The Believer and The Law of Moses
This is the first in a short series of posts examining the relationship between a New Testament believer and the Old Testament Law. There exists a great deal of confusion on this very important topic.
Christians disagree about the place of the Mosaic law in the life of the believer because the New Testament itself contains statements that appear to support opposite conclusions.
With this statement, Douglas Moo presents the issue every Christian believer faces in regard to the Law: What role does the Old Testament law play in the life of a believer? Is the law good? Paul apparently thought so, for in Romans 7:12 he proclaimed that “the law is holy,” and in Romans 3:31 he stated that “we uphold the law.” On the other hand, Paul argued that “Christ is the end of the law” (Romans 10:4), and that the believer is “not under the law” (Romans 6:14).
How are such conflicting statements to be reconciled? In the next few posts, I will attempt to provide a reasonable, scripture-based answer to this question.
First of all, one must address two important questions: What is the Mosaic Law (hereafter, at times, simply “Law”)? And what is its purpose? Albert H. Baylis identifies the Law as the constitution and national legislation of the nation of Israel. This was not just a man-made constitution, but a constitution given by God and therefore “holy, righteous and good” (Romans 7:12).
It is important to realize that the Law was given to a specific group of people within a specific geographical and chronological context. Any proper application of the Law to the New Testament believer must take this into account. There is no reason to think that the Law serves as a constitution for the Church or is binding in any other way on the Church unless explicitly stated to be so in Scripture.
Additionally, one must recognize that a marked change takes place at the cross of Christ. Clearly, the law does not hold the same status for the Christian as it did for a member of the nation of Israel under the Old Covenant. Indeed, there is a discontinuity between the time before and the time after Christ at the core of the Scriptures. This discontinuity between Law and Gospel which takes place through the life and ministry of Christ means that Christians are no longer “under law but under grace.”
A. T. Lincoln states that one can resolve the apparently conflicting statements of the New Testament writings of Paul regarding the Law by placing them in the context of Paul’s view of…
… God’s ongoing action in history for the salvation of men and women. He [Paul] circumscribes the validity of the law within this framework…
Romans 7:6 states:
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.
The coming of Christ changed the way that the believer relates to the Law - there is a definite discontinuity present. Nonetheless, this discontinuity does not entail that there is no continuity between the Law and the Gospel.
In my next post, I’ll continue these introductory remarks.