Imanuel G. Christian
In
the context of salvation by grace and not by keeping the Law, is there nothing
expected of us any further? Is all that God said to His people in the Old
Testament about how they were to live in relationship to Him no longer
applicable? Do we understand anything in the Old Testament, such as life
principles to live by, as “law”? Or was it all simply ceremonial Law that
looked forward to Christ? Is the law a good thing or bad? Are we supposed to keep
the law or discard it? Are we, as believers, totally free from keeping the law?
As we read the New Testament
sometimes it creates an impression that we as believers are totally free from
keeping the law. Believers died to the law (Romans 7:1-4). We are released from
the law (7:6). Christ is the end of the law (1o:4). Redeemed from under the law
(Galatians 4:5). We are not under the law (5:18). The law is not for good
people (1 Timothy 1:9)!
Similarly, Christ blasted the
Pharisees for their keeping the letter of the law and loading it up with their
traditions making it a heavy burden to bear (Matthew 23:4; Luke 11:46). In the
first church council in Jerusalem, Peter too said the law was “a yoke that
neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear” (Acts 15:10). Later Paul
called the law “a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).
The theological doctrines of saved
by grace and not by keeping the works of the law and the eternal security of
the believer also add to the general impression that the law is not for the
believers and we are now free from the law. The first of these two makes the
law useless and the second unnecessary. As one comes to the cross, there is no
difference between the thief on the cross and Saul of Tarsus. Or, to say it in
modern terms, between Adolf Hitler and Imanuel Christian, except that Hitler
did not become a believer (as far we can know).
The result of this, of course, is
obvious. There is no need for a marked difference in the lifestyle of those who
claim to be believers and those who do not. There is no fear of God and no need
to live a holy life. Flesh becomes an easy excuse, Satan a readily available
target, environment and circumstances easy temptations and eternal security a
license to live our own way. This has made the Christian life appear to be easy
and cheap. In that context we need to grasp the significance of the law in the
life of a believer. And, we are speaking only in relation to the believer, as
in all these monthly articles.
First of all, Christ did not abolish
the law. He said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the
prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17;
Read vv. 17-19). What He did is He shifted the focus of righteousness simply
from outward behavior to inward character and the motivation from seeking the
approval from man to seeking the approval from God. On the one hand Christ
simplified the law by condensing it in the two basic commandments; love the
Lord and your neighbor. And on the other hand, by giving the deeper meaning of
the law in the Sermon on the Mount, He demonstrated that there is no person on
earth who can fully satisfy the requirements of the law.
Secondly, the main point in Paul’s
writings, especially in the letters to the Romans and Galatians, is that no one
can fully meet the requirements of the law to earn his salvation; and the law
was never meant as a way of gaining salvation. Whether in the Old Testament or
in the New Testament, the way to salvation was always by trusting God, in
faith, , not by keeping the law (Romans Chapter 4). Salvation is by grace alone
through faith in the finished work of Christ, and not by works of the law
(Ephesians 2:8-9).
However, Paul vehemently denies that
a believer is free to live in any way he may like; he is bound to live by the
moral code provided in the law, except that now he has the Holy Spirit who
enables him to live by God’s law and his motivation is now different; it is not
for outward show to please man, but an inward attitude, the fruit that the
Spirit produces in him, living life that is pleasing to God.
Third, when Peter said the law was
“a yoke that neither we or our fathers have been able to bear” (Acts 15:10), he
referred to the ceremonial law and cultic practices required as a part of the
Old Testament system of Law; not to the moral law that God has placed in
everyone’s heart. “He” (God), Peter said, “accepts men who fear him and do what
is right” (Acts 10:35). Similarly in the Book of Hebrews the point is, “it is
impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (10:8) and so it
was necessary for Christ to shed His blood. But the author later emphasizes
life still lived in reverence and awe of God, for God is a consuming fire.
My point is, nowhere in the New Testament
are we told, directly or indirectly, that the moral code God gave to His people
Israel in the Old Testament now does not apply to the New Testament believer.
What Moses said in the Old Testament to the people of Israel (for example
Deuteronomy 6:4-7; etc.) is as valid today as it was when Moses initially gave
it. Whether the Old Testament or the New, God’s character does not change and
He has the same set of rules that He expects every person to live by (Leviticus
11:14ff; 1 Peter 1:15-16).
If you are under any impression that
the law given to the people of Israel in the Old Testament was a heavy burden
and a drudgery that Christ has relieved us from and we now do not have to live
by the law given in the Old Testament, I would encourage you to slowly and
meditatively read the 119th psalm. It is no accident that the
longest chapter in the entire Bible, that is placed exactly in the centre of
the Bible, is a love poem about God’s law! The psalmist uses eight different
words for the law---law, statutes, precepts, decrees, commands, word or words
of God and way or ways of God---a total of 173 times in 176 verses. Law of God
for the psalmist does not merely mean rules. “It expresses the totality of
God’s written instructions. The poet sees life full of uncertainties, of
enemies, of pain. But God has given a reliable guide for living—like pavement
underfoot after you have been stuck in mud. God’s law to the psalmist beckons
toward freedom, not slavery” (NIV Student Bible; Notes by Philip Yancey and Tim
Stafford).
As we live in a culture that is
progressively becoming more and more lawless, we have to commit ourselves to
live by the Book, by the moral code that God has given in His Book. Christ did
not abolish this law, He gave to it deeper meaning and different perspective.
Grace does not give us a license but gives an added incentive to live by God’s
law. Eternal security does not take away our responsibility to live life that
is pleasing to God. Living by the law of God is the life and responsibility of
every believer. Like the string that enables the kite to soar, God’s law binds
us to God and enables us to go on the heights and live life to its fullest.
“Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of
the LORD. Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their
heart” (Psalm 119:1-2).
