Faith does not nullify the Law but rather establishes it (Romans 3:31).
Faith does not replace the Law because the Law was never a way of salvation. The term establish is what faith does to the Law. Establish (hístēmi) means to make firm or stable, to instituting permanently by enactment or agreement. Faith does not invalidate the Law but returns it to its proper place. Returning the Law to its proper place, was Jesus’ purpose of the Sermon on the Mount. John MacArthur states: “Jesus lifted up the Law and the Old Testament so high that He wound up exposing all the Pharisees and the scribes as hypocrites. […] [Jesus] arrives and opens up His sermon by saying, ‘Here’s my standard of righteousness, and here’s how you live in the world, and the base of it all is to be obedient to God's inviolable and unchanging Law.’ Anyone who doesn't live by God’s standards, who substitutes a man-made system, is no more than a spiritual phony.”(1)
Obedience to God’s Law still results in blessing while disobedience still results in punishment.
ENDNOTES:
- Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish (hístēmi) the Law. - Romans 3:31
Faith does not replace the Law because the Law was never a way of salvation. The term establish is what faith does to the Law. Establish (hístēmi) means to make firm or stable, to instituting permanently by enactment or agreement. Faith does not invalidate the Law but returns it to its proper place. Returning the Law to its proper place, was Jesus’ purpose of the Sermon on the Mount. John MacArthur states: “Jesus lifted up the Law and the Old Testament so high that He wound up exposing all the Pharisees and the scribes as hypocrites. […] [Jesus] arrives and opens up His sermon by saying, ‘Here’s my standard of righteousness, and here’s how you live in the world, and the base of it all is to be obedient to God's inviolable and unchanging Law.’ Anyone who doesn't live by God’s standards, who substitutes a man-made system, is no more than a spiritual phony.”(1)
Obedience to God’s Law still results in blessing while disobedience still results in punishment.
- Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day… - Deuteronomy 11:26-28
- Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. […] Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments. - Psalm 119:1
- But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. - Luke 11:28
- But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. - James 1:25
ENDNOTES:
- John MacArthur Jr., Christ and the Law. Grace to You Ministries, Retrieved: February 06, 2017 <http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/2209/christ-and-the-law-part-1>
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