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Bob10
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“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law†(Rom. 3:31). As a believer, Paul protests that he consents unto the law that it is good, that he delights in the law of God after the inward man, that with the mind he serves the law of God (Rom. 7: 16, 22, 25), and that the aim of Christ’s accomplishment was that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit (Rom. 8:4).
When we look for an example of the law Paul had in mind, we find it in Romans 7:7. And no doubt can remain that in Romans 13:9 he provides us with concrete examples of the law which love fulfills, showing thereby that there is no incompatibility between love as the conrtolling motive of the believer’s life and conformity to the commandments which the law of God enunciates.
The conclusion is inescapable that the precepts of the Decalogue have relevance to the believer as the criteria of the manner of life which love to God and to our neighbor dictates.
Although the apostle John does not speak in terms of fulfilling the law, the emphasis placed upon the necessity of keeping and doing the commandments (1 Jn. 2:3, 4; 3:22, 24 v. 2, 3) is to the same effect. And when he writes that “whoso keeps his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected†(1 Jn 2:5), he is pointing to what he elsewhere defines as that of which the love of God consists, namely, that “we keep his commandments†(1 Jn 5:3). The sum is that the keeping of God’s commandments is the practical expression of that love apart from which we know not God and our Christian profession is a lie (1 Jn 2:4; 4:8).
John’s teaching is the reproduction of our Lord’s and it is John who records for us Jesus’ corresponding injunction (Jn 14:15, 21; 15:10).
It is also significant that our Lord Himself should enforce the necessity of keeping commandments by appealing to His own example of keeping the Father’s commandments and thus abiding in and constraining the Father’s love (Jn 15:10; 10:17-18).
Source: The New Bible Dictionary, Eerdmans Publishing Co., article: Law -- Law and Gospel.
When we look for an example of the law Paul had in mind, we find it in Romans 7:7. And no doubt can remain that in Romans 13:9 he provides us with concrete examples of the law which love fulfills, showing thereby that there is no incompatibility between love as the conrtolling motive of the believer’s life and conformity to the commandments which the law of God enunciates.
The conclusion is inescapable that the precepts of the Decalogue have relevance to the believer as the criteria of the manner of life which love to God and to our neighbor dictates.
Although the apostle John does not speak in terms of fulfilling the law, the emphasis placed upon the necessity of keeping and doing the commandments (1 Jn. 2:3, 4; 3:22, 24 v. 2, 3) is to the same effect. And when he writes that “whoso keeps his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected†(1 Jn 2:5), he is pointing to what he elsewhere defines as that of which the love of God consists, namely, that “we keep his commandments†(1 Jn 5:3). The sum is that the keeping of God’s commandments is the practical expression of that love apart from which we know not God and our Christian profession is a lie (1 Jn 2:4; 4:8).
John’s teaching is the reproduction of our Lord’s and it is John who records for us Jesus’ corresponding injunction (Jn 14:15, 21; 15:10).
It is also significant that our Lord Himself should enforce the necessity of keeping commandments by appealing to His own example of keeping the Father’s commandments and thus abiding in and constraining the Father’s love (Jn 15:10; 10:17-18).
Source: The New Bible Dictionary, Eerdmans Publishing Co., article: Law -- Law and Gospel.