In Romans 7:12 and 14 Paul uses four words to describe the law: spiritual, holy, just, and good. The word spiritual denotes the nature of the law. The law of God is the same in nature as God. God is Spirit (John 4:24); therefore, the law of God is spiritual. Moreover, just as God is holy in His expression, so the law also is holy. The word “just” denotes relationships. In relation to everything and everyone, God is just. The same is true of the law. Finally, as a whole, the law is good. As a portrait of God, the law is spiritual, holy, just, and good.
We have pointed out that the law has a threefold function: to testify of God, to expose us, and to subdue us. When Paul was Saul of Tarsus, he was exposed by the law. Paul says, “For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am fleshly, sold under sin” (Rom. 7:14). Paul came to see that the law is holy, but he was common and defiled; that the law is just, but he was unjust; that the law is good, but he was evil. He was the opposite of all that is portrayed by the law. Because the law is so high, it not only exposes us, but also subdues us. We are exposed and subdued by the law as the word of God in that it is spiritual, holy, just, and good.
Romans 7:10 says, “And the commandment which was unto life, this was found to me to be unto death.” This verse indicates that the law was intended to be unto life. The word “unto” here means resulting in. Although the law was intended to result in life, it is not able to give life of itself (Gal. 3:21). However, there is no contradiction between Romans 7:10, which says that the law was unto life, and Galatians 3:21, which indicates that the law cannot give life. In nature the law itself does not have life. Thus, it cannot give us life. Nevertheless, the intent of the law is to result in life. Paul’s word in Romans 7:10 is based on Leviticus 18:5, a verse which says that those who do God’s commandments will live in them. This indicates that the law was meant to result in life. If we keep it, we shall have life.
However, in Romans 7 Paul makes it very clear that although the law was intended to result in life, he could not fulfill the requirements of the law. Therefore, what was supposed to result in life actually resulted in death. Because we cannot keep the law, in our experience the law results in death. But it was given with the intention that it result in life. However, it cannot give life. To give life is one thing, and to result in life is another.
We need to be impressed that the law is spiritual, holy, just, and good, that the law was given with the intention that it result in life, and that the law cannot give life by itself. What then should be our attitude toward the law? By no means should we despise it. Rather, we should be thankful to the law for exposing us, subduing us, and bringing us to the Lord as the source of life. We should say, “Law, I wish to thank you for exposing me and subduing me and bringing me to the One who can give me life. I wish to thank you for leading me to the Life-giver.”
Instead of thanking the law for its function, many Christians today are still trying to keep it. They are at one extreme, using the law in an improper way. At the other extreme are those who actually despise the law. In presenting a full picture of both the “day” aspect and the “night” aspect of the law, Paul used some negative terms to describe the law. In Galatians he even regards the law as Hagar, a concubine, and says it produces slaves (Gal. 4:21-25). Those who read Paul’s Epistles without a full understanding may come to despise the law and think that it is not good. This should not be our attitude. In Galatians, the very book where Paul regards the law as a concubine and speaks of slaves, Paul also uses positive terms to describe the law. For example, he speaks of the law as a child-conductor: “So the law has become our child-conductor unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24). The law guards us, keeps us safe, and eventually conducts us to Christ. On the one hand, the law is a concubine; on the other hand, it is a guardian and a child-conductor unto Christ. Although the law brings us unto Christ that we may be justified by faith and have life, the law in itself is not able to give us life.