Introduction
What is law?
A law is a set of rules used to regulate human choices.
What is the purpose of law?
The purpose of law is to promote human happiness and flourishing.
From where do laws come?
All laws always originate in some person’s mind. Compare the argument given here called the “moral argument.”
How are the different laws we encounter in our society categorized?
Into natural and revealed law.
What is the difference between natural and revealed law?
Natural law is a set of rules which we discover without any assistance from divine revelation. We simply use our own minds and reason to find them. Divine law refers to those rules we find in the Bible as for instance the decalog.
What can we know about natural law?
See here.
How do we find God’s laws in the Bible?
We look for three things: a command, a principle, or an example.
What is a command?
This is some direct imperative which we can read in Scripture such as the prohibition of drunkenness (Ephesians 5:18) or the command to gather as Christians. (Hebrews 10:25)
What do you mean by a principle?
A principle is also a rule but it is not specific. A moral principle must be applied. For instance, when you see a speed limit sign, you are seeing a rule specific to a given situation. When a police officer tells you to drive safely, that is a moral principle that is not specific. It has to be applied, and it will apply differently in different situations. Consider each of the ten commands; each of these are general moral principles that need to be applied to specific situations. For instance, when someone cuts you off on the highway, you now have an opportunity to apply (or violate) the principle “to do good to all.” (Galatians 6:10) The same is true of Jesus teaching where He commands us to love one another. (John 13:34)
What do you mean by an example?
This refers to all the things we see the great men and women of God doing in the Bible. Paul teaches us that the history of Israel is an example to us. (1 Corinthians 10:6) This category, however, is the most difficult since we first have to determine whether the example in question is good or bad. Some Christians believe that we should follow David in calling down curses on God’s enemies. Others, say that we should follow Jesus’ command to love our enemies and that Christians are not to follow David in this. Obviously, it can be difficult to know what examples we are to follow and which not.
What laws did God give His people in the Bible?
The first law which God gave to His people is contained in the very first chapter of the Bible. After creating Adam and Eve, God speaks to them:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. (Genesis 1:26-30)
This is known as the creation mandate, and it is repeated to Noah after the flood. (Genesis 9:7) The second law which God gave was the covenant which He made with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. This covenant contained the following terms:
Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:15-17)
This is the covenant known in theology as “the covenant of works.” The third law is God’s command to Noah:
Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. (Genesis 6:13-14)
The fourth instance of law is the covenant God made with Abraham. On this occasion, God commanded Abraham:
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
What about all the laws God gave to Israel?
When God formed Israel into a nation, He gave them many different laws regulating every aspect of their life. This law was seen as a great gift to
Romans 7
How does Paul understand the word “law” in Romans 7?
Paul uses the word in three different ways in this chapter. By far the most common usage is to refer to all the laws which God gave His people at mount Sinai. We’ll call this the Mosaic law. Second, he uses the word to refer to a motivating force in one’s soul. Third, he uses the word to refer to a common maxim of human living.
Start with the first verses.
Sure, in the first verses, we see the first usage which is by far the most common:
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. (Romans 7:1-3)
The first two occurrences speak of all the Mosaic laws which God gave to Israel. All the rest are references to one specific law of the Mosaic law, namely the law against adultery.
What about the rest of the chapter?
Up until verse 21, the word is always used to refer to the Mosaic law with the understanding that all of God’s laws function in this same way.
Function in what way?
Paul teaches that the law stirs up our sinful passions leading us to do the very thing that the law forbids. (Romans 7:8-11; more)
What changes in verse 21?
Here Paul uses the word law, translated principle here, in the third sense given above. It means a general rule or maxim of life. It is something that his years of experience had taught him.
I find then the principle [law/νομος] that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. (Romans 7:21)
What about the remaining verses?
In verse 22, Paul again uses the word, in its most common sense, to refer to God’s law:
For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man… (Romans 7:22)
In verse 23, Paul uses the word three times. All three times, Paul adopts the second meaning given above. It means a motivating or drawing force. Now the law isn’t just prescribing what is to be done but draws, leads, and even seduces the person to obey its commands. The “different law” he sees in himself is the same as the “law of sin.” It is always pushing him towards evil.
…but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. (Romans 7:23)
When Paul speaks of the the “law of my mind,” he also means a motivating force but this time something that is drawing him towards righteousness. This is confirmed because Paul tells us in v25, that with his mind, he serves the law of God.