Covenant-The Law of Moses

This is an important subject for Christians: Law. Specifically, the Old Testament Law followed by religious Jews from the time of Moses right up to today.

But why should we care? Didn’t Christ take us beyond the Law? Didn’t Paul say it was just a “tutor” until Christ came? Isn’t the Law something from “back then” to which Christians are no longer subject?

Most Christian denominations and theologians have a specific and rigorous concept about the relative importance of the Law to Christians, and what effect the coming of Jesus Christ had on the Law and our relationship to it. Most would affirm that faith in Christ frees us from the Law, although just what that means and how it happens is the source of voluminous debate. There are also a few Christian groups that still follow the Law, including keeping kosher and worshiping on the Jewish Sabbath. So it is a topic worthy of some serious attention. In this blog I will touch some of the highlights, but Chapter 14 of What We Believe and Why goes into much more depth.

Rightly understood, the Law of Moses was given by God as a means to guide His people and help them live with each other, and grow into deeper and more intimate and life-giving relationship with Him.

Now, with this in mind, let’s begin to look at the nature and content of the covenant between God and Israel, expressed in this Law of Moses.

Recall that Genesis contains the covenant with Abraham. We move forward to the covenant with Israel in the Law of Moses through these steps:

•             Abraham and Sarah beget Isaac.

•             Isaac and Rebekah beget Jacob.

•             Jacob wrestles with God and is renamed Israel.

•             Jacob (Israel) and Rachel beget Joseph.

•             Joseph’s half-brothers sell him into slavery in Egypt.

•             Joseph rises to become ruler under the Pharaoh.

•             Joseph’s brothers, father and families move to Egypt.

•             They prosper and multiply.

•             Later generations of Pharaohs forget Joseph and fear the growing population of Israelites, and so put them into slavery.

•             400 years pass in this process.

•             Moses is born to an Israelite family but becomes an Egyptian prince by adoption.

•             God calls Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

•             Pharaoh refuses to let them go, and is beset by plagues.

•             The Israelites place the blood of lambs on their doorframes, and the Spirit of God “passes over” them but takes the lives of the firstborn of the Egyptians.

•             Pharaoh relents, briefly.

•             Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt through the Red Sea.

•             God makes a covenant with the Israelites, the Law of Moses, the foundation of which is the Ten Commandments, plus many other instructions on how to live and worship. These are contained in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

All of the provisions of the Law are from these four books, though parts of it are anticipated in Genesis and unpacked by the Writings and Prophets (the biblical books of Joshua through Malachi) and also in the Talmud.

Since this is the Law that Jesus, Paul and the author of Hebrews comment on, and that Christians often speak of disparagingly or in caricature, let’s carefully consider its nature and key provisions. Rabbi Ronald Isaacs says this about it:

Judaism has always been more a religion of action and deed than belief and creed. Learning was intended to lead to doing. To that end, Jewish conduct has been governed by a series of commandments, known in Hebrew as mitzvot (singular mitzvah). The scope of meaning of the word mitzvah is a wide one. It denotes commandment, law, obligation and deed, while connoting goodness, value, piety, and even holiness.

James, brother of Jesus, says this very pointedly:

   What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith save him?

    If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what the body needs, what good is it?

   So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without works and I will show you faith by my works.

You believe that God is one; well and good. Even the demons believe that—and tremble with fear. But would you like evidence, you empty fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? You see that his faith was working together with his works and his faith was perfected  by works. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Now Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

And similarly, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

James is drilling home a key point about faith, works, covenant and relationship with God. Yet some Christians still insist that, since Abraham was justified by his faith, it is our faith in Jesus, alone, that makes us right with God and is therefore sufficient.

It’s as if getting “saved” is enough, and sanctification (which includes “works”) is an option. But if we believe this half-truth, we have missed this key purpose of the Law, which is the living out of faith in our daily actions. As James said above, “You see that his faith was working together with his works and his faith was perfected by works.”

Faith is birth; works are the living out of a sanctified life after birth.

Social action is often seen suspiciously as the province of the “liberals” and is somehow at odds with the “true gospel,” which is wrongly believed to be almost entirely about faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Paul is sometimes used to defend this view, as against James, who is used to defend the “social gospel” view. Yet the testimony of all Scripture says that these two, faith and action, are inseparable. James says faith is perfected (the Greek word here means “completed, made whole”) by works. This is profoundly the view of the Hebrew Scriptures (the “Old” Testament), as we will continue to discover.

The New and Old Testaments do not disagree on this point, nor on the purpose of the Law, nor on the requirement to do good works, nor do they disagree on the sequence of faith and works, salvation and sanctification. Only by yanking these out of context can we make the two Testaments seem at odds.

I will explain this in next week’s blog by looking more deeply at the actual substance of the Law rather than assert that it is no longer necessary.

In Christ,

Pastor George