God's Law, 10 not 9, and 3 distinct Uses.

This is a very clear, and good short starting point if you have never heard of the three uses of God's Law.


"At the same time, it has been recognized that there is a distinct body of fundamental law, the moral law, which is not rooted in Moses and therefore does not expire with the Mosaic economy. That fundamental law is grounded in creation, not Moses, and as creation is perpetual, so the Moral law is perpetual.

The Moral law came to expression under Moses, in the Decalogue (Exod 20 and Deut 5) in terms of the Israelite, typological economy, thus there is language about “the land” and the Saturday Sabbath, that belongs peculiarly to Moses. But the essence of the two tables of the Moral law is recapitulated by our Lord in Matt 22:37-40 (which is really just quotation from Deut): “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart etc and your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

As to the fourth commandment, the historic Reformed view has always been that the 4th commandment (the Sabbath commandment) is a moral law grounded in creation. It has always been recognized that the Jewish Sabbath was temporary and typological, but also that the Sabbath principle is grounded in creation AND redemption (hence Exod 20 and Deut 5). If it is grounded in creation it isn’t a distinctly Mosaic commandment and therefore the Sabbath principle (one day in 7 for rest and worship) continues. All the Reformed churches confess (e.g. Heidelberg Catechism Q 103) that our Lord claimed the first day of the week for himself and for rest and worship by virtue of his resurrection. It’s true that, in modern times, Sabbath observance has lagged but the confession of the Reformed churches (e.g. the Westminster Confession and Catechisms) has not changed on these points.

Finally, it’s helpful to distinguish between the ways that historic, confessional Protestantism (Reformed and Lutheran) has spoken about the ways the law can be used. There is a civil use of the (second table) of the decalogue to restrain evil. There is a pedagogical use of the law to teach us the greatness of our sin and misery and to drive us to Christ and there is the moral use of the law to norm the Christian life. This is the universal teaching of all the Reformed Churches, in all our confessions. In our view, anyone who says that the moral law no longer binds the Christian is antinomian. In the same breath we want to say that absolutely no sinner is ever justified before God on the basis of his law keeping in any way.

Only Jesus, the Second Adam, who was not a sinner, kept the law perfectly for all his people and his law keeping is credited to those who believe. This righteousness is the basis for our justification and, out of gratitude, in union with the risen Christ, by the grace of the Spirit, we seek to keep the moral law. As we sin, we confess our sins and ask forgiveness by grace alone, through faith alone.

Blessings,

R. Scott Clark
Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology
Westminster Seminary California "