WLC 94

Q94. Is there any use of the moral law to man since the fall?

Although no man, since the fall, can attain to righteousness and life by the moral law; yet there is great use thereof, as well common to all men, as peculiar either to the unregenerate, or the regenerate.

Proof texts

• Rom. 8:3 — [3] For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
• Gal. 2:16 — [16] yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
• 1 Tim. 1:8 — [8] Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully,

For discussion

1. The Assembly cited Rom. 8:3 in support of this answer. Read it in context — how does it bear on what is claimed here?
2. 3 passages are cited here. Which does the most work, and is anything claimed that the proofs do not obviously carry?
3. WSC Q39 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
4. WCF 19.1 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?

Read alongside

WSC Q39 · WCF 19.1 · HC Q92 · 1689 19.1