The Law Behind the Law
Some people equate the law of Moses with the eternal law of God (true good and evil). But the New Testament makes clear that the Law of Moses (or at least a portion of it) is not eternal—and was never intended to be. Jesus declared all unclean foods “clean” (Mark 7.19 cf. Acts 10.15). Paul says the cross “abolish[ed] the law of commandments expressed in ordinances” (Ephesians 2.15) and that “[God] set aside” and “cancel[ed] the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” (Colossians 2.14). Likewise, the bulk of the book of Hebrews (chapters 7-10) argues that the Old Testament law (and priestly rituals in particular) were illustrative, pointing forward to Jesus, and Jesus’ mediation of a new covenant made the Law of Moses “old”, no longer in force.
Circumcision, kosher laws, and some would say strict Sabbath observance were tied to the old covenant people and were done away by the new covenant of the Christian faith.
Laws tied to the old Israelite agrarian economic and social structures—the fifty-year jubilee and land sabbaths, laws allowing the poor to glean the fields after harvest, and levirate marriage (i.e. a man marrying his brother’s widow to protect the widow and raise up children to inherit his brother’s land) we no longer find directly applicable to our non-agrarian social structures.
Changes in social structure and criminal law enforcement have also removed the death penalty for adultery, Sabbath-breaking, religious apostasy, and incorrigible children. Likewise, we no longer practice the “avenger of blood” or “cities of refuge” to manage revenge in long-standing family feuds.
There are real principles of good and evil behind all these laws that can be practiced in new and different applications, but these applications no longer fit our world.
God hasn’t changed; people have.
God’s law is still applicable; it wears different clothing that we understand better.
God hasn’t written totally new law codes comparable to Moses’. Now, the responsibility falls to us to look through the lens of the Law of Moses and the prophets and more especially the corrective lens of Jesus and His teachings through the apostles and apply good and evil to our ever-changing situations.
That generates several important results that I believe we are forced to embrace.
First, in any given circumstance there may be more than one correct way to avoid evil and practice good. Different people, or different groups of people, may discover different applications, all of which may be correct, though some applications may prove better than others.
Second, this is hardly an exact science. It is more utilitarian, more practical—one person learning from another, one community learning from another—improving our doing of good and avoidance of evil by comparison of results of our differing methods and making deliberate changes.
Third, it seems to me that our application of good and evil will show up in at least two particular places—morals and law codes. Morals are generated by the consciences of individuals and communities and enforced by personal conscience and social pressure from the family, community, or the church. Law codes are generated by government and enforced by reward or punishment.
These are the next spectrums we will consider—moral vs immoral and legal vs. illegal—in upcoming blogs.
Circumcision, kosher laws, and some would say strict Sabbath observance were tied to the old covenant people and were done away by the new covenant of the Christian faith.
Laws tied to the old Israelite agrarian economic and social structures—the fifty-year jubilee and land sabbaths, laws allowing the poor to glean the fields after harvest, and levirate marriage (i.e. a man marrying his brother’s widow to protect the widow and raise up children to inherit his brother’s land) we no longer find directly applicable to our non-agrarian social structures.
Changes in social structure and criminal law enforcement have also removed the death penalty for adultery, Sabbath-breaking, religious apostasy, and incorrigible children. Likewise, we no longer practice the “avenger of blood” or “cities of refuge” to manage revenge in long-standing family feuds.
There are real principles of good and evil behind all these laws that can be practiced in new and different applications, but these applications no longer fit our world.
God hasn’t changed; people have.
God’s law is still applicable; it wears different clothing that we understand better.
God hasn’t written totally new law codes comparable to Moses’. Now, the responsibility falls to us to look through the lens of the Law of Moses and the prophets and more especially the corrective lens of Jesus and His teachings through the apostles and apply good and evil to our ever-changing situations.
That generates several important results that I believe we are forced to embrace.
First, in any given circumstance there may be more than one correct way to avoid evil and practice good. Different people, or different groups of people, may discover different applications, all of which may be correct, though some applications may prove better than others.
Second, this is hardly an exact science. It is more utilitarian, more practical—one person learning from another, one community learning from another—improving our doing of good and avoidance of evil by comparison of results of our differing methods and making deliberate changes.
Third, it seems to me that our application of good and evil will show up in at least two particular places—morals and law codes. Morals are generated by the consciences of individuals and communities and enforced by personal conscience and social pressure from the family, community, or the church. Law codes are generated by government and enforced by reward or punishment.
These are the next spectrums we will consider—moral vs immoral and legal vs. illegal—in upcoming blogs.