1         Introduction

Exodus 20: 1 - 26

 “He who knows how to distinguish Gospel from Law should thank God and know that he is a theologian.” This statement from Martin Luther makes me wonder at times how effective a theologian I really am. Few things are more difficult to master than the biblical teaching about the law in its relationship to the gospel.

My prayer for this morning is that we will all gain clearer insight into both what God demands in his law and gives in his gospel.

Good teaching on the law and the gospel has never been more needed than it is today. We are living in lawless times, when disrespect for authority has led to widespread disdain for God’s commandments. People are behaving badly, even in church. Part of the problem is that most people don’t know what God requires. Even among Christians there is an appalling lack of familiarity with the perfect standard of God’s law, and of course the situation is worse in the culture at large and I am sure I do not need to convince you of that.

What I am going to be doing this morning is to wrap up François’ teaching on being bound to Religious Tradition. Religious tradition, by definition, is the rules and regulations that exist, and that we so often embrace, to bring us to God and earn His favour – man’s definition of God’s law.

The law today

François pointed out that being liberated from the law does not mean that we are free to lead irresponsible lives. The Law sends us to the gospel that we may be justified; and the gospel sends us to the law to inquire what the duty is of those who are justified – this we refer to as sanctification. In other words, being free of God’s Law is not the same as been liberated from God’s law.

I will be the first to admit that the understanding of the law in the NT can be confusing at times. What law is the writer referring to? The Mosaic Law, The Torah, The Law, Writings and Prophets (OT) or God’s Moral Law?

A low view of God’s Law always brings legalism into Christianity – a high view of God’s Law make us seekers of God’s grace. After all, if we have a narrow understanding of God’s Law, we might imagine that we did not have many sins for Jesus to die for.

What the law can still do is teach us how to live. As the Puritan Thomas Watson explained, “Though a Christian is not under the condemning power of the law, yet he is under its commanding power.” To that end, part of Christ’s mediatory work is to teach us God’s law all over again. He does not teach us the ceremonial law, which he fulfilled in his life and through his sacrificial death. Nor does he teach us the civil law, which was especially for the Old Testament nation of Israel. But Jesus does teach us the requirements of the moral law—the eternal standard of God’s righteousness. Jesus said, “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. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matt. 5:17–18).

To teach on correct relationship of the law in the life of the 21st Century Christian is indeed a challenge. Without some clear understanding of the law and its purpose we can never understand the Old Testament. If we cannot understand the Old Testament we will never really understand the New Testament.

Objectives

• I will start off by showing how the law progressed from before the Fall to where we are today.
• I will then focus briefly on the Ten Commandments and how they related to the Mosaic Law and to us today who live under the Law of Christ.
• I will then close off with an extract from the “Torah and the Spirit”.

2         The Three Laws

2.1        Continuity and Discontinuity

There is this argument amongst theologians on Continuity verse Discontinuity, or Covenant Theology versus Dispensationalism.

Covenant Theology say that there is a continuous flow from the Old Testament through the New Testament into today’s time. Dispensationalism says that God divided the ages into specific time periods (or dispensations) – the most well known being the Dispensation of the Law and the Dispensation of Grace. When I study the various arguments for and against I wonder what the problem really is – I find that both make sense to me and, in my opinion, definitely do nor work against each other.

I sometimes wonder if certain theologians make up arguments just to keep in business.

The best way to understand the flow from OT to NT is with the illustration below:

One of the dangers I see that come from these arguments when taken too far is that the Law is set against Grace. These are seen as two opposing systems, each excluding the other and contrary to it.  If this were the case, it would mean that God has taken opposing and contradictory attitudes towards men in these two different ages. We all know that God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

So far from being opposing systems, law and grace as revealed in Scripture are parts of one harmonious and progressive plan. The present dispensation is spoken of as the age of grace, not because grace belongs to it exclusively, but because in it grace has been fully manifested. When John declared that ‘the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ’  (John 1:17), he was contrasting law and grace, not as two contrary and irreconcilable systems, but as two related parts of one system. The law was the shadow, Christ was the substance. The law was the pattern, Christ was the reality.

Grace was as much as part of the giving of the Law at Mt Sinai as it was in fulfilling the Law in the Gospels as it is in revealing the Law today.

As we shall see a bit later, the law was given to Israel not that they might be redeemed, but because they had been redeemed.

2.2        The Law Unfolds

Let’s have a look at how the Law unfolds:

 [See Illustration]

2.3        The Three Laws

The “Law of God”

Expresses the mind of the Creator, and is binding upon all rational creatures. It is God’s unchanging moral standard for regulating the conduct of all men. In some places “the Law of God” may refer to the whole revealed will of God, but in the majority it has reference to the Ten Commandments; This Law was impressed on man’s moral nature from the beginning, and though now fallen, he still shows the work of it written in his heart.

The “Law of Moses”

Is the entire system of legislation, judicial and ceremonial, that Jehovah gave to Israel at Mt Sinai. The Law of Moses, as such, is binding upon none but Israelites. It is not binding on the Gentiles as the Decalogue:

1.      Ex. 20 opens: “And God (אֱלֹהִים [’elohiym]) spoke all these words.” This is the more noticeable because in the very next verse He says, “I am the Lord
( יהוה [YHWH]) thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt”, cf. Deut 5.

2.      The Ten Commandments and they alone, of all the laws Jehovah gave to Israel, were promulgated by the finger of God, amid the most solemn manifestations and tokens of the Divine presence and majesty.

3.      The Ten Commandments were written directly by the finger of God, written upon tables of stone; and written thus to denote their lasting and imperishable nature.

4.      The Ten Commandments alone were laid up in the ark. A tabernacle was prepared by the special direction of God, and within it an ark was placed, in which the two tables of the Law were deposited. The moral Law was the basis of all His governmental dealings with the nation of Israel.

The “Law of Christ”

Is God’s moral Law, but in the hands of the Mediator.

The “Law of God” is now termed “the Law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2) as it relates to Christians. As creatures we are under bonds to “serve the Law of God” (Rom. 7:25). As redeemed sinners we are “the bondslaves of Christ” (Eph. 6:6), and as such we are under bonds to “serve the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:24).

The relation between “the law of God” and “the Law of Christ” is clearly implied in 1 Cor. 9:21:

To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but nunder the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.

The whole “Law of Christ” is summarised in Mark 12:28-34 (ESV):

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.

3         The Ten Commandments

3.1         The Purpose of the Law

The law was not a covenant of works in the sense that Israel’s salvation depended upon obedience to it. It was still the covenant of promise given to Abraham (Gal 3:17). The devout Israelite was saved by faith in the promise of God, (cf. Abraham) which was now embodied in the tabernacle services. He looked forward through the sacrifices to a salvation which they foreshadowed, and by faith accepted it. We look back to the Cross and by faith accept the salvation which has been accomplished. The Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints are both saved in the same way, and that is, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ alone.

3.2        The Ten Commandments Today

[App A]

The law always reveals the character of the lawgiver. This was especially true at Mount Sinai, where every one of the Ten Commandments was stamped with the being and attributes of Almighty God. So what does each law tell us about the God who gave it?

Time does permit me to examine each of the commandments in detail. But the depth to which each commandment goes warrants a personal study from each individual Christian.

The first four commandments govern our relationship to God; the last six concern our relationships with one other. But even these commandments rest on various divine attributes

The Ten Commandments can be reduced to two commandments: love God and love your neighbor. So they are all about love. We love God by worshiping him and using his name properly. We love our parents by honoring them. We love our spouses by being faithful to them. We love our neighbors by protecting their lives, respecting their property, and telling them the truth. The God who gave these commandments is a God of love, who wants us to love him and to share his love with others. As Jesus said, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them, he it is who loves me” (John 14:21a; cf. 1 John 5:3a). If that is true, then we cannot separate God’s law from God’s love.

3.3        Interpreting the Ten Commandments

The biblical rule:

Every commandment must be understood in the context of the entire Bible. This is simply that Scripture interprets Scripture. The way to know the full and true meaning of any Bible passage is to know what the rest of the Bible says on the same theme. And this is true of the Ten Commandments. To understand the full implications of each commandment, we need to know what the whole Bible teaches about it, including the teaching of Jesus and his apostles.

The inside/outside rule

The Ten Commandments are internal as well as external. They demand inward integrity as well as outward conformity. Another way to say this is the way the apostle Paul said it: “the law is spiritual” (Rom. 7:14). In other words, it deals with our souls as well as our bodies. This distinguishes God’s law from any human law. According to an old Puritan proverb, “Man’s law binds the hands only; God’s law binds the heart.”

The spirituality of God’s law is made most explicit by the tenth commandment. On the surface at least, the first nine commandments only deal with outward conduct. They govern observable actions like bowing down before idols, cursing, killing, and stealing. But the tenth commandment deals exclusively with the heart: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus. 20:17).

The tenth commandment does not address an action at all, but only affection. This is why Paul battled with it. According to the Jewish scholar Umberto Cassuto, this kind of commandment was completely unprecedented in the ancient world. All the other legal codes governed outward sins like stealing. But only Israel’s God presumed to rule a person’s thoughts and desires.

What was made explicit in the tenth commandment is equally true of all the others. The Ten Commandments are spiritual; they require inward as well as outward obedience. This is one of the things that Jesus clarified in his Sermon on the Mount.

The rule of categories

Each commandment stands for a whole category of sins. It governs not only the specific sin that is mentioned, but all the sins that lead up to it, and all the supposedly lesser sins of the same kind.

The Ten Commandments generally forbid the most extreme example of a particular kind of sin. Bowing down in front of an idol is the worst form of false worship; misusing God’s sacred divine name is the worst form of blasphemy; murder is the worst form of violence; adultery is the most destructive act of sexual sin; and so forth. But this approach is not intended to make us think that the big sins are the only ones that matter. Rather, it shows us that God considers every sin in that category to be as sinful as the most heinous form of that particular sin. So, for example, every kind of poor stewardship is as culpable as stealing; every kind of dishonesty is as reprehensible as lying under legal oath; and so on.

The rule of categories also warns us not to commit lesser sins that by their very nature are bound to lead us into greater sins. People generally do not start out with grand larceny; they start with petty theft. Similarly, it is by telling little white lies that people learn how to pull off grand deceptions. But God rules out the little sins so as to help prevent the big ones.

The Law is applicable only when renewed in the New Testament

Jesus came to fulfill the Law not to abolish it.

The Mosaic Law, as stated earlier is not binding upon Christians except where it is renewed in the New Testament. All nine of the Ten Commandments are directly renewed in the New Testament – the Sabbath is explained in Hebrews 3 and 5 and entering into God’s rest. [Ref Appendix B]

4         The Torah and the Spirit

[Ref Appendix C]        

5         Conclusion

To summarize, the Ten Commandments display the character of God. They reveal his sovereignty, jealousy, justice, holiness, honor, faithfulness, providence, truthfulness, and love.

When we see how God has poured himself into his law, it becomes obvious that he could not have given us any other commandments than the ones he gave. The Ten Commandments express God’s will for our lives because they are based on his character. This helps answer an ancient dilemma, one that Plato posed in one of his famous dialogues: Does God command the law because the law is good, or is the law good because God commands it?  The answer is, both! The law, with all its goodness, springs from the goodness of God’s character. The law is good because God is good, and his goodness penetrates every aspect of his law.