Chapter 2, The Law and the Gospel, The Reformed Reader

CHAPTER TWO

In the Beginning

"...who show the work of the law written in
their hearts, their conscience also bearing
witness." (Rom. 2:15)

The Law Written on the Heart

God wrote the law on Adam’s heart so that he would know right from wrong, good from evil. The law written on the heart is often referred to by the great church fathers and respected theologians as the "law of creation” or "the law of nature.” It was a divine obligation impressed upon Adam’s conscience from the beginning by the almighty Creator.

As Creator, God has the right to command His creatures and establish the terms of the relationship between them and Him. Until creatures come to understand God’s original design for the Creator-creature relationship and the awful breach in that relationship because of their sin, they will never be interested in a Redeemer-redeemed relationship.

The law of nature (or of creation), continues to be impressed upon the human mind by God apart from any tradition or instruction. There is no mortal who does not feel its force to some degree: "What may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them” (Rom. 1:19). Even the Gentiles, without having received the law of Moses, are said to do by nature the things contained in the law (Rom. 2:14). As I. B. Phillips has paraphrased it, "When the gentiles, who have no knowledge of the Law, act in accordance with it by the light of nature, they show that they have a law in themselves.”

The law inscribed on the heart cannot be read the same way one reads a book. With physical eyes we can read the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, but we cannot read the same law written on the heart. The teaching of Hebrews 8:10 and 10:16 is that God plants in the renewed heart an affinity with and love for His law, resulting in cheerful, loving obedience. As Paul expressed it, "I joyfully concur with the law of God” (Rom. 7:22 NASB). John adds, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).

If fallen man has the law written on his heart so that he does by nature the things of the law (Rom. 2:14), imagine how much clearer it was written on Adam’s heart in his original state. And, if the renewed man has the law written upon his heart (Heb. 8:10; 10:16), surely it cannot be different in principle from what was first impressed on the heart of Adam at creation or what the Lord wrote on the tables of stone at Sinai. And so, even though the law inscribed on the heart is not as openly expressed as the fuller revelation of the law to Moses, it was in perfect agreement with it from the start.

A Test of Obedience and Complete Loyalty

The prohibition against eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the ultimate test of obedience and loyaltyto the Creator in the garden. But when we think of this prohibition, we must not overlook its connection to other laws—stated or implied—that were impressed on Adam’s heart in Eden. These include creation ordinances having to do with the most basic interests of life in this world.

• The Procreation Command: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth”’ (Gen. 1:27-28).
• The Sabbath Command: "And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Gen. 2:2-3).
• The Work Command: "Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (Gen. 2:15).
• The Marriage Command: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).

God did not leave these duties to human subjectivity. Even in the state of sinless integrity when there was no depravity to pervert the desires or blind the vision, God gave Adam objective directions. How much more are objective directions necessary in the state of sin—in which the understanding is blinded, passions are depraved, the conscience is defiled, and the will is perverted!

It is important to grasp the concept that God is our Creator, who made us in his moral image. This connection between the law written on each person’s heart and the probationary test confronting Adam is very important. It is important to emphasize the fact that it was written on Adam’s heart from the beginning. Thus we have one standard of righteousness from Creation to the final consummation.

Summary of Chapter Two

The inscription of the law on Adam’s heart is summarized well by Robert Shaw (An Exposition of the Confession of Faith, 192-94).

God having formed man an intelligent creature, and a subject of moral government, he gave him a law for the rule of his conduct. This law was founded in the infinitely righteous nature of God, and the moral relations necessarily subsisting between him and man. It was originally written on the heart of man, as he was endowed with such a perfect knowledge of his Maker’s will as was sufficient to inform him concerning the whole extent of his duty, in the circumstances in which he was placed, and was also furnished with power and ability to yield all that obedience which was required of him. This is included in the moral image of God, after which man was created.—Gen. i.27. The law, as thus inscribed on the heart of the first man, is often referred to as the law of creation, because it was the will of the sovereign Creator, revealed to the reasonable creature, by impressing it upon his mind and heart at his creation. It is also called the moral law, because it was a revelation of the will of God, as his moral governor, and was the standard and rule of man’s moral actions. Adam was originally placed under this law in its natural form, as merely directing and obliging him to perfect obedi
...

...Upon the fall of man, the law, considered as a covenant of works, was disannulled and set aside; but, considered as moral, it continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness. 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, although 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 us—such general principles as these are still, in some degree, engraven on the minds of all men.—Rom. ii. 14, 15. But the original edition of the law being greatly obliterated, God was graciously pleased to give a new and complete copy of it. He delivered it to the Israelites from Mount Siiiai, with awful solemnity In this promulgation of the law, he summed it up in ten commandments; and therefore, it is commonly called the Law of the Ten Commandments. These commandments were written by the finger of God himself on two tables of stone.—Exod. xxxii. 15,16, xxxiv. 1. The first four commandments contain our duty to God, and the other six our duty to man; and they are summed up by our Saviour in the two great commandments, of loving God with all our hearts, and our neighbour as ourselves.—Matt. xxii. 37-40.

The law written on Adam’s heart, substantially the same law written by the finger of God on the two tables of stone at Mount Sinai, is the same standard of righteousness as God writes on
every renewed man at conversion.

"‘For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days,’ says the LORD, ‘I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people”’ (Heb. 8:10). "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them” (Heb. 10:16).

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