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Music.

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The next 11 episodes of this podcast are going to focus on God's law.

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From Genesis chapter 2, God has finished creating the world.

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God has created man. God will relate with man.

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But man will also have to relate with fellow man. What is God's purpose in giving the law?

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What are the types of God's law?

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What does this mean to us? Today, in All Things Reformed Podcast, my name is Zee Chunga.

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I'm joined again by Pastor Confex Makalera.

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God creates everything in perfect order.

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And for that order to be maintained, he gives the rule that we'll make sure

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that things are going according to God's will and plan.

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So he gives that first commandment, which sadly, as we know,

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our first parents were not able to keep.

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They broke the law in Genesis chapter number three, when they went against God's

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will and ate the forbidden fruit.

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That's where we see the first breaking of the law of God.

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Therefore, how do we define God's law? Really, the law is a revelation of God's will for his people.

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One thing that the law does is to reveal to us the will of God,

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the one who created us. How does he want us to live?

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How does he want us to relate with him? How does he want us to relate with one another?

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That is explained in the law.

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What are the types of the law as the scripture puts them? Yeah,

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that's a very good question, Z, because that helps us a lot when we are talking

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about the law, because we need to be on the same page.

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What do we mean by the law? So when you look at God's law as it is being given,

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especially in the Old Testament, you're going to see what are called three types of God's law.

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The first is what is called the moral law, really at the heart of a revelation

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of God's will for his people. So the example is the Ten Commandments. That's the moral law.

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And then there is what are called judicial or civil laws.

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These are the laws that God gave to the nation of Israel.

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And these are no longer binding on us today in the new covenant because these

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were given to that nation. But I should be quick to say, but the principles behind the civil or judicial

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laws are very helpful to us. So I'll give you an example of Exodus 23, verse 4.

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It's an example of a judicial civil war.

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It says, if you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray,

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you shall bring it back to him. That doesn't apply to me.

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But the principle is very helpful for me as a Christian. What is really the

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principle behind this? God is saying you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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So I might have some disagreements with my neighbor, but I see his donkey going

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astray. I don't say, well, yeah, I don't like my neighbor. Let it die.

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No, I shouldn't do that. God says, don't do that. So the principle still applies

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to us as Christians to be kind and gracious to one another.

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The principle might be that. So the judicial and civil laws no longer apply

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to us as New Testament believers, but we can borrow from their principles because

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they help us to live our Christian life even better. And then there are ceremonial laws.

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Ceremonial laws, those are especially to do with sacrifices.

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When you have sinned, you take a goat, you take a lamb and offer it through a priest.

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Those no longer apply to us because the perfect sacrifice was sacrificed, Jesus Christ.

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So completely no longer applying to us. But the moral law, the first one,

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still applies to believers today, especially the Ten Commandments.

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They are still applying to us today. So the moral law, the moral law pertains to our relationship with God and our

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relationship with fellow man. Right.

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And the moral law is given in the form of the Ten Commandments.

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Yes. From these three types of the law, the moral law, which ones pertain to

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our relationship with God and which ones pertain to our relationship with men?

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So we are talking about the Ten Commandments as moral.

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I read the heart of the moral of God. You're going to notice that the first four laws.

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Apply to our relationship with God. Okay, so thou shall not have any other gods beside me.

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Thou shall not make any image of God. It goes on and on and on.

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And then it talks about not taking the name of our God in vain.

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And then it talks about observing the Sabbath.

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Those first followers apply to our relationship with God because Sabbath had to do with worship.

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Relationship then the name of the lord has to do with the

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lord himself not having idols has to do

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with the lord himself so the first four apply

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to our relationship with god then the last six apply to our relationship with

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one another so it's called the two uh tables or two tablets or the ten commandments

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the first tablet has to do with our relationship with god the first four commandments

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And then the last six commandments, the second tablet, has to do with our relationship with one another.

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And we're going to expand that more as we discuss each commandment in detail.

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What is the purpose of the law? Yes, a good question again, because the Lord

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did not just give us the moral for no reason. There is a reason.

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And again, thank the Lord for the Reformation. Reformation because during the

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Reformation, particularly John Calvin really spent some time and led with clarity

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in understanding the law of God.

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And he came up with what is called the threefold use of the law.

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Now, he did not just think of, wow, this is a good idea.

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He came with this understanding from the scripture itself.

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So this is not just the teaching of John Calvin as a person,

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but the teaching of scripture scripture, gratified, better, and made more clear to us by John Calvin,

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the reformer, or the three uses of the law. The first one is the mirror.

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When you come to the law, as you're reading the law, the Ten Commandments,

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they act like a mirror to show you where you have not lived according to the law.

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So it's like you coming to a mirror, and as you're looking at your face,

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you see a spot that need to be cleaned on the forehead.

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So the mirror is showing you, oh, there's a spot on your forehead which needs

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to be cleaned or removed.

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So in that way, and actually this language, or the mirror is used in the book

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of Galatians. Paul uses that one. So the law acts as a mirror in that it shows us our sin, but then doesn't end there.

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After showing us our sin, it points us to Christ as the one who is able to help

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us keep the law. Actually, it's the one who has kept the law so that when we

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believe in him, we are counted as righteous as himself who has kept the law.

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So in that way, it's a mirror showing us our sin and pointing us to Christ,

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the Savior, the first use. The second use applies to everyone, even unbelievers.

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Again, we go back to what we were saying. The Bible is very clear.

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Each one of us are born with a law written in our minds or hearts.

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So we know that stealing is bad, is evil, is wrong.

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We can go ahead and steal, but still in our hearts, we are convicted. This is wrong.

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Now, how do we get convicted? Because that law is written in our minds.

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And the Lord uses the law written on our minds to restrain evil.

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So that's the second use of the law, as a restrainer of evil in the world.

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Because as people have a sense of right and wrong, and they know that when they

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do wrong, there might be a punishment that will come their way for that.

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They may restrain from evil.

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So I might desire my neighbor's car and say, well, I wish I had that car, right? Right.

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But because it's really on my mind, if I just go take that car that is stealing

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and there's a possibility that I might be imprisoned for stealing,

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that might stop me, that might restrain me from stealing my neighbor's car.

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And that's the second use of the law applying to both believers and unbelievers.

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And then the third use of the law is only for believers. us.

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And the third use of the law is really, the law shows us how we may please or

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how we may demonstrate our love and thankfulness to God who has saved us from our sin.

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Now it's like a family, I like to use it, it's like a family code that,

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Now the Lord has saved you from your sin. He has brought you into his household.

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And God says, well, in this household, this is how we live.

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And this is our code of conduct in this family.

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And for you being grateful for what God has done, you keep the commandments.

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You follow the code as a way of being thankful, of showing your gratitude,

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but also thanking God and seeking to please him for what he has done to you.

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So that's the third use of the law.

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There is a quote which I want you to guess who said it.

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The law orders that we, after attempting to do what is ordered and so filling

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our weakness under the law, may learn to implore the help of grace.

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Wow. Who do you think this is? Yeah. This is really the teaching of the Reformed faith.

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It could be St. Augustine. It could be John Calvin. It could be Martin Luther.

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It could be one of the confessions. I don't know. Wow, it's actually St. Augustine. Oh, yeah.

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I thought so because, you know, even in the Reformed tradition,

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John Calvin really gratifies on the law more, but he based his work on St.

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Augustine. So I'm not surprised. Right. Yeah. Okay.

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This also is where we leave it for today. Please email us your thoughts about

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the program. and any questions you may have.

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You can email us on atreformed at gmail.com atreformed, one word,

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at gmail.com You can also inbox us on All Things Reformed podcast page.

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Music.