knowing this, that law has not its application to a righteous person, but to [the] lawless and insubordinate, to [the] impious and sinful, to [the] unholy and profane, to smiters of fathers and smiters of mothers; to murderers,
Some men wanted to be teachers of the law without understanding what they were saying. Paul does not attack the law. He says plainly who it is for — and that single point decides how a Christian relates to it.
What "not laid down for" means
The force of the verse rests on a legal term. One writer points out that the Greek word is the ordinary word for placing people under a statute:
It is not made for a righteous man, that is, for a Christian. "Law is not made" uses a technical word for those who are placed under it. English law applies to Englishmen, not to others; it cannot be applied to them. The only true translation is "law does not apply to" — it is not enacted for the righteous, and so it cannot direct God's people.
Who the righteous person is
The "righteous" here is not a rare moral hero. He is the ordinary believer. The law has no claim on him because he already has a righteousness the law could never supply:
A believer with sincere faith and love out of a pure heart and a good conscience is righteous, and has nothing to do with the law. Possessing the righteousness which is apart from law, having the righteousness of God in Christ, the law has no power over the believer... The law was never designed to be the rule for the Christian's life. He is saved by grace, and that alone can produce godliness. It is grace which teaches him to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age, and also gives the power for it.
What law was designed to do
Law works by threat and penalty. So it targets the bad, not the good, and it can never produce the character it demands:
Law does not have the good in view but the bad. Law is enacted to detect, convict, and punish. Law never made a "just man," still less "the good" man... It is a sharp weapon to wound and kill transgressors; it was never designed to form motives of integrity or a walk of true righteousness. Its excellence lies in this: it does not spare evil; and man is evil, and this by nature. Grace, not law, saves sinners.
Yet the law still has a real place. It is not the full expression of what God is:
The use of the law is to condemn, to kill, to deal with evil. This never could be the full expression of God. It does keep up a witness to God's hatred of evil; those who are presumptuous it leaves without excuse.
The lawful use, and the unlawful one
Verse 8 called the law good when it is used lawfully. Here is that lawful use — pressing guilt home on people who do not feel it:
I take up Paul's words: "We know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully." A lawful use of it would be to bring its lash on the consciences of the ungodly. It would show them their sins, and how far they have fallen short of what it righteously requires... But some preach the law as a way to gain God's favour, and as the way of salvation and life. Such a man opposes the gospel. He slights God's great gift of His Son.
The list itself
The list that follows is not random. Kelly reads the opening terms as deliberate pairs, moving from inward will to open violence:
Such are the pairs in this dark list of human depravity. First, the inner spring of self-will and its more open refusal to submit. Next, irreverence towards God, and evil towards man. Third, impiety and open profanity. Fourth, insolent violence towards parents, without going so far as killing. That last extreme opens the general group that follows, one name after another — murderers... and anything else that is against sound teaching.
The cost of ignoring the verse
Law is made for the lawless. So a believer who takes it as his own standard has changed sides. He steps back among the people it targets:
A Christian who takes up the law as the rule of his own life must first give up his place in Christ. He must abandon that righteousness of God which he is made in Him. The law was not enacted for the Christian. Of course no Christian deliberately intends such folly; but this is really what the error implies. The very principle of taking the law for himself gives up all his blessing in Christ — without knowing or intending it.
Summary
- Address. Law is legislation, and legislation names its subjects. This law names the lawless, not the righteous — just as English law applies to Englishmen and not to others.
- Purpose. Law exists to detect, convict, and punish. It is a sharp weapon against wrongdoers, never a tool for forming integrity.
- Person. The righteous man is the believer who already has the righteousness of God in Christ, so the law has no power over him.
- Proper use. Used lawfully, it lays its lash on the conscience of the ungodly; used as a way to earn God's favour, it opposes the gospel.
- Peril. Taking the law as your rule of life surrenders your place in Christ. Grace teaches godliness, and grace supplies the power for it.