The role of the Law

FOUR STAGES IN A BELIEVER'S LIFE
An excerpt from The Soul Set Free: Recounting Redemption in Romans

pdf

Dr. Paul Manuel—2011

There are four stages in a believer’s life during which the law plays different roles, from some to none.

Stage #1: The process of conversion is a person’s gradual awakening to his need for God’s pardon. Whether it takes years or minutes, the person becomes increasingly aware of his sinful condition. In that process, the law plays a convicting role, showing God’s standard and exposing man’s deficiency.¹

Rom 3:20b …through the Law [comes] the knowledge of sin.

Stage #2: The moment of justification is God’s declaring a person to be righteous.² It is immediate, occurring the instant a person turns to God in repentance and faith. At that moment, the law plays no role; justification is entirely and exclusively by God’s grace.³

Rom 3:24a being justified as a gift by His grace…

Stage #3: The process of sanctification is a person’s gradual aligning of his life to God’s perfect standard. It is a long-term undertaking by which the person becomes increasingly godly. In that process, the law plays a conforming role (instructing the believer about the righteous lifestyle he should adopt).⁴

Rom 6:19 …present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

Stage #4: The moment of glorification is God’s transforming a person to perfection. It is immediate, occurring the instant a person receives his resurrection body. At that moment, the law again plays no role; glorification is entirely and exclusively by God’s power.⁵

Rom 8:30c …these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Paul is not against practicing the law.⁶ he is against perverting the law, by using it in a way God did not intend (i.e., as a means of justification).⁷ Paul’s concern, in this letter and elsewhere (e.g., Gal), is with the way two groups approach stage #2:⁸

• There are Jews who misuse the law (making works a basis for justification),⁹ and…
• There are gentiles who misunderstand the law (thinking works leads to justification).¹⁰

The law, however, is a means of sanctification (stage #3), which is the gradual making of what God declares about us to become a reality in us.

• Justification (stage #2) is the decision God makes to declare us righteous. This is possible because of the forgiveness God provides through His son’s death on our behalf. That declaration changes our position before God.

• We are no longer His enemies; we are now His friends. God bases His decision entirely and exclusively on His grace. Here, we contribute nothing. Justification involves all of God and none of us.
• No amount of good on our part—not even obedience to His law—can enhance the efficacy of Jesus’ atonement. We either accept God’s offer by faith, as it stands, or not at all.

If we do accept God’s declaration of our justification, He intends His pronouncement to begin a process that does involve us. We must follow justification, that change in our position, with sanctification, a change in our condition, by renouncing sinful behavior.

• Sanctification (stage #3) is the course we undertake to make us righteous. This is possible because of the guidance God provides through His law’s instruction. That transformation changes our condition before God.

• We are no longer living for ourselves; we are now living for Him. God provides His support through the power of His Spirit. Yet here, we do contribute something. Sanctification involves some of God and some of us.
• Only conformity with His will—including obedience to His law—can effect the change in our character that results in our holiness. We must forsake sinfulness and implement righteousness.

If we accept God’s declaration of our justification but do nothing to capitalize on that pronouncement, if instead we retain our sinful behavior, we show contempt for God’s pardon, rendering it null and void.¹¹

Those who would make God’s forgiveness depend on man’s obedience are applying the law where it does not belong, like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. The round hole of God’s pardon accepts only the round peg of God’s grace. To make the square peg of God’s law fit into the round hole of God’s pardon would distort the law into something God did not intend for it. In this way, a proper understanding of justification accords with (in Paul’s words, “establishes” or “upholds”) a proper view of law, whose benefit for the believer is only in (the square hole of) his sanctification.

For the Bibliography and Endnotes, see the pdf here.