Message for the Hillsdale Free Methodist Church
August 31st, 2025
Message Text: Matthew 22:34-40
“The Law and Christians”
Service Orientation: The Law does not save us but still has important functions in the life of a Christian. Today this point is seldom considered and is hardly ever observed to the great detriment to the name of God, the Church and the believer.
The Word for the Day: Law
Memory Verse: Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. —1 John 4:1
The very first question in all ethics is, What do I want? Only after this is settled (pleasure in hedonism, adjustment in naturalism, self-realization in eudemonism, etc.) can we ask about the why and the how and the who and the when and the where and the which! The primary issue is the “value” problem, our choice of our summum bonum. (Joseph Fletcher, Situation Ethics, 42-43) (And apparently the greatest good for J. Fletcher is “My will be done”.)
There are three uses of the Law and commandments of God:
First —To restrain us from complete selfishness and violence, which would result in anarchy and constant war (1 Tim 1:8-10).
Second—To bring us to repentance and faith in Christ, by showing us how we fall short of God’s glory and need His forgiving mercy (Rom 3:19-20; 7:13).
Third—to guide us in the daily life of faith, by showing us what God expects of us as moral creatures. (Ps 1; 19:11-14; 119:9-105; Heb 4:11-13) (Foundations of a Living Faith: The Catechism of the Free Methodist Church, 41-42)
What role does the Law of God play in the life of the Christian?:
I- Which Law? Ceremonial, Civil or Moral?
Even they {the apostles} needed much time to recognize that all the ceremonial laws were only temporary, intended only for the old covenant, in force only until the Messiah should come, and not the divine will for all time. Peter answers the Lord {Acts 10} because he knew that this was his command although an angel had uttered it. (R. C. H. Lenski; The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles,403-404).
For example, the death of Christ has brought to fulfillment and to an end all the laws relating to animal sacrifice (Heb 9:12). Moreover {ceremonial} laws that were designed to keep Israel ritually distinct from the nations, like food laws, and even circumcision, no longer function in the same binding way, because God’s New Testament plan is to overcome all ethnic barriers and assemble a new people from every tribe and tongue and nation (Mk 7:19; Mt 21:43; Gal 6:15). (John Piper, Future Grace, 159)
II- The Law REVEALS the truth about God, His world, people and what love is. (Dt 32:47; Ps ch 19; ch 119; Mt 22:37-40;; Jn 8:32-36; 10:10; 14:15, 21, 23-24, 31;5:9-10; 17:17; Rom 13:8-10; Gal 5:14; 1 Tm 6:1-19; Jam 2:8; 1 Jn 2:5; 5:2-3)
Love needs law for its direction, while law needs love for its inspiration. (John Stott, Romans, God’s Good News for the World, 350)
Thus, as the law taught us what God is like, it also taught us what sin is. The tyranny of the law was that it offered no option but to try to be like God through our own efforts. (John H. Walton, The NIV Application Commentary: Genesis, 431)
Keeping the law is not a prerequisite to saving faith, but saving faith is a prerequisite to keeping the law (3:31). Love is the visible side of faith in relation and responsibility to others. The law is fulfilled and summed up in love, for love penetrates to the intent of the law and thereby exceeds the outward minimum prescribed by the commandments. (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 312)
If we love our neighbor, we do not steal from him or slander him, nor do we allow ourselves to be jealous or envious or to bear false witness against him. If we love somebody, we do not want to harm him. That is the way we are to live as Christians; we are to be known by the love that we have for one another. (RC Sproul, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary: Romans, 468)
As faith without works is dead, so love that does not manifest itself in a detailed observation and carrying out of the law is nothing but sheer sentimentality and ceases to be true love. Love is orderly, love is lawful, love is the fulfilling of the law. (D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 13, 174)
III- The Law cannot save us but condemns us as the sinners we truly are by showing us how we are supposed to live. (Eccl 7:20; Jer 17:9; Rom 2:25-27; 3:10, 19-21, 27-29, 31; 4:13-16; 6:14-15; 7:1-9, 21-23; Gal 2:16-21; 2 Tm 3:16-17)
Satan would have us define ourselves as holy by the Law, when God gave us the law to define us as sinners. (Chuck Swindoll; Insight for Living radio broadcast, 9-9-98)
It is not simply a book of religious ideas or good moral advice; it is the very Word of God. It “is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” “Doctrine” tells us what is right; “reproof” tells us what is not right; “correction” tells us how to get right; and “instruction” tells us how to stay right. (John C. Maxwell, The Preacher’s Commentary, Dt, 296)
God hates sin not just because it violates his law but, more substantively, because it violates shalom, because it breaks the peace, because it interferes with the way things are supposed to be. (Indeed, that is why God has laws against a good deal of sin.) God is for shalom and therefore against sin. In fact, we may safely describe evil as any spoiling of shalom, whether physically (e.g., by disease), morally, spiritually, or otherwise. (Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, 14)
The Law is a moral mirror. A person looking into it sees himself as he really is in God’s eyes. Yet the Law can no more change a person than a face mirror can make a person clean. (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 74)
IV- The Law drives us to Christ by showing Christ as the only realistic means of salvation. (Jn 14:6; Acts 4:12; 13:39;15:1-29; Rom 3:19-21; 8:2-4, 7; 10:4; Gal 2:16-21; 3:10-13, 21-24; Phil 3:9)
Legalists point to the law to show what they CAN do. Christians who are saved by grace point to the Law to show what they cannot do and what drives them to Christ.
The Law is a divinely sent Hercules to attack and kill the monster of self-righteousness and to show us every day just how desperately we need God’s grace. (Martin Luther as quoted by Tullian Tevidgjian; Life Without God ; Pt 7)
The law sends us to the Gospel, that we may be justified, and the Gospel sends us to the law again to enquire what is our duty in being justified. — Samuel Bolton
The law which itself reveals the pattern of good works should drive us to Christ. Christ is the point of the law; Christ is the goal of the law; Christ is the meaning of the law. So if you try to follow and obey the law, but avoid Christ, you have missed the whole point of the law. (R. C. Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, 178)
How could the young ruler understand his sinfulness if he completely misunderstood God’s law? How can today’s sinners, who are totally ignorant of God’s holy law and its demands upon them, look at themselves as condemned sinners? The idea of sin is strange because God’s law is foreign to their minds. (Walter J. Chantry, Today’s Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic?, 37)
Men are not turning to Christ because they have no sense of sinning against the Lord. They are not convicted of sin because they don’t know what sin is. They have no concept of sin because the law of God is not being preached. (Walter J. Chantry, Today’s Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic?, 43)
Worship Point: Worship the God of the Universe Who reveals His character, values and priorities in His Law. It is in the Law of God that we have the clearest revelation of the likeness and image of God. Therefore, since humans are made in that SAME likeness and image, it can be implied that one cannot be fully human unless or until they are in complete and comprehensive compliance with the Law of God. (Gn 1:26-27; 5:1-3; 9:6; Mt 22:36-40; Jn 14:9; Rom 13:10; 2 Cor 4:4; Gal 5:14; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3; Jam 3:9)
The full measure of our creation in the image of God is not seen in the life of Adam who sinned, nor is it seen in our lives now, for we are imperfect. But the NT emphasizes that God’s purpose in creating man in his image was completely realized in the person of Jesus Christ. He himself “is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4 NASB); “He is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). In Jesus we see human likeness to God as it was intended to be, and it should cause us to rejoice that God has predestined us “to be conformed to the image of his son” (Rom 8:29; cf. 1 Cor 15:49): “when he appears we shall be like him” (1 Jn 3:2). (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 445)
To say I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. —Thomas A’ Kempis
We are to be like God and live like Him. That is what the Law is all about and that is why we need to have the Law written in our minds and on our hearts (Jer 31:31-34) if we are to be like God and live up to the reason why we were created to begin with. . . . At Sinai – God was beginning to repair the Imago Dei in mankind. He was showing them what it was going to take for them to become more and more like God and thus conformed more and more into the likeness of himself for which they were originally created. It is in the Law that a true knowledge of God is presented. It is also the way that true love is explained. We need the Law of God in order for us to know what it means for us to be created, designed and now being conformed into the image of God. . . . Humankind is designed for obedience to what God reveals. (Alec Motyer, Look to the Rock, 74) {red bold emphasis Pastor Keith}
In the life of obedience, therefore, two things come together: man in the image of God, and the law in the image of God. In declaring his law, the Lord declares what he is; in obeying the law we are being fundamentally true to what we are. Because the law reflects his image, it is the true law of our true nature. In obedience we are living according to our revealed definition, we are ‘being ourselves’. The law of the Lord is the ‘Maker’s Handbook’ for the effectuation of a truly human existence and personal human fulfilment. (Alec Motyer, Look to the Rock, 77-8)
Gospel Application: In the end you are saved by works . . . just not yours. Jesus did not come to abolish the Law of God but to fulfill it righteously and perfectly so He could save and sanctify you. One cannot be a faithful follower of Jesus (Who held the Law in highest regard) and willfully disobey or ignore the Law of God. (Isa ch 53; Mt 3:15; 5:17-18; Jn 14:15; 15:10, 12, 14, 17; Acts 13:39; Rom 3:19-31; 8:2-4; 10:4; Phil 3:9; 1Jn 2:3-5; 5:2-3)
The Bible teaches that justification is by faith alone, yet ultimately there is only one way anybody is ever saved in the presence of God, and that is through works. The question is not whether we are going to be saved through works; the question is whose works. We are saved through the works of the One who alone fulfilled the terms of the covenant of works. That is why it is not just the death of Christ that redeems us, but it is also the life of Christ. (RC Sproul, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary: Romans, 178)
Law comes with grace into the renewed soul. There is no such thing as grace without law. Even in human relationships, graciousness must have an order if it is to be graciousness. (Dallas Willard; Renovation of the Heart, 215)
The person who thinks that he can effect works-righteousness does not really hear the law, Paul insisted. Nevertheless, faith-righteousness does not abandon law-righteousness, which is simply placed in Christ rather than the individual. Those who are in Christ really fulfil the law (Rom 8:4). (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, 90)
Spiritual Challenge: Don’t ever allow yourself to be sucked in by those who try to get you to believe that Christians can ignore the Law of God or that it is no longer relevant. They say, All you have to do is love or just follow the ‘s[S]pirit’”. Jesus (the WORD of God) , Paul, James and John are all abundantly clear: There is no love without conformity to the Law. One cannot follow THE SPIRIT of God, and be running rough shod over the Law of God, which was inspired by the Spirit of God. Love, Law, The Spirit and Jesus are in perfect harmony and do NOT have mutually exclusive doctrines. To think otherwise is to do violence to the clear teaching of the Bible and it blasphemes God. Therefore, test the ‘s[S]pirit’. (Dt 6:4; Ps 119:176; Prv 30:5; Mt 22:37-40; Mk 12:29; Lk 4:16-21; Jn 14:15, 21, 23-24, 31; 15:9-10; ch 17; Rom 7:25; 13:8-10; Gal 3:20; 5:14, 18, 22-23; Eph 6:17-18; 2 Tm 2:5; 3:16-17; Heb 1:1-3; Jam 1:25; 2:8; 2 Pt 1:21; 1 Jn 2:5a; 5:2-3, 5-6)
Your feelings lie when they don’t comply with the Word of God. — Thomas Ramudo
As John, the apostle of love, warns, “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 Jn 4:1). It is particularly important to “test the spirits” because Satan’s foremost strategy of spiritual seduction is to disguise himself as an angel of light (cf. 2 Cor 11:14). His slickest slogan is “Feel, don’t think.” (Hank Hanegraaff, Christianity In Crisis, 296)
You were not created to be a law follower. You were created to love and the Law is simply a guide, a rule to assist you to know how to love and how to define love. PK
David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sm 13:14; 1 Kgs 11:4; 14:8; 15:3; Acts 13:22). This may be one of the highest compliments God has given any man outside of the God-man Jesus. For a clear indication of David’s feeling and thinking about the Word {Law} of God read carefully Psalms 19 and 119. — PK
The Spirit of God
Lead the People of God
To Submit to the Word of God
So What?: If you are a follower of Jesus you will be committed to knowing, loving and following the Law of God based on LOVE. (Dt 32:47?; Mt 5:17; 12:50; 26:39, 42, 54; Lk 4:21; Jn 12:50; 14:31; 17:12; 19:28; Rom 10:4; Phil 2:12; 1Tm 6:1-19)
If you are a follower of Christ, then you must have within you a deep desire to want to love and obey God’s Word because that is what drove Jesus. Constantly, Jesus refers to his actions as being what His father told him to do or Jesus does what he does so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. How can you say you follow Christ and contradict the very principle upon which his life was based . . . To fulfill the Scriptures. You cannot call yourself a Christian and do less than read, obey and love God’s Word. Otherwise, to call yourself a Christian and to live contrary to what we have just said, is to make a mockery of Jesus. (Tim Keller; sermon on Acts 3)
To live “in Christ,” to walk “in love,” is something entirely different from living under the law and striving to fulfill all its requirements; and yet the law is fulfilled in it. Therefore it can be said at the same time that the Christian is “free from the law” and that in him the law is fulfilled. Not by fulfillment of law is the law fulfilled, but by life “in Christ” and “in love.” It is in this sense, and only in this sense, that “love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Anders Nygren, Commentary on Romans, 435)
True disciples are Word oriented. They recognize that it is “the word of His grace, which is able to build [them] up” (Acts 20:32). They understand the importance of being “doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (Jam 1:22). True believers are “like newborn babies long[ing] for the pure milk of the word, so that by it [they] may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Pt 2:2). They possess the desire that the psalmist had when he wrote, “O how I love your law!” (Ps 119:97), “With all my heart I will observe your precepts” (v. 69), “Your law is my delight,” (v. 77), and, “The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (v. 72). (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 1-11, 357-8)
Don’t ever imagine that Jesus could or would abolish or abrogate the Word. Jesus is the Word.