The Law of God

The law of God is the unchanging expression of his holy will for human beings. In classic Reformed and Puritan teaching, it stands at the center of the gospel because it shows us both what God requires and why we cannot be saved by our own obedience. The law reveals sin, condemns every violation, and drives sinners to Christ, who alone has fulfilled its demands. Understanding the law rightly protects believers from both legalism and lawlessness, and it deepens gratitude for grace.

The law reveals sin and leaves all people without excuse

From the beginning, these authors insist that sin existed before the written law was given at Sinai. Charles Spurgeon points out that even where the written law has never been heard, people still sin against the light of nature, conscience, and tradition (Romans 5:20; Romans 1:20). He adds that conscience, nature, tradition, and reason are each sufficient to condemn people for violating what they know (Romans 5:20; Romans 1:20). Matthew Henry develops this by explaining that the Gentiles who did not have the law of Moses will not be judged by that law, but by the law of nature they did have (Romans 2:12). Their own thoughts accuse or excuse them by applying the law of nature to their actions, so that their consciences either acquit or condemn them (Romans 2:15).

Henry also stresses that the Jews were more inexcusable than the Gentiles because they had the revealed law of God, not just the light of nature (Romans 2:1). Those who sinned while possessing the law of Moses will be judged by that law, and their punishment will be greater because they had its clear light (Romans 2:12). Spurgeon concludes that the Old Testament passages Paul quotes apply to Jews, and together with his earlier proof about Gentiles, show that both Jews and Gentiles are guilty (Romans 3:19). The law therefore leaves every mouth stopped and the whole world accountable to God.

The law demands perfect, inward, and perpetual obedience

Jonathan Edwards argues that to be justified under a law requires positive fulfillment of that law, not merely the absence of guilt. Righteousness is conformity to the law, so only perfect obedience answers the law and qualifies as righteousness in God's sight. Spurgeon agrees, saying that salvation by works is impossible because the law requires perfect obedience in every point and to its uttermost degree (Romans 3:27). The law requires inward heart obedience, not merely outward conformity, and any inward failure ruins a person (Romans 3:27).

Henry adds that the law is spiritual because it reaches the inward man, discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart, and forbids spiritual wickedness such as heart-murder and heart-adultery (Romans 7:14). God's law is above all other laws because it takes notice of iniquity regarded in the heart even without any overt act (Romans 7:14). Spurgeon further warns that no one can be saved by the law because perfect obedience must continue to the end of life, and no one can maintain that (Romans 3:27). Even if a person could live forever, a works-based righteousness would never be finished, because the creature's duty to God's law would continue endlessly and leave no final security (Romans 3:27).

Edwards emphasizes that the law of works requires perfect obedience without any remission or abatement, so no one can be justified by it without exact performance of every tittle. Since all sin is forbidden by the law we are now under, that law requires perfect obedience, and therefore only a perfect righteousness can be accepted for justification. Spurgeon states the conclusion plainly: God cannot accept sincere but imperfect obedience, because his law cannot be altered or relaxed, and it demands perfect obedience (Romans 3:27; Luke 16:17).

The law cannot justify, but only condemn

A central theme in these authors is that the law reveals sin but has no power to remove it. Spurgeon uses the image of a mirror: the Law is like a mirror that shows spots but cannot wash them away (Romans 3:20). Henry says the same: the law reveals sin and condemns, but it cannot justify sinners; its purpose is to expose our wound, not heal it (Romans 3:20). The law offers no forgiveness but demands full payment, imprisoning in condemnation all who cannot pay (Romans 3:27).

Edwards explains why this is so. The law that people have broken cannot justify them as observers of it, because every law necessarily condemns its violators (Romans 3:19–20). The law brings knowledge of sin by strictly forbidding sin, so it convicts and condemns us rather than justifying us (Romans 3:20; Romans 7:7). Henry adds that we can never be justified and saved by the law we have broken; a convicted traitor cannot plead the very statute that condemns him but must plead an act of indemnity (Romans 3:19–20).

Edwards also argues that it is inconsistent with the honor of God's majesty to accept anything from a condemned malefactor until his condemnation is removed (Romans 3:19–20). Such acceptance is contradictory to remaining condemnation, because the law condemns the violator to be totally rejected and cast off by God (Deuteronomy 27:26). The law works wrath by forbidding sin and aggravating the guilt of transgression, which is especially true of the moral law (Romans 4:13–16; Romans 4:15; Romans 7:13).

The moral law, not merely the ceremonial law, is in view

A significant portion of Edwards' argument is devoted to showing that when Paul excludes works of the law from justification, he means the whole law of God as a rule for mankind, not merely the ceremonial law (Romans 3:28). The whole dispute over Paul's teaching on justification depends on whether 'works of the law' means only the ceremonial law or also the moral law. Edwards insists that saying Paul only excludes the Mosaic dispensation amounts to saying he only excludes ceremonial and positive observances, not the moral law.

He offers several biblical proofs. In Romans 2, Paul's references to 'the law' mean primarily the moral law, not the ceremonial law (Romans 2:12–15; Romans 2:18; Romans 2:20; Romans 2:22–23; Romans 2:27). The law written on Gentile hearts is the moral law, since those without divine revelation do not have the ceremonial law (Romans 2:14–15). The sins Paul names, such as adultery, idolatry, and sacrilege, are violations of the moral law, proving that the moral law is in view (Romans 2:22–23). Paul's statement that no flesh can be justified by works of the law refers to the moral law, because his preceding argument about Jew and Gentile violation of the moral law prepares for that conclusion (Romans 3:20).

Edwards also points to Paul's own testimony: the law giving the knowledge of sin is the moral law, because it says, 'Thou shalt not covet' (Romans 7:7). The curse pronounced on those under the law applies to the whole law of God, especially the moral law, not merely the ceremonial law (Galatians 3:10). When Moses says the one who does the law's commands will live by them, he is speaking of the moral law, not only the ceremonial law (Galatians 3:12). Henry agrees that justification cannot come by any form of law-keeping, whether the law of innocence, nature, ceremony, or morality, but only by faith (Romans 3:28).

The law was given to increase the knowledge of sin, not to save

Henry explains that the presence of sin before the law proves there was some law, because sin is not imputed where no law exists (Romans 5:13). The law was given so that sin would be seen as even more sinful, not to make sin itself increase (Romans 5:20). The law reveals sin that was already present, like a light revealing dust in a room or the searching of a wound needed for healing (Romans 5:20).

Spurgeon agrees that the law does not make anyone a sinner; all people are already sinners in Adam and were so practically before the law was introduced (Romans 5:20). The law reveals sin but cannot justify or cleanse anyone (Romans 3:20). Henry adds that the law is necessary to discover sin; we come to know sin by comparing our hearts and lives with the law, just as a straight edge reveals what is crooked (Romans 7:7). Paul came to know the sinfulness of inward lust and corrupt desires through the tenth commandment, understood in its spiritual sense (Romans 7:7).

Henry also notes that the law, by commanding and threatening fallen man without offering grace to cure him, only stirred up his corruption and made his sin worse (Romans 7:5). Because the fall has lamed human nature, the law directs us but provides no healing or help, so it makes us stumble more (Romans 7:5). Yet Henry is careful to defend the law itself: the law is not sin; Paul defends the law's excellence and usefulness as a guide, even though sin uses it as an occasion (Romans 7:7). The law is holy, just, and good because it comes from God, commands holiness, agrees with equity and right reason, and was given for mankind's good (Romans 7:12).

Christ fulfilled the law and bore its curse for believers

Edwards argues that the original law under which man was placed condemns the sinner until he actually has an interest in Christ (Genesis 2:17). Until we are in Christ, we stand condemned by God's holy law and are utterly rejected and abhorred by him. Christ came to save sinners while also vindicating the honor of God's authority and holy law (Romans 3:25–26). If sinners received eternal life after their sin was paid for but without active obedience, the honor of God's law would not be sufficiently vindicated (Romans 3:31). If God gave the promised reward without the required obedience being performed, he would recede from his law and its honor would never be shown through obedience (Romans 3:31).

Christ's subjection to the law and his obedience brought greater honor to the law and to God's authority than if mere man had obeyed it (Romans 5:19; Philippians 2:8). Spurgeon states the result for believers: Christ fulfilled the law's demands for believers, but for those still under the law its demands remain as rigorous as ever, so hoping to be saved by sincere efforts is a delusion (Romans 3:27; Matthew 5:17). The obedience of a creature can never be completed, so it is far better to be accepted in Christ and clothed in his finished righteousness (Romans 3:27).

Henry adds that justification is ascribed to the blood of Christ because without blood there is no remission, and blood was essential to atonement in the Old Testament sacrifices (Romans 5:9). Edwards explains that all sins, including breaches of positive precepts, are breaches of the law or covenant of works because Christ died to satisfy the law and bear its curse for all sins (Galatians 3:10–13; Romans 7:3–4).

The gospel establishes the law and directs believers in obedience

Spurgeon insists that the gospel of grace does not nullify God's law but rather establishes it on its proper foundation (Romans 3:31). Justification by faith does not make void the Law but establishes it, and those justified by faith love God's Law most (Romans 3:31). Henry agrees that the doctrine of justification by faith does not nullify the law but establishes its right use (Romans 3:31). The law remains useful to convince us of past sin and to direct us for the future as a rule under the Mediator, subordinate to the law of grace (Romans 3:31).

Henry also explains that this deliverance from the law should be understood as deliverance from the law as a covenant of works, not from the law as a rule of life (Romans 7:6). Yielding our members as servants to righteousness unto holiness means placing them under the conduct of God's righteous law and the principle of inherent righteousness planted by the Spirit (Romans 6:19). Edwards adds that man's obligations are twofold: conformity to the law as a covenant demanding sinless perfection, discharged by Christ as surety; and conformity to the law as a rule, which includes the duty of believing in Christ.

Henry notes that true grace produces an assent in believers that the law is holy, just, and good (Romans 7:12). Wherever there is true grace there is an experiential knowledge of the spirituality of God's law (Romans 7:14). The law is of excellent use: it is a lamp and light that converts the soul, opens the eyes, and prepares a people for the Lord (Romans 7:9).

The sinfulness of man described; he reduceth it to two heads, ungodliness and unrighteousness; ungodliness against the laws of the first table, unrighteousness against those of the second Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments” For if you would be saved by works, remember O Man, that the Law requires of you perfection. One single flaw, one offense and the Law condemns you without mercy. It requires that you should keep it in every point and in every sense and to its uttermost degree—for its demands are rigorous in the extreme Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Grace Exalted—Boasting Excluded” But more than this, God's Law cannot alter, it can never be content to take less from you than it demands. What said Christ? "It is easier for Heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the Law to fail Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Grace Exalted—Boasting Excluded” The Law of the Lord is like a mirror. Now, a mirror is a capital thing for finding out where the spots are on your face— but you cannot wash in a mirror—you cannot get rid of the spots by looking in the glass Charles Spurgeon, sermon “God Justified, Though Man Believes Not” Doubtless, the apostle’s argument is, that the very same law they have broken, can never justify them as observers of it, because every law necessarily condemns its violators Jonathan Edwards, “Justification by Faith Alone” That law which convicts and condemns us can never justify us. The law is the straight rule, that rectum which is index sui et obliqui—that which points out the right and the wrong; it is the proper use and intendment of the law to open our wound, and therefore not likely to be the remedy Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments” The argument is very plain: we can never be justified and saved by the law that we have broken. A convicted traitor can never come off by pleading the statute of 25 Edward III., for that law discovers his crime and condemns him: indeed, if he had never broken it, he might have been justified by it; but now it is past that he has broken it, and there is no way of coming off but by pleading the act of indemnity, upon which he has surrendered and submitted himself, and humbly and penitently claiming the benefit of it and casting himself upon it Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments” Christ came into the world to render the honour of God’s authority and law consistent with the salvation and eternal life of sinners; he came to save them, and yet withal to assert and vindicate the honour of the lawgiver, and his holy law Jonathan Edwards, “Justification by Faith Alone” But now Christ, by subjecting himself to the law, and obeying it, has done great honour to the law, and to the authority of God who gave it. That so glorious a person should become subject to the law, and fulfil it, has done much more to honour it, than if mere man had obeyed it Jonathan Edwards, “Justification by Faith Alone” It is holy, just, and good, v. 12. The law in general is so, and every particular commandment is so. Laws are as the law-makers are. God, the great lawgiver, is holy, just, and good, therefore his law must needs be so Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”