The Disciple and the Law

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 Is all that God said to His people in the Old Testament about how they were to live in relationship to Him no longer applicable?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 119^th 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).