(We have seen that there is but one law, although changed regarding sacrifices and ceremonies that pointed to Christ and are now fulfilled under His priesthood, and that we are not under law but under grace. But what is then the purpose of law for us today?)

James wrote that the perfect law serves as a mirror to show us who we are (James 1:23-25). Obviously, we can see our sin through the law as we see our image in looking into a mirror ( Rom. 7:7). The law also reminds us that we must keep it all and not stumble in one point lest we be guilty of violating all of it (James 2:10). It was a law designed to give freedom in its perfection (James 1:25), but in order to do so, we must be completely obedient to it. As we never are, we must look to Christ the perfect lawgiver. Still, the law reveals to us not only our sin but what the will of God for our lives is.

But did not Paul say that he was under law of Christ in 1 Cor. 9:21? Does this statement not imply a new law that Paul calls “the law of Christ.” Not in the sense of a set of legal statutes. Law can often mean a controlling principle of life; for instance, Paul says that “…through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” ( Rom. 8:2). Paul does not mean that the Spirit gave us a set of commandments which, if we obey perfectly, would set us free from a law code dictated by sin and death. Sin and death did not write a law code; only God did. What he means is that as sinners we were bound to a principle of sin and death, but in Christ we are set free from that principle to be bound to Christ

Paul is writing in 1 Corinthians 9:21 that he became all things to all people, and to the Gentiles he became as one without law. However, he is avoiding the conclusion that he believes in some kind of lawlessness by saying that he sees himself bound to Christ as a controlling principle of life as he was once bound to the law as a controlling principle. Law, as reflected and taught in either Old or New Testament, is not the controlling principle of our lives, but Jesus Christ is. But as people born of the Spirit with a new nature that is now inclined to God, we look to the law to be an instructive principle as it reveals to us the sin that needs attention and for which we repent and seek help from the Spirit, and it reveals to us the will of God which now our hearts yearn to keep.

Thus, we do not see an old law replaced by a new law. We are not justified, condemned, or controlled by any law code. We are free in Christ. But He revealed to us first in the Old and finally in the New the law of God which we, as regenerated people, use and respect to guide us in our Christian journey of grace, all of which is under the direction of the Holy Spirit.