Week Eleven we will be reading through Chapters VI and VII of Book II
HERE ARE THE AUDIO LINKS:
PREVIEW OF CHAPTERS VI & VII
Chapter 6: Fallen Man Ought to Seek Redemption in Christ
Through the Mediator, God is seen as a gracious Father. Only the Mediator helps fallen man since the whole human race has fallen from life into death in the person of Adam. As a result, our knowledge of God the Creator, derived from the universe, is useless unless faith is added. As a result of this we have profited little from our contemplation of the created order. This faith is added to our estranged situation when we humbly embrace the preaching of the cross. At no time was this different. Even the Old Covenant declared that there is no faith in the gracious God apart from the Mediator. God never showed favor toward the ancient people without a Mediator. This is really to say, then, that the blessed state of the church always had its foundation in the person of Christ; the Old Testament always looked forward to its one Head, realized in Jesus.
Jesus Christ is essential to the Covenant and to true faith. The faith and hope of the Old Covenant fed upon the promise. This promise is the banner of trust and hope in Christ Himself which was prefigured and what gave stability to the covenant. This faith in God is faith in Christ, for from the beginning of the world, continuing through the promise made to David, Christ had been set aside before all the elect that they should look to him and place their trust in him. Even if many men once boasted that they worshiped the Supreme Majesty, the Maker of heaven and earth, yet because they had no Mediator it was not possible for them truly to taste God's mercy, and thus be persuaded that He was their Father. The Mediator must come in order for the fallen sinner to experience the fullness of God’s attributes.
Chapter 7: The Law was Given to Foster Hope of Salvation in Christ
The Moral and Ceremonial Law are significant in leading fallen men to Christ. They contain promises for men even in the shadows of Moses' giving of the law and David's founding of the king dom, because Christ was set before ancient Israel as a mirror. We cannot, though, fulfill the moral Law by our own efforts. The law renders us inexcusable and drives us into despair since complete observance of the law is perfect righteousness be fore God. We cannot fulfill the Law by our obedience. Even though fallen men cannot keep the Law, the promises in the law are not without meaning. The law promises a blessedness that we cannot reach, yet it leads us to realize that God freely bestows His gifts upon us, overlooking our imper fect obedience.
The first use of the law: the law shows us the righteousness of God. The second use of the law restrains malefactors and those who are not yet believers. Even believers have need of the law and it profits them in two ways: 1) it helps them to learn more each day the nature of the Lord's will and 2) exhorts them to continuing obedience, thus aiding them in avoiding reversion to sin.
The so-called “abrogation” of the Law has reference to the liberation of the conscience, and the discontinuance of the ancient ceremonies. But “To what extent has the law been abrogated for believers?” The law is now an exhortation, not a curse, and both Paul and Jesus both emphasize that the law has not been set aside, but remains inviolable. The law is abrogated to the extent that it no longer condemns us, yet by his coming Christ has abrogated in use, not in effect, the ceremonial law.
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