Why then the law? (Rom. 5:20-21)

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I don’t think it’s wrong to imagine that many Christians today are confused when it comes to the role and function of law of God both in salvation history and to the contemporary church.  According to a recent poll, 25 percent of evangelicals think the Golden Rule is one of the Ten Commandments.   I wonder how many believers today would be able to answer the question, “What is the law of God?”  And it seems to me that the state of theology in our culture would indicate that the question, “Does the law of God still apply to the Christian, and if so, how?” would also be a question that would probably elicit a lot of different answers.

Thankfully, this text in Romans 5 gives us the opportunity to address these kinds of questions.  Now if you are thinking to yourself right now, “Why do we need to hear a sermon on the law of God?” then I submit that you are one of those people who really need to hear this!  Paul himself thought that this was worth addressing as he finishes his argument on the comparison and contrast between our Lord and Adam in 5:12-21.  Actually, his argument was technically finished in verse 19, but Paul remembers that something he had said in verse 13 merited coming back to and addressing again.  

What had he said in verse 13?  Well, he had argued that the law of God, by which he means the Mosaic law, was not the explanation for the universality of sin and death.  Now he had already argued that the law cannot justify us (cf. Rom. 3:19-20).  But now he is also arguing that neither is the law the reason for the sin and death that have marred the world since the fall of man into sin.  So the question that Paul is anticipating is, “So then, why did God give the law?  If it doesn’t save us, and it doesn’t explain the fallen state of the world, what was the purpose of the law in the first place?  Why did God give the law to Israel?”

So we need to consider this question and Paul’s answer to it.  But as we consider Paul’s answer here in Romans 5, I think it will also be good for us to take a step back and to consider the larger question of the role and function of the law of God.  Why was it given, and does it still have a role in the life of the Christian?  These are some of the questions I want to consider with you this morning.

Paul’s Answer

First of all, let’s just look carefully at Paul’s answer to the question as to why God gave the law to Israel through Moses.  He writes, “Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound” (20).  What does the apostle mean by this statement?  First of all, I think it is important for us to understand what Paul means by this word “law.”  He doesn’t mean law in general; he means very specifically the law that God gave through Moses.  You can see this in verses 13-14, when Paul describes the period of time from the beginning of creation “until the law” (13) as the period of time “from Adam to Moses” (14).  So the law is the law of Moses. 

Now it is true that when Paul says “law,” he is talking about the Mosaic Covenant, from Exodus right through to Deuteronomy, all 600 plus commandments.  Many times when the word “law” is used in the NT, it would probably be helpful for us to think “Mosaic Covenant” or “old covenant” when we read this term in Paul.  That is what Paul is talking about when he says, “The law entered, that the offence might abound.”  However, it is equally true that Paul is probably primarily thinking here about what is sometimes called the moral law within the law of Moses, those commandments that have abiding validity no matter whether someone is a member of the old covenant or not, as we see in chapter 7, where he specifically mentions the 10th commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.”  It’s equally important for us to keep this in mind as we think about what Paul is teaching us here about the law of God.

When Paul says that the law entered that the offence might abound, he is stating something almost shocking.  He is saying that the divine purpose in giving the law through Moses to Israel was to cause the increase of sin.  Now of course Paul is not saying that God is the author of sin.  God does not directly cause the increase of sin.  God is never tempted by sin, and he does not tempt anyone with sin (Jam. 1:13).  What then is the apostle saying?  He is simply observing the reality that when God gives sinful men his law, and it comes into contact with fallen and sinful hearts, the sinful heart doesn’t react with obedience, but with disobedience.  It is in this way the law makes sin to increase. But you see the problem is not with the law, but with the human heart.

Paul will illustrate this later in chapter 7 from his own experience, which we will have the opportunity to look at more carefully in the future.  But for now, I want to point out some of the things he says there that illustrates what he is saying here.  Writing about his own experience, he says, “But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death” (Rom. 7:8-10).    Notice that he says it was sin that created in him all kinds of concupiscence, or sinful desire, but that sin did this through the law.  The law stirred up sinful desires within Paul, and “without the law sin was dead,” dormant, until Paul’s rebellious heart was confronted the demands of the law.  

We are all like that too, aren’t we?  We don’t like boundaries, and we are willing to endanger ourselves to test them.  In our sinfulness, we want self-sovereignty; we don’t want God to rule over us.  And so when God says no to something, we immediately are tempted to test it out. You see, the problem is not really with God’s law; the problem is with us.  The problem is our sinful nature and heart. But this does not mean that God’s law is sinful or polluted, just as rays of sunlight are incapable of being polluted even though they shine on a pile of cow manure and cause it to stink.

This is what Paul means when he says that sin entered that the offence might abound.  But you might still wonder why God would do that?  And that brings us to the rest of verse 20-21: “but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

What the apostle is saying, in effect, is that the law makes way for grace.  “The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (Jn. 1:17).  God gave the law in order to show us that we cannot save ourselves.  How would we save ourselves but by obedience to the law of God?  And this is what you see all the world doing when they have not embraced the gospel.  They are trying to save themselves by good works, but obeying some kind of law that they think will please God.  What Paul is saying here is that this is delusional.  The law doesn’t save us, it just causes sin to abound.  We don’t need law to save us, we need grace.

And this is exactly what comes to us in the gospel. It tells us that where sin abounded, grace much more abounds.  It tells us that the righteous requirements of the law are not satisfied in law keeping by us; but they are satisfied in the personal and work of Jesus Christ.  It was through him that grace reigns through righteousness.  It is through him that the reign of sin in death is overcome.

This is such good news, isn’t it?  It means that no matter how low sin has dragged a person down, grace is able through faith in Christ to lift us up again.  Note that in verses 15, Paul said, “grace hath abounded.”  But here he uses an even stronger word.  It is the verb “abound” in verse 15 with a prefix added that essentially in English means “super.”  It is not just that grace abounds, but that grace superabounds.  Grace much more abounds.  Sin drags us down into death: moral and spiritual death, physical death, and potentially eternal death.  But through Christ our Lord the grace of God comes and not only rescues us from its clutches but sets us in a place of inescapable security and privilege and blessing.

So I just wonder if there is anyone in this room who feels themselves to be the prisoners and slaves of sin?  Did you know that this is exactly how the Bible describes our condition?  We are dead in sin and enslaved to the devil, the world, and our own lusts (Eph. 2:1-3).  Our Lord himself said that the one who commits sin is the slave of sin (Jn. 8:34).  So it’s not like the Bible downplays the desperateness of our condition.  Rather, the Bible is completely honest with how bad we are.  But it is exactly to people who feel like they are drowning in their sin that God says, “I have grace superabundant that can cancel the guilt of your sin and rescue you from the clutches of its power.”  Come to Christ today, lay hold of him by faith, and find that grace and that power to deliver from the penalty and power of sin!

So Paul’s basic answer is that the law has a purpose, and its purpose is to show us our need for Christ.  Its purpose is to shut us up to grace.  Now with this in mind, let’s step back and consider the implications of Pauls’ teaching with respect to the law of God by considering what are sometimes called the three uses of the law of God.

The Lawful Uses of the Law

In 1 Timothy 1:8, Paul writes, “But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.”  The apostle was warning Timothy about men who want to teach the law but don’t really know what they are doing, “understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm” (7).  Well, we also want to use the law lawfully, and it has long been recognized that there are three main ways that God’s law is used in a good and lawful way by the church.  Let’s consider them together.

First Use of the Law: to show us our sin and bring us to Christ

The first use of the law is really what Paul is getting here in Romans 5:20, isn’t it?  We’ve noted that Paul’s main point here is the God uses the law to shut us up to Christ.  It does this partly by bringing out the sinfulness that is there and exposing the sinfulness of our hearts.  But this is not the only way it does it.  it also does it by defining and exposing the sin within us (cf. Rom. 3:19-20).  This is what Paul said to the Galatians: “But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:23-24).  We need to put our faces up against the mirror God’s law if we are going to see our need.  It is God’s law that defines sin in a way that doesn’t allow us any wiggle room to get away from it.  It helps us to see it clearly.  It reminds us that we are sinners.  We need all that.  We are so easily deceived into thinking that we are better than we are.  But then God’s law comes in and kills all our hopes of self-justification.  It shows us that it’s not just our deeds that are bad, but our affections and thoughts, and that they do in fact matter to God.  God’s law judges us by our thoughts, by our words, and by our actions.  When we compare ourselves by the standard of God’s perfect law, rather than by our own imperfect standard, or by the standard of the world, or the opinion of men, then we understand that we can’t save ourselves.  Then we understand that we need a Savior.  We need that understanding, don’t we?  This is sometimes what theologians call the first use of the law.  Praise God for this use of the law!

So we want to say that the law of God is never meant to gain salvation.  That is an explicit teaching of the text here.  It doesn’t save us; it causes sin to abound.  Paul will say that if there had been a law which could have saved us, it would have been the law of Moses, but the apostle denies that to be the case (Gal. 3:21).  This would be an unlawful use of the law.  Don’t think that you can recommend yourself to God by your works and obedience and goodness. That’s a form of legalism.  It won’t save you; only Christ can save us.

When we talk about the “first use of the law,” that means of course that there are other uses!  And the brings me to the following very important observation: this is not the only thing Paul says about the law.  It is essential that we note this.  We can’t just go to one passage on the law and then assume that’s the only thing the Bible has to say about it.  We have to interpret the Bible in light of the rest of the Bible.  We need to interpret Paul in light of the rest of Paul and the NT.  And when we look at the rest of the NT, we see that there are at least a couple of other functions of God’s law.  Again, we are talking here primarily about God’s moral law, his unchanging standards for humanity, the law of God, which was not only given to Israel through Moses, but which is written on every human heart, as the apostle has already argued in chapter 2.  God’s moral law is still relevant.  It is relevant in showing us our need for justification, but it is relevant for other things as well.

The Second Use of the Law: Civil Restraint

How else is God’s law still relevant?  Well, it is relevant in restraining moral evil in the world.  It is good when the law of God finds its way into the laws of nations, and when coupled with the power of the sword, it is able, at least on an external level, to restrain evil and promote good.  This is what Paul says with respect to the governing authorities who are God’s ministers when they administer just laws: “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (Rom. 13:3-4).  Paul is saying that the law is made for lawbreakers in order to curb their lusts and protect the innocent.  It is necessary for a good and ordered society.  What is it that makes rulers “the minister of God to thee for good”?  It isn’t when they rule in ways that are contrary to the laws of God.  Isn’t it when they rule in accordance with the laws of God, which is what ultimately defines what is good?  That doesn’t of course mean that we should seek a theocracy, but it does mean that we should want the laws of our nation to reflect God’s standards in his word so that the good are protected and the wicked are punished.

Third Use of the Law: Guide for Obedience

But there is a third use of the law, one that I believe is often neglected in the church today.  It is the use of the law through faith in Christ to promote holiness of life.  God’s law doesn’t make unsaved people saved, but it does show saved people how to live.  It is true that we are no longer under the Mosaic law as a covenant.  But the NT certainly has a lot to say about the behavior of the believer, doesn’t it?  Yes, it does!  In fact, Paul even uses the language of law to describe it when he says about the Gentiles he was trying to reach with the gospel, “To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law” (1 Cor. 9:21).  We are no longer under the Mosaic law as a covenant, but every believer is under the law to Christ, or rather, under the law of Christ.  

But wait a minute, someone may exclaim, doesn’t Paul say we aren’t under the law anymore?  Yes, he does.  But he doesn’t mean that we no longer have any obligation to live in holiness.  Depending on the context, he could mean that we are no longer under the Mosaic covenant, so that we are no longer required to circumcise our male children, and no longer required to offer sacrifices, and so on (as in Col. 2:16-17). Or he could mean that we aren’t relating to God on the basis of works and performance (as in Gal. 5:4).  We are not under the ceremonial law.  And we are not under the moral law as a covenant of works.

However, that doesn’t mean there are no longer any commandments that Christians must obey.  The apostle John will say to Christians, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (1 Jn. 5:3).  Our Lord said that if we love him we will keep his commandments (Jn. 14:15).  We are told that between the time he was raised from the dead to the time he ascended up into heaven, our Lord “through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen” (Acts 1:2).  In fact, this is part of the Great Commission: “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Mt. 28:18-20). John Piper wrote a book (All That Jesus Commanded) in which he exposits the meaning and application of 50 different commandments that Christ gives his church in the gospels.  Paul says that “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God” (1 Cor. 7:19), and he reminds the Thessalonian believers, “For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:2).  And at the end of the Bible we are told in the book of Revelation that “the dragon [Satan] was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed [the church], which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17).  What is the church?  It is the community of those who keep the commandments of God.

In other words, the NT does not know of a Christianity that exists apart from keeping the commandments of God, which is just another way of talking about keeping the law of God.  It informs our obedience and corrects us when we go astray.  That means that what the psalmist said should absolutely resonate with us: “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97).

Now, it is important for us to understand this because this has all but been denied in the eagerness of some to platform the grace of God and the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone.  Let me give you an example of this.  I once heard a pastor who was giving an exposition of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and his explanation of the parable was that Jesus is the Good Samaritan, and we are the man lying there half-dead on the road.  And so his point was that we are not meant to read the parable as if it were telling us what to do – namely, love your neighbor as yourself – but rather that it is telling us what Jesus came to do and how he saves us.  This pastor claimed that the parable is about justification and not sanctification, about grace and not works.

However, though I appreciate his clear emphasis on the doctrine of justification by grace, this is a gross misinterpretation of the parable, and we need to be careful of people who read justification into everything and neglect the clear NT emphasis on holiness and the necessity of good works.  Yes, it’s true that part of our Lord’s intention in telling the parable of the Good Samaritan was to show the Pharisee who asked the question, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Lk. 10:25) to expose his sin and lead him to understand his need for a righteousness outside of himself.  But that does not mean that we are not meant to be the Good Samaritan.  In fact, it is only as understand that this is what God demands of us that we are going to be convicted in the first place!  Are we to look to the law for salvation?  No.  But is the law a pattern for a life that pleases God?  Yes.  We not only need to uphold the first use of the law that exposes our sin and drives us to Christ, but we also need this third use which defines the life that pleases God for those who belong to him by faith.

In another instance I remember looking at the autobiography of a man whose entire life was one long train wreck, but he wrote his biography to celebrate the grace of God in his life despite his repeated failures.  This is dangerously close to the thing Paul is about the warn us about in chapter 6: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (1).  Now I’m not saying that God’s grace can’t take the worst train wreck of a life and redeem it.  Of course he can!  But we must not think, as Paul himself warns us in the next chapter, that God’s grace is magnified by people who claim to be saved and yet go on in their sin.  We don’t magnify God’s grace by ungodliness.  We magnify it when we leave our ungodly past behind and become godly and live godly lives.  Isn’t this what Paul himself says to Titus?  He tells him, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Tit. 2:11-14).  Beware of those who claim to love the grace of God and yet know little of its teaching!

So we want to affirm the lawful uses of the law: as a guide to Christ by revealing our sinfulness, as an external restraint upon evil, and as a pattern for holiness for the Christian.

What then should we do?  It depends upon who you are.  If you don’t see your need for Christ, you need to let the law show you your sins.  You need to judge yourself, not by comparing yourself to the failures of others, but by standing next to the perfect standard of the law of God.  You need to recognize your rebellious tendency to reject God’s authority over your life.  You need to let the law of God kill you, as Paul puts it in Romans 7.  You need to be shut up to Christ, and to see through the lens of God’s law, that only Jesus can save you from your sins.

If you are a follower of Christ, you know that your obedience is not the basis of your relationship with God.  We relate to God on the basis of grace.  But if you are saved, you love God.  You love the Lord Jesus.  You want to walk in step with the Holy Spirit.  You will want to serve and love the God who first loved you.  How do you do that?  You do it by obedient faith.  You do it by walking according to the commandments our Lord has laid out for us.  We obey them, but not in the strength of our flesh but in the strength of grace by faith.

The law entered that the offence might abound.  But grace has overwhelmed sin and death.  Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.  Are we guided by the law?  Yes.  But we are not saved by the law. However, we are saved by grace, grace that raises us out of death and gives us eternal life.  Grace that brings salvation to all men and teaches them to live in self-control, in godliness, and in righteousness.  Thank God for his saving grace!  Thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord!  Thanks be unto God for his inexpressible gift!