How Christians Should View the Law of God

Tim Keller, reflecting on 1 Corinthians 9:21—along with Romans 6:15 and Galatians 3:10-11—writes that though the Christian “is not ‘under’ the law (as a way to earn salvation) he now is freed to see the beauties of God’s law as fulfilled in Christ, and submits to it as way of loving his Savior.”

I would want to tweak the first part of this just a bit. I think “under the law” should be glossed as “under the old age of redemptive history where the Mosaic law covenant was in effect.” However, those who want to “turn back the clock on redemptive history” do subjectively end up depending on the law for salvation, so I think Keller’s reading here is ultimately legitimate.
In the article Keller goes on to outline six ways that Christians relate to the law:

1. We embrace the law of God in order to learn more about who our God really is.
2. We embrace the law of God in order to discover our true selves.
3. We understand the law of God as fulfilled in Christ.
4. We realize that the law’s painful, convicting work is ultimately a gracious thing.
5. We turn to the law of God in order to get a true definition of what it means to love others in our relationships and in society as a whole.
6. We turn to the law of God because sometimes we need to do things just because God says so.

You can read the whole thing here.