Reading Timothy and Titus With John StottSýnishorn

Law for Lawbreakers

Paul now turns from the wrong use of the law to its right use. He sets his knowledge in contrast to the ignorance of the false teachers. “We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that law is made . . . for lawbreakers.” Putting together these two truths “we know,” we reach the striking statement that the lawful use of the law is for the lawless. All law is designed for those whose natural tendency is not to keep it but to break it. It is only because as fallen human beings we have a natural tendency to lawlessness that we need the law at all.

The statement that the law is “not for the righteous” cannot refer to those who are righteous in the sense of “justified,” since Paul insists elsewhere that the justified do still need the law for their sanctification. Nor can it be taken to mean that some people exist who are so righteous that they do not need the law to guide them, but only that some people think they are. “The righteous” in these contexts means “the self-righteous.”

Paul proceeds to illustrate the principle of “law for the lawless” with eleven examples of law-breaking. The first six words, which he sets in pairs, appear to be more general than specific. These clearly involve our duty to God and may refer to the first four of the Ten Commandments. The next five words are extremely specific in relation to our duty to our neighbor and evidently allude to commandments five to nine.

It is noteworthy that sins that contravene the law (as breaches of the Ten Commandments) are also contrary to the sound doctrine of the gospel. So the moral standards of the gospel do not differ from the moral standards of the law. We must not imagine that, because we have embraced the gospel, we may now repudiate the law.

To be sure, the law is impotent to save us, and we have been released from the law’s condemnation, so that we are no longer “under” it in that sense. But God sent his Son to die for us and now puts his Spirit within us in order that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us.

From Reading Timothy and Titus with John Stott by John Stott with Dale and Sandy Larsen.