Scripture Reading: Romans 2:1-16

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality. But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. But glory, honor and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for there is no partiality with God. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law. These, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them, in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

Opening Prayer

O gracious God in heaven, we do rejoice and give thanks for your word and the truth that it reveals to us. And as we come to this passage, as we consider this topic and begin this series this morning, we pray that your spirit again would be with us, leading us, guiding us, opening our hearts to receive the truth, that it might truly bear abundant fruit for your glory, honor, and praise. And so we pray for your blessing in these things. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Introduction: The Moral Law Making a Comeback

Well, the moral law of God seems to be making somewhat of a comeback in the public square in recent months.

And we see this even here in Texas, and I think Oklahoma in particular.

In the case of Stone v. Graham, some may remember the Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that displays of the Ten Commandments in the public schools violated the establishment clause of the Constitution.

Well, this ruling then opened the doors for public displays of the Ten Commandments to be banned in other public places, including government offices, buildings, and parks.

But with the majority of the Supreme Court kind of leaning more to the right in recent years, many have been emboldened to put the Ten Commandments back into schools and back into the public square.

And it’ll certainly be interesting to see if this will even be further emboldened by what some have sensed over the past couple of weeks as kind of a cultural shift. We’ll just have to wait and see how that all plays out.

But whether the Ten Commandments are publicly visible or not, this whole controversy really highlights the truth that sinful man is antagonistic to God and to His law, because God’s law convicts of sin.

Sinful man hates the light that the law shines on his sin, and so he seeks to suppress it.

But we know such efforts are ultimately futile.

Because though man tries vigorously to suppress God’s law and remove it from the public view, we know that the law of God will never be removed as the standard by which all humanity will be judged on the last great day when Christ returns.

Romans 2: God Judges According to the Same Standard

The Apostle Paul makes this a point very clear in Romans 2.

He says everyone will be judged according to the same standard, the law of God.

Now here, some, though, may be inclined to raise an objection, and Paul seems to anticipate this kind of an objection.

That is, how can the law of God be the standard when the law of God was given to Old Testament Israel and that those outside the covenant community only had the general revelation of God’s creation?

And so to many, this seems, well, is God unfair?

Well, as Paul argues here, absolutely not.

Paul asserts that God, that there is no partiality with God.

He argues that God’s justice will be meted out, that those who didn’t have the law given to them, that is in written form, will be judged accordingly.

And those who’ve been privileged to have the law will then be judged by the law.

Again, how can this be?

Paul goes on to illustrate that at times those who don’t have the written law will actually obey the law, thus revealing that they do actually have the law of God.

So for example, someone who’s never heard of God, never heard of the gospel, never heard of the Bible, never had the law of God revealed to them in a language that they’ve understood, well they know it’s not good to murder someone, to take someone’s life unjustly.

Why do they do that?

Because they have the law of God written on their hearts.

Because, you see, all mankind, we know, is created and is created in the image of God.

Well, part of that image of God is the knowledge of God’s law that is imparted to mankind.

And so, all mankind has a general sense of what’s right and what’s wrong.

This is what we call the conscience.

Now it’s true though that this conscience and this awareness of what’s right and wrong is in our sin nature suppressed.

But it’s still there. It remains.

And so ultimately no one then is without excuse.

Because the law of God has been written, either explicitly shown to them, or for all mankind it’s been written on their hearts.

And that law written on the conscience of all mankind is what we call the moral law of God.

And as we’ll see, this moral law has been given to mankind, again, sometimes explicitly and in written form, or through the prophets, and sometimes more generally.

But it continues to be binding on all humanity.

For the Jew, for the pagan native in some faraway place who’s never heard of the gospel, and it continues to be binding even on the redeemed believer in Jesus Christ.

Different Kinds of Law in Scripture

Before we consider this truth, it might be helpful to point out that when we use terms like God’s law, or the Ten Commandments, or the moral law of God, or refer to the Torah, though all these refer to law, that is they all refer to a code of conduct for living in society,

Well, in the scriptures, we find that there are different laws that the Lord has given.

And some of these laws are binding and continue to be binding upon all people, whereas others were limited in scope when they were first given.

1. Ceremonial Laws – No Longer Binding

Now one of the types of the laws that falls in the non-binding category are the ceremonial laws that God gave to the Old Testament church to lead and guide the people and how they were to worship him.

These laws include:

• the various ritual cleansings and purifications,
• everything having to do with the care of the tabernacle and then later the temple,
• the entirety of the sacrificial system, all the different offerings that the people were to make,
• the feasts, the festivals, the holy days,
• as well as the various dietary laws and restrictions about what is clean and what is unclean.

These ceremonial laws were intended, were given to God’s people to emphasize the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man.

And that now that these people are those who are called to be the people of God, God is trying to teach them that they must be set apart from the rest of the world.

This, of course, begins with their need for their sins to be atoned for and committing themselves again to living differently than all the surrounding nations.

Now all these ceremonial laws, in some way though, ultimately point the people toward the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the perfect Holy One of God, who would be that once for all perfect sacrifice for sins.

That Christ would be the one who would reconcile them to God, once and for all, and purify and sanctify them, so they might stand in his glorious presence forever.

Those who observed these ceremonial laws, then with faith and in faith, they had faith in the promises of God to provide this perfect sacrifice.

Well, these Old Testament saints were truly looking unto Christ for salvation.

And so they are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus just as Christians today who in faith look back on what Christ has accomplished for us, right?

The Old Testament saints in faith look forward to the coming one who would fulfill these things perfectly.

And we can look back on that.

And so they are justified by faith, by grace through faith just as we are.

But now that Jesus, the Son of God, has come as that promised Messiah, as that Holy One of God, and as He has come to perfectly fulfill all these ceremonial laws, well now those ceremonial laws have become obsolete, and they’re no longer binding on the people of God.

And it’s important to know that any attempt by Christians or others to go back to those ceremonial laws, right?

To celebrate the feast days, to observe ritual cleansings and dietary laws, to support the restoration of sacrifices in some rebuilt temple.

Well, that’s nothing more than blasphemy as it undermines the finished work of Christ.

The Old Testament ceremonial laws are no more. They have no effect.

And even for those who practice Judaism, they’re empty. They have no meaning.

Because Christ has fulfilled them.

2. Civil Laws – No Longer Binding in Their Specific Form

But in the Old Testament, God also gave to Israel various civil laws since they were a people, since they were a nation, right?

You have to have some kind of laws to govern society.

Now remember, Old Testament Israel was a theocracy.

That is, God was their leader. God was their king and he was their supreme lawgiver.

They had no one else.

These civil laws included:

• laws about how the elders were to settle disputes among the citizens (e.g., if your ox gores or kills someone),
• laws about restitution payments and offerings in order to pay for offenses,
• various punishments for crimes and offenses against God and against the community (including stoning for blasphemy, idolatry, adultery, and murder),
• provisions for caring for the poor, the needy, and the strangers (e.g., gleaning),
• laws regarding justice and fairness and just measures and equal weights and labor and commerce and trade,
• laws that governed the use of the land and the handling of inheritances and the year of Jubilee.

These kinds of civil laws were given to help the nation of Israel to run as a just and compassionate society that really reflected the holiness and the mercy of its supreme king.

Now these weren’t given to other nations as a standard for them to follow, nor are they intended to be carried over into other nations and countries today.

When Israel ceased to be a self-governing nation under God (most certainly after 70 AD), well these laws then became obsolete.

And the only thing that we now glean from those civil laws today is what the Westminster Confession refers to as the general equity thereof—general principles of justice and civility, but the specific applications and punishments no longer apply.

3. Moral Law – Remains Binding on All Mankind

But there is a third category of law that we find in the scriptures, and that is the moral law.

Now the moral law is God’s law which does remain binding, not just on the Old Testament saints, but also upon Christians and indeed upon all mankind.

Because it’s the moral law of God that reveals most clearly the Creator who created all things by the word of His power and created mankind in His own image and likeness.

First Form: Given to Adam in the Garden

Often when we think of the moral law, we only think of the Ten Commandments.

But as we’ll see, the Ten Commandments are really an expansion of the first law God had given to Adam in the garden.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. (Genesis 2:16-17)

So here we have the most basic form of the moral law.

God gives to Adam one simple command, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And the essence of that command can be summed up this way: obey and live, disobey and die.

Adam fell, and the effect of Adam’s sin made him, and all his posterity, incapable then of perfect obedience to God’s moral law.

But the moral law of God still stood as it was etched into the heart of mankind.

Again, being a part of the image of God in which he was created.

Adam’s disobedience and sin certainly corrupted that image, but it still remains in every human being who is born of Adam through ordinary generation.

The evidence of this corruption is seen in how sinful man actively suppresses that truth.

But the witness of this law written on the heart, that is, again, his conscience, is ultimately inescapable and continues to convict him of sin though he continuously fights and rebels against it.

Second Form: Expanded at Sinai as the Ten Commandments

But this moral law of God was then later graciously expanded and delivered specifically to the people whom God had chosen to be His own, to the seed of Abraham of the nation of Israel.

The Lord gave this moral law to his people through Moses on Mount Sinai, and this is what we refer to as the Ten Commandments.

Now the Ten Commandments were given to Israel as a rule and standard by which God’s people could demonstrate their gratitude to God for his gracious salvation.

And it was a means to secure or it wasn’t a means to secure or even maintain that salvation.

Because God had already graciously saved and delivered them with a mighty hand when he brought them out of Egypt.

In fact, we’ll consider this more fully in a couple of weeks when we look at the preface to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20,

I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

That sets the covenantal context for the Ten Commandments.

God’s saying, look, I delivered you out of Egypt, I redeemed you and now I’m revealing to you how you ought to live as my redeemed people.

And so the law is given as a response to being redeemed by God.

The Ten Commandments are a very different expression of the same moral law that God had given to Adam in the garden.

They serve as broad general headings under which various assortments of other laws and categories of sin can be drawn.

Jesus expands them in the Sermon on the Mount (e.g., anger = murder, lust = adultery).

Third Form: Summarized in the Two Great Love Commands

Jesus says:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22)

These are direct quotations from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.

Paul connects the second table directly to love of neighbor (Romans 13:8-10).

The first table defines love of God.

All three historic expressions are one unified moral law.

The Moral Law Remains Binding on Believers Today

Jesus in Matthew 5:17-19:

Do not think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For surely I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus: “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

Paul and James affirm the same.

Clarifying “Not Under Law but Under Grace” (Romans 6:14)

Christians are freed from:

• the curse and condemnation of the law,
• the dominion of sin.

But we are not freed from the duty to obey the moral law out of love and gratitude.

Ephesians 2:8-10 must always be read together:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Those good works are defined by the moral law of God.

Closing Exhortation

And so let us all then strive in the grace and the Spirit of God.

Let us truly then be diligent to do those good works, to show our great love and to show our gratitude to our Savior for all that He has done for us.

And again, remember what He has done.

We celebrated the Lord’s Supper last week and reflected upon what Christ our Savior has done for us.

He gave His life, His body given, His blood shed for us.

How can we love Him?

How can we show our gratitude to Him?

We can delight in keeping the moral law all to the praise and glory of God alone.

Closing Prayer

O gracious God and Heavenly Father, we rejoice and give thanks for this important reminder regarding the moral law and even understanding the distinctions of the law and that there are some that are no longer binding, but your moral law continues forever.

It was given at the time of creation, expanded, and now we have a full understanding of what you expect of us as your redeemed people.

That you save us by grace as we profess faith in what Christ has done and accomplished for us and we rejoice and give thanks for that great and awesome salvation.

A salvation that we had no part in.

It was truly all your gracious work for us.

And we are held fast and secure in your hand.

Lord, we also, we want to say thank you.

We want to demonstrate our love to you.

We want to glorify you and magnify your name.

And you have graciously given us your moral law to be able to do just that.

So that as we strive to live holy and righteous lives, conform to the truth of your word, that we would be a great witness to those around us, that we would live differently than the way the rest of the world lives.

Because we live as those who have a sure and certain hope in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

And so we pray, Father, that you would equip us and encourage us in these things.

And that you would help us to put away sin, to put sin to death in our lives, and to put on these good works that you’ve called us and set before us to do.

All to the praise of your glorious name.

And we ask, Father, that your spirit be working these truths in each of our hearts, drawing us all closer to yourself.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.