Children of the Free

In our assertion that Christians should keep the moral law of God (as summarised in the Ten Commandments, and further summarised in what our Lord Jesus Christ esteems to be the two greatest commandments), we are not seeking to add Moses to Christ, or to combine Law and Gospel, or to re-introduce law-obedience as a means of salvation or as any kind of supplement to the total salvation that the Saviour has provided for people.

We are simply affirming that the moral law of God is still the standard by which Christians ought to live. In this we are in full agreement with the apostle Paul’s teaching on this matter in Galatians chapters 4 and 5.

In Galatians 4, Paul explained:

• Christians are not under the law (mount Sinai, and Old Testament Jerusalem) as a covenant of works, which Paul describes as being under “the one [covenant] from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar”¹ (v.24).
• But Christians are “under grace” in the “Jerusalem which is above.” The heavenly city of the covenant of grace “is free, which is the mother of us all” (v.26; compare also Hebrews 11:10,16; Revelation 21:2).

“For these are the two covenants” (v.24); and Christians are “not children of the bondwoman [covenant of works], but of the free [covenant of grace]” (v.31), affirms the apostle.

Should We Have Nothing To Do With the Old Testament Moral Laws?

So, does our being “children of the free” in the covenant of grace mean that we should have nothing to do with the law of God, or that we should not keep any part of it? Paul’s answer to this question is in what we have as chapter 5 of his epistle: we have no need to keep the ceremonial laws; but we should still keep the moral laws:

1. We have no need to keep the ceremonial laws: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1). By “yoke of bondage,” Paul means the ceremonial parts of the Law of Moses, being kept as a system of law-obedience together with the moral law—i.e. we should not get circumcised, and become a “debtor to do the whole law” (vv.2-12). For to keep any part of the Mosaic law in order to be saved is to deny that Christ alone is the all-sufficient Saviour. So, for Christians, there is to be no circumcision, no sacrifices, no feasts, no priests, nor anything else that the Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled for us—and that includes no keeping of the moral laws in order to be saved.
2. But we should still keep the moral laws: “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (v.13). With this, the apostle Paul begins to explain that Christians should still obey the moral law: “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another” (Galatians 5:13-15).

We have been called to liberty. This liberty is not a licence to sin, but it is a liberty in which we should by love serve one another—a liberty in which we should still keep “all the law,” Paul teaches us (here he means all the moral law).

In his reference to the moral law, the apostle is focused upon our loving service of one other, that should characterise Christian fellowship. All that we do should be done in fulfilment of (i.e. in the keeping of) this commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” says Paul.

We recognise this commandment as what Christ himself identifies as the second “great commandment in the law” (Matthew 22:39). And, we can take it as a given that Paul also agrees with Christ, who declared that God’s “first and great commandment” has to do with our love and service toward him: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:38-39). Therefore we can be certain that all that we do must be done in the fulfilment of this greatest commandment, too.

Our Service to God Involves Keeping His Moral Law

Christians, being “children of the free” (Galatians 4:31), are free to serve God. This service involves keeping God’s moral law. We have been freed from sin to serve God but we are not free to sin.

As Paul explains it in another place, we are not to be sin’s slaves any more but willing slaves of God: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants² to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye [Christians] were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.³ Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:16-18).

There are plenty of resources out there to help you in your study of God’s moral law as a Christian—to understand what is involved in being a servant of righteousness. You could start with one of the many of the Reformed Catechisms that have a built-in exposition of the Ten Commandments.⁴ Then there are numerous commentaries, sermon-series and other books, by Reformers and Puritans and others who hold to these same teachings today.

In all these sources, you will find that their purpose is never to learn in order to obey and save yourself that way, or to contribute toward your salvation at all. No, but their message is always that the Ten Commandments should be learnt and obeyed in order to live a moral life, as a faithful Christian, to the glory of God.

If you are not ready to put your Christian mind and heart into the serious study of the law of God, and if you are not yet willing to put your Christian life’s walk and work into God-pleasing holy living—which involves keeping his holy moral law, then I recommend you learn and sing Psalm 119. Even if you need to re-study it and sing it a hundred and nineteen times—do whatever it takes until you get it! And know this: an unconverted man would not have composed Psalm 119. It is the song of a converted person.

The Psalmist acknowledged that a work of God was required within him in order to open his eyes that he might behold wondrous things out of God’s law; to put new spiritual life into him; to incline him toward God’s moral laws and to make him to walk in them; to enable his soul thus to live (Psalm 119:18,25,33-38,154,156,175).

Christians should have the same heart as the Psalmist: “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97).

Now, do not say that you should have nothing to do with Psalm 119 “because that is in the Old Testament.” This Psalm is, surely, among the words of Christ that we should let dwell in us richly in all wisdom (see Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:18-19).

Appendix

Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, Chapter 2.

We have a gospel rule which turns us to obedience to the law. We find it in Philippians 4:8. “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” And I hope the law is of this number. The apostle tells us that the law is “holy and just and good”; certainly in it there is nothing commanded but what is good. If we are to learn of the ant, and from brute beasts, certainly are we much more to learn from the law, which is the image of God in man and the will of God to man. We have nothing to do with Moses, nor do we look to Sinai, the hill of bondage, but we look to Zion, the mountain of grace. We take the law as the eternal rule of God’s will, and we desire to conform ourselves to it, and to breathe out with David, “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!” [Psalm 119:5]

Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, Chapter 2.

Some there are who positively or peremptorily affirm that we are freed from the law as a rule, and are not, since Christ came, tied to the obedience of it. Others say that it still remains in force as a rule of obedience, though abolished in other respects, as Beza says: “Christ fulfilled the law for us, but not in order to render it of no value to us.” We are still under the conduct and commands of the law, say these Christians, though not under its curses and penalties.

Again, others say that we are freed from the law, as given by Moses, and are only tied to the obedience of it, as it is given in Christ: and though, they say, we are subject to those commands and that law which Moses gave, yet not as he gave it, but as Christ renews it, and as it comes out of His hand and from His authority: “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another” (John 13:34). It is a commandment, for Christ is both a Saviour and a Lord; and it is a new one, not that it did not exist before, but because now renewed, and because we have it immediately from the hands of Christ.

I shall not much quarrel with this. Acknowledge the moral law as a rule of obedience and Christian walking, and there will be no falling out, whether you take it as promulgated by Moses, or as handed to you and renewed by Christ.

Indeed, the law, as it is considered as a rule, can no more be abolished or changed than the nature of good and evil can be abolished and changed. The substance of the law is the sum of doctrine concerning piety towards God, charity towards our neighbours, temperance and sobriety towards ourselves. And for the substance of it, it is moral and eternal, and cannot be abrogated. We grant that the circumstances under which the moral law was originally given were temporary and changeable, and we have now nothing to do with the promulgator, Moses, nor with the place where it was given, Mount Sinai, nor with the time when it was given, fifty days after the people came out of Egypt, nor yet as it was written in tables of stone, delivered with thunderings and lightnings. We look not to Sinai, the hill of bondage, but to Sion, the mountain of grace. We take the law as the image of the will of God which we desire to obey, but from which we do not expect life and favour, neither do we fear death and rigour. This, I conceive, is the concurrent opinion of all divines [Doctors of Divinity, i.e. Theologians]. For believers, the law is abrogated in respect of its power to justify or condemn; but it remains full of force to direct us in our lives.