WCF 19.2
Westminster Confession of Faith
19.2. Of the Law of God
This law, after his fall, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness, and, as such, was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables: the four first commandments containing our duty towards God; and the other six our duty to man.
Proof texts
- James 1:25 — [25] But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
- James 2:8, 10, 11, 12 — [8] If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. [10] For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. [11] For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. [12] So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
- Rom. 13:8, 9 — [8] Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. [9] For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
- Deut. 5:32 — [32] You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
- Deut. 10:4 — [4] And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me.
- Ex. 34:1 — [1] The LORD said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
- Matt. 22:37, 38, 39, 40 — [37] And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. [38] This is the great and first commandment. [39] And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. [40] On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
For discussion
- The Assembly cited James 1:25 in support of this answer. Read it in context — how does it bear on what is claimed here?
- 7 passages are cited here. Which does the most work, and is anything claimed that the proofs do not obviously carry?
- WSC Q39 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
- WSC Q40 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
Read alongside
WSC Q39 · WSC Q40 · WLC Q91 · WLC Q93 · HC Q92 · 1689 19.1 · IAR 6.1 · SHC 4.1 · SHC 4.2 · SD 19.1
Leader's notes
A Commentary on the Confession of Faith (A.A. Hodge): These Sections teach the follov^^ing propositions : 1st. That God, as the supreme moral Governor of the universe, introduced the human race into existence as an order of moral creatures, under inalienable and perpetual subjection to an all- perfect moral law, which in all the elements thereof binds man's conscience and requires perfect obedience. 2d. That God, as the Guardian of the human race, entered into a special covenant with Adam, as the natural head of the race, constituting him also the federal head of all mankind, and requiring from him, during a period of probation, perfect obedience to the law above THE LAW Ot GOD. 337 named, promising to him and to his descendants in him confirmation in holiness…
An Exposition of the Confession of Faith (Robert Shaw): Upon the fall of man, the law, Considered as a covenant of A'orks, was disannulled and set a^ide ; but, considered as noral, it continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness. * See page 86. N 104} CONFESSION OF FAITH. QciIAP. XIX. That fair copy of the law which had been inscribed on the heart of the first man in his creation, was, by the fall, greatly defaced, althongh not totally obliterated. Some faint impressions of it still remain on the minds of all reasonable creatures. Its general principles, such as, that God is to be worshipped, that parents ought to be honoured, that we should do to others what we would reasonably wish that they should do to…