When we speak about The Law, we can be referring to a few places in The Bible. The Law, or The Torrah can refer to the entire Old Testament, the first five books of the Old Testament (also known as the Pentateuch) or the laws and commandments that God gave to Israel at Mount Sinai after delivering them out of Egypt. I intend to write about The Law as the last option, the laws and commandments that God gave to Israel at Mount Sinai, specifically located throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The Law as a Response to Grace
When God gave laws to the Patriarchs or to Israel, it was always after he had extended incredible grace to them. God always leads with grace. He first calls Abraham and promises to make him a great nation, prospering all that he does, protecting him and his family so that through them God could bless the entire world. Nothing is required of Abraham except that he believe. After a lifetime of blessing, his flocks and herds having grown so large that he and his nephew had to part ways as the land would not support their number, and having been victorious in battle against five kings, God reaffirms his promise with the qualification "walk before me faithfully and be blameless." (Genesis 17:1) At this point there is no explanation of what 'faithfully' and 'blameless' means, except that Abraham and his descendants must continue to trust and obey The Lord. "Abram believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6). Note that it wasn't Abraham's obedience to The Law, but his trust in God that made him righteous. God's call to obedience came after he had been accepted as righteous.
Many years later when Abraham's descendants, the ancient Israelites were slaves in Egypt God heard their cry and rose up the prophet Moses to lead them to the Promised Land. God performed incredible miracles in Egypt and through the desert, delivering his chosen people out of captivity, through the Red Sea, and kept them safe through the desert. This is the context of Israel receiving The Law, God had just saved them and had spent weeks caring for their needs, not because they were good people or obedient or that God could benefit from having them, but because of his grace and compassion for them. He makes a covenant with them and says that He will be their God and they will be His people. He was going to literally dwell with ancient Israel as they wandered in the desert. They lived in tents, God would live in a tent (the Tabernacle) and travel with them. The Law was given, not to make them righteous, but to instruct them in how to be like their God, how to imitate Him and properly reflect Him to the nations.
Following The Law is always a response to grace, not a prerequisite. Grace is given, and then we, having received God's grace, will naturally seek to imitate God. The only proper response to God's grace is personal sanctity, to live a holy life. As God draws us near to himself the natural reaction should be to imitate His character. Holiness is the human appropriation of God's grace. God's laws are not intended to restrict life but to instruct God's people in the "paths of righteousness."
The Law as Casuistic
We often think of The Law as a long confusing list of do's and don'ts with consequences listed for disobedience. The ancient Israelites had a different understanding of The Law though. The Laws found in Exodus and Deuteronomy follow a pattern of law that was common in the Ancient Near East wherein a serious of principles for living are given (The Ten Commandments) and then a much longer list of explanations and practical applications is given afterwards (The Law of the Covenant). This 'casuistic' understanding of The Law is very different than how we normally understand it.
Many of the specific laws don't make much sense to us today. Why should it matter if you mix different types of threads when making clothes, what's so bad about pork, and why is there a specific law about not boiling a baby goat in its mother's milk? There are answers to these and many other questions that make sense if you understand the historical and cultural context of the Ancient Near East. The practical application of God's principles in the fifteenth century BC Sinai may seem a little strange in twenty-first century AD North America. If God were to give a similar list of practical applications of his principles for how to live many of them would seem equally foreign to the ancient Israelites.
Moses gave Ten Commandments, ten principles for living. Jesus summarized these ten, and the entirety of The Law in two commandments, love The Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. However strange we think the specific practical applications for ancient Israel may be, this is, and has always been, what The Law was all about.
The Law as Doable
It was impossible to keep The Law perfectly, as Paul laments in Romans 7:15 "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do," however The Law included provisions for what to do when you couldn't keep The Law. It is popular to say that God gave The Law only so that He could show everyone that they couldn't meet His standard to highlight the need of a savior. This was indeed part of what The Law did but it is my firm belief that many ancient Israelites did manage to keep The Law, not in the sense that they did it all perfectly, but in the sense that they kept the spirit of The Law by struggling honestly and earnestly in the sight of God, repenting, falling, and repenting again in much the same way that Christians do today. The Old Testament says that Abraham was considered righteous because of his faith even though he did not obey God fully and that David was a man after God's own heart even though he was a murderer and adulterer. God speaks through the prophets about saving a 'righteous remnant of Israel' a portion of the population would return to follow The Law and were not corrupted even though the nation as a whole was. (1 Kings 19:18, Isaiah 10:20-22)
The purpose of The Law was not to achieve righteousness, that had always been a gift that was given through faith in God. The Law kept you walking with God, provided forgiveness of sins via the grace of Christ through the sacrificial system, a precursor to Christ's sacrifice made efficacious by Christ's sacrifice to come.
The purpose of The Law was not to achieve righteousness, that had always been a gift that was given through faith in God. The Law kept you walking with God, provided forgiveness of sins via the grace of Christ through the sacrificial system, a precursor to Christ's sacrifice made efficacious by Christ's sacrifice to come.
I think one of the major issues that many Jews faced was that once Jesus had inaugurated the New Covenant there was now a division. Previously relationship with God and forgiveness for sins was mediated through The Law, specifically the sacrificial system, then Jesus dies for the sins of the world and the event to which the entire sacrificial system had been pointing to all along has occurred! As a devout Jew, what do you do? Do you continue with the sacrificial system given by Moses or do you say, along with the author of the Book of Hebrews, that the blood of Christ is superior to the blood of animal sacrifices and that his sacrifice is final? A division took place. Jesus' sacrifice and all that he accomplished could be no more contained by The Law than new wine in old wineskins (Matthew 9:15-17). Those who accepted Jesus as the Messiah continued in the grace of God under a new form that was not bound by The Law, those who rejected Christ stayed with the sacrificial system, not realizing that it had just been fulfilled. I suspect some stayed with the sacrificial system out of ignorance, although many messengers were sent to the Jews all over the world in the first century, and others stayed with the sacrificial system because they believed that The Law itself was the way by which we are made righteous (legalism). Paul explains in his Epistle to the Galatians that The Law was given to Israel as a sort of tutor, a temporary teacher and guardian until such time as the promised savior had come.
To those who held to legalism The Law did become impossible, because they didn't understand what it was pointing to, what it was for, or how righteousness was achieved. I think this is why Jesus criticized the religious leaders of his day by warning "do not try to take the speck out of your brother's eye until you have removed the log from your own eye," (Matthew 7:1-5 paraphrased) and "[the Pharisees] strain out a gnat but swallow a camel" (Matthew 23:24). To those who rely on works, The Law is impossible, it is death. To those who rely on God, they recognized Christ from a distance through The Law and were justified according to their faith in their God, but when Christ came and was crucified for their sins they recognized him and stepped from The Law, which up until that point was made efficacious by Christ, to faith in Christ Himself!
To those who held to legalism The Law did become impossible, because they didn't understand what it was pointing to, what it was for, or how righteousness was achieved. I think this is why Jesus criticized the religious leaders of his day by warning "do not try to take the speck out of your brother's eye until you have removed the log from your own eye," (Matthew 7:1-5 paraphrased) and "[the Pharisees] strain out a gnat but swallow a camel" (Matthew 23:24). To those who rely on works, The Law is impossible, it is death. To those who rely on God, they recognized Christ from a distance through The Law and were justified according to their faith in their God, but when Christ came and was crucified for their sins they recognized him and stepped from The Law, which up until that point was made efficacious by Christ, to faith in Christ Himself!
The Law as a Fence of Protection
Obeying God's principles for living will naturally bring about good (or at least better) results. We recognize this in a natural sense. We all reap what we sow. Those who live with integrity will reap the long term benefits of that integrity, those who live lying and turning on others when it is to their advantage will have to contend with the chaos and instability they have sown for themselves. Being transformed in our hearts and minds to be more like God puts the world and our lives into perspective, we worry less, become more joyful, and care more about others.
God also gave The Law in such a way that his people would not fall victim to illness. The laws concerning dietary restrictions and the division of 'clean' and 'unclean' in Leviticus established effective rules for sanitation in an ancient society that did not understand bacteria or infection.
When God gave The Law at Mount Sinai it was more than just a guidebook for how to live, it was the boundaries of how to live in God's presence. God wanted to dwell with his people, to live among them, but He couldn't do that if his people were actively doing the things that drove them away from God's presence. The Lord is a holy God, his people needed to be holy or his presence would destroy them. You can't live in God's presence while you are worshiping Ba'al, or sacrificing your children in the fire, or oppressing your fellow image bearers, or refusing to care for the widow and orphan. When God's people reflect God's heart they are safe and secure in his presence. He is with them, He fights their battles, He leads them. When God's people go their own way they are like sheep wandering away from the pasture, they have trouble finding good food, they run into predators, fall into pits, or get stuck in bad terrain. This isn't what God wants for them but that is what happens when you live outside of God's presence. God always welcomes them back and intentionally pursues His people, even when they do not want Him, He sends them prophets to call them back and goes out of his way to give them grace over and over again so they will remember Him and return to Him.
In Deuteronomy Moses summarizes The Law and declares blessing if Israel follows The Law and curses if they disobey. The blessings are what happen when you stay in the pasture, you get lots of food, clean water, the shepherd protects you, you have a good life. The curses are what happen if you leave the pasture, you get lost, you get hungry, you get attacked by wolves, and the shepherd can't protect you. Pressing the analogy further it could be said that sometimes, when a specific sheep is especially prone to wandering, a shepherd may intentionally break its leg so that it learns to trust and rely on the shepherd. Not all hardship from disobedience is specifically a punishment from God, but sometimes God does intentionally bring about consequences so that we will return to Him and learn to trust Him. In in the case of God's chosen nation the language is stronger, God will punish them if they refuse to follow The Law. Israel wandered from God often, and when He did intentionally bring the curses of the covenant upon them it was for their redemption.
Finally The Law also protects us from becoming abhorrent to God to the point where he unleashes terrible judgement. God used Israel as a tool of judgement against The Canaanites because of the outcry raised against them. Oppression, 'holy' prostitution, murder, horrific child sacrifice, and worshiping the detestable god Molek. When a people commit such egregious sins long enough God passes judgement on them to stop the atrocities and give what they have to more worthy stewards. Israel, as recorded throughout the historical books of the Old Testament did not keep The Law and eventually became even worse than the Canaanites so God used the Assyrians and the Babylonians to destroy Israel, but even during the time of wrath and judgement God preserved the remnant of Israel that walked faithfully and obediently, eventually returning them from exile.
The Law as Covenant
The Law also needs to be understood through the lens of covenant. Covenants, in the Ancient Near East, were binding legal agreements made between two parties. When a lesser power wanted to swear fealty to a greater power a number of agreements would be made and the lesser party would pass through a series of animals that had been cut in two, a declaration of "if I break my word then may I become as these animals are now."
God makes a covenant with Abraham. The agreement is that God has chosen him to inherit the Promise Land, become the father of many nations and that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through his line. God would protect him, care for him, and prosper him. Abraham didn't have any obligations put upon him and it was God who went through the severed animals, not Abraham! (Genesis 15) This was an incredible confirmation of God's promises to Abraham.
Years later God makes another covenant, this time with Abraham's descendants, the ancient Israelites after having delivered them out of Egypt and leading them through the desert in spectacular and miraculous fashion. The agreement this time is that The Lord will be their God and they will be His people, His special inheritance out of all the nations of the earth, a holy nation. The condition was that Israel, as a nation, needed to become like God, they needed to be holy and adopt God's character by following the laws and commandments that God had given them. If they obeyed the covenant then God would bless them (fight their battles, bring prosperity, etc) , if they disobeyed the covenant than God would curse them (fight against them, take away their prosperity, etc).
God always keeps his promises and his promises do not nullify each other, they build upon and fulfill each other and they point forward to a time in the future. Abraham believed in God's promise, but he died before he could see it fulfilled. He had recieved a son in his old age, a miracle from God, but he only owned a burial plot, not the land itself, and his family consisted of one descendant. God was faithful though, he cared for Abraham's line and made them into the nation of Israel.
The covenant at Mount Sinai did not overwrite or undo the covenant God made with Abraham, it fulfilled it (partially). God had promised Abraham the land, now He was going to give it to Abraham's descendants and turn them into the nation that would bless all peoples of the earth. They were, after-all, inheritors of God's promise to Abraham. God would come to dwell with them, first in the Tabernacle, later in the Temple.
The nation of Israel failed to keep the covenant but God never failed to uphold his part. It didn't matter how many times they turned away to worship the detestable gods of the Canaanites, every time they repented God would fight for them and prosper them. Even after they had become completely corrupt and the nation was carried off into captivity God preserved the remnant of Israel who had remained true to him and protected and prospered them in captivity and then brought them back from Exile to rebuild anew.
The new covenant that God makes with all people through Jesus follows in the same vein as the other covenants, God, being the greater power, has passed through the parted animals having shed his own blood and broken his own body. He will forgive sins and restore fellowship with all who put their faith in Him. The New Covenant did not overwrite or undo the Old Covenant, it fulfilled it! God dwells, no longer in a building, but within our hearts through The Holy Spirit. The entire sacrificial system had been fulfilled by Christ's sacrifice. Jesus both fulfilled Israel's obligation to The Law by living a perfect life in their stead and also bore the punishment for Israel (and all other peoples') failure to live by The Law. Abraham's covenant was also fulfilled in that now many people from all the nations of the earth call Abraham 'father' as they have inherited the same faith in the same God as he! This is how his line was to bless all the peoples of the earth! The Bible says that the non-jewish believers have been grafted in to Israel, (Romans 11:11-31) and so we have become the holy nation, the priesthood of all believers, the special inheritance of The Lord. Yet as great as the New Covenant is, it also points to the future for its complete fulfillment! We, like Abraham, and like ancient Israel, look forward to a time when God will give us rest and a far off country to call our own. He will be our God and we will be His people. Just as God called Abraham to walk blameless before him and just as He called Israel to be holy, Jesus calls all people to be holy as our Father in Heaven is holy and makes has an even higher goal for what holiness means than what was originally given at Mount Sinai! ("You have heard it said... but I say to you...") God's grace has not changed, the conditions to receive God's grace have not changed, what changes with the New Covenant is that instead of being guided by external laws God puts the laws into our hearts through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and enables us to do as the Law requires, to love The Lord our God with all our heart mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves in any time and place we find ourselves in.
God makes a covenant with Abraham. The agreement is that God has chosen him to inherit the Promise Land, become the father of many nations and that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through his line. God would protect him, care for him, and prosper him. Abraham didn't have any obligations put upon him and it was God who went through the severed animals, not Abraham! (Genesis 15) This was an incredible confirmation of God's promises to Abraham.
Years later God makes another covenant, this time with Abraham's descendants, the ancient Israelites after having delivered them out of Egypt and leading them through the desert in spectacular and miraculous fashion. The agreement this time is that The Lord will be their God and they will be His people, His special inheritance out of all the nations of the earth, a holy nation. The condition was that Israel, as a nation, needed to become like God, they needed to be holy and adopt God's character by following the laws and commandments that God had given them. If they obeyed the covenant then God would bless them (fight their battles, bring prosperity, etc) , if they disobeyed the covenant than God would curse them (fight against them, take away their prosperity, etc).
God always keeps his promises and his promises do not nullify each other, they build upon and fulfill each other and they point forward to a time in the future. Abraham believed in God's promise, but he died before he could see it fulfilled. He had recieved a son in his old age, a miracle from God, but he only owned a burial plot, not the land itself, and his family consisted of one descendant. God was faithful though, he cared for Abraham's line and made them into the nation of Israel.
The covenant at Mount Sinai did not overwrite or undo the covenant God made with Abraham, it fulfilled it (partially). God had promised Abraham the land, now He was going to give it to Abraham's descendants and turn them into the nation that would bless all peoples of the earth. They were, after-all, inheritors of God's promise to Abraham. God would come to dwell with them, first in the Tabernacle, later in the Temple.
The nation of Israel failed to keep the covenant but God never failed to uphold his part. It didn't matter how many times they turned away to worship the detestable gods of the Canaanites, every time they repented God would fight for them and prosper them. Even after they had become completely corrupt and the nation was carried off into captivity God preserved the remnant of Israel who had remained true to him and protected and prospered them in captivity and then brought them back from Exile to rebuild anew.
The new covenant that God makes with all people through Jesus follows in the same vein as the other covenants, God, being the greater power, has passed through the parted animals having shed his own blood and broken his own body. He will forgive sins and restore fellowship with all who put their faith in Him. The New Covenant did not overwrite or undo the Old Covenant, it fulfilled it! God dwells, no longer in a building, but within our hearts through The Holy Spirit. The entire sacrificial system had been fulfilled by Christ's sacrifice. Jesus both fulfilled Israel's obligation to The Law by living a perfect life in their stead and also bore the punishment for Israel (and all other peoples') failure to live by The Law. Abraham's covenant was also fulfilled in that now many people from all the nations of the earth call Abraham 'father' as they have inherited the same faith in the same God as he! This is how his line was to bless all the peoples of the earth! The Bible says that the non-jewish believers have been grafted in to Israel, (Romans 11:11-31) and so we have become the holy nation, the priesthood of all believers, the special inheritance of The Lord. Yet as great as the New Covenant is, it also points to the future for its complete fulfillment! We, like Abraham, and like ancient Israel, look forward to a time when God will give us rest and a far off country to call our own. He will be our God and we will be His people. Just as God called Abraham to walk blameless before him and just as He called Israel to be holy, Jesus calls all people to be holy as our Father in Heaven is holy and makes has an even higher goal for what holiness means than what was originally given at Mount Sinai! ("You have heard it said... but I say to you...") God's grace has not changed, the conditions to receive God's grace have not changed, what changes with the New Covenant is that instead of being guided by external laws God puts the laws into our hearts through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and enables us to do as the Law requires, to love The Lord our God with all our heart mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves in any time and place we find ourselves in.