Law is Not Faith

Law is Not Faith

In Law Is Not Faith, Stuart L. Brogden presents a robust, Scripture-saturated exploration of the place of the Mosaic Law in the life of the New Covenant believer. With theological clarity, Brogden dismantles the assumption that Christians are bound to the Law of Moses, arguing instead that we live under the law of Christ, which is written not on tablets of stone but on hearts made new by the Spirit. Each chapter challenges long-held traditions with bold exposition, urging readers to interpret Old Covenant commands through the lens of Christ’s finished work. For those weary of legalistic religion or confused by the role of the Decalogue today, this book offers both freedom and clarity grounded in the Word of God. Brogden’s deep reverence for Scripture and unwavering commitment to the sufficiency of Christ are evident throughout this book. This is an essential read for pastors, teachers, and any believer seeking to walk more faithfully in the grace of the New Covenant.

This thought-provoking book challenges many assumptions about the role of the Mosaic Law in the Christian life. Brogden writes with clarity, conviction, and a deep commitment to Scripture, guiding readers through the differences between the Old and New Covenants with theological insight.

What you have is not a dry academic treatise. It’s a readable, accessible, and Scripture-rich exploration of how Christ ends the old covenant and brings His people into a better covenant with better promises. Brogden reminds us that our rule of life is not found in stone tablets, but in the living Word and the law of Christ written on our hearts.

Law Is Not Faith is essential reading for pastors looking to preach and teach the gospel of grace clearly, and for any believer who desires to understand their freedom in Christ more deeply. It will strengthen your grasp of New Covenant theology and renew your confidence in the sufficiency of Christ’s finished work.

Robbie Jeffries

Pastor, Rye Patch Baptist Church

Founder and Chairman of the board of directors of New Covenant College. 

A Joyful Walk in the Spirit

Hebrews 12:2 Let us look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

The Old Man Was Crucified

The Old Man/Self: Who Died?

Stuart L. Brogden

I’ve become aware of some who say that Paul was referring to Adam being put to death in Romans 6:6, that the accepted understanding that Paul was referring to something in the Christian being put to death. Here is that verse, in the KJV: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. The argument is that natural man’s federal head is Adam and our “old self” refers to our identity in Adam and Adam’s body was destroyed, not ours – we still have our old bodies! Here’s a quote from an advocate of this view: “It is in this sense only that it can be said that the body of sin is destroyed. It has not been destroyed in us, because as long as we are in this flesh, even as sinners made alive by the Spirit of God, the sinful nature has not, cannot, and will not change, Romans 8:7,8. The body of sin then is the legal condemnation of sin imputed in Adam to our account.”  

There is much in this brother’s statement that is cause for concern, the first is his use of Romans 8:7-8 to refer to the status of Christians. Here’s the larger passage, to provide some context:

Rom 8:5-9 (HCSB) For those who live according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit. For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Paul is contrasting unregenerate (those who live according to the flesh) with the redeemed (those who live according to the Spirit). In verses 7 & 8 Paul describes the condition of the unregenerate: hostile toward God, unable and unwilling to submit to His law, unable to please God. This is not how the redeemed are described in Scripture. We are reconciled to God, equipped by the Holy Spirit to will and to do what pleases Him (Phil 2:13).

The last statement leaves me wondering if the author is aware of the need for our own sin, in addition to the imputed sin of Adam, is worthy of condemnation and needs to be forgiven. He further wrote: “The old man (what we were in Adam), and the body of sin (the legal condemnation by imputation), are destroyed, Christ having borne it away in His obedience unto death.” The “body of sin” which needs to be dealt with is larger than “the legal condemnation by imputation.”

I think part of this brother’s error is his reliance on the KJV, without consultation of other translations. Here’s how the HCSB presents Romans 6:6 - For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin. Note that it is “sin’s dominion over the body” that must be abolished; “the body of sin” (as in the KJV) does not refer to a literal body (like man’s) but to a “body of evidence.” When this body of evidence is rendered impotent by the propitiating death of Christ, it no longer has power over us, having been nailed to His cross (Col. 2:13-14) and cannot condemn us any longer. In Romans 7:2, the wife whose husband has died is freed from the law (i.e., the law of marriage no longer has any power over her, in spite of what she may feel). A similar point seems to be made here.

Back to the “old man/self” that was crucified. The immediate context of Romans 6 sheds some light on this.

Rom 6:5-11 (HCSB) For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin’s claims. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over Him. For in light of the fact that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in light of the fact that He lives, He lives to God. So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Note the tenor of this passage – personal, related to the children of God and their relationship with Jesus. We have been joined with Christ; our old self has died; sin’s rule is finished; we died to sin; we died with Christ; we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. If Paul meant Adam had died; how did that death reconcile us to Christ? Our relationship to sin must change in order for us to be reconciled to God. That is the focus of Romans 6!

A quick review of some of the other passages that describe who died to sin should clarify who Paul spoke of in chapter 6 and verse 6.

Rom 6:2 (HCSB) How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Rom 7:6 (HCSB) But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.

2 Cor 5:14 (HCSB) For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then all died.

Gal 2:19-20 (HCSB) For through the law I have died to the law, so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Eph 4:17-24 (HCSB) Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more. But that is not how you learned about the Messiah, assuming you heard about Him and were taught by Him, because the truth is in Jesus. You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires; you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; you put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.

Col 2:20 (HCSB) If you died with the Messiah to the elemental forces of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”?

Col 3:5-11 (HCSB) Therefore, put to death what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, God’s wrath comes on the disobedient, and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. But now you must also put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

2 Tim 2:11 (HCSB) This saying is trustworthy: For if we have died with Him, we will also live with Him.

1 Pet 2:24 (HCSB) He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; you have been healed by His wounds.

There is no denial that we are twice-condemned: 1.) For the sin-nature we inherited from Adam and 2.) for the sin we commit. In being justified, the wrath due us for both of these was poured out on Christ. 2 Cor 5:17 would not be true if Adam’s death was meant in Romans 6:6 or any other of these passages. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. This is true for all who have been born from above! A new creation! Adam’s death didn’t bring us to that state; our death to sin and being made alive to Christ has wrought this.

In Romans 5, Adam is positioned against Christ. Nowhere is the death of Adam held out as our hope for peace with God. In verse 17, we see the condemnation that came from the one man’s trespass contrasted with the abundant grace we from Christ. Since by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. What is contrasted is consistently the condemnation of Adam with the righteousness of Christ, which is ours when we are given that faith to believe upon Him. Adam’s death plays NO PART in this reconciliation!

In all of these references, what the Spirit is pressing upon us is that a change has been wrought in us. We are no longer slaves to sin because we, being born from above, have died to that master. Just as another’s faith cannot save us, the death of another human (such as Adam) cannot redeem us. The life of the Christian is walked out in tension between who we were in Adam and who we are in Christ. All of the talk in these passages about us dying are exhortations to quit entertaining sin, stop submitting to that master. Read the Scriptures and ask yourself – who is being addressed? Who is the subject, who has “died to sin”? If you are in Christ, a new creation, that ought to be you! 

Galatians 3:22-29 - A Short Teaching

 Gal 3:22-29 (HCSB)

But the Scripture has imprisoned everything under sin’s power, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ like a garment. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise. 

God’s plan was for everything to be imprisoned by sin to ensure only those who believe would inherit the promise. Only the One who could defeat sin would have reason to boast; all children of promise would have their clenched fist opened up to receive His gift. The Jewish nation was imprisoned by their Mosaic Law until the promised Messiah was revealed. For freedom He came to set the prisoners free!

There are two points in verse 24 that need to be clarified. The NKJV has verse 24 saying, “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ.”  The phrase “to bring us to” is not in the Greek; it’s in italics. The Greek says that law was until Christ, the idea of bringing us to Christ is simply not there. The word pedagogue means “disciplinarian,” “custodian,” or “guide.” According to Greek/English Lexicon, “the man, usually a slave whose duty it was to conduct a boy or youth to and from school and to superintend his conduct generally; he was not a ‘teacher’ despite the present meaning of the derivative ‘pedagogue’…When the young man became of age, the guardian was no longer needed.”

The Mosaic Law was a guardian for national Israel, designed to keep that nation until the fulfillment came, until faith came. This code was never meant to provide salvation to the Jews, it was meant to keep the Jews so that from them salvation would come to the world. When Jesus came, in the fullness of time, the Law no longer served this purpose.

All who have been baptized into Christ have put Him on like a garment – clothed in divine righteousness. All fleshly identifications are gone, for Christ is our identity. This is why Paul said he no longer regarded anyone according to the flesh; skin color, ethnicity, culture; all the things men war over are of no value in God’s kingdom. And since we belong to Christ, we are Abraham’s seed and heirs to the promise! All this is from Christ and for His glory.

What the Law could not do and was never intended to do, the promised seed, the offspring of Abraham brought to completion. Christ Jesus, born under the curse of the Law, was obedient to every aspect of the Father’s will so He could bring many sons to glory. Jesus is the promise by which God would fulfill the promises made to Abraham. The covenant with Abraham is foundational to the Christian faith. It was the foundation of the Old Covenant, giving the promise of the One Who would prove Himself to be the cornerstone of the New Covenant.

Why, then, the Law?

I’m sure you have run across those who claim Paul was speaking to us in the present tense in  Galatians 3:24 when he wrote that the law was our nanny until we came to faith in Christ. There is a two-fold problem with this understanding: First, the context from the middle of chapter 2 through chapter 5 aligns with the passage in chapter 3 which provides explicit language to clarify Paul’s rhetorical question in verse 19 of chapter 3: why, then, the law? Second, a misunderstanding of the answer to this question can lead to believing just what Paul argued against in this letter.

First, does verse 24 in chapter 3 tell us the law was our nanny until we came to faith in Christ? Here’s how the KJV reads: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” In case the formatting doesn’t show up, the phrase “to bring us” is in italics, meaning it was added in by the translation team. Read the verse without that phrase: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” The law did not, does not, bring anyone to Christ – the Spirit does that through the proclamation of the gospel! But that phrase was added to make it appear the law carried people to the Lord.

It is clear from the context that Paul is speaking of the Mosaic Law here. As is the case in all the New Covenant passages, the Mosaic Law is spoken of as a unit. We don’t read about this part or that division of the law. Simply the law. We read in Exodus that before Moses went up Mt Sinai to get the second set of tablets, he “came and told the people all the commands of the Lord and all the ordinances. … He then took the covenant scroll and read it aloud to the people.” (Ex 24:3 & 7) And in verse 12 we see YHWH telling Moses “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.” All the law and commandments, not just the Decalogue nor everything other than the Decalogue; all the law and commandments. This is what Paul was referring to.

The word interpreted “schoolmaster” is the Greek word from which we get our word “pedagogue.” While modern definitions, such as used by the KJV, claim that word means tutor, the ancient definition referred to one who was a slave guardian of his master’s child, to make sure the child was where he needed to be, when he was supposed to be there. He was NOT a tutor or schoolmaster, but one charged with the safety of his charge.

Here’s how several other translations render that verse: “The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.” (HCSB) The law of Moses was “our guardian” – whose guardian? Go back to chapter 2 and verse 15: “We who are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners”” The law of Moses was a guardian for the Jews by birth – national, ethnic Israel, and not to “Gentile sinners.” Some of the folk in the assembly of saints at Galatia wanted to retreat from the milk of the gospel and embrace the heavy yoke that the council in Acts 15 would overthrow. These were called “foolish Galatians” (3:1), followed up by “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh?” (vs 3) If the law brings people to Christ, why would Paul call people foolish who wanted to live under it?

This brings us to verse 19 and the question – Why, then the law? And the answer: “It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise was made would come.” Even the KJV agrees with this. The law of Moses was given because of transgressions and only until the promised Seed came. Jesus came and did His work of redemption and is with the Father on high. The law as it was given to national Israel, as a binding legal code with sanctions for violations, was only until Christ came. Paul sums up the condition of his kinsmen of the flesh in verse 23: “Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed.” Some translations do not have “this” before “faith.” No matter – the apostle is restating his message from verse 19, explaining why and when the law was given.

The law was added – had not been given before this, not to Adam, not to Abraham – to remain in place until the promised Seed came. And until faith came, for the law granted faith to nobody, Jews were in chains under the law. But when faith came, when the Messiah was glorified, verse 25 tells the good news to those who were in bondage – “we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” (verse 26)

Now back to verse 22: “But the Scripture has imprisoned everything under sin’s power, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” This verse does not say “the law has imprisoned everything under/in sin’s power” – it says Scripture has. Scripture tells us the entire creation was cursed when Adam fell. Scripture tells us there is no salvation except in Christ. Scripture tells us creation groans in anticipation of its new birth, when Christ returns to gather His saints on the new earth. We know that everything IS under sin’s power because of sin. Sickness and death stalk each of us. But the promise given to Abraham, that he would be the father of many nations, is incrementally consummated every time one of God’s elect is raised up to new life in Christ Jesus.

This message is given different views in chapters 4 & 5 but the message is the same: present day (in Paul’s day) Jerusalem represented the slavery of the Mosaic Law; freedom from sin comes only in Christ, the heavenly Jerusalem. The law was added until the promised Seed came. Hebrews tells us the religious rites given through Moses served as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things (Heb 8:5). When the fullness of time came, the promised Seed came and conquered sin and death and the shadows, those types found in the law, came to their end.

Why, then, the law? To show the nation of stiff-necked, loop-hole finding, law-loving Jews how wicked they were; to keep them as a nation to display God’s holiness to them and the pagan nations; to make sure they were around when the fullness of time came and the promised Seed arrived. The law was Israel’s guardian until faith came, because Israel could not keep itself. Their history shows that, if left themselves, they were every bit as wicked as the Syrians, or you and me before we were redeemed.

Once the promised Seed came, the guardian is no longer needed. Faith and the promise do not depend on fleshly procreation. By faith we become children of Abraham. Now that Christ has come, the Spirit keeps His people. The law fulfilled its role, its time is past. The covenant based on shadows and types, with fire and threats of punishment for violations of its law has ended. Faith has come in the person of the promised Seed. The law and all the other shadows of the Old Covenant no longer bind anyone with chains but, as the Spirit gives the light of understanding, serve to instruct us about our innate weakness and need for humility before God and fellow man. Just as we read with New Covenant clarity from Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John.

No need to “un-hitch” the Old Testament from our faith – all of it is from God for us. We belong to heavenly country which has different laws; given by the same God but intended for a people with hearts of flesh, not stone; people who, having been loved by God can and will love Him and one another. No need to tell one another, “know the Lord” for we all know Him. The Mosaic Law was chains for a people who needed to be told “know the Lord.” We in the New Covenant are not that people. We can see the law did not restrain national Israel from doing evil. So God gave His Spirit to will and equip us to do what is pleasing to Him.

Not under the yoke of law, which could not save nor can it lead us to Christ; it can only condemn. Therein is the danger of wrongly interpreting this passage.

New heart, new mediator, new priesthood, new covenant, new law from the new Lawgiver.  That’s the difference being in the New Covenant makes.