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Since the Bible refers to the Law many
times, it is important to know that the
“Law” actually has different meanings.
Sometimes it refers to the Mosaic Law and at
times to the entire Old Testament. At other
times, it has a variety of other meanings.
The following will explain the various
meanings of the expression “the law.”
Each
Covenant Has It’s Own Laws.
Law:
“The word
‘law’ is used in many ways in the Bible. It
may be used of commandments or instructions
in general, whether given by God, civil
administrators, teachers or parents (Gen. 26:5;
Exod. 18:20; Prov. 3:1; 6:20).
Frequently it is used of the written Word of
God (Ps. 119:18-20; 119:57-61), sometimes
applying to the Old Testament as a whole and
sometimes to part of the Old Testament, such
as the five books of Moses (Matt. 5:17;
Luke 24:44; John 1:45; 15:25). Occasionally
it means a principle of operation
(Rom. 7:21, 23; 8:2). The most common usage of
the term, however, concerns the law of God
given to Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai
(Exod. 24:12; Deut. 4:44; Ezra 7:6; John 1:17;
Gal. 3:17-19). This meaning of ‘law’
is the chief concern of the present article.
God’s Covenant with Israel:
In
his grace God made a covenant with Abraham
to make his descendants into a great nation
and to give them Canaan as their national
homeland (Gen. 17:1-8). Over the next four
hundred years God directed the affairs of
Abraham’s descendants so that their numbers
increased and they became a distinct people.
They were then ready to be formally
established as a nation and to receive the
land God had promised them. At Mount Sinai God
confirmed the covenant made previously with
Abraham, this time making it with Abraham’s
descendants, the nation Israel (Exod. 24:7-8).
God had chosen Israel to be his people,
saved them from slavery in Egypt, and taken
them into a close relationship with himself,
all in fulfillment of his covenant promise
made to Abraham. Everything arose out of the
sovereign grace of God (Exod. 2:24; 3:16; 6:6-8).
But if the people were to enjoy the
blessings of that covenant, they had to
respond to God’s grace in faithful
obedience. The people understood this and
promised to be obedient to all God’s
commands (Exod. 24:7-8).
The law that
God gave to the people of Israel at Sinai
laid down his requirements for them. Through
obedience to that law the people would enjoy
the life God intended for them in the
covenant relationship (Lev. 18:5; cf. Rom. 7:10; 10:5;
Gal. 3:12). The ten
commandments were the principles by which
the nation was to live, and formed the basis
on which all Israel’s other laws were built
(Exod. 20:1-17).
Characteristics of
Israelite Law:
No part of the lives
of the Israelites was outside the demands of
the covenant. The law applied to the whole
of their lives and made no distinction
between moral, religious and civil laws.
Laws may have been in the form of absolute
demands that allowed no exceptions (e.g.,
‘You shall not steal’; Exod. 20:15), or in the
form of guidelines concerning what to do
when various situations arose (e.g., ‘If a
person borrows anything and it is hurt or
dies . . .’; Exod. 22:14), but the two kinds
were equally binding.
Israel’s
law-code was suited to the customs of the
time and was designed to administer justice
within the established culture. Unlike some
ancient law-codes, it did not favor the
upper classes, but guaranteed a fair hearing
for all. It protected the rights of people
who were disadvantaged or defenseless, such
as orphans, widows, foreigners, slaves and
the poor (Exod. 22:22; 23:6, 9; 23:12).
The penalties it laid down were not
brutal or excessive, as in some nations, but
were always in proportion to the crime
committed (Exod. 21:23-24).
Jesus’
Attitude to the Law:
The covenant
made with Israel at Mount Sinai and the law that
belonged to that covenant were not intended
to be permanent. They were part of the
preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ,
through whom God would make a new and
eternal covenant (Gal. 3:19, 24; Heb. 9:15).
Jesus was born under the law
(Gal. 4:4) and was brought up according to
the law (Luke 2:21-24; 2:42). He obeyed
the law (Matt. 17:27; John 2:13) and he
commanded others to obey the law
(Matt. 8:4; 23:1-3; 23:23). Jesus did not
oppose the law, though he certainly did
oppose the false interpretations of the law
that the Jewish leaders of his time taught.
He upheld and fulfilled the law by
demonstrating its true meaning
(Matt. 5:17-19; 5:21-43).
Frequently Jesus pointed out that the law
was good and holy and that God gave it for
people’s benefit (Matt. 22:36-40; Luke 10:25-28; cf.
Rom. 7:12, 14). By contrast the Jewish leaders used the law to
oppress people, adding their own traditions
and forcing people to obey them. In so doing
they forgot, or even opposed, the purpose
for which God gave the law (Matt. 23:4;
Mark 7:1-9). Jesus knew that the law, as a set of
regulations, was part of a system that was
about to pass away (Matt. 9:16-17; cf.
Heb. 8:13). His death and resurrection would mark
the end of the old covenant and the
beginning of the new (Heb. 9:15).
Under the new covenant people still have to
respond to God’s covenant grace with
obedience, but the expression of that
obedience has changed. Instead of being
bound by a set of rules, they have inner
spiritual power to do God’s will. Instead of
having to offer sacrifices repeatedly, they
have their sins taken away once and for all.
Instead of having to approach God through
priests, they have direct fellowship with
God (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-13; 10:1-4; 10:16-18).
Salvation Apart from
The Law:
People have never received
forgiveness of sins through keeping the law.
Under the old covenant, as under the new,
they were saved only through faith in the
sovereign God who, in his grace, forgave
them and accepted them. Abraham, David and
Paul lived respectively before, during and
after the period when the old covenant and
its law-code operated in Israel, but all
three alike were saved by faith (Gen. 15:6;
Rom. 3:28; 4:1-16; 4:22; Gal. 3:17-18;
Eph. 2:8; 1 Tim. 1:14-16). Salvation depended
upon God’s promise, not upon human effort.
It was a gracious gift received by faith,
not a reward for keeping the law (Gal. 3:18, 21, 22).
Contrary to popular
Jewish opinion, the law was not given as a
means of salvation (Rom. 9:31-32). It was
given to show the standard of behavior God
required from his covenant people. As a set
of official regulations, it was given solely
to the nation Israel and was in force for
the period from Moses to Christ. But as an
expression of the character and will of God,
it operated on principles that are relevant
to people of all nations and all eras. It
expressed in a legal code for one nation the
principles that are applicable to people in
general (Rom. 2:12-16; 13:8-10). Through
the law given to Israel, God showed the
righteous standards that his holiness
demanded.
At the same time the law
showed the extent of people’s sinfulness,
for their behavior repeatedly fell short of
the law’s standards. The law therefore
showed up human sin; but when sinners
acknowledged their sin and turned in faith
to God, God in his grace forgave them
(Rom. 3:19, 20, 31; 5:20; 7:7; Gal. 3:11, 19).
Those who broke the
law were under the curse and condemnation of
the law (Deut. 27:26; Gal. 3:10). Jesus
Christ, however, lived a perfect life
according to the law, and then died to bear
the law’s curse. By his death he broke its
power to condemn those who take refuge in
him. Believers in Jesus are freed from the
law’s curse. They have their sins forgiven
and are put right with God (Rom. 7:6; 8:1-3; 10:4;
Gal. 3:13; Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14).
Jesus Christ is the true
fulfillment of the law. The law prepared the
way for him and pointed to him. Before his
coming, the people of Israel, being under
the law, were like children under the
control of a guardian. With his coming, the
law had fulfilled its purpose; the guardian
was no longer necessary. Believers in Jesus
are not children under a guardian, but
full-grown mature children of God
(Gal. 3:23-26; 4:4-5; cf. Rom. 10:4).
Christian Life Apart from the Law:
It
was some time before Jewish Christians in
the early church understood clearly that the
law was no longer binding upon them. They
still went to the temple at the set hours of
prayer and possibly kept the Jewish
festivals (Acts 2:1, 46; 3:1).
Stephen seems to have been the first
Christian to see clearly that Christianity
was not part of the Jewish system and was
not bound by the Jewish law (Acts 6:13-14).
Then Peter had a vision through which he
learnt that Jewish food laws no longer
applied. He was harshly criticized by
certain Jews in the Jerusalem church when
they found he had been eating freely with
the Gentiles (Acts 10:15; 11:2-3).
These Jews later tried to force Gentile
converts to keep the law of Moses (Acts 15:1), and argued so cleverly that Peter
tended to follow them, until Paul corrected
him (Gal. 2:11-16). When some of the leading
Christians met at Jerusalem to discuss the
matter, they agreed that Gentiles were not
to be put under the law of Moses (Acts 15:19). It was now becoming clear, and
Paul’s teaching soon made it very clear,
that there was no difference between Jews
and Gentiles concerning requirements for
salvation and Christian living. People were
saved by faith alone, not by the law, and
they lived their Christian lives by faith
alone, not by the law (Rom. 3:21-31; Gal. 3:28).
When he met opposition to his
teaching, Paul pointed out the impossibility
of being saved through keeping the law (Rom. 9:30-32;
Gal. 2:16; 5:4; Phil. 3:9). An
equal impossibility was to grow in maturity
and holiness through keeping the law, or
even selected parts of it (Gal. 3:2-5; 5:1-3; James 2:10-11).
The actions of
Paul in occasionally observing Jewish laws
were not for the purpose of pursuing
personal holiness. They were for the purpose
of gaining him acceptance among Jewish
opponents whom he wanted to win for Christ.
Such actions were purely voluntary on Paul’s
part (1 Cor. 9:19-23; cf. Acts 15:19-21; 16:3; 21:20-26). If people tried to
force Paul to keep the law, he would not
yield to them under any circumstances (Gal. 2:3-5).
Paul explained the
uselessness of trying to grow in holiness
through placing oneself under the law. He
pointed out that the more the law forbids a
thing, the more the sinful human heart wants
to do it (Rom. 7:7-11). This does not mean
that there is anything wrong with the law.
On the contrary, the law is holy, just and
good. The fault lies rather with sinful
human nature (Rom. 7:12-14).
Free but
Not Lawless:
Although the law aims at
righteous behavior, people cannot produce
righteous behavior by keeping the law. They
can produce it only by claiming true
Christian liberty and living by the inner
spiritual power of the Holy Spirit
(Rom. 6:14; 8:3-4; Gal. 5:13-23). But the same
Holy Spirit who empowers inwardly has given
clear guidelines for behavior in the written
Word. It is not surprising, then, to find
that those guidelines contain quotations
from the law of Moses to indicate the sort
of character and conduct that a holy God
requires (Matt. 22:36-40; Rom. 7:12; 13:8-10;
Eph. 6:2; Heb. 8:10; James 2:8-12).
Christians are not under law but under
grace. Yet they are not lawless (Rom. 6:15).
They have been freed from the bondage of the
law and are now bound to Christ (Rom. 7:1-4).
The law of Christ is a law of liberty, one
that Christians obey not because they are
forced to but because they want to. The
controlling force in their lives is not a
written code but a living person (1 Cor. 9:21;
Gal. 6:2; James 1:25; 2:12).
As Jesus demonstrated his love for the
Father by keeping the Father’s commandments,
so those who truly love Jesus will keep his
commandments (John 14:15, 21; 15:10;
1 Jn. 2:3-4; 2:7; 5:3). And in so doing they will
practice love, which itself is the
fulfillment of the law (John 13:34; Rom. 13:8-10;
Gal. 5:14; 1 Jn. 5:2-3).”
[1]
There was one, and
only one Law that God gave to Israel. It is
called, the Law of Moses, the Law of God, or
the Law of the Lord, and they are all the
same law, or legal code. The Old Covenant is obsolete.
God’s laws change depending on what
covenant you live under.
Hebrews 8:13
says, “In speaking of a new covenant,
he makes the first one obsolete. And what is
becoming obsolete and growing old is ready
to vanish away.”
If you want to know
what law a Christian is required to keep you have
to read the terms for the New Covenant and not
one of the covenants that came before it.
References:
1. See: The Bridgeway Bible Dictionary: Law.
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