Are we to obey the Law of Moses? From one perspective, the
answer would seem to be “no,” since we are no longer under the Law:
·
For Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4; ESV)
However, even though we are no longer under the Law, this
does not settle the question. Why not? For one thing, the New Testament often
quotes from the Law as if it is still normative for us. Here is just one small
example:
·
Every charge must be established by the evidence
of two or three witnesses. (2 Corinthians 13:1; referencing Deuteronomy 19:15)
Besides, the New Covenant does not legalize crimes like
murder and adultery. In fact, it seems that the teachings of Jesus embody much
of the wisdom of the Mosaic Covenant like:
·
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman
with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew
5:28)
We therefore are left perplexed. It seems that we are no
longer under the Law but it also seems that we still have to obey it. And this
perplexity is not new. Manfred T. Brauch, formerly a professor of biblical
theology, had commented of Romans 10:4:
·
This radical word about Christ as the end of the
law—and similar expressions in other letters of Paul—have been the object of
intense discussion throughout the history of the church. (“Hard Sayings of Paul,” IVP, 1989, 56)
Brauch is correct. Paul had often taught that we are no
longer under the Law. Here are just a few references:
·
For he himself is our peace…abolishing the law
of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one
new man in place of the two, so making peace. (Ephesians 2:14-15)
·
But now we are released from the law, having
died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the
Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:6)
·
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and
the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven
us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us
with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians
2:13-14)
However, Paul wasn’t alone in insisting that the Law had
come to an end. James also suggested that we are now under a new regime, the “law
of liberty”:
·
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one
point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit
adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do
murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those
who are to be judged under the law of liberty. (James 2:10-12; also see Hebrews
8:13)
Although James was not as direct as Paul in declaring the
Law null and void, he suggested that we are no longer under the Mosaic Law.
Jesus was even more cryptic about this:
·
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the
Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For
truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot,
will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18)
When was the Law “fulfilled” and “accomplished?” When Jesus
proclaimed “It is finished” on the Cross” and the veil, which had separated us
from the symbolic presence of God within the Holy of Holies was torn in two
indicating that God’s plan had been accomplished. The way had been opened for
us to boldly come into the presence of God.
Jesus had been secretly preparing for this moment all along:
·
And he said to them, “Then are you also without
understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside
cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is
expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) (Mark 7:18-19)
In contrast, under the Mosaic Law, certain foods and external
contacts would make us unclean. However, Jesus revealed that these laws were
only symbolic and, therefore, temporary. Consequently, Mark commented, “Thus he
declared all foods clean.”
Besides, Jesus initiated the New Covenant:
·
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks
he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of
the [New] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew
26:27-28)
Under the New Covenant, sins would now be utterly eradicated
(Jeremiah 31:31-34). Under the Mosaic Law, they had been “forgiven” but not
eradicated. Consequently, the consciences of the Israelites had never been
cleansed, God had never been propitiated, and the Israelites could not enter
into His presence (Hebrews 9:13-15; 10:19-23). This was why Jesus came to
initiate the New Covenant in place of the Old, which failed to bring about any
real forgiveness and cleansing (Malachi 3:1-3; Hebrews 10:5-10).
Clearly, we are no longer under the Mosaic Covenant.
Instead:
·
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the
law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who
has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. (Romans
7:4)
However, this does not resolve our confusion. It seems that
we still must uphold the Mosaic Law:
·
Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By
no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (Romans 3:31)
But why? We are no longer under the Law. Why then uphold it?
At this point, we must make a critical distinction. We are no longer under
the Law, but many of the stipulations of the Law are eternal, like not murdering,
stealing, or bearing false witness. These laws do not suddenly become
irrelevant under the New Covenant. However, now we fulfill them in a new
way, by the Spirit:
·
For while we were in the flesh, the sinful
passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our
body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law,
having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the
Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. (Romans 7:5-6; NASB)
Besides, the new way of following the Lord, we also have
been given a new and richer understanding of the Law, illuminated by Jesus:
·
And he [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You
shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the
Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Notice that these two great commandments do not invalidate
the teachings of the Old Covenant. Instead, they summarize them. The Law
and the Prophets are all about love, and we still need them to educate us about
how love is to be expressed. The Prophets of Israel have shown us that love can
take many forms, even through denunciations and the severest of warnings. They
also teach how to love God:
·
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed
you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he
might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by
every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:3)
Jesus quoted this against the Devil during His temptation in
the desert (Matthew 4:4). According to Jesus, loving God was a matter of living
by His every word.
Therefore, the Old Testament remains the Word of God (2 Tim.
3:16-17), even those highly symbolic passages that had been fulfilled by Jesus.
However, since they have been fulfilled, we need not follow them as the
Israelites had:
·
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in
questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a
Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to
Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)
Since Jesus is the reality which fulfilled the shadows, we
should now focus ourselves on Him. However, studying the shadows brings
understanding and confidence in the faith.
Brauch suggests that the Mosaic Law taught salvation by good
deeds (by obedience to the Law):
·
[Jesus’] coming signals its [the Mosaic Covenant]
end with regard to the attainment of righteousness (that is, right relationship
with God). (61)
Instead, we find that no one had ever been declared
righteous by their obedience to the Law. Abraham had been considered righteous
because he had believed God (Genesis 15:6). King David, perhaps Israel’s most obedient
king, found blessedness, not through his own attainments but through the mercy
of God (Psalm 32, 51).
In contrast with the hope of attaining our own righteousness
(Romans 10:3), the entire Mosaic sacrificial system declared that Israel
depended upon the mercy of God. King Solomon affirmed this when he consecrated
the Temple:
·
“If they sin against you—for there is no one who
does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that
they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near, yet if
they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and
repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned
and have acted perversely and wickedly’”… (1 Kings 8:46-47)
Israel’s blessedness depended upon the mercy of God through
faith/repentance, not their meritorious good deeds, as the Psalms repeated proclaim:
·
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord,
who could stand?...O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast
love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all
his iniquities. (Psalm 130:3, 7-8; 143:2)
God would graciously pay the price (redeem) for all of
Israel’s sins. Why? This is the only way that any of us could ever make it into
heaven.
Consequently, Israel misunderstood their own Scriptures in
believing that they could attain the goal by their own virtue:
·
Israel who pursued a law that would lead to
righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not
pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over
the stumbling stone, as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of
stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put
to shame.” (Romans 9:31-33)
Israel refused to recognize their sinful and unworthy state
and, therefore, thought that they could attain righteousness through their own
efforts. For them, the mercy of God and His Messiah were irrelevant.
However, the main purpose of the Law was to lead to the Messiah rather than to
prove that we didn’t need one. How?
·
Now before faith came, we were held captive
under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then,
the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified
by faith. (Galatians 3:23-24)
How would the Law lead us to Christ? By showing us our dire
need:
·
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks
to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the
whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human
being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of
sin. (Romans 3:19-20)
If properly understood, the Law should stop any boasting and
show us that we are under condemnation (Deuteronomy 27:26) apart from the mercy
of God. To not see this is to sinfully repress the truth (Romans 1:18-20). It
is also to reject the one hope that God has made available.
Although we are now under Christ (1 Corinthians 9:20), we
have no choice but to respect the Hebrew Scriptures as God’s actual words.
Jesus certainly did and quoted from them as if to say, “If Scripture says it,
that settles it.” How then do we uphold them? Through the guidance of the New
Testament!
