Weekly Emmaus City Culture Q&As | Part 1, Q&A 15

EMMAUS CITY CULTURE Q&AS | PART 1: GOD, CREATION AND FALL, LAW CONTINUED

Each week, we are adapting Redeemer's New City Catechism with modern language, including the questions and answers, along with the commentary and prayer. Our goal is to make these easily accessible for all ages, as well as those with various levels of education in Worcester. 

Since we don't want this to be just information transfer, but life transformation by God's Word and Spirit, we purposely changed the word catechism to culture as we pray for God to help us creatively display and declare the good news of Jesus in our communities. 

Here are the previous weeks' Q&As:

• Q&A 1: What is our only hope in life and in death?
• Q&A 2: Who is God?
• Q&A 3: How many persons are there in God?
• Q&A 4: How and why did God create us?
• Q&A 5: What else did God create?
• Q&A 6: How can we glorify God?
• Q&A 7: What does the law of God require?

• Q&A 8: What is the law of God stated in the Ten Commandments?
• Q&A 9: What does God require in the first, second, and third commandments?
• Q&A 10: What does God require in the fourth and fifth commandments? 
• Q&A 11: What does God require in the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments?
• Q&A 12: What does God require in the ninth and tenth commandments?
• Q&A 13: Can anyone keep the law of God perfectly?
• Q&A 14: Did God create us unable to keep His law?

Cheers to 2014 and many becoming more like Jesus together. For other updates, like and follow Emmaus City on Facebook.

Emmaus City Culture | Part 1, Q&A 15

Question 15

Since no one can keep the law, what is its purpose?

Answer 15

That we know the holy nature of God, and the sinful nature of our hearts; and thus our need of a Savior.

Romans 3:20

No one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

Commentary

After God gave the promise to Abraham, He gave the law to Moses. Why? Because He had to make things worse before He could make them better. The law exposed sin, provoked sin, condemned sin. The purpose of the law was to lift the lid off man's respectability and reveal what he is really like underneath – sinful, rebellious, guilty, under the judgment of God, and helpless to save himself. And the law must still be allowed to do its God-given duty today. One of the great faults of the contemporary church is the tendency to soft-pedal sin and judgment. We must never bypass the law and come straight to the gospel. To do so it to contradict the plan of God in biblical history. … No man or woman has ever appreciated the gospel until the law has first revealed his or her true image to herself. It is only against the inky blackness of the night sky that the stars begin to appear, and it is only against the dark background of sin that the gospel shines. Not until the law has bruised us will we admit our need of the gospel to tend to our wounds. Not until the law has arrested and imprisoned us will we desire for Christ to set us free. Not until the law has condemned and killed us will we call upon Christ to be justified before God so He can give us life. Not until the law has driven us to despair of ourselves and what we do will we ever believe in Jesus and what He has done. Not until the law has humbled us even to hell will we turn to the gospel to raise us to heaven.

Adapted from The Message of Galatians in The Bible Speaks Today Series by John Stott (London and Downers Grove: IVP, 1968), 93.

Prayer

Lord, reveal Yourself more and more to us in the face of Your Son, Jesus Christ, and magnify the power of His grace and with His mercy encourage us; and persuade us, that since He has taken us by grace, He will not send us way for our sins. As these sins grieve His Spirit, so they make us guilty in our own eyes. Add this to the rest of His mercies to let the power of His Spirit be in us as an evidence of the truth of grace that has begun and will accomplish its final victory at that time when He will be all in all, including Him in us, for all eternity. Amen!

Adapted from “The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax” in The Works of the Reverend Richard Sibbes, Volume 1 (Aberdeen: Chalmers, 1809), 80.

Coming next week: Q&A 16: What is sin?

– Sully

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