The monstrous absurdity and error of Anti-nomianism, proceeds on the supposition of the law and the Spirit being two distinct, possible contending, authorities — a doctrine not so much opposed to any particular portion of Scripture, as the common antithesis of all its revelations, and the subversion of all its principles. But let it once be understood that the law and the Spirit have but one end in view, and one path, in a sense to reach it — that the motions of the Spirit within, invariably, and by the highest of all necessities, take the direction prescribed by the law without — let this be understood, and Antinomianism wants even the shadow of a ground to stand upon.
The question, however, naturally arises, Of what use is the law to those who really are under the Spirit? We answer, it would be of none, if the work of spiritual renovation, which His grace is given to effect, were perfected in us. But since this is far from being the case — since imperfection still cleaves to the child of God, and the flesh, in a greater or less degree, still wars against the Spirit, the outward discipline of the law can never be safely dispensed with. Even St. Paul was obliged to confess that he found the flesh lusting against the Spirit and that though he was ever following after, he was conscious of not having yet attained to the full measure of grace and excellence in Christ. Therefore, for his own quickening and direction, as well as for that of others, he felt it needful to press the demands of law, and to look to the exceeding breadth of its requirements. Luther also and his fellow-labourers, although their views were not always correct as to the relation in which Israel stood to the law, nor by any means clear regarding the precise nature of the change introduced by the Gospel, yet were sound enough on this point. Thus they say in one of their symbolical books: “Although the law was not made for the righteous (as the apostle testifies, 1 Tim. i. 9), yet this is not to be understood as if the righteous might live without law; for the divine law is written upon their hearts. The true and genuine meaning, therefore, of Paul’s words is, that the law cannot bring those who have been reconciled to God through Christ under its curse, and that its restraints cannot be irksome to the renewed since they delight in the law of God after the inner man . . . But believers are not completely and perfectly renewed in this life; and though their sins are covered by the absolutely perfect obedience of Christ, so as not be imputed to believers to their condemnation, and though the mortification of the old Adam and the renovation in the spirit of their mind has been began by the Holy Spirit, yet the old Adam still remains in nature’s powers and affections” etc.
1. To keep us under grace, as the source of all our security and blessing.
This we are ever apt, through the pride and self-confidence of the flesh, to forget, even though we have already in some measure known it. Therefore the law must be our schoolmaster, not only to bring us to Christ at the beginning of a Christian life, but also afterwards to keep us there, and force continually back upon us the conviction that we must be in all respects the debtors of grace. For when we see what a spirituality and breadth is in the law of God, how it extends to the thoughts and affections of the heart as well as to our words and actions, and demands, in regard to all, the exercise of an unswerving devoted love, then we are made to feel that the law, if trusted in as a ground of confidence, must still work wrath, and that convinced by it as transgressors, we must betake ourselves for all peace and consolation to the grace of Christ. Here alone, in His atonement, can we find satisfaction to our consciences; and here alone also, in the strengthening aid of His Spirit, the ability to do the things which the law requires.
2. The law, again, is needed to restrain and hold us back from those sins which we might otherwise be inclined to commit.
It is true that in one who is really a subject of grace there can be no habitual inclination to live in sin; for he is God’s workmanship in Christ Jesus, created in Him unto good works. But the temptations of the world, and the devices of the spiritual adversary, may often be too much for any measure of grace he has already received, successfully to resist: he may want in certain circumstances the willing and faithful mind either to withstand evil or to prosecute as he should the path of righteousness; and therefore the law is still placed before him by the Spirit, with its stern prohibitions and awful threatenings to move with fear, whenever love fails to prompt and influence the heart. Thus even the apostle Paul, with all his zeal and devotedness to the cause of Christ, finds it necessary to place before his view the dreadful possibility of his so far failing in duty as to become a castaway.
3. And the law is yet again needed to present continually before the eye of the mind a clear representation of the righteousness which through the grace of the Spirit, believers should be ever striving to attain.
While that grace is still imperfect, they are necessarily in danger of entertaining low and defective views of duty; nay, in times of peculiar temptation or undue excitement, they might even mistake the motions of the flesh for the promptings of the Spirit, and under the guise of truth embrace the way of error. But the law stands before them, with its revelation of righteousness, as a faithful and resplendent mirror, in which they may behold, without any danger of delusion or mistake, the perfect image of that excellence which they should be ever yielding to God. “We are free — we have the Spirit, and are not subject to bondage.” True, but free only to act as servants of Christ, and not to throw around you a cloak of maliciousness. Believers are free, not to introduce what they please into the service of God, for He is a jealous God, and will not allow His glory to be associated with the vain imaginations of men; they are free to worship Him only in spirit and in truth. Shall anyone say he is free to give or withhold, as seems good to him what may be needed to advance the cause of God in the world — to employ or not for holy ends the means and opportunities he enjoys! How impossible! seeing that if he is really filled with the Spirit, the love of God must have been breathed into his soul, so as of necessity to make it his delight to do what he can for the divine glory, and to engage in the services which bring him into nearest fellowship with Heaven. Thus the freedom of the Spirit is a freedom only within the bounds and limits of the law; and the law itself must stand, lest the flesh, taking advantage of the weakness of the Spirit’s grace, should in its wantonness break forth into courses which are displeasing to the mind of God.
(Extract from The Typology of Scripture)
by Patrick Fairbairn, D.D.