LAW VERSUS
LIFE
Miles J. Stanford
Not law, but grace; not I, but
Christ. The principle of law applied to the believer dooms him to
Romans Seven, while the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus delivers
him to Romans Eight.
Identification with Christ includes
the position of death for the old nature, and the position of life for
the new nature. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to block self and its
sinful works, and to foster the new life and its fruit.
Spiritual growth does not involve
effort on the part of the Christian, for the indwelling Spirit transmits the
life of the Lord Jesus from source to servant. Neither is there struggle
connected with the daily deliverance from the tyranny of self, for the Spirit
transmits the finished work of the Cross to that sinful element.
Where these death-dealing and
life-giving identification truths are unknown to the believer, he finds no
alternative but to try to keep the law as a "rule of life." This
erroneous expedient consists of applying the principle of law for the control of
conduct—its prohibitions for self, its commands for life. But the
Scriptures teach us that the Holy Spirit, "the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus," ministers Christ to the Christian, not law. "For the law
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).
Most of the depressing law-burden
placed upon believers emanates from Calvinism and its Covenant theology.
Many are unaware of the legalistic aspect of this teaching, since its tenets are
well known for providing the Christian with the solid scriptural foundation of
justification and eternal security. Let us now consider some of the
aspects of this theology as it affects those who long to grow in Christ.
Justification
Nothing need be said further
regarding the faithful stand the Calvinists have established concerning
foundational truths such as the inspiration of the Word, and the complete,
eternal justification of the believer. Humanly speaking, the doctrinal
basis upon which we rest today is due to the scholarship and integrity of such
Reformed theologians as Berkhof, Bonar, Hodge, Kuyper, Machen, Pink, Ryle, and
Warfield.
Sanctification
The Covenant theologians have ever
remained well within the scope of Reformation doctrine. We can be thankful
for this with regard to justification by faith, but when it comes to
sanctification via Christ our life, it is a different matter. Substitution is
clearly proclaimed; identification (our death to the law and our life in Christ)
by and large has not been recognized.
The Covenant movement’s
dependence upon law for spiritual growth is caused by a combination of
errors. Reformation theology is anti-dispensational, and primarily
restricted to two covenants, works and grace. Prophetic Scriptures are
spiritualized, resulting in amillennialism. The church is considered to
include the saints of all ages, the distinctive Body of Christ not being
discerned. In thus merging Israel with born-again believers, the law is
brought right on past Calvary and fastened upon the Christian. Throughout
the realm of sanctification Covenant Calvinism fails "to distinguish the
things that differ" (Phil. 1:10, ASV).
This theology prevents the
Christian from seeing and freely taking his stand as having died [positionally]
unto the law and being now alive unto God in the Lord Jesus. "Ye also
were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined
to Another, even to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth
fruit unto God" (Rom. 7:4, ASV). We have died to the old life and are
now alive in the new, and that to bring forth "fruit"—the fruit of
the Spirit in contrast to the "works" of the law.
Following are representative
statements regarding sanctification by well-known Covenant theologians:
Arthur Pink
"Is the disciple to be above
his Master, the servant superior to his Lord? Christ was ‘made under
the law’ (Gal. 4:4), and lived in perfect submission thereto, and has left
us an example that we should ‘follow His steps’ (I Peter 2:21). Only
by loving, fearing, and obeying the law, shall we be kept from sinning.
"There is an unceasing
warfare between the flesh and the Spirit, each bringing forth ‘after its own
kind,’ so that groans ever mingle with the Christian’s songs. The
believer finds himself alternating between thanking God for deliverance from
temptation and contritely confessing his deplorable yielding to
temptation. Often he is made to cry, ‘O wretched man that I am!’
(Rom. 7:24). Such has been for upwards of twenty-five years the
experience of the writer, and it is still so." (The Doctrine of
Sanctification, pp. 71, 121.)
H. Bonar
"Redemption forms a new
obligation to law-keeping as well as puts us in a position for it. Yes,
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,’ but certainly not from
the law itself; for that would be to redeem us from a divine rule and guide;
it would be to redeem us from that which is ‘holy and just and good."’
(God’s Way of Holiness, pp. 81, 83.)
J. C. Ryle
"Genuine sanctification will
show itself in habitual respect for God’s law, and habitual effort to live
in obedience to it as a rule of life. There is no greater mistake than
to suppose that a Christian has nothing to do with the law and the Ten
Commandments, because he cannot be justified by keeping them. The same
Holy Spirit who convinces the believer of sin by the law, and leads him to
Christ for justification, will always lead him to a spiritual use of the law
in the pursuit of sanctification." (Holiness, p. 27.)
Charles G. Finney
(Although by no means a Reformed
theologian, his baneful influence concerning the law has continued to affect the
present-day church.)
"It is self-evident that the
entire obedience to God’s law is possible on the ground of natural
ability. To deny this, is to deny that man is able to do as well as he
can. The very language of the law is such as to level its claims to the
capacity of the subject, however great or small that capacity may be.
‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and
all thy mind, and with all thy strength.’
"Here then it is plain, that
all the law demands, is the exercise of whatever strength we have, in the
service of God. Now, as entire sanctification consists in perfect
obedience to the law of God, and as the law requires nothing more than the
right use of whatever strength we have, it is, of course, forever settled,
that a state of entire sanctification is attainable in this life, on the
ground of natural ability." (Finney’s Lectures on Systematic
Theology, p. 407.)
We turn to the words of two men
who, in contrast to the above, based their teachings on the identification
truths:
William Kelly
"Every believer is regarded
by God as alive from the dead, to bring forth fruit [not works] unto
God. The law only deals with a man as long as he lives; never after he
is dead. ‘For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.’
And that is not at all what is said of us after a ‘second blessing,’ …
or any other step of imaginary perfection. We begin with it… I
am identified with Christ dead and risen. It is no longer the law
dealing with me to try if it can get any good out of me. I have
relinquished all by receiving the Lord Jesus, and I take my stand in Him dead
and risen again … as one alive from the dead, to yield myself to God.
"The Gospel supposes that,
good and holy and perfect as the law of God is, it is entirely powerless
either to justify or sanctify. It cannot in any way make the old nature
better; neither is it the rule of life for the new nature. The old man
is not subject to the law, and the new man does not need it. The new
creature has another object before it, and another power acts upon it, in
order to produce what is lovely and acceptable to God—Christ the object,
realized by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Galatians, pp. 125,
137.)
Kelly further states,
"Some good men who in
grievous error would impose the law as a rule of life for the Christian mean
very well by it but the whole principle is false because the law, instead of
being a rule of life, is necessarily a rule of death to one who has sin in his
nature. Far from a delivering power, it can only condemn such; far from
being a means of holiness, it is, in fact, the strength of sin (1 Cor.
15:56)." (The Holy Spirit, p. 197.)
C. I. Scofield
"Most of us have been reared
and now live under the influence of Galatianism. Protestant theology is
for the most part thoroughly Galatianized, in that neither the law nor grace
is given its distinct and separate place as in the counsels of God, but they
are mingled together in one incoherent system.
"The law is no longer, as in
the divine intent, a ministration of death (2 Cor. 3:7), of cursing (Gal.
3:10), or conviction (Rom. 3:19), because we are taught that we must try to
keep it, and that by divine help we may. Nor does grace, on the other
hand, bring us blessed deliverance from the dominion of sin, for we are kept
under the law as a rule of life despite the plain declaration of Romans 6:14—‘For
sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law but under
grace.’" (The Fundamentals for Today, Vol. 2, p. 367.)
How sad to realize that while Calvinism so
effectively refutes Arminianism in the realm of justification, its Covenant
theology fails the believer in the realm of sanctification just as badly as does
Arminianism.
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