The purpose of Law and Society, this second of three volumes of The Institutes of Biblical Law, is to show how God’s law applies to every aspect of our lives and world. There are in God’s word specified consequences, curses and blessings, for disobedience and obedience. We cannot understand history apart from that fact.

Moreover, as we look at our world, we need to be encouraged. Its disasters manifest the judgments of God. They make clear that now as always “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). If we are unhappy about the disasters and collapses of our time, we may be saying that we regret the failure of sin to prosper, and that we dislike the justice of God in its operations.

There is more to godliness and to righteousness (or justice) than the mere condemnation of sin. The idea of condemnation as righteousness smacks of pharisaism. Churchmen today are often ready to condemn sin, but where is that righteousness that comes from obedience to God’s word? Where is the readiness to teach all nations and to bring all things into captivity to Jesus Christ? (Matt. 28:18-20, 2 Cor. 10:4-6).
The purpose of this second volume is to point men to God and his word for the government of their lives and our world. To serve and magnify God is the greatest of privileges and callings, as is the reconstruction of all things in terms of the word of God. This, after all, is the purpose of life, to be conformed to God.