Foreword:
The following exerpt is taken from The Ten
Commandments by Arthur W. Pink
(BAKER BOOK HOUSE, 1994 GRAND RAPIDS, MI)
In this blog series I will work through this very
important article a paragraph at a time – asking my reader comprehension style
questions at the end. In our day, when people who identify themselves as
Christians are so sensitive to any accusation of legalism that they tend to
swing all the way out to antinomianism (that is lawlessness), it is perhaps now
more than ever that we ought to prayerfully re-examine the Ten Commandments –
and few do it better than Arthur Pink (1886 - 1952). I found
this article to be very convicting as I first worked through it. And, lest we
think we the church are not in need of this labour, let us be reminded that
those whom Jesus will reject on the last Day even though they did many mighty
works in his name, were accused by our Lord of not just having no intimate
relationship with him (‘I never knew you’), but also that they were accused as
workers of lawlessness by our Lord. The Law of God does not save, nor does it
keep one saved – none the less we are called to obedience to it who are saved –
but enough of me – here is Arthur Pink…
"Next we have a description of the fearful manifestation in
which Jehovah appeared to deliver His Law (Ex. 19:18, 19), which was designed
to affect the people of Israel with an awe for His authority and to signify
that if God were so terrible in the giving of the Law, when He comes to judge
us for its violation how much more so will He be? When God had delivered the
Ten Words, so greatly affected were the people that they entreated Moses to act
as a mediator and interpreter between God and them (20:18, 19). This teaches us
that when the Law is delivered to us directly by God it is (in itself) the
ministration of condemnation and death, but as it is delivered to us by the
Mediator, Christ, we may hear and observe it (see Gal. 3:19; 1 Cor. 9:21; Gal.
6:2). Accordingly Moses went up into the mount and received the Law, inscribed
by God's own finger upon two tables of stone, signifying that our hearts are
naturally so hard that none but the finger of God can make any impression of
His Law upon them. Those tables were broken by Moses in his holy zeal (Ex.
32:19), and God wrote them a second time (34:1). This signifies that the Law of
Nature was written on our hearts at creation, broken when we fell in Adam, and
rewritten in our hearts at regeneration (Heb. 10:16). But some may ask,
"Has not the Law been fully abrogated by the coming of Christ into the
world? Would you bring us under that heavy yoke of bondage which none has ever
been able to bear? Does not the New Testament expressly declare that we are not
under the Law, but under Grace; that Christ was made under the Law to free His
people therefrom? Is not an attempt to overawe men's conscience by the
authority of the Decalogue a legalistic imposition, altogether at variance with
that Christian liberty which the Savior has brought in by His obedience unto
death?" We answer thus: So far from the Law being abolished by the coming
of Christ into this world, He Himself emphatically stated, "Think not that
I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets (the enforcers thereof): I am come
not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all
be fulfilled" (Matt. 5:17, 18). True, the Christian is not under the Law
as a Covenant of Works nor as a ministration of condemnation, but he is under
it as a rule of life and a means of sanctification."
1) Since we today receive the Laws of God in the quiet of our living
rooms, the comfort of our church pews or in the patient instruction of our parents
or Sunday school teachers, are we in more or less danger of taking them more lightly
than the Israelites who received the law with great signs and wonders in the
shadow of the Holy mountain? To aid you in your answer consider that these same
people who beheld the vast dark clouds that surrounded the mount, who felt the
earth move and heard mighty sounds, who had recently seen the ten plagues, the
parted sea, the pillar of cloud and fire, the water from the rock, the daily
manna and other miracles and wonders besides, these same Israelites would soon
be building a golden bull idol and would later be doubting God could help them conquer
Canaan after the spies reported of the giants living there. Are we, who have not seen such
things but merely read them on the pages of our Bibles, more or less likely to
disregard that which was once carved in stone? I know I wish to repent of how
lightly I have taken his Holy Law.
2) What is Legalism? Often a Christian is accused of being legalistic any time they teach obedience to scripture. It is argued that as we are under grace we are not obliged to follow the letter of the Law. But Matthew 5:17-18 teaches an entirely different truth. How then can we obey without being legalists? Surely the critical distinction is to be found in our reasons or motivations to obey. If we obey in order to be saved or stay saved then yes, we are being legalistic and trying to put God into our debt. Such obedience - ceremonial, moral, sacrificial or otherwise - is damnable. If however we obey because the Scripture convicts us and we acknowledge God's full sovereignty and authority over our lives and obey because he is our king, our Father and he is all-wise and trustworthy - then we are not being legalistic at all but instead being obedient children. In fact our obedience is grounded in the trust that his Law is given for our good. If we obey because we know that obedience honours the Lord and proves our true faith to ourselves and to the 'great cloud of witnesses' that surround us – surely this is not legalism, is it? If we obey because obedience is true worship - worship that is weighty and love for God that is not all talk and no action, then we are clearly on the path of sanctification rather than legalism. How else could we express the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) other than living out the Ten Commandments? How else can we know that we are truly saved and indwelt by the Holy Spirit unless we see a growing obedience to the Law or at least a growing sorrow and sensitivity to our breaking of it? Oh that we would pray for the wisdom to walk the narrow path between lawlessness and legalism and to be righteous and obedient for the right reasons. Amen?
Join me for the next instalment ...
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