withallyourmind.net

In this post, I continue to look at the relationship betwen the believer and the Mosaic Law.

Paul, in Galatians 3-4, argues that the believer is no longer “under the law.” In this context, Paul notes that the Law occupied a particular position in God’s salvation history – it was for the nation of Israel before the coming of Christ. At that time, they were subject to the Mosaic Law. However, God’s promise of salvation was given prior to the Law (to Abraham) and continues after the law has reached fulfillment. The New Testament believer is no longer directly under the power and authority of the Law. For Christ has abolished…

… in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.

Jesus has…

… canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us.

Other New Testament writers also confirm these conclusions. John’s Gospel clearly presents the discontinuity between the Law and the Gospel throughout. John 1:17 states:

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

The author of Hebrews maintains that the Law was “only a shadow of the good things that are coming” and incapable of perfecting those who are under it. He contrasts the Old Covenant with the New Covenant and holds that the Old is faulty and obsolete. Christ’s fulfillment of the Mosaic Law abolishes it as a binding rule of conduct for the believer.

This does not necessarily lead to an antinomian approach to the Gospel. As I have already suggested, the Christian is bound to a law, not the Mosaic Law, but the Law of Christ. We are still obliged to obey God’s law. The eternal law of God is found in both the Mosaic Law (which also contained commandments temporally limited to a particular circumstance) as well as in the Law of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 9:21, Paul said of himself that he was not…

… outside the law of God but under the law of Christ.

Since the Mosaic Law was a special formulation of God’s will for a specific people for a specific time in a specific place, one should not reasonably expect that it is still in force for the Church. The believer is now subject to God’s will in another form - the Law of Christ. This Law of Christ is not a code or series of commandments and prohibitions, but is composed of the teachings of Christ and the apostles and the directing influence of the Holy Spirit. When New Testament writers encourage believers to follow God’s commands, they are not referring to the Law of Moses, but rather to those commands found in the Law of Christ. There has been a shift in the salvation history of the world in which the Mosaic Covenant no longer occupies center position.

Next, I conclude.