Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Law and Sanctification

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in the preface of his commen­tary on Romans 7:1-8:4, argues that the central theme of this section of the Book of Romans is Paul’s explanation of the purpose of the Mosaic law. Lloyd-Jones points out that Paul recognized that his statements about grace would leave him open to the charge of being antinomian; his statements about the Mosaic law would render him liable to the charge of doing away with the notion of law alto­gether. The following excerpt is Lloyd-Jones’ exposition of the Apostle’s clarification of his position on grace and law.

In winding up his first argument in chapter 6 he [Paul] had said, ‘For sin shall not have dominion over you’, and his rea­son for saying that is, ‘for (because) you are not under the law, but under grace’. He seems to glory in this fact. He seems to be striking another blow at the Law. He has already knocked it down, as it were, in chapter 5, verse 20; he is now trampling on it. At once his opponents take up the cudgels and say, ‘Surely these are very wrong and very dangerous statements to make; surely if you are going to abrogate the Law and do away with it altogether, you are doing away with every guaran­tee of righteous and holy conduct and behavior. Sancti­fication is impossible without the Law. If you treat the Law in that way and dismiss it, and rejoice in doing so, are you not encouraging lawlessness, and are you not almost inciting people to live a sinful life?’ Law, they believed, was the great guarantee of holy living and sanctification. The Apostle clearly has to safeguard him­self, and the truth of the gospel, against that particular misunderstanding and charge.

Now that is exactly the purpose of this 7th chapter. It is to explain what he means when he says that the Law ‘came in by the side’, and that we should rejoice in the fact that we are not ‘under the law but under grace’. This 7th chapter is an expanded expo­sition or explication of both those statements, or, to put it more positively, its purpose is to show us the function and the purpose of the Law as given by God through Moses to the Children of Israel.

But the Apostle has another particular object in view also, namely, to show that sanctification by the Law is as impossi­ble as was justification by the law …. As it is im­possible to be justified by the Law, it is equally impossible to be sanctified by the Law. As we shall see later, he even puts it as strongly as this, that not only can a man not be sanctified by the Law, but it is actually true to say that the Law is a hindrance to sanctification, and that it aggravates the problems of sanctifi­cation. That is the thesis of this 7th chapter; not only can a man not sanctify himself by observance of the Law; the Law is even a hindrance and an obstacle to sanctification.^[1]

 

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