The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Dead to the Law, alive unto God

1Timothy 1:7ff. '....Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate......etc.'

The charge against me, and I suppose against most of the rest of this forum, is that we don't understand the law, and that we make unlawful use of it.

The basis for the charge is found in what I will call the 'Gadsbyite' view of verse 9. 'The law is not made for a righteous person.' Gadby's assumption is that 'righteous' means 'Christian.' However, the Lord Jesus declared (Mark 2:17), 'I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.' Here our Lord clearly means, those who think they are righteous. I believe that Paul has the same meaning in 1Tim 1:9. I suggest that the 'teachers of the law' whom Paul was opposing had some sort of 'holiness' theology, whereby through observance of the ceremonial law, one could become perfectly righteous. However, what the text CANNOT mean is what Gadsby claims it does, as I hope to show.

1Cor 5:1. 'It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles- that a man has his father's wife.'
Here we have a member of the Corinthian congregation who, following the death of his father, has married, or is cohabiting with, his step-mother. Now if the believer is not under law in any way, where's the problem? But Lev 18:6-8 says, 'None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the LORD.....The nakedness of your father's wife you shall not uncover; it is your father's nakedness' and so Paul declares, 'Put away from yourselves the evil person!' Now note that this is a moral law. Dietry laws (Rom 14:14) and ceremonial laws (Gal 5:2), the Apostle declares to be fulfilled. But here and elsewhere (eg. Eph 4:17-32), he shows that the moral law of God is to be the standard of the church.

Perhaps it might be suggested that this Corinthian was not really a Christian, and it is for that reason that he was under the law. Well, there are two possibilities; either he was a backslidden Christian, or he was not one at all. If he was a lost sheep, then the good shepherd was bound to find him and bring him back (Matt 18:12-14). And this is exactly what happened; the man was expelled from the Corinthian church, repented and was restored (2Cor 2:5-11).

So here we have a case study of a Christian who was convicted by the law and brought to repentance by it. The law is indeed, 'not made for a righteous man', but it is for Christians, because, 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us' (1John 1:8).

The law does not condemn Christians (Rom 8:1), though it does chastise them (Psalm 119:75). The Christian who has gone astray needs, like David, a faithful Nathan to point him to God's holy law and say, 'You are the man!' (2Sam 12:7).

Blessings to all,
Steve