Deuteronomy 5:23-6:3

Today we are looking at the response of the people to the Decalogue and then understanding Paul’s negativity to the law.

The People’s Response

The people were frightened by all the sound, fire and smoke at the mountain knowing it to be God and so they said to Moses, you go or we’ll die. Moses then functions as a mediator between God and the people and vice versa. Listening to the words of Moses, then, was as if listening to the words of God Himself. This listening was important for their welfare for it was more than simply hearing but obeying. With that said, God and Moses were not saying that obedience was not the way of salvation but a response to have been saved. This is not salvation by works, as is evidenced in the whole of Scripture but salvation that produces good works.

The people have been brought into a covenant relationship with God. God brought the people to Himself by saving them from the Egyptians. Notice the word ‘relationship’. This is not firstly about the law, but relationship. Most of what we have read here is the Good News of Moses and the rest is because of being brought into relationship with God.

Like all relationships it occasionally founders but God will, through discipline, keep bringing them back; this is part of the covenant promise to Israel. Israel are to have faith in God mixed with awe and love, a life given to God.

OT312 Book Study: Deuteronomy Comprehensible and Achievable Laws

God and Moses perceived the laws as comprehensible and achievable. Not one of the commands is impossible. God didn’t ask the Israelites to jump over nine-story buildings or to swim the Pacific. No, every one of them is reasonable and doable. If Israel will not keep the law—and we find out they won’t—it’s not the problem of the law; it’s not that the law is impossible. The problem is in the Israelites’ hearts. They do not have the will to obey.

Paul’s response to the law

What we have heard you would think, then, that the law is a very positive thing so, how do we interpret Paul’s negative version of the law?

Let’s go through the Bible verses concerned

Romans 4:13–15 NKJV

For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

Romans 7:8–9 NKJV

But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

Romans 8:2–4 NKJV

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 10:4–5 NKJV

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.”

2 Corinthians 3:5–6 NKJV

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Galatians 3:12–14 NKJV

Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.” Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Galatians 3:21–22 NKJV

Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Galatians 3:23–24 NKJV

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Some Principles

(Taken, roughly, from Daniel Block)

Scripture: The Scripture cannot be broken.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NKJV

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Scripture: It’s unity

We recognise the essential, theological, and ethical unity of the two Testaments, a unity that is summarised in Jesus’ call for covenant commitment—that is, love—to God and to one’s fellow human being. We have one Bible. A friend of mine reminds me that the first principle of biblical interpretation is tear out one page, and that is the page separating the First Testament from the NT. It is one story, one Bible, one God, one ethic, and it is summarised by Jesus: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your being and with all your resources, and you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” That actually encapsulates the whole OT law.

What are God’s standards?

We recognise that without the background provided by the OT laws, Paul’s call for obedience to the law of Christ and Jesus’ call for adherence to the commands remain vague and empty. In fact, without the OT law, if we commit ourselves to the law of Christ and the law of love, it often lands up being a completely subjective assessment of what that means. Whatever God tells me in my heart, that’s the law of Christ; whereas harping back to the First Testament laws objectifies what that looks like. The law of Christ is not antithetical to the OT law, nor is the law of love.

OT or NT or both?

Because we accept that Scripture is of God then we have to get Paul and the Psalmists to agree.

Psalm 19:7–11 NKJV

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.

And the whole of Psalm 119 is about the law and how good it is. 176 verses! So, is Paul right or the Psalmist? Or both?

Law or faith or both?

What Paul says is in response to a particular group of people, called the Judaisers, who are trying to enforce the outward form of the law upon new Christian believers who are not Jews. Paul’s point is that the law does not save. Only faith in Jesus can save. The law is not the way of salvation. In fact, it never has been. Trying to keep the law, whilst on the surface is possible, because of our hearts it is impossible. The law cannot save. It is what we do as a result of salvation. The law of Christ is in our hearts. The moral law contained within the Old Testament reveals the standard which we are to live by. But again, if we think that by obeying them that somehow this will be pleasing to God then we are mistaken. It is only faith in Him that saves.

Bibliography

Block, D. I. (2018). OT312 Book Study: Deuteronomy. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Leadership Ministries Worldwide. (1996). Deuteronomy. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.

Thompson, J. A. (1974). Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 5). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Wright, C. J. H. (2012). Deuteronomy. (W. W. Gasque, R. L. Hubbard Jr., & R. K. Johnston, Eds.). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 22:50 24 July 2018.