1. The Commandments
   1. The quality of the Law
      • Romans 7:12 -- "Holy, and just [right], and good"
      • Romans 7:14 -- "The law is spiritual"
   2. The Law is an inflexible standard
      • Matthew 22:37 -- "All... heart... soul... mind"
      • Matthew 22:39 -- "Love thy neighbor as thyself"
      • Matthew 5:28 -- "Already in his heart"
      • Romans 3:19 -- "Every mouth... all the world."
             Note that the law has but one voice, one message to man.
      • Romans 3:20 -- "No flesh be justified in His sight"
      • Galatians 3:10 -- "Continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them"
   3. Why the Law condemns all
      • Romans 3:10 -- "None righteous"
      • Romans 3:23 -- "All have sinned"
      • Romans 7:22,23 -- "Delight in the law... another law... bringing me into captivity"
      • Romans 8:3 -- "Weak through the flesh"

      The commandments then remain to do their appointed work of conviction and condemnation. None escape that condemnation. Except for Christ, the law never saw a man it could approve.

   4. Christ bore the curse of the Law on our behalf
      • Romans 3:24,25 -- "Redemption that is in Christ Jesus... His blood"
      • Galatians 3:13 -- "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse"
      • 2Corinthians 5:21 -- "To be sin for us"
      • 1Peter 2:24 -- "Own self bare our sins"
   5. The believer is not under the Law
      • Romans 6:14 -- "Not under the law"
      • Romans 8:4 -- "The righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us"

      The key text is Romans 3:31, "we establish the law." A criminal "establishes the law" when he pleads guilty. So, a sinner does not make new promises of obedience only to break them, but acknowledges his guilt and accepts pardon through Jesus Christ. Then the "righteousness of the law" is worked out in the believer by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:2).

2. The Judgments and ordinances

   The judgments were for Israel in the land. The ordinances, [relating to] Levitical priesthood and sacrifice, filled with wonderful types of the Person and work of Christ, were fulfilled in His death and nailed to His cross (Colossians 2:14). It was these ordinances which constituted a "wall of partition" between the Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:14-16).

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