Rebecca Stark is the author of The Good Portion: Godthe second title in The Good Portion series.

The Good Portion: God explores what Scripture teaches about God in hopes that readers will see his perfection, worth, magnificence, and beauty as they study his triune nature, infinite attributes, and wondrous works. 

                     

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Thursday
Jan242008

What special use is there of the moral law to the regenerate?

Although they that are regenerate, and believe in Christ, be delivered from the moral law as a covenant of works,[1] so as thereby they are neither justified [2] nor condemned;[3] yet, besides the general uses thereof common to them with all men, it is of special use, to show them how much they are bound to Christ for his fulfilling it, and enduring the curse thereof in their stead, and for their good;[4] and thereby to provoke them to more thankfulness,[5] and to express the same in their greater care to conform themselves thereunto as the rule of their obedience.[6]

  1. Rom. 6:14
    For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
    Rom. 7:4, 6
    Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead,in order that we may bear fruit for God.               
    But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code
    Gal. 4:4-5
    But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
  2. Rom. 3:20
    For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
  3. Gal. 5:23
    …gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
    Rom. 8:1
    There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
  4. Rom. 7:24-25
    Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
    Rom. 8:3-4
    For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
    Gal. 3:13-14
    Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
  5. Luke 1:68-69, 74-75
    Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has visited and redeemed his people
    and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    …in the house of his servant David…
    …that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
    might serve him without fear …
    in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
    Col. 1:12-14
    giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
  6. Rom. 7:22
    For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being …
    Rom. 12:2
    Do not be conformed to this world,  but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
    Titus 2:11-14
    For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Question 97, Westminster Larger Catechism 

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