And we know that the law is proper, if perhaps someone uses it lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8).
Law was not laid down for a righteous man, but for the lawless, insubordinate, ungodly, sinners, those who are not pious, profane, murderers of fathers and mothers, man-slayers, fornicators, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, and perjurers (1 Timothy 1:9–11). Some who are Christians were such, but have been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11).
In Christ, the grace believer is imputed His righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30). Therefore, he has been taken out of Adam and immersed into the Christ, that new creation in which Christ is the head and the Church is his body (1 Corinthians 12:12–13; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 1:22–23). Because of God’s mercy, the Christian has been washed and regenerated by the Holy Spirit; thus, born again (Titus 3:4–5). Since Christ’s death and resurrection are imputed to the believer, although he may have been of those who needed the law, he is now free from sin and is raised to walk in newness of life in Christ (Romans 6:4–6). Therefore, he is to put on the new man, who is created in righteousness and piety of the truth (Ephesians 4:24). This is not a new self. It is the position the saint now has in Christ (Colossians 3:10).
The law is for anyone who does not follow healthy teaching (1 Timothy 1:11). Healthy teaching relates to the proper use of information that is learned but not put into practice. Those who seek to abide by law will take Scripture that does not apply to them and impose it as a standard for righteousness. The Sermon on the Mount is an example of such a misuse of Scripture. Jesus is addressing Israel, not the Church. Trying to apply the Sermon on the Mount to a Christian’s life leads to a bad conscience because it is works-based and rooted in self-effort, not grace.
When we follow healthy teaching, we hold to the pattern Paul gave us (2 Timothy 1:13). Those who teach contrary to healthy words and the teaching of godliness are proud, knowing nothing, obsessed with disputing and arguments over words that bring envy, strife, reviling, and malignantly evil suspicions (1 Timothy 6:3–4). They suppose gain is godliness rather than contentment (1 Timothy 6:5–6). We live in a time when men do not endure healthy teaching (2 Timothy 4:3). They reject the truth and walk in their own ways while claiming to follow Christ.
The righteous man lives out from faith (Romans 1:17). Since the law is not out from faith, it is not a lawful use to apply it to the standards for his life (Galatians 3:12). Rather, he is to live according to the gospel that expresses a proper opinion of our happy God, that was entrusted to Paul (1 Timothy 1:11). This is the gospel of grace through which salvation comes (1 Corinthians 15:3–4), and in which a Christian is stabilized (Romans 16:25). A life lived out from faith through grace does not require law to dictate its righteousness. When the works of darkness are rejected, and the new man is put on, the conduct of a Christian is dictated according to the desires from the Holy Spirit so that, having his senses trained to discern what is proper from what is wrong (Hebrews 5:14), he conducts the manner of his life in righteousness according to the Spirit (Galatians 5:18).
The law is proper and logical (Romans 7:14). However, law is not for a righteous man. For through law, no one is justified before God (Romans 3:20). Therefore, since the Christian is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law (Romans 3:28), he is to live out the righteousness he has in Christ in freedom—always seeking what is best for other saints (John 13:34). The Christian who lives by law sets aside the grace of God (Galatians 2:21).
Let us be found in Christ not having our own righteousness that is out from law, but the righteousness through faith in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:9).
