The Believer and The Law of Moses (Part 6)
Now that the purpose of the Law has been addressed in previous posts, let me now turn to the question at hand, “What is the relationship of the Law to the New Testament believer?”
Briefly, the New Testament teaches that the entire Mosaic Law has found fulfillment in Jesus Christ and has been replaced by a new law, the “Law of Christ.” Jesus stated in Matthew 5:17, “I have come… to fulfill [the Law and the Prophets].” The entire Old Testament, including the Law, anticipated the coming of Christ. Christ accomplished that to which the Law looked forward.
I might insert here that although the believer is no longer under obligation to the Mosaic Law, this does not mean that he is without law. Instead, the Law has been replaced with the “Law of Christ.” A.T. Lincoln argues that Matthew saw that:
… the whole law pointed forward to Jesus’ teaching and ministry, ultimately culminating in His death and Resurrection, and lives on only in so far as it has been transformed through its fulfillment by Jesus.
Paul, like Matthew, claimed that “Christ is the end of the law.” The Mosaic Law anticipated Christ, and now that Christ has come the law has reached its culmination, finding its goal and completion in Him. This “Law of Christ” to which Christians are bound does not consist in the principles of the Mosaic Law, but consists in those principles exemplified and taught by Jesus Christ. The Law of Christ is centered on love and motivated by the Spirit. Romans 8:2-4 shows that the time of the Law of Moses has ended, and the believer is no longer subject to it as a rule of life:
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Next, more on the relationship of the believer and the Law.