Mosaic Law and Christ
Question: Christopher wrote in asking an interesting question: "Our Lord says in Matthew 5:17-19 that whoever breaks the law and teach others to do so would be the least in the kingdom of God. On the other hand, the Apostle Paul says in his epistles that the law has been made obsolete, that the Lord abolished it in his flesh by his death. How can we reconcile the two statements?
Answer: Thank you for your question - which is a good question. We need to be good, don't we? The law writes down a code that helps men to be good.
From the earliest days of civilization men have had codes or laws to help people co-exist in peace and fairness.
The code of Ur-nammu is written on tablets that we still have today, dating back to sometime between 2100 and 2050 BC the first law being, “if a man commits murder, that man must be killed.” This is why Cain was worried for his life. southern Mesopotamia had the first recognizable civilized city-states where people manifested the cooperative effort necessary to make urban life possible.
There was also the code of Urukagina (2,380-2,360 BC) no actual copy of law survives however is known to have existed by its reference in the later codes.
People appreciate men and women who are good and upright. But the Bible points out that because we have a fallen nature, what we call "original sin", we cannot keep the law. Jesus tells us to keep the law. "anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 5:19).
So Jesus wants us to be good, righteous people who obey God's law. We are told this a number of times in the Scriptures:
“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account” (Heb 13:17).
“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right” (1 Pet 2:13–14).
“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” (Mark 12:17).
“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers… For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain” (Rom 13:1,4).
However, there is a proviso: “But Peter and the apostles answered, 'We must obey God rather than men'” (Acts 5:29).
“Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 'When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.' But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them” (Exod 1:15-17).
Daniel, too and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego… All disobeyed royal edicts.
Jesus sums up the situation of putting God first by saying, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matt 10:37).
So what recourse do we have when laws are in place that oppose God’s Word? Do we have a course of action?
Well firstly, we should make sure that we are living peaceably as far as depends on us. “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you” (1 Thess 4:11).
Secondly, we are assured that a higher system of justice is available: “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom 12:19).
“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others” (Dan 2:21).
The law is good: “I agree that the law is good” (Rom 7:16) The problem is that we cannot keep the law. And sometimes those who should uphold the law as rulers fail to do so.
As CS Lewis says, "since we have learned sin, we have found, as Lord Acton says, that 'all power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Theocracy has been rightly abolished not because it is bad that learned priests should govern ignorant laymen, but because priests are wicked men like the rest of us.”
All of humanity carries the fallen nature – original sin. “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (Rom 7:18–19).
Paul said, "I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me" (Rom 7:23).
We are born with original sin. "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Ps 51:5) David lamented.
The Apostle Paul went on to say, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?" (Rom 7:24). But Paul went on to explain that a new way to life has been found. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom 8:3).
The flesh is weak, so that's not the way we live. We now live by the Spirit: "You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ" (Rom 8:9). The Apostle Paul is explaining that the law is good, but we cannot keep it, so that's not the route for us to obtain eternal life. But faith in Christ is the way.
Faith in Jesus will bypass the law, or abolish the law, as Paul puts it, "A new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Heb 10:20-22).
If we sin, we ask forgiveness. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
Let’s continue… Jesus spoke of the "least of these commandments" in other words don't neglect the law. Do what your conscience tells you to do even in small matters. Don't be like the pharisees who looked for a way around the commands, by saying someone didn't have to support their parents if their gift was going to be used for "corban" a gift for God.
The spirit of the law is what counts, remember Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also" (Matt 5:38-39). Jesus is explaining that love is what holds the commandments together.
An expert in the law came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt 22:36-40).
We said earlier that societies have always had laws, a group of people living together need laws. The Mosaic law borrowed some laws from the earlier city-states in Mesopotamia. And laws often need amending as society progresses and gets larger and new inventions come along. The "law" is fluid - that's why we say the "spirit of the law".
We also said that human beings cannot keep the law because we have a tendency to sin and miss the mark. We should have the law in our hearts. That's how God originally made us, but we fell and have been given over to our sins. Men did not know how sinful they were so God wrote down the commandments so that we may see exactly how sin affects us. "I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law." (Rom 7:7).
"The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Gal 3:24).
The law teaches us that we need faith in Christ. Jesus upholds the law because, not only is it good, but it also leads us to him. God wants us to be good, and our goodness comes through Christ.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (John 13:34).
Summary… So we have established that all societies need laws. However, we cannot keep the laws because we all fail at some point. Now it’s important to point out that the Old Testament laws are different to the laws of other countries in that the Hebrew laws make provision for us not being able to keep the law. (The blood of bulls, goats and lambs etc, was a part of the daily and annual cleansing for sins.) “What other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?” (Deut 4:8).
But we also now know that “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship” (Heb 10:1).
Our sins have now been cleansed by Christ’s blood, shed on the cross. So we don’t need to keep the law in regard to cleansing for sins. “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10). But that does not mean we can be evil and sin. The Holy Spirit leads us into a holy life, “who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:2).
We find out what pleases God – “find out what pleases the Lord” (Eph 5:10). And we live in a way that pleases the Lord.
The OT law warns about incest… So we know that incest is wrong, because the DNA in the double helix that’s defective cannot be remedied if the partners are closely related. But before we knew that, the Old Testament taught it. And before we knew about microorganisms the Mosaic law had stipulations about washing and cleansing. And in a way God will still find us guilty if, let’s say, we are preparing a meal for someone and can’t be bothered to wash our hands. That’s not right in God’s eyes, if we have let laziness overcome our sense of doing what is right. Or perhaps we’re not too bothered if the person we are preparing the food for gets sick. Or worse still, maybe we want them to get sick so don’t take the necessary precautions for good food hygiene.
God will see that darkness in our hearts, and it’s our own hearts that condemns us, unless we bring that darkness to Christ, for cleansing and ask for strength not to be tempted in such a way. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jer 31:33). We don’t have to keep the “letter of the law” regarding washing etc. For instance: “whoever touches any of the things that were under him will be unclean till evening; whoever picks up those things must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening” (Lev 15:10). But we see the principle involved.
In Revelation 14:12 we read, “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus”.
So we, know the commandments of God – Love God, love your neighbour, do what is honourable in God’s sight—follow Christ with all your heart. “They asked him, 'What must we do to do the works God requires?” (John 6:28). “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29).
Don’t have the mark of the beast, for a few verses before we read, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury” (Rev 14:9).
So God is giving us some specific advice here, listen to what God is saying and follow his commands. The law (i.e. the first five books of the Bible that Moses wrote, for that’s how the Jews understood the word “law”,) point us to Christ. So every detail in them is correct. “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me” (John 5:46). The law points us to Christ. He is the fulfilment of the “law”.