Law with a Capital L

So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.  Romans 7:12 NASB

Law – It is common Christian belief that the “Law of Moses” has been set aside with the death of Jesus.  Under the Augustinian-Lutheran interpretation, the “Law” was a restrictive, despotic decree for Israel because Israel needed strict codes to correct their constant misbehavior.  Christians, on the other hand, have the internal work of the Holy Spirit, making an external legal code unnecessary.  Christians are under grace, not law, doing what God wants from the heart, not from an enforced code.

Unfortunately, this theological interpretation of the “Law” runs into real problems when Paul says that the “Law” is holy, righteous, and good.  How can Paul be so mistaken?  If the “Law” holds us captive to sin and forces us to adopt an external obedience in order to be acceptable to God, how can Paul imagine that it is hágia (holy), díkaia (righteous), and agathē (good)?  The problem is not with Paul.  It’s with us.  We have the wrong idea about “Law.”

In a critically important article, Joshua Berman points out that our concept of “Law” is anachronistically applied to the biblical idea.[1]  Today we operate under statutory law, that is, law that is in a codified, written text.  This law code “supersedes all other sources of norms that preceded the formulation of the code. . . Where the code lacks explicit legislation, judges must adjudicate with the code as their primary guide.”[2]  Viewed in this way, the “Law” is a fixed body of written legal material dictating ethical behavior for a given society.  But this concept of law has only been in place since the nineteenth century.  It is not the concept of law found in the ancient world, and in particular, in the Hebraic world of the Torah.  In fact, statutory law is only necessary when the population does not share common values and ethical systems, as is the case with virtually all nations today, and was undoubtedly the case in the extended Roman Empire.  Before statutory law became the norm, common law was the guide for behavior.  Common law is nothing more than the accepted norms of a community, typically found in small, connected communities with shared values, experiences, and culture—like virtually all the communities of the ancient world.  And common law is not written law.  It does not operate according to fixed statutes which are adjudicated according to the strict letter of the written code.  It operates by example, that is, by precedent set by prior application subject to contemporary situations.  In other words, Torah is flexible because it must be adaptable to changing human circumstances within the practicing community.

The reason Paul has no problem with the “Law” is that Paul embraces the Torah as common law, adaptable to the circumstances of the believing community.  The reason Luther has a big problem with the Torah is that he views it as statutory “Law,” and recognizes that it is not adaptable to his contemporary world.  Flexible Torah is exhibited in the oral tradition of Israel.  The “Law” is holy, righteous, and good because it fits the community as God’s contemporary instructions—and it always has because it has always been adaptable.  Once Torah is viewed through the lens of statutory law, it becomes an antiquated, restrictive, and in some cases, nonsensical ethical demand.  That is not Paul’s view—but it is the view of most Christians.

The letter to the Romans has a lot to say about the “Law.”  We just have to be sure we aren’t assuming the wrong definition of Paul’s word.

Topical Index:  Law, statutory, common, Romans 7:12

You can read the entire article by Berman HERE.  It’s well worth it.

[1] Joshua Berman, “Discrepancies between Laws in the Torah,” in The Believer and the Modern Study of the Bible (Targum Shlishi, Academic Studies Press, 2019), pp. 443-462.

[2] Ibid., p. 449.