The Curse of the Law

By Brian Jones

“‘Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law…’ (Gal. 3:13).

Not many generations ago the majority of the Christian world believed in the sanctity and perpetuity of God’s moral law. Among those who held this view (e.g. Matthew Henry, John Wesley, Adam Clarke, C.H. Spurgeon, Chas. Finney, Albert Barnes, D.L. Moody, etc.), virtually none remotely supposed that Christians are saved by their obedience to the law, but that obedience is the fruit of spiritual conversion. They clearly recognized that we are saved by grace through faith, and that no of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast (Ephesians. 2:8-9).

But contemporary theology, being affected by the skepticism and relativism that has permeated Western philosophy since the mid-nineteenth century, has called into question the authority of God’s moral law, branding it as legalistic, harshly restrictive, dispensational (ergo, dispensable), and applicable primarily to the Jews until Christ’s death on the cross. This position, known as anti-nomianism, has led many to impose an interpretation on certain Bible texts, especially those in Paul’s letters (2 Peter 3:15-16), that is wholly…”

(this article is an excerpt from the June 1989 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel)

To read the rest of this article, which starts on page 9, click this link: https://biblesabbath.org/media/tss_386June1989.PDF