The doctrine of the moral law (WCF XIX)
The doctrine of the moral law (or the moral will of God), as taught in the Westminster Confession, chapter XIX, is something that I have always affirmed. What is this doctrine? It is that there is an unchanging, universal standard of righteousness binding on all humankind from creation onward.
“What chapter XIX intends to affirm is that the moral law (not the Decalogue per se) continues to have binding authority over the new covenant believer. If you strip away the details and the imperfect formulations of chapter XIX, what the Confession is really getting at – the primary burden and thrust of that chapter taken as a whole – is to affirm the doctrine that there is an unchanging moral standard governing human behavior that is binding on all men, both believers and unbelievers. And that is a doctrinal affirmation that I am in wholehearted agreement with. As I’ve said, my preferred label is ‘the moral will of God,’ just to make it clear that we’re not equating it with the Decalogue. When it comes to the substantive issue itself, I agree with the doctrine of the moral law as an eternal standard of righteousness, rooted in God’s unchanging nature, and binding on all men. The Standards refer to that doctrine using the linguistic label ‘the moral law.’ I refer to that very same doctrine using the linguistic label, ‘the moral will of God.’” (Irons, Response to Charge Two, p. 20)
“I admit that I have scruples with some specific statements in chapter XIX of the Confession. In particular, I communicated to the presbytery a year and half before charges were ever brought against me, that I had scruples with XIX:2, where the Confession seems to equate the moral law and the Decalogue. I admit that I have also called into question the utility of the three-fold division of the Law as a means of determining what is still binding and what is not. While I admit making such criticisms of our Standards, I have never called into question the substantive theological affirmation of the Standards concerning the doctrine of the moral law. I have always been jealous to guard that doctrine against antinomianism.” (Floor presentation of my appeal, 2003 OPC GA)
Some theological and biblical considerations in support of the doctrine:
1. God’s unchanging holy and righteous character. If God’s character is unchanging, then the moral requirements that flow from his character must also be unchanging. If there is one Creator God, to whom all creatures are accountable, then the moral standards must be universal and not culturally relative.
2. The doctrine that humans are made in the image of God. Since humans are made in God’s image, they are obligated to reflect God’s holy and righteous character in their attitudes and behavior. Humans are like mirrors; the fall has cracked the mirror, so that it reflects God’s image in a distorted fashion. But the obligation to imitate and reflect God’s righteousness remains. Only in Christ is the image restored — imperfectly but progressively in this life; perfectly and permanently in the state of glory.
3. Romans 1:18-23, 32; 2:14-15. These passages in Paul are pretty convincing. Paul teaches that both Jews (who have access to God’s moral will imbedded in special revelation, i.e., the Mosaic law) and Gentiles (who, though they do not have the Mosaic law, know God’s moral will via natural revelation) are morally accountable and without excuse before God.