I will begin today’s devotional by saying emphatically, yes!  But its goodness relies on proper context and application.

A law regarding observing the speed limit on a highway would be out of place on a plane flying in the air.  The law of lift and the airspeed required to break free of the natural law of gravity sets the pilot of the aircraft free from the law of a speed limit on land, so if you try to force the plane’s pilot to observe the law of speed on land while in the air, you risk going down and you will regret that decision based on the outcome it will produce.  It will not be to your or anyone else’s benefit that is on the plane.

This is a very plain and practical way of explaining an out-of-context use of a very practical law of man, but it makes my point.  Scripture also reveals this idea concerning the Old Covenant law given by Moses.  It is wrongfully used unless it is being used in a proper context.

1Timothy 1:8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.

Here, we are clearly told that the law is good if it is used lawfully, and then it is clearly explained what using it lawfully is.  It is also clearly explained what the law is not for.

It is not made for a righteous person.  Who is truly righteous?  What makes them truly righteous?

Romans 3:21   But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

If I am witnessing the gospel to someone and they reveal they are in the deception of self-righteousness, it is okay for me to use the law to show them how no man can justify himself before God by his own efforts to be good.  The law becomes useful in proving a person they are dead in their sins and trespasses no matter how good they imagine themselves to be.  I am not permitted to use the law to beat them up, abuse them, or make myself feel superior to them.  I am especially not permitted to use the law to find fault in brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.

Sometimes, we might encounter a person claiming to know Christ but is deep into sin and argues it is all right to be so. They might contend that God changed when Jesus went to the cross and no longer cares about what we do in our bodies.  That is another time when the law can be used lawfully, but only when used properly.

The law is not meant to be used as a training and equipping tool for the church!  It is not meant to be used to encourage someone to become more spiritual or think they could draw closer to God by means of it.  The law is the ministry of death.  The good news of Jesus Christ is the ministry of the Spirit and life.  The New Covenant Jesus shed His blood to establish is not based on the law.  It is based on grace and grants us access to a relationship with God through faith in Christ.  God desires that our faith and trust in Christ’s finished work at the cross grow ever deeper and stronger, and our reliance on our ability to be good enough would be put to death.  We are not instructed to look into the mirror of the law of Moses.  We are encouraged to look in the mirror of the law of liberty that is ours in Christ Jesus.  I’ve asked the Holy Spirit to keep me in check on this matter because I do not wish to create havoc in my life or the lives of others by wrongfully applying the law.  I want to live in the New Covenant, not the Old.