The question of 'Why the Law' is an important question and needs an adequate answer. If we look in the book of Acts and especially the books of Galatians, Romans, and Hebrews you can see that the battle between 'Law' and 'Grace' is one of the most serious issues in the New Covenant which the early church faced. If you look around the church today, we are still dealing with the same issue, which is the argument between grace and law. Confusion and false teaching around this subject abound on both sides so that’s why we must adequately address this issue.
In this lesson when we use the word 'Law', we are not talking about the civil law of a country such as the United States, Canada, Brazil, or France, but the 'Law of God' or what is also called the Torah, which was given through Moses to the nation of Israel. From the Bible, we want to answer several questions concerning the 'Law', it’s so that as New Covenant Christian’s we know how to accurately handle God’s Covenant Law.
Who was the 'Law' given to?
What exactly is the 'Law'?
What was the 'Law' meant to accomplish?
What was the 'Law' not meant to accomplish?
How long was the 'Law' to be in effect?
How do believers in Jesus Christ relate to the 'Law'?
Let’s first answer question number 1). Who was the Law given to? To discover that we have to look back to the book of Genesis in chapter 15 when God was making a blood 'covenant' with Abraham. He tells Abraham that, your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years...afterwards they shall come out with great possessions. The book of Exodus opens up with the fulfillment of this prophecy to Abraham. It is a continuation of the Genesis account, dealing with the 430-year development of the family line of Abraham into a large nation.
God raised up the prophet Moses and through his leadership the mighty hand of God delivered the children of Abraham from the power of Egypt, bringing them out with great possessions. God brought the children of Abraham out of Egypt, so He could take them to the land promised to Abraham. However, to get to the Promised Land they had to pass through the wilderness of Sinai. Exodus 19 shows us that it was here on Mt. Sinai that Moses was given the Law of God.
Before we go on, I want to do a little detour and take a quick look at the founding of America. Although there is so much that is different, there are some commonalities that we can use to help us understand.
Unlike the law given to Moses on Mt Sinai the United States constitution was written by several different authors and debated among 55 delegates at the Continental Congress and it was then ratified by 39 signers. The U.S. Constitution was debated among men, but the law given to Moses came directly from God on Mt Sinai. There was no debate. It was God’s direct communication to Moses, face to face.
The U.S. Constitution was debated among the delegates for several months then ratified in 1788 and it has been the law that has ruled the United States since that time. The U.S. Constitution is for America not for Canada, not for France, not for Brazil or any other nation since it directly relates to the governing of the United States. So, the U.S. constitution was written to directly govern the United States, in like manner the law given to Moses was a constitution to govern the newly formed nation of Israel. Unlike the constitution of the United States the Law given to Moses was ratified with a blood covenant between the children of Israel and God.
Exodus 24:7-8 says Moses took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient’. And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.
The law of Moses was given to Israel specifically and exclusively to govern them as a nation. It was a covenant instructing them how to regulate their lives, how to legislate their legal system and it was instruction on how to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Now let’s answer question number 2). What exactly is the Law that was given to Moses? When we speak of the Law given by Moses there are three different areas: The Moral Law which consist of the Ten Commandments as described in Exodus 20:1-17. The 2nd aspect of the law was the Civil Law. The civil law was the part of the law that governed public life. It is what you would call the Hebrew nation's criminal justice system. It details the system of justice and punishment given to those who disobeyed. The 3rd aspect of the law was the Ceremonial Law which was the order of worship for the nation of Israel.
The Moral Law was given to Israel to show them sin and define disobedience to God. It’s what we call the Ten Commandments. Don’t worship idols, don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, keep the sabbath, don’t commit murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal and so on.
The Ceremonial Law was given so Israel could atone for sin by sacrifice and ceremony. The ceremonial law had to do with the sacrifice system centered around the tabernacle of Moses and later the Temple of Solomon. The sons of Aaron were the priest who implemented the ceremonial law along with the support of the tribe of Levi.
The Civil Law was given to rule the public life of the nation of Israel, the natural children of Abraham. As I said, it was the criminal justice system for Israel. The Law of Moses was established through what is called the Torah or the first 5 books of the Bible. The books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are what is called the Torah and were used to govern the Jewish nation in all aspects of life. The Jewish nation is the only nation with whom God has ever established a blood covenant. Let me repeat that for all of you Americans who think somehow God made a covenant with America because he did not. The Jewish nation is the only nation on earth with whom God has ever established a blood covenant.
As descendants of Abraham, they were God’s chosen nation and a people set apart for Him, separate from all the nations of the earth. God initiated and established his covenant with Israel. In doing so, he set them apart as his treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation that is in Exodus 19:6. The Law and the nation of Israel following that Law were meant to be a guide, to reveal God to the nations.
Let’s answer question number 3) What was the Law meant to accomplish? Romans 3:20 shows us that the Moral Law of God gives the "knowledge of sin". In I Timothy 1:9 Paul says that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers etc. F.F. Bruce says the law was given to bring sin to light.
The Moral Law defines sin. It clearly says don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t commit adultery etc. The Law reveals the wickedness in man’s heart and shows him how far he has fallen from the likeness of God. The Law itself was good and holy.
Romans 3:9 says, everyone both Jew and Gentile are flawed with sin and the Law is like a mirror that points out our flaws and shows us how incapable we are at overcoming the sinful nature through our own strength. The Law was not meant to free us from sin, but to show us how sinful we really are.
That gets us to question number 4) What was the Law not meant to accomplish? The Law was not given to make men acceptable to God. Let me say that again, the law was not given to make men acceptable to God for by the "works of the Law" no one can be accepted by God as Paul taught in Galatians 2:16. F.F. Bruce says it was "to lead men to repentance." It was impossible for any man to fulfill the demands of the Law. The Law demanded living right, but was incapable of providing the power to accomplish it. Its function was to make people conscious of their sin and look to their need for a Savior.
Under the Old Blood Covenant, the priesthood sacrificed innocent victims on behalf of the worshipers and as they worshiped by faith, they received temporary ceremonial cleansing under the law. What I mean by temporary is that they had to keep making those same sacrifices over and over under the law to continue to receive cleansing. We saw in Lesson 4: Blood Covenant that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Under the Old Blood Covenant, the worshipers by faith presented innocent animals to be sacrificed on their behalf.
Hebrews 10:1-4 says, since the Law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, once purified, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in the sacrifices under the Law there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Let’s look at when Solomon dedicated the temple he built on Mount Moriah, the same place the Temple Mount is today in Jerusalem. In I Kings 8:63 it says, Solomon offered as peace offerings to the Lord 22,000 oxen, yes, I said 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep, yes I said 120,000 sheep. It was seven days of non-stop shedding of blood. That’s a lot of sacrificing. Still that amount of blood was not enough to accomplish man’s eternal forgiveness.
The Law was just a type and a shadow pointing us to the coming Messiah who would give us an eternal blood covenant.
Now let’s answer question number 5). How long was the Law to be in effect? Galatians 3:24 tells us that the Torah and the nation of Israel were used by God to be somewhat like a 'fence' or 'tutor' to protect the promises of God until the Messiah came to fulfill them. Paul the apostle called the Law a tutor which was to teach us and lead us to Christ. In Greek homes the young sons had a tutor to care for them until they came of age and became men. At the age of 12 they were recognized as men and were released from the oversight of the tutor.
The law was to point us to Christ, but once He came the Law was fulfilled in Him and its purpose complete.
Galatians 4:4-5 says, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law.
As Jesus himself said in Matthew 5:17, 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. Jesus fulfilled all that the Torah and the Prophets had to say concerning the Messiah, since He was the embodiment of all the promises of God.
As Jesus hung on the Cross and breathed his last breath he proclaimed, “It is Finished.” It was a proclamation that the Old Blood Covenant was done and a New Way through His flesh had been opened. Galatians 3:25 says: that we are no longer under the law of Moses since we have put on Christ where there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Now let’s answer question number 6) How do believers in Christ relate to the Law? As I said one of the biggest debates in the New Testament is the debate between Law and Grace. The place of the Law was one of the greatest disputes in the early church. The issue of circumcision and the keeping of the Ceremonial Law was a major debate.
Just go read Acts 15 which discusses this topic, and it is called the Jerusalem council. It got pretty heated. As most of us know today it’s pretty normal for American males to get circumcised. It’s a medical procedure that we get and the reason is so the penis doesn’t get infected easily. To the Jewish people it’s always been a sign of their covenant with God. Circumcision was originally given to Abraham and the children of Israel as a sign that they were covenant children of God. At the age of eight days all male Israelites had their foreskin cut.
The Jerusalem council was because certain Jewish Christians began to teach that for a Gentile or non-Jew to be sure they were accepted by God, and covenant partners with Him, they too must be circumcised and practice the Ceremonial Law. The book of Galatians was written to specifically call out the false teaching that believers in Christ should be circumcised and keep the Law to be God’s children. Paul the apostle who was born a Jew, raised a Jew and rose to the heights of being one of the greatest Law keepers refuted this false teaching. He taught that both Jew and Gentile are saved on the basis of faith in the free gift of Christ. In Colossians 2:11 Paul says that it is not the circumcision in the flesh that matters, but the circumcision of the heart.
You will hear some argue that Paul kept the Law, and it was for this reason that he had Timothy his son in the faith circumcised. Paul was by birth a Jew, so yes as a matter of his custom, he did at times keep the ceremonial law, but the reason he did this was so that he could reach those under the Law his Jewish brethren. Today we have Jewish Christians which are also called Messianic Jews who practice some of the Jewish customs.
I see no problem for Jewish believers in Messiah keeping their customs. It’s not mandatory nor does it make them acceptable to God based on them following it.
It would be like Americans keeping the Thanksgiving holiday. Thanksgiving is an American custom that a lot of us keep remembering our founding. The Jewish Feast are part of Jewish culture and their holidays. The Jewish Feast actually points us to Christ who is the embodiment and fulfillment of them.
We see in Acts 21:26 that Paul presented offerings at the temple in Jerusalem. It was not so that he could be acceptable before God, but so that he could reach his Jewish brethren with the gospel. The reason he had Timothy circumcised whose mother was Jewish is because his custom in every city that he went to preach was to go to the Jewish synagogue first. It was for this reason that he had Timothy circumcised not so that he would be made right before God, but so that Timothy would be accepted into the Jewish synagogue and they could preach the gospel.
As missionaries there are times you have to identify with the customs of the people you are trying to reach.
If you don’t, they are not going to listen to you. As long as those customs are not causing you to clearly disobey God’s word it’s permissible. Paul clearly taught that it is faith in Christ, which places us into the family of God, not the keeping of the Law. Paul’s teaching was very clear, and he was very passionate about this subject. In Galatians 5:11-12 he says if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.
That’s pretty direct because Paul actually told them to go further than circumcision and actually castrate themselves, so Paul wasn’t mincing words.
Paul says in Galatians 5:1-4 that Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery. Take note! I, Paul, tell you that if you get yourselves circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all. Again, I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to keep the entire Law. You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ, you have fallen from grace.
Falling from grace here is leaving the free gift of Christ by faith and putting your trust in your own strength to keep the Law.
Paul taught that since Christ has come, neither Jew nor Gentile (non-Jew) are under the Law, for Christ fulfilled the Law. Romans 10:4 in the New Living Translation says that "Christ has accomplished the whole purpose of the Law. All who believe in him are made right with God". Romans 7:4 says: "you 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." It is impossible for us to be right with God by the Law.
Our right standing with God is based on faith in what Christ has done for us, not on anything we can do through our own self effort.
Galatians 2:20-21 says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Now let’s talk about God’s moral law and grace. The Civil and Ceremonial Laws were of limited application to the nation of Israel, yet God's moral law has an unchanging universal force. Through being born from above, Romans 3:31 tells us we establish the law by grace through faith. It specifically says, do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary we uphold the law.
Paul refutes the ideal that grace gives us the right to live in sin. Romans 6:1 says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? The grace of Christ gives us the ability to not covet your neighbor's house or his wife. We are to follow the law of love and love does not steal from others, love does not kill others and love does not destroy the lives of others. God's grace restricts ungodliness, it does not permit it.
In my walk with God, I have discovered the two greatest enemies to the cross of Christ which are legalism and lawlessness. I could write a whole book on this subject. Today we have a lot of legalism being taught. I’m blown away at how some can twist the word of God and try to bring people back under the bondage of legalism. In the book of Galatians Paul talked about a false gospel and those who preached it.
The legalists were the messengers and their goal was to bring believers in Christ back under the law or a code of conduct and control them through legalism.
The focus they taught was all about keeping the law or rules and regulations as a means of being right with God. You have those today that will tell you that you need to keep the Jewish holidays, you need to eat kosher and even dress like Jews to be a true believer. All I can say is don’t listen to them.
You have some who will tell you what tv shows or movies you can watch or even who you should marry. I’ve been around a few of these groups and if you don’t obey them, they will condemn you and cut you off. If you are in a controlling church like I am describing, I would encourage you to leave and leave as fast as you can. If you come under their bondage of control and legalism, Paul says that you are literally severing yourself from Christ and falling from grace by listening to a false gospel, which really isn’t a gospel, but the bondage of legalism. I’ll remind you what I said in the introduction to Section 1: The Established Foundation, which is sound teaching produces sound living.
Ask yourself if the teaching you are receiving is bringing liberty or bondage to some man-made system of religion?
Now let’s look at another group Paul talked about in Philippians 3:18. He said many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. Remember what I told you about the dust of the ground in Lesson 2 What is Man? The dust of the ground is serpents’ food and when we set our minds on earthly things, walking by the lust of the flesh, then we get our lunch eaten by the serpent. When we lose our focus of the cross and set our minds on earthly things then we become dominated by the god of this world.
As I am bringing this lesson to an end, I want to teach you a big word that I believe is important to learn because we see this a lot today in our culture. The word is antinomianism. The word antinomianism comes from two Greek words, anti, meaning "against"; and nomos, meaning "law." Antinomianism means “against the law.”
In a nutshell antinomianism is the belief that there are no moral laws that God expects Christians to obey or that because of grace there are no moral standards. It’s pretty much saying God is love and you’ve been saved by grace, therefore it really doesn’t matter how you behave. Do whatever you want because God will forgive you. It’s what I call the gospel of lawlessness.
In the introduction The Established Foundation I told you how Jude the apostle told us to contend earnestly for the faith that has been delivered to us. In Jude 1:4 he says, For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. The word pervert here literally means to change. It’s a different gospel which isn’t the gospel, but really bondage.
Peter in his second epistle talks about this false gospel of lawlessness. In II Peter 2: 18-19 he says these false preachers speak loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. Let me read this to you in the New Living Translation. Here it says these types of people brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.
Drug dealers are a good picture of this or maybe even some pharmaceutical companies. Drug pushers whether legal or illegal will promise you freedom if you take their next best greatest drug, but it always ends in bondage. There is no magic pill to Nirvana. The sex industry will promise you freedom, but it always ends in bondage.
The book of Jude is a clear warning of what happens when we base our lives on this false teaching. The book of Jude clearly focuses upon these lawless ones, which are those who think that grace is a license to sin and follow their own sinful desires with no consequences. There are always consequences for our actions.
We live in days when they tell us that white is black and black is white. There are no absolutes in todays’ postmodern culture where relativism is the norm.
All I will say is that when you have Transsexuals standing behind pulpits promising freedom, then we are in some very strange days and could it be what the Bible says: are the last days of this present age? Jude 17-19 says you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, In the last days there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. Let’s not be those. Let’s keep the cross of Christ as our focus because that is where the serpent's head of legalism and lawlessness have been crushed and the only place true freedom is found.
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