remaining option is to follow autonomous speculation. 

In proceeding to the ten misconceptions, I generalize my statement describing all advocates of biblical law though I am aware that there are discrepancies of interpretation among them. To be safe, you can interpret these general statements referring only to the study of Dr. Bahnsen. 

The ten misconceptions are as follows: 

Misconception # 1 - That those who advocate biblical law deny discontinuity. Dr. Bahnsen's thesis for the validity of biblical law does not deny the existence of discontinuity in applying it to modern situation. He identifies them at least under four categories:

• "Certain localized imperatives or specific commands used in concrete situation." Example: "the command to go to war and gain the land of Palestine by the sword" (p. 5)

• "Cultural details." Example: "flying axhead" (ibid.)

• "Administrative details." Example: "the type or form of government, the method of tax collecting, the location of the capitol" (p. 6)

• "Typological foreshadows in the Old Testament." Examples: "...ceremonial laws of sacrifice, provisions regarding the land of Palestine, the laws regulating aspects of the land of Canaan (family plots, location of cities of refuge, the levirate institution)." (ibid.)

These are just four examples. Other discontinuity can be identified.

Misconception # 2 - That those who advocate biblical law have adopted superficial exegesis. In fact, to advocate the use of biblical law does not exempt, but provides a strong motivation towards exegetical responsibility. In the language of Dr. Bahnsen, this requires "hard thinking." Notice how he explains this commitment:

"We need to be sensitive to the fact that interpreting the Old Testament law, properly categorizing its details (for example, ceremonial, standing, cultural), and making modern day applications of the authoritative standards of the Old Testament is not an easy or simple task. It is not always readily apparent to us how to understand an Old Testament commandment or use it properly today. So the position taken here does not make everything in Christian ethics a simple matter of looking up obvious answers in a code-book. Much hard thinking - exegetical and theological homework - is entailed by a commitment to the position advocated in these studies" (p. 7).

Misconception # 3 - Potential misconception related to the study of Christian ethics. The primary focus of Dr. Bahnsen is limited to the normative perspective of Christian ethics that deals "with the question of standards for conduct" (p. 8). The "motivational and the consequential perspectives (touching on inner character and goal in ethics) are not equally treated, nor is the vital area of producing and maintaining moral behavior" (ibid.).

Misconception # 4 - Misconception related to three major errors such as making obedience to God's law as the way to salvation, treating the law as the dynamic power in Christian life, and confining the influence of the law on external observance. Instead, Dr. Bahnsen affirms salvation by grace through faith, the need for the Holy Spirit in sanctification, and that observance of the law includes our hearts and attitudes. 

Misconception # 5 - Potential misconception that advocates of biblical law ignore the complexity of the "detailed application of God's law to our modern world" (p. 9). Dr. Bahnsen carefully maintains that the scope of his study is foundational in nature and therefore does not deal with the specifics. 

Misconception # 6 - That those who advocate biblical law believes in "the imposition of God's law by force upon a society" (ibid.). Dr. Bahnsen upholds that the way to advance the kingdom of God here on earth is not through forceful imposition of biblical law upon society, but through "the Great Commission - evangelism, preaching, and nurture in the word of God - and in the power of God's regenerating and sanctifying Spirit" (ibid.).

Misconception # 7 - That the logical conclusion of the advocacy of biblical law will either lead to rebellion against or passive submission to government authorities. Dr. Bahnsen reiterates his commitment "to the transforming power of God's word which reforms all areas of life. . ." (p.10).

Misconception # 8 - That those who advocate biblical law consider all sins as crimes and matters of private conscience as subject for social sanctions. This is the socio-political misconception in the use of God's law. Dr. Bahnsen emphatically delineates, "Not all sins are crimes, . . . Rulers should enforce only those laws for which God revealed social sanctions to be imposed (not matters of private conscience or personal piety)" (ibid.).

Misconception # 9 - That those who advocate biblical law ignore "the full provisions of due process in a court of law" (ibid.). Dr. Bahnsen elaborates:

"Of course, when magistrates do come to the decision to enforce the commandment(s) of God in a particular area - whether because they have personally been converted or whether they simply see the wisdom and justice of those laws as unbelievers - they are obliged to do so in a proper and fair manner. The Christian does not advocate ex post facto justice whereby offenders are punished for offenses committed prior to the civil enactment of a law prohibiting their actions. Nor does the Christian advocate the punishment of criminals who have not been convicted under the full provisions of due process in a court of law" (pp. 10-11).

Misconception # 10 - That those who advocate biblical law make the law of God as the most important subject at the expense of other biblical subjects. Again, Dr. Bahnsen is cautious here to indicate that he is just focusing on "one aspect of the total picture of Christian theology and ethics" (p.11). He adds: 

"It is not to say that political ethics is more vital than personal ethics or that the cultural mandate is more crucial than the evangelistic mandate of the church" (ibid.). 

Through this study, Dr. Greg Bahnsen simply followed "the Reformed conviction that our Christian beliefs should be guided by sola Scriptura and tota Scriptura-only by Scripture and by all of Scripture" (p. 12). 

Source: Bahnsen, G. L. (1985). By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics. 

By This Standard - Dr. Greg Bahnsen's Foreword

Several chapters in Dr. Greg Bahnsen's book, By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today first appeared as short articles in his newsletter, Biblical Ethics written from 1978 to 1982. The book is not an in-depth treatment of arguments, but a summary of biblical law. Dr. Bahnsen has other books for that purpose.

The question that Dr. Bahnsen wants to stimulate in writing the book is "whether the Old Testament law is still binding as a moral standard today" or not (p. xxvii). Most Christians assume that their ethical behavior is only limited to the teachings of the New Testament. This is a mistake on the basis of Reformed principle of Tota Scriptura, Sola Scriptura. Dr. Bahnsen challenges his readers to verify the answers given in the book on the bar of the written word. His prayer is that after reading the book Christians will be convinced about the wisdom and authority of biblical law, and learn to love it. Dr. Bahnsen thanked critics for they helped him see the common misconceptions about biblical law. 

Source: Bahnsen, G. L. (1985). By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics.