Psalm 45 Publications

I. The Goodness of the Law and the Weakness of the Flesh

As we looked into this central text of the Sermon on the Mount last week, we learned, even as the apostle Paul would express it, that the Law is holy, and just, and good (Rom. 7:12); and that Christ in no wise came to abolish it, but rather to establish it forever, in all its fullness. If we would enter the Kingdom of heaven, we must have a measure of the righteousness which the Law prescribes that exceeds the external righteousness of the pharisees. We must not only obey the Law, but we must obey it in all its fullness, in a way that is consonant with the very heart of the Law, viz., to love God supremely and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Continue Reading

Of all the prophets in Israel’s history, the greatest was certainly Moses, who spoke with God face-to-face (see Deut. 34:10-12); and of the teaching ministry of Moses, the great climax was the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai (Ex. 20). This event was the most solemn and fearful in all the history of God’s people, and was attended with thick smoke, and thunders and lightnings, so that all the people were terrified, and even Moses said, “I quake with exceeding fear” (Heb. 12:18-21); and furthermore, it testified against the people terrible threats of judgment if they failed to observe its statutes (Deut. 28:15-68). And yet, God did not leave his people without comfort, in that, before uttering the decalogue, he reminded them of his Covenant of Grace that he had made with their fathers, and of his great work of redemption that they had just seen with their own eyes, when he took them by the hand to lead them through the Red Sea (Ex. 20:1-2). Also, he was pleased to typify for their assurance the substitutionary work of the coming Lamb of God more clearly than ever before, in the intricate rituals of the ceremonial laws. Continue Reading

It might come as a surprise to some that Calvin was not always in agreement with some of the positions that would later be subscribed to by the Westminster Confession of Faith. A notable example of this, which I recently came across, is his view on the Sabbath. Following are a few excerpts from his Institutes, as well as a few theses on the same topic that I had composed before, which I think are in essential agreement with Calvin. Continue Reading

It has been the custom of some to frame the opinion that the Old Testament law can have no prescriptive significance for the New Testament believer, on the basis of such passages as Galatians 3:23-25, which states, “… before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” On the other hand, many Christians, recognizing that some Old Testament prescriptions must have continuing force, and acknowledging as well that certain prescriptions, particularly as they relate to the worship cult, retain no overt prescriptive force for the Christian, have posited a threefold division in the Mosaic law, treating all commands under the headings of Civil, Ceremonial, and Moral; of which the latter alone remains prescriptive. Continue Reading

The sphere of discussion surrounding the questions of the existence and function of law and gospel in the Mosaic administration has long been a hotbed of theological debate. And among hotbeds of theological debate, this one is rendered more interesting by virtue of its being a very salient point of distinction between Lutheran and Reformed/Calvinistic theologies. On the one hand, we have Lutheran theologians positing a diametrically opposed relationship between (1) the law, which served as the non-negotiable condition for remaining in the old covenant, and which was utterly abolished at the coming of (2) the gospel, which replaced law as the unmeritorious mode of entrance into the new covenant, in continuity with the Abrahamic promise. Law and gospel, therefore, are essentially unlike methods of entering into a covenantal relationship with God, the one being a method of entrance by works into a covenant which is entirely conditional; and the other being a method of entrance by faith into an unconditional covenant. Continue Reading