The Harmony of the Law and the Gospel

"The Harmony of the Law and the Gospel"
-Outline Used, New Hampshire Confession

Among Christians the issue we are going to speak of this evening is a heated debate. What is the purpose of the
law? Is the law abolished, or do we still have to live by the law? If we live by the law, can we be protected from
God's wrath? It seems that people have so many questions about the purpose of the law in the age of the
gospel. As Baptists, we believe that the law is in complete harmony with the gospel. The law has its purpose,
and the gospel has its purpose. Finding out the purpose of each gives us a better view of how we are to seek
and serve God.

Lesson Text: Romans 7:1-13

"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 the law to her husband while he is living; but
if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning her 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.
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may be
joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we
were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body
to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were
bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin
except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, YOU SHALL NOT
COVET. But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for
apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin
became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for
sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is
holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order
that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the
commandment sin would become utterly sinful." -Romans 7:1-13

I. The Law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of His moral government.

"Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law." - Romans
3:31

"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill." - Matthew
5:17

"For the law brings about wrath, but where there is no law there is no violation." - Romans 4:15

II. The Law is holy, just, and good.

"So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous, and good." - Romans 7:12

"Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able
to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law." - Galatians 3:21

"For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin." - Romans 7:14

III. The inability that the Scriptures ascribes to fallen men to fulfill the law's precepts arises entirely from their
love of sin.

"Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God: for it does not subject to the law of God, for it is not
even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God." - Romans 8:7-8

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to
doing evil." - Jeremiah 13:23

"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." -
John 6:44

IV. To deliver sinners from their sins, and restore them through Jesus Christ to unfeigned obedience to the
Holy Law is the great purpose of the Gospel.

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For 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, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in
us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." - Romans 8:2-4

"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." - Romans 10:4

"Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that
faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." - Galatians 3:24-25

"For 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 on their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be My people." -
Hebrews 8:10