A question I had to answer for my college via forum. Emma wanted something written on Deuteronomy. It isn’t specifically on Deut, but relates!
—
As we study Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy in particular, the question inevitably arises, to what extent are we as Christians subject to the Law and to the individual laws that we read here, in the sight of God. Drawing on your knowledge of the New Testament, discuss whether we are entirely free from OT Law, or whether it still applies to us as a whole system, or whether there is some more nuanced or qualified way in which it remains relevant for us today.
This is a question that bothers me, simply because I do not accurately know the answer of it. In one way, Jesus is the fulfilment of the law (5:17) and we do not live under the law but are free from the law of Moses and so the law has no ‘power’ over us (Gal 3:22-26). Consequently, we are saved by Christ’s substitution of His perfect life, lived fully and completely according to the law. And Jesus also says that He has not come to ‘abolish the law’, and that those who relax any of the commands will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Logically, if Christ also died as a sacrifice for our sin offering as we cannot complete the law, then the law must in some way mean something. It is at this point that I begin to get bothered as I am no longer assured of what we are now liable to do.
Do we keep the law, knowing we fail but that Christ succeeded and is our substitute, living according to the law as we see it as an expression of how God wants us to live? Or do we live free from the law, and focus simply on its summary, which is to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul and mind and love our neighbour also? Is part of loving God with our heart, soul and mind abiding by the law? Given how Jesus lived and mixed with ‘unclean’ people etc, do we follow His example?
Confusion reigns!
Nevertheless, I think there is something in the law that we need to seriously consider, and ensure we have ‘imprinted’ on our minds and hearts.
‘To what extent are we as Christians subject to the Law and to the individual laws that we read here, in the sight of God.’
I think, to an extent, we are not subject to the law of Moses, but to the law of Christ (1 Cor 9:21). The question then is what is that?
Since Christ is the fulfilment of the law of Moses, we need to realise that we were bought at a price (1 Cor 6:20). Our master, Jesus, has bought us. We are bondservants to Him, as Paul often puts it (2 Cor 4:5). If we are Christs, then we must act according to what Christ wants.
Consequently, we must use the Law to find out what God intended for us in our behaviour. How are we to treat our neighbour? How are we to treat widows? How are we to treat the sojourner? Does God appreciate if we do this or that? We use the law as a guideline, not as salvation for we are not justified by the law for our salvation (Gal 3:11).
‘Drawing on your knowledge of the New Testament, discuss whether we are entirely free from OT Law, or whether it still applies to us as a whole system, or whether there is some more nuanced or qualified way in which it remains relevant for us today.’
Something that is helpful to us is Article 7 of the Church of England’s Thirty-Nine Articles states:
Although the Law given from God by Moses, as touching Ceremonies and Rites, do not bind Christian men, nor the Civil precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any commonwealth; yet notwithstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral.
David Phillips explains the above by stating that the ceremonies and rites do not bind Christian men; the civil precepts do not need to be followed, though they may be; but, we ought to obey the moral commandments. Yet the moral commandments, set by Jesus in Matthew 5:27 are so great that we cannot possibly achieve them without His substitution death and resurrection; to the extent we understand that and live by the Spirit (Gal 5:16), the closer the Spirit will guide us to be like Christ. This is sanctification by faith, if I am not mistaken.
Martin Luther, in his Treatise on Good Words, claims that all sins according to commandments 2 – 9 (And, by extension, all sin that man commits) stem from the fact that the person did not believe in the first commandment. Luther’s point was that the first commandment, if it is to be completely fulfilled, results in the believer not committing the sins of the other 9, and consequently fulfilling the law.
Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness. There was no law, yet he was righteous despite his sins. Was there a law in Genesis? No. So does this mean Abraham somehow got an easier ride because he was ‘pre-Sinai’? No way. He was just as accountable as others. Judgement came down on Sodom and Gomorrah even though they had no law to follow. Abraham believed in God, and this was the determining factor.
This obviously means that counting God as God, and having faith in God, is the number one priority in the Christian life. In John 6:228-29, the only work of god is that we ‘…believe in him who He [The Father] has sent.’
If we believe in God, this in essence changes our behaviour, as all of a sudden we are intent on ‘loving God with our heart, soul and mind’ and ‘loving our neighbour as ourselves.’ The law now becomes a way to help us do this, rather than a way to find our salvation.
I think a key phrase in all this is ‘by the Spirit.’ Paul in Romans 7:4-6 declared that we serve in the Spirit. If we serve in the Spirit, then we are not bound by the works of the flesh. We serve by the Spirit when we repent, trust God and have faith in Christ’s sacrifice. Once this is accomplished, we are ‘released from the law’, and no longer need to serve ‘in the old way of the written code’. This seems to exonerate our requirement for ceremonial and civil obedience.
Yet we’re required to live by the Spirit and by Christ’s law, which is faith in Him, and consequently we tend to keep closer to the written law not as a means of justification but by a way of guideline.
Aiming the lens 