One of my very great desires for our church is that we be a people who understand
the law of God and fulfill it in the Spirit of love. The law which God gave to Moses at
Mount Sinai a few months after bringing the people out of Egypt has been the victim
of some very bad press in the past several hundred years.
My guess is that there is a good deal of confusion in our minds when we read on the one
hand in Romans 6:14, "You are no longer under law but under grace," but on the other hand
in Romans 3:31, "Do we then overthrow the law by faith? By no means! On the contrary,
we uphold the law." The Misunderstanding of the Mosaic Law
Part of our confusion is caused by the simple fact that the word law in the New Testament
has at least three different meanings when used in different contexts. It can refer to the
whole Old Testament, as in Romans 3:19 (where the preceding quotations come from the
psalms and prophets).
It can refer to part of the OT, as when Jesus says, "I have not come to abolish the law and
the prophets" (Matthew 5:17). Specifically, it can refer to that part of the OT written by
Moses, the first five books, called the Torah. For example, Jesus said in Luke 24:44,
"These are my words which I spoke to you... that everything written about me in the law
of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." The third meaning of the term
law is not a different part of the OT, but the OT understood in a different way. We will see
in a few moments how many in Israel twisted the Mosaic law into legalism. That is, they
severed it from its foundation of faith, failed to stress dependence on the Spirit, and thus
turned the commandments into a job description for how to earn the wages of salvation.
That is legalism. But there is no Greek word for legalism, so when Paul wanted to refer to
this distortion of the Mosaic law, he often used the phrase, "works of law"
(e.g., Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16, 3:2, 5). But sometimes he simply used the word law,
as when he said, "You are not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14). We will see that
this
does not mean: you don't have to keep the law. It means you are not burdened by it as a
job description of how to earn the wages of salvation. So whenever you read the word law
in the New Testament, ask yourself: is this the OT, or the writings of Moses, or the
legalistic distortion of Moses' teaching? This will keep us from giving such bad press to
the Mosaic law when really it is the legalistic distortion of law that should get the bad press.
What I would like to do this morning is vindicate Moses from the widespread accusation
that he taught a different way of salvation and sanctification than the New Testament does,
namely, "by grace through faith... not of works lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8, 9)
. Now I know that hardly anyone says that God saved people differently in the OT than he
does today. But many Bible teachers say (or imply) that the law of Moses offers a way of
salvation different than the way offered in the gospel. That is, virtually everyone agrees that
anybody that was justified in the OT was justified by grace through faith; it was a gift of
God. But many will still say that the law did not call men to be justified this way; it called
them to earn God's blessings through works, and in doing this it showed men their total
inability and drove them to the Savior.
Or to put it another way, many Bible teachers will argue that the Mosaic covenant (made
with Israel at Mount Sinai) is fundamentally different from the covenant with Abraham
(made earlier) and the New Covenant (established at Calvary) under which we live.
The difference, they say, is this: in the Abrahamic covenant and New Covenant salvation is
promised freely to be received by faith apart from works of law. But under the Mosaic
covenant salvation (or God's blessing) is not offered freely to faith, but instead is offered
as a reward for the works of the law. Since only perfect works could merit salvation from a
perfectly holy God and nobody can achieve that, the law simply makes us aware of our sin
and misery and pronounces our condemnation. This is probably the most popular view of
the Mosaic law in the church today, and it is wrong. It makes a legalistic Pharisee out of
Moses, turns the Torah into the very heresy Paul condemned at Galatia, and (worst of all)
it makes God into his own enemy, commanding that people try to merit his blessing
(and thus exalt themselves) instead of resting in his all sufficient mercy (and thus exalt him).
I want to try to vindicate Moses from this misunderstanding by giving you a biblical
theology of the law in a nutshell. It's a huge topic, but sometimes if we press things together
into a nut-size outline, we can plant it in the corner of our mind until it grows into a big
tree of insight. Here's what I will do: I'll mention the five points I want to make, then go
back and give their biblical basis, and then sum them up again. We will close by singing
the beauty of God's law with Psalm 19.
First, the law is fulfilled when we love our neighbor. Second, love is the out-working of
authentic, saving faith. Third, therefore the law did not call for meritorious works, but for
the obedience which flows from faith. Fourth, therefore we must obey the OT
commandments the same way we obey the NT commandments—not in order to win God's
favor, but because we already depend on his free grace and trust that his commands will
lead to full and lasting joy. Fifth, we should delight in God's law, meditate on it day and
night, and sing of its value unto all generations.
Love Fulfills the Law
First of all then, love is a fulfilling of the law. The crucial text here is Romans 13:8–10.
Owe no one anything except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has
fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill,
you shall not steal, you shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in
this sentence, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a
neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. (See also Galatians 5:14.)
Paul was not taking a big risk when he boiled the whole law down into one command.
He had the authority of Jesus for doing so. Jesus said in Matthew 7:12, "Whatever you
wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets."
James said it a bit differently (2:8), "If you really fulfill the royal law according to
scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well." So we have three
testimonies in the New Testament that what God is trying to do through the law is make
loving people out of us. Every single commandment, says Romans 13:9, has love as its
aim. So the first point in our nutshell theology of the law is that the law is fulfilled in us
when we love our neighbor.
Love Is the Fruit of Faith
The second point is this: love is not a work that we do on our own to show ourselves
meritorious to God; it is the fruit of faith in the promises of God. To be sure, genuine love
will lead to great labor. But it is not synonymous with labor. It is deeper than labor and
prior to labor and enables labor. There are many people laboring for God and neighbor who
are not doing it out of love. Love is more than religious practices and humanitarian services
. That's why Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 13:3, "If I give away all I have and if I deliver my
body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
Someone may ask, "Well, if you can die for someone and not have love, what in the world
is love?" The answer is that love is not in the world. "Love is from God" (1 John 4:7).
Where there is no faith uniting the heart to God, there is no true love. Love is the
out-working of genuine, saving faith. Here are the key passages: Galatians 5:6,
"In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working
through love." The origin of love is the heart of faith. Further down in Galatians 5:22,
love is called the fruit of the Spirit. In other words, it is something we cannot produce
without God's enablement. So how do we become loving people? Galatians 3:5 answers,
"The one who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you does so not by
works of the law but by the hearing of faith." The path on which the Spirit comes to us is
faith in God's promises; and when he comes, the fruit he produces is love. Therefore, love
is the fruit of the Spirit and the outworking of faith. In 1 Timothy 1:5 Paul puts it like this,
"The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and
sincere faith." Only genuine faith is going to issue into love....
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. It does
not seek to avoid a brother who differs, it does not wear a scowl, it does not spread rumors
or speak evil of a neighbor, it does not close its ears to the evidences. Instead, love rejoices
in the truth and is peaceable, gentle, open to reason. Love looks people in the eye and
communicates goodwill. Love does not pout, is not self-pitying, does not use ultimatums to
get its own way. That's what love will look like in the next three months. And what a
terrific opportunity we have to prove to ourselves and to the world that our peace is not
based merely on sameness. It takes no Christian grace whatever to live in peace where
everyone thinks and feels the same. And so the time of controversy in which we find
ourselves is not bad; it is a good occasion to test whether there is really grace within us
or not.
When I list before myself the demand of love, I know what I must do. I must buttress my
faith with some promises. Promises like:
I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)I will never leave you nor forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the
earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but
it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
(Isaiah 55:10, 11)
When I still my heart with these things and catch a glimpse of God's bright and sovereign
future, then I can love again. I don't feel threatened anymore. I don't feel angry or
depressed or anxious. I feel like the future is taken care of. And if I am all taken care of,
then it feels very natural to want to take care of you, to look you in the eye and smile and
want only your good. The point is this: to whatever degree we achieve this divine love for
each other, it will be owing to faith in the liberating promises of God.
The Law, in Calling for Love, Calls for Faith
So the first point in our theology of the law was that love fulfills the law. The second point
was that love only comes out of faith in God's promises. The third point, therefore, is that
the law did not call for meritorious works, but for the obedience which flows from faith.
If love is what the law aimed at, and only faith can love, then the law must teach faith.
This is what has been overlooked so often. But it can be shown from Paul's teaching and
from the law itself. The key passage is Romans 9:30–32. Here Paul explains why Israel
has not fulfilled the law even though she pursued it for centuries. He says:
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained
it, that is, the righteousness through faith; but that Israel who pursued the righteousness
which is based on law (or: who pursued the law of righteousness) did not succeed in
fulfilling that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it (i.e., the law) through faith,
but as if it were based on works.
That little phrase "as if" or "as though" is tremendously important. It shows clearly that Paul
did not believe that God ever intended the law to be obeyed by "works." That is, if you try
to use the law as a job description of how to earn God's favor you are doing something that
the law itself opposes. The law itself is against "the works of the law." The law never
commanded anyone to try to merit his salvation. The law is based on faith in God's
promises, not on legalistic strivings. The mistake of Israel was not in pursuing the law, but
in pursuing it by works instead of by faith. (See Romans 3:31; Matthew 23:23.)
Now let's look at the law itself. The ten commandments are the heart of the Mosaic covenant
and are found in Exodus 20. Israel has arrived in the wilderness of Sinai three months after
the exodus from Egypt. The agony of slavery and the spectacular deliverance through the
Red Sea are vivid in their memories. (Think how vivid the concentration camp would still
be three months after the allied liberation!) One of God's purposes in the exodus was to
cause his people to trust him, that he would take care of them and bring them to the
promised land. So Exodus 14:31 says, "And Israel saw the great work which the Lord did
against the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord; and they believed in the Lord and in
his servant Moses."
Therefore, when the ten commandments begin, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before
me" (Exodus 20:2, 3), God meant: "Remember how I demonstrated my love for you and my
incomparable power on your behalf! Trust in me now, and look to no other source for help."
The ten commandments are based on a call for faith in the God of the exodus, just like the
moral teachings of the NT are based on a call for faith in the Lord of Good Friday and
Easter.
The exodus was a sign for Israel, just like the death and resurrection of Jesus are a sign for
the church. The meaning of the sign is that God is for you and will work for you and take
care of you if you will only trust him. The past event of the exodus is a sign of God's
willingness to help Israel in the future. Therefore, the faith God aims to produce through the
exodus is a confidence that God will do for us in the future what he has done in the past.
This is made clear in Deuteronomy 1:29–32 where Moses recounts why Israel refused to
enter the promised land and was forced to wander 40 years in the desert. Moses had said to
them when they first approached the promised land, "Do not be in dread or afraid of them.
The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you
in Egypt before your eyes.... Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God.
" (See also Numbers 14:11, 20:12; Deuteronomy 9:22–24.)
The exodus was a sign that God would take care of Israel in the future. Therefore, the
exodus was the foundation of Israel's faith. And this faith is the basis of the law. The law of
Moses simply spells out the way Israelites will live if they genuinely feel their future is
secure in God. You don't steal if your future is secure in God. You can't abuse others for
self-gain by killing or lying or seducing another's spouse or dishonoring your parents, if
you really believe the God of the exodus and the God of Easter is at work to give you the
future that is best for you. All these sins come from not believing God. The law is a
description of the obedience of faith; it is not a job description for how to earn the wages of
God's blessings.
The Law Is Fulfilled by the Obedience of Faith
So the first point in our theology of the law was that love fulfills the law. The second point
was that love is the outworking of faith. And the third point was that, therefore, the law
itself does not demand meritorious works, but only the obedience which comes from faith.
The fourth point follows naturally, namely: we must therefore obey (or fulfill) the OT
commandments the same way we must obey the NT commandments—not to win God's
favor, but because we already depend on his free grace and trust that his commands will lead
to full and lasting joy. Of course since Christ has come and fulfilled the sacrificial side of the
OT (1 Corinthians 5:7), and has declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19), and has founded a new
people of God which is not a national or ethnic group, many of the OT commandments do no
t apply to us (e.g., dietary laws, laws about sacrifices, laws pertaining to political
organizations and national action). But vast portions of the OT describe dimensions of
obedience which are true for God's people in any age.
Romans 8:3, 4 teaches that the law itself is powerless to produce this kind of obedience.
The letter kills; it is the Spirit that gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6). Therefore, God sent Christ
to atone for sin (Romans 8:3), that he might pour the Holy Spirit into our hearts, "in order
that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the
flesh but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:4). Thus Paul teaches that we should not leave
the law behind, not reject the law for something else, but fulfill the law in the power of the
Holy Spirit through faith which works itself out in love.
We Should Delight in God's Law and Sing of Its Value
In conclusion, then, the points are these: first, the law is fulfilled in us when we love our
neighbor as ourselves. Second, love is the outworking of genuine, saving faith.
Third, therefore, the law did not teach us to try to produce meritorious works, but only
taught us to trust the gracious God of the exodus and to live out the obedience of faith.
Fourth, therefore, the Mosaic covenant is not fundamentally different from the Abrahamic
and New Covenants, for we should obey the commandments of all three from the very
same
motive—not to win God's favor, but because we already depend on his free grace and trust
that his commands will lead to full and lasting joy. The final point, then, is that we should
delight in God's law, meditate on it day and night (Psalm 119:97), and sing of his value to
all generations (Psalm 19:7–14).
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