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We Naturally Gravitate Towards Living By The Law (Problem 1 of 8)


            According to Horton, “We always gravitate back towards ourselves: ‘Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love.’  We wander back towards self-confidence just as easily as into more obvious sins."[1]  Because we gravitate back to self we logically do what seems natural and that is to follow the Law.  Gerhard Forde actually parallels our love of self and the Law to a drug addict and his next fix.  “As sinners we are like addicts—addicted to ourselves and our own projects."[2]  This natural drift back to the Law and self has been consistently repeated over the centuries.  Horton goes on to say, “In every generation, our natural tendency is to put the focus back on ourselves—our inner life, piety, community and actions..."[3]  Living by the law is our default position as human beings.  (See Galatians 1:6)

[1] Michael Horton, Christless Christianity (Baker Books, 2008), 120.
[2]  Gerhard Forde, On Being a Theologian of the Cross (Eerdmans, 1997), 94.
[3] Michael Horton, Christless Christianity (Baker Books, 2008), 122.
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T. R. Halvorson said…
We gravitate toward the law because, we do know that love and the gospel are more demanding. Through the law we can make a good outward show of morals. This keeps us respectable while still letting us take the easier way out. We know it's bad to let our law-keeping take credit for justification. So we'll aways say it doesn't justify us. But we also talk about fruit inspection, and about assurance. There we let law-keeping run rampant, where it has wounded many souls.
February 5, 2011 at 6:29 PM
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