The Law
If you will not take heed to do all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this glorious and fearful Name, Yahweh your God, then . . “ Deuteronomy 28:58
If You Will Not Take Heed – The email expressed real concern. “Are you saying that the old law is not dead, that we are still bound by the things under the old law before it was nailed to the cross? We now live under a new covenant, correct?” asked the writer. He could not imagine that we are still bound by the commandments given to Israel so many centuries ago. He was taught that the law was rendered null and void with the death of Christ, that it was “nailed to the cross.” After all, didn’t Paul say that we were no longer under the law, that we were dead to it? It is quite popular for Christians to speak this way, suggesting that we have severed the ties to Old Testament roots because we live under the banner of grace.
Oops! There is a lot of confusion here, and it has some tragic consequences.
How can Jesus say, “I did not come to abolish [the Law], but to fulfill it” (Matthew 5:17), or proclaim that not the smallest part of the Law will pass away until “all is accomplished”? Did you think that He meant until He died? Is that all that God has to accomplish? How can He teach from the Law, draw inferences from the Law, and hold His audience accountable to the Law, if He knows that it is no longer applicable? Are we to say that God’s character, revealed in the Law (for the Law is simply an expression of Who God is) has changed? If you think that the law is dead, then how do you know how to live today? Do you just sit around waiting for God to give you “a word”? If now you live according to the Spirit, not the law, then do you believe that the Spirit does not endorse the character of the God Who gave the law in the first place? And if the Law is no longer applicable, which of the Ten Commandments are you ready to stop doing? Which of them doesn’t matter?
No, my friends! Jesus was nailed to the cross, not the law. Jesus died, not the law. The reason that Paul can say that we are dead to the law and that the law no longer has effect is not that the law is null and void. It is the consequences of the law that are null and void. God has accepted the substitution of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf so that we no longer are cursed by the requirements of the law. That does not mean that the law is abolished. It means that the punishment I deserved under the law is abolished. Now I am free to obey the law. Jesus says that He came to “fill up” the revelation of God in the law. He fulfilled the law by providing a complete revelation of its meaning, not by setting it aside.
Before you run out and join a synagogue, remember that God reveals Himself to human beings, and all human beings are a product of time, culture and circumstances. So, some of those Levitical rules for living might not apply now that we have refrigeration and antibiotics and passports. But that does not mean all of the law is discarded. God revealed Himself to the Jewish people for a reason. We would do well to think long and hard about His choice. When God says “if you will not take heed” (imlo tishmor), He is serious. Dire consequences follow the thinking that God’s directions for life don’t count anymore. The phrase literally means, “not watch over, keep, guard or care for.” Jesus set you free to be an obedient slave to the God of law and order. He didn’t give you a pass to ignore God’s character. He simply made it possible for you to stand before the throne and say, “Here am I, Lord. What would you have me do?”
(Now don’t get scared. No one can ever earn salvation. My obedience to the Law never earns my way to God’s favor. That is not the purpose of the Law. But throwing away the Law because it could not save me is ridiculous. It is my guide to living after I have been restored to fellowship by grace. God never changed His mind about how we should live. Why should He? His word was perfect then. It is perfect now.)
