Law

Law in Scripture (Hebrew Torah, "instruction"; Greek nomos) refers to God’s revealed will for human life. The term has several senses: the moral law written on every conscience (Romans 2:14–15), the Mosaic legislation given at Sinai, and at times the Pentateuch or the whole Old Testament. It expresses the character of the holy God to whom his creatures are accountable.

The Mosaic law was given to a people God had already redeemed — the Exodus preceded Sinai, and the commandments open by recalling it: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of… Egypt" (Exodus 20:2). It was therefore the pattern of covenant life for the redeemed, not a ladder to earn salvation. The Ten Commandments are its summary (Exodus 20:1–17; Deuteronomy 5:6–21), and theologians have long distinguished its moral, ceremonial, and civil dimensions. In itself the law is "holy and righteous and good" (Romans 7:12; Psalms 19:7).

Yet the law cannot justify a sinner: "by works of the law no one will be justified" (Galatians 2:16), for "through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20; Romans 7:7). Its very inability to save was purposeful: the law served as a "guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24) — exposing sin and driving us to the Savior.

Christ did not abolish the law but fulfilled it (Matthew 5:17), summing it up as love for God and neighbor (Matthew 22:37–40; Romans 13:10). What the law could not do, God did by sending his Son, "so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk… according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:3–4) — the Spirit writing God’s law on the heart as the prophets promised (Jeremiah 31:33). So the law both diagnoses sin and, in Christ, guides the grateful obedience of the redeemed.