The law is a vital component in God’s work in saving His people. It is the law that convicts both unbelievers and believers alike of sin. Unbelievers learn what sin is through the law. The law is not sin. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. Paul says that before he knew the law he was once alive apart from it. However, after he learned what it was to covet and that that was sin, then he found that sin very much alive within himself. Sin deceived him and brought him to condemnation because he was now guilty before the law for covetousness. The law is good and holy so it was not what caused Paul to be spiritually dead. No, sin did that. It was the law that revealed it. This brings conviction.

14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Romans 6:14-15 (LSB)
Most of the formative years of my Christian walk were spent in one church from February 1987 through February 2000.  During that time we had three pastors.  I was in some form of teaching for most of that time. One of the things that always came up when we studied the Old Testament was Romans 6:14-15. It was as if someone always had to make sure that we were not being legalistic. They cast the law as far from them and our church as the East is from the West. Is that how we are to treat God’s Law?
In Romans 6:14-15 we learn that Christians are not under law, but, instead, are under grace. What does this really mean? Does it mean that it is wrong to preach God’s Law under all circumstances?
1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is master over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman has been bound by law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.4 So, my brothers, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were constrained, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. Romans 7:1-6 (LSB) 
Paul wrote this section of Romans to Jews for they ‘know the law.’ He states that the law is binding on a person only as long as he or she lives. Paul uses the example of a married woman. She is legally bound to her husband only as long as he lives. However, if the husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. On the other hand, if her husband is alive then she would be judged an adulteress if she lives with another man. She may remarry if her husband dies. What has this to do with the relationship of the law with Christians? Paul used this as an analogy to show that when a person becomes a Christian, he or she actually dies and is resurrected or reborn. They have died to the law through the body of Christ. Now instead of being bound to the law, they are bound to their Saviour. Before this first resurrection each of us were living in the flesh and controlled by our sinful passions, which, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. However, this resurrection unto life has released us from the law because we have died to that which held us captive.  In other words, the law can no longer condemn a believer.
7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! Rather, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law. For I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, worked out in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the Law sin is dead. 9 Now I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died; 10 and this commandment, which was to lead to life, was found to lead to death for me. 11 For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by working out my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. Romans 7:7-13 (LSB)
Does the fact that the law no longer condemns believers mean that we should treat it as worthless or unimportant? I have received some rebuke from some for teaching from the Old Testament to Christians. Are they right to say that I am teaching from the irrelevant ‘Old Covenant?’ Paul very clearly teaches us here that the law is a vital component in God’s work in saving His people. It is the law that convicts both unbelievers and believers alike of sin. Unbelievers learn what sin is through the law. The law is not sin. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. Paul says that before he knew the law he was once alive apart from it. However, after he learned what it was to covet and that that was sin, then he found that sin very much alive within himself. Sin deceived him and brought him to condemnation because he was now guilty before the law for covetousness. The law is good and holy so it was not what caused Paul to be spiritually dead. No, sin did that. It was the law that revealed it. This brings conviction.
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When the catechism says unchangeable it means that ever since God spoke the world into existence the Earth has operated under the same laws of physics, aerodynamics, and all that science stuff. He holds all things in His power and for His glory, even things unbelievers use every day. They reflect His workmanship even if they deny the Lord who made it. The mere fact experiments can be replicated is a sign of His existence. He has made things that way and they will be that way.

Well, as we roll along here at the beginning of the catechism we continue to look at the big picture stuff. We’ve gone from the why do we exist question to how do we know there is a God, to what is God. There is enough in each of those to keep us busy for the rest of our lives (and for eternity blessedly). This week’s Larger Catechism Q/A has us at the latter. What can we know about God and what do His attributes tell us about how we are to adore our Creator. There is much in the Bible which calls on the creation to meditate on the glory and majesty of the Triune Deity. It is one of those subjects that really separates the believer from the unbeliever, the lover from the pretender. If God bores you than there is a problem. That’s not to say there isn’t so much going on here that we can get overwhelmed to the point of exhaustion. However, there is a difference between being exhausted by the splendid being of God, and not caring. It’s part of the reason why we are called to carefully consider the ways, means, and person of Jehovah, and why it will take the rest of time to fully know Him, and yet the blessing of Heaven means that as our understanding grows, so does our joy, our thanksgiving, and our appreciation of these things.
As an aside that’s why we worship every week and why each Lord’s Day is a fresh opportunity to give praise unto the Lord above. No Sabbath is the same, because no moment in life is just a rehash of what came before. Providence provides daily witness to His love for us in myriads of life situations, which draws us to the throne of grace in God’s mercy. We need the opportunity every Sunday to share these things with others whom the Lord loves. That’s why we worship, that’s why we do it together, and must do it together. Because Jehovah has saved us in His Son, called us by His Spirit, and brought us as one before Him in felicity. Now for the questions:
6. What do the Scriptures make known of God?
The Scriptures make known what God is, the persons in the Godhead, His decrees, and the execution of His decrees. 
7. What is God?
God is a Spirit, in and of himself infinite in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection; all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, every where present, almighty, knowing all things, most wise, most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.
The Bible reveals God in many ways, in clearly stating His identity in narratives like Exodus 3 or Job 1, in telling us about the way He works as in Genesis 1:1 or 2 Corinthians 9:8 and in His word which Hebrews 4:12 and John 1:1 explain. However, that is not the only way we know the Lord. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”
We quote that verse because while the Scriptures make these things known with no doubt, even the creation itself testifies to His true nature. What makes the Bible different is not just the clarity by which we learn these things, but the personal way God reveals Himself to us in His word.
I want to expand a little more on that last point.
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I was a serial go-to-the-fronter during the 1980s, first as a kid, and then as a teenager. As a fourteen-year-old, I’d already “prayed the prayer” on multiple occasions. I went to the front at a Billy Graham rally and said the prayer. I went to the front at a Luis Palau meeting and said the prayer. I sat with head bowed at numerous churches, in numerous denominations over the years, and said the prayer. I said it ever more fervently, ever more anxiously, and often with tears. And I kept praying and going to the front because I was never entirely convinced that I’d prayed and gone to the front enough.
What would you say to fourteen-year-old Barry, once you’d told him to get rid of that ridiculous fluff on his upper lip? Many Christians, I think, would say something like this: “As long as you were sincere when you prayed the prayer, you are saved.”
The thing is, looking back, I’m really not sure I was.
It wasn’t until I was twenty, and in my second semester at university, that I felt a deep, inner assurance that I was truly saved.
Where did that suddenly come from? According to Scripture, this profound inner sense of assurance is something that the Holy Spirit gives us.
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