Answer. First, that all our lifetime, we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature, and thus become the more earnest in seeking the remission of sin, and righteousness in Christ; likewise, that we constantly endeavour and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God, until we arrive at the perfection proposed to us, in a life to come.
Exposition
When we enquire concerning the use of the divine law, it is necessary that we should keep in view the differences of each part of the law.
The use of the ceremonial laws of Moses was,
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That it might serve as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ and his kingdom. “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:24.)
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That it might distinguish the Jewish church from all other nations.
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That it might be an exercise of piety, and a declaration of obedience to the moral law.
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A confirmation of faith. There were among the ceremonial laws certain sacraments, or signs of the covenant, and seals of grace; as circumcision, and the Passover, which declared what benefits God would give to the faithful by the Messiah which was to come
The use of the judicial, or civil laws, was,
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That they might contribute to the preservation of the Mosaic polity.
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That they might be types of the government of the church in the kingdom of Christ, inasmuch as the princes and kings of the Jewish nation were no less, than the priests a type of Christ, the High Priest and King of the Church. These uses, together with the laws themselves, were done away with when the ceremonies of the former dispensation were fulfilled and abrogated by the coming of Christ, and the Mosaic polity overthrown y the Romans.
The uses of the moral law are different according to man’s four-fold state.
I. In nature uncorrupted, or not as yet depraved by sin, as our nature was before the fall, there are two principal uses of the divine law:
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The entire and perfect conformity of man with God. The mind of man before the fall possessed a perfect knowledge of the law, which produced a conformity and correspondence of all the inclinations and actions with the will of God.
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A good conscience, or a consciousness of the divine favor, and certain hope of eternal life. The law, according to the order of divine justice, promises life to those who render a perfect obedience to its requirements. “Which if a man do, he shall live in them.” (Lev. 18:5.)
II. In nature corrupted, and not as yet renewed by the Holy Spirit, there are also two uses of the law:
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The preservation of discipline and external propriety in the church and world. The law being engraven upon the minds and hearts of all men by God himself, and speaking by the voice of ministers and magistrates, curbs and restrains even the unregenerate, so that they shun those flagrant and open forms of wickedness, which are in opposition to the judgment of sound reason as it utters itself even in persons unrenewed by the Spirit of God, and which must be removed before regeneration. “When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature, the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one another.” (Rom. 2:14, 15.)
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The knowledge of sin. The law accuses, convinces, and condemns all those who are not regenerated, because they are unrighteous before God, and subject to eternal condemnation. “We know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” “I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. (Rom. 3:19, 20; 7:7.) This use of the law, which consists in a knowledge of sin, and of the judgment of God against sin, produces in itself in the unregenerate hatred of God, and an increase of sin, and if they are reprobate it drives them into despair, as it is said, “The law worketh wrath.” “Sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.” (Rom. 4:15; 7:8.) This knowledge of sin, however, is by an accident a preparation to conversion as it respects the elect, seeing that God by this means leads and constrains them to acknowledge their unrighteousness, to despair of any help in themselves, and to seek by faith righteousness and life in Christ the mediator. “If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” (Gal. 3:21, 22.)