The Law of Perfect Freedom: Relating to God and Others through the Ten Commandments

Top Highlights

“Therefore, ‘law’ does not equal ‘Old Testament,’ while ‘grace’ or ‘gospel’ equals the New Testament. ‘Law’ refers to any command, from Genesis to Revelation. ‘Gospel’ refers to any place in either testament where the promise of salvation by grace alone through faith alone is found. The law tells us what we ought to do, and this leads us to despair of meeting God’s standard. Then the gospel tells us what God has done for us already in Christ, meeting the standard as our substitute and taking our punishment on Himself so that we could be regarded as righteous.” (Page 21)

“Even Christians cannot conform perfectly to this law, and they ought never to approach the law as though they could even come close to its moral excellence. Rather, believers ought to approach the law as the perfect standard God requires as the expression of His moral character and live, not in order to meet God’s requirements (for that is achieved only in Christ), but in order simply to obey God’s requirements. In the former approach, one sets out to earn God’s favor by attaining His own righteousness; in the latter, one sets out to obey a gracious heavenly Father simply because He has already accepted him or her as righteous and holy.” (Pages 32–33)

“Luther and Calvin—who emphasized responsibilities over rights, the latter being the modern obsession. The Bible, particularly the Ten Commandments, calls us to discover our obligations to God and to our neighbor and society. It calls the people of God to their posts in society, not as a special interest group demanding its rights alongside everyone else, but as called-out men and women who have a heavy sense of moral duty—not to save their own souls, for that is by grace apart from works, but to bring glory and honor to that gracious King.” (Page 15)