He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8
Q3: What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.
Now that we have seen that we must live from our union with Christ let us see the duty which God requires of us. To help with this, we need to remember that there are three uses of God’s Law. The first use of God’s Law is expose our sin and depravity in all its depth. The Law goes deep! “Sin has increased” (Rom. 5:20). This use of the Law should be used for unbelievers and believers. We cannot repent of sins that we don’t see in ourselves. We will not run to Christ for forgiveness, righteousness, and sanctification if we do not know our need.
This use of the Law is also needed to reveal to us how righteous Christ is. We are only doing half our duty if we only see our own sin. The devil knows he has sinned! The Christian is one who not only sees his sin but also see his Savior! Particularly, we must see how righteous Christ is. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that spiritual maturity is merely feeling bad about how bad you are. You must look to Christ and His righteousness more than your sin. Shouldn’t this mean that when we read the 10 Commandments that we should also put much emphasis on how righteous our Lord is for us?
The second use of the Law is in restraining our depravity. God’s Law informs our conscience. We must remember that one of fruits of a healthy gospel ministry is in the fact that evil is restrained. What makes this difficult is that this is hard to measure. Nevertheless, we need to have a right understanding of all the different ways God grants fruit in ministry.
The third use of the Law is for the believer. When he or she believes in Christ they are not relieved of the Law. Rather, the relation to the Law is what changes. The Law is no longer a guard keeping us in the prison of condemnation. The Law is now a guide to help us work out our love for God and His people. To be clear, this third use of the Law is never contributing to our justification or adoption. Our obedience or disobedience never changes our relationship with God. It is out of the surety of our relationship that we walk according to God’s Law. But, the Christian is someone who learns to walk according to God’s Law. The Christian is someone whose desires change. As we behold Christ by faith, our desires are being changed. The Christian is someone who grows in loving what God loves and hating what God hates. But, you must remember that this takes time…much time!