Theological term
Civil Use of the Law
36 sermons · All terms
2LCF Chapter 19 - Of the Law of God
The moral law of God — summarized in the Ten Commandments, written on the heart of man at creation, and codified at Sinai — remains perpetually binding on all persons, regenerate and unregenerate alike. This study of 2LCF Chapter 19, paragraphs 1, 2, 5, and 6 traces the law from its origin in the covenant of works with Adam through its threefold use (civil, pedagogical, and normative) for believers under the covenant of grace. Christ did not abolish the law but fulfilled it, thereby confirming rather than dissolving its authority. The session closes with a call to avoid antinomianism, to obey the law from proper gospel motives, and to delight in it as the revealed will of God.
The Goodness of God's Law
Paul's claim in 1 Timothy 1:8 that 'the law is good if one uses it lawfully' confronts two recurring errors in the church: legalism, which perverts the law into a ladder of merit before God, and antinomianism, which banishes the law from the Christian life altogether. This sermon works through verses 8–11 to establish three things: the apostolic affirmation that the law is intrinsically good, the necessary qualification that it must be used lawfully, and Paul's explanation of its civil use — the restraint of outward wickedness — illustrated by a rehearsal of the Decalogue's second table. The threefold use of the law (civil, pedagogical, normative) is set within the framework of covenant theology and justification by faith alone, which together guard the church from both errors, and the sermon closes by pressing the pedagogical use upon the unconverted: look to Sinai, see your guilt, and flee to Christ alone.
The Sin of Abortion
Abortion is not primarily a political question but a theological one, grounded in the biblical doctrine that every human being bears the image of God from the moment of conception. This exposition of Exodus 21:22–25 argues that the case law of Israel assigns the full protections of lex talionis to the pre-born child, treating even accidental abortion as a capital offense — which renders intentional abortion an act of murder. The sermon also addresses the abortifacient mechanisms of certain contraceptives as an extension of the same ethical concern, and closes by directing those who bear guilt over past abortions to the forgiveness available in Christ.
A Biblical View of Abortion
Exodus 21:22–25 presents a case of accidental premature birth caused by fighting men, and the lex talionis applied to any resulting harm — including harm to the child — establishes that the pre-born bear full legal and moral standing under the law of God. This sermon argues that abortion is first and foremost a theological issue, an assault on the imago Dei, and that the church is without excuse in its silence or ambiguity on this question. Drawing on texts from Genesis through the New Testament, the preacher demonstrates that the pre-born are persons from conception, that the civil use of God's law restrains even unregenerate society, and that the church must respond with weeping, prayer, witness, and gospel proclamation.
The Defense of Justification by Faith Alone
Galatians 2:17–21 presents one of Paul's sharpest defenses of justification by faith alone, and this exposition works through three movements in the text: the proper and improper uses of the law (vv. 17–19), the personal experience of crucifixion with Christ as the ground of the justified life (v. 20), and the exclusivity of grace that renders any supplementation of the gospel a nullification of Christ's death (v. 21). The sermon exposes the logic of the objection that justification by faith makes Christ a 'minister of sin,' refutes it from the text, and shows that legalism — not antinomianism — is the true transgression of God's law. The central application is that any 'Christ-plus' system, whether formal theology or informal churchly shibboleths, empties Calvary of its meaning and must be resisted.
Justification, Faith, and the Law
Galatians 2:15–16 drives Paul's sharpest declaration that justification is a forensic act — a legal declaration by God — received through faith alone in Christ alone, entirely apart from works of the law. This sermon expounds that doctrine in four observations: justification is a legal declaration, not by works of law, by faith as instrument not merit, and impossible by law for any flesh. The sermon then addresses the three classic uses of the law — civil, pedagogical, and normative — demonstrating that rejecting the law as a ground of justification does not entail antinomianism. The believer who has been justified by faith is directed back to God's law as a pattern and rule of life, the ground of genuine assurance being the doing, dying, and rising of Christ alone rather than personal obedience or inner experience.