The Christian and the Law of Moses

THE CHRISTIAN

AND

THE LAW OF MOSES

What Is Its Importance
For Us Today?

Victor Bissett

Note: Dealing with this theme, apart from the French version
of this booklet, “Le chrétien et la Loi de Moise”, the author has
published a more detailed work in French entitled:
“Liberté et libération dans le Nouveau Testament:
Une étude biblique et théologique” (C.D.M., Abidjan),
in which he also touches on the problem of Liberation Theology.

“A Christian man is a most free lord of all,
subject to none.
A Christian man is a most dutiful servant of all,
subject to all.”
(Martin Luther: “Tractatus de libertate christiana”, 1520)

For the Point Loma Nazarene College
1996 Côte d’Ivoire LoveWorks team,
fulfilling “the law of Christ”.

Translated from the French
by Frank Wallace.

The author wishes to express his thanks to Frank Wallace
and to Henry and Miriam M’Narobi
without whose help this English edition
would not have been published.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible,
“New International Version”, copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984,
International Bible Society.

First French edition 1987.
English edition June 1996.
Internet e-mail edition 1997.
Web text edition first posted June 1998.

Copyright © Victor Bissett, 1998
CENTRE DE DOCUMENTATION MISSIONNAIRE
08 B.P. 424, ABIDJAN 08, Ivory Coast, West Africa.
Tel: (225) 42-72-45 — E-mail: bissettv@WHO.net

SUMMARY

The Law, The Bible And Jesus’ Teaching
Paul’s Doctrine Contested
Should We Continue In Sin?

Jesus And The Law
“Up Until John It Was The Law And The Prophets”

Christ, The End Of The Law
Paul And The Law
Paul And The Sabbath

Two Major Errors
Paul And These Errors

The Law Made Obsolete
The Decalogue Abolished With The Law
The Letter And The Spirit

The Law Of Christ
Conclusion

The author:

Victor Bissett started teaching in 1965. He has taught in
secondary and tertiary institutions in Australia and France,
and also in Niger Republic in 1981-82. There he was the first
missionary professeur accepted to teach in a State lycee,
and he was made a member of the jury for the Baccalaureat
in 1982. He then taught courses for three years with SIM
in the Bible School at Niamey.

His university studies were initially in Philosophy and
modern languages. He did secondary teacher training,
graduated B.A., and was later awarded an M.A. with Honours
in French. He completed his Th.L. while teaching in the
government Lycee Montesquieu in Bordeaux, France, in 1969-70.
Afterwards he did graduate B.D. studies, with a special
option in Comparative Religion and in Islam in particular.
He also did Australian College of Theology Scholar of Theology
(Th.Schol.) examinations in Dogmatics and Comparative Study
of Living Faiths, writing papers in the area of Christology
and on The Points of Contact beween Islam and Christianity
Today. He has completed a Ph.D. in New Testament Gospel studies
and has done cross-cultural courses in Detroit, Michigan. With
the late Jeremy Hinds (of the Bible Society of Nigeria),
Victor Bissett is co-author of the Cours sur le Coran edited
in Abidjan.

Victor Bissett is married to Stephanie and they have three
daughters. Having come to Cote d’Ivoire as missionaries in 1985,
their financial support comes mainly from friends in churches
in Australia. They help various churches in Abidjan and elsewhere
and collaborate with groups like the Groupes Bibliques
Universitaires d’Afrique Francophone and the International
Institute for Pastoral Training in a Bible teaching
ministry and in leadership training as well as editing and
desk-top publishing. Various courses are conducted,
Victor participates in retreats and church conferences,
and some dozen books and booklets have been prepared in French.

This text is now made freely available for your reflection.
We only request honest use of the text and acknowledgement of quotations.
May God bless you richly.

This present text is available in booklet form from CDM.

The Christian and the Law of Moses.

THE LAW, THE BIBLE AND JESUS’ TEACHING

In order to better consider the relationship between the
Ten Commandments (the Decalogue) and the Christian, it is
first necessary to study the broader question of the
relationship between the Law and the Christian — that is,
if there is any.

We are limited here to a rapid study of the Bible’s teaching.
Without going into details, we shall endeavour to give a
concise synthesis of the New Testament teaching on the Law
of Moses in order to see whether the Ten Commandments still
constitute the moral standard of the believer.

We know that with the coming of Jesus the new messianic era
began. He preached with authority unlike the scribes, the
theologians of his time (Mark 1:22). He demanded a righteousness
that was superior to that of the Jewish leaders (Matthew 5:20).
The Pharisees and the scribes did not recognize the nature and
the signs of this new period both manifested in the person of
our Lord (Matthew 16:1-3), and they persecuted him as they
persecuted his disciples after him.

How could they acknowledge his teaching since he posed a threat
to the very Temple and the tradition of their forefathers, as
Stephen the martyr would do also a little later by his words
(cf. Acts 7:48, 51)? The Jews blinded by their preconceived
ideas did not even want to hear the life-giving word of God.
Even while believing themselves to be searching the Scriptures,
the Jewish leaders too easily missed what was important, namely
that the Scriptures testify of our Lord, and of his person and
his work (John 5:39-40).

Moses had his experience of God on the mountain
(Exodus 24:16; 34:29). As for Jesus, his was on another
mountain (which the texts do not identify) but unlike Moses
he did not descend with stone tablets. However, it was the
voice of the Lord which simply said, “Listen to Him” (Luke 9:35).

PAUL’S DOCTRINE CONTESTED

The apostle Paul preached with authority that he had received

from the Lord (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:1). It is obvious that

Paul’s teaching was often revolutionary and difficult to

understand (cf. 2 Peter 3:15). His attitude towards the Law

was too. He who was a Jew raised in the tradition of the

Pharisees (Acts 22:3), how could he dare say the things he

said concerning the Law of Moses? He did not even bother to

quote the seventh commandment when he most likely should have

(cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9-20)!

His teaching was not always received without opposition which
came as much from certain Christian brothers (or false brothers
as he called them — cf. Galatians 2:4) as it came from the
Jewish converts (Acts 21:21) or non-converts (23:29). These
Jews were evidently shocked by what Paul wrote or taught
implicitly or explicitly about the Torah of Moses which was
received as the “instruction” of the Lord for his people.

They found Paul’s doctrine dangerous, perhaps even an incitement
to sexual and other misconduct. No doubt in their minds there
was the concern that if the Christian was not obliged to obey
the Law, then that would mean that he was at liberty to behave
in any manner he chose. However, Paul consistently maintains
throughout his writings the position expressed in his
first-ever epistle (which was addressed to the Galatians,
probably in the year 48 just before the Jerusalem conference
reported in Acts 15). Even about eight years later he would
continue to say, “For sin shall not be your master, because
you are not under law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14; cf.
Galatians 3:25; 5:18).

Some readers of the New Testament, troubled by the implications
of what Paul is saying in his epistles to the Galatians and to
the Romans, may ask the same sort of question as that of Paul’s
critics. They may phrase it in a different way by asking more
precisely: Are not the Ten Commandments even in our day the
moral standard of the Christian? Are not the Ten Commandments,
which God gave to his people Israel, still mandatory for
Christians today? After all, we put them up in our chapels
and churches, don’t we? And do we not often say that they
constitute the basis of the legislation of civilized countries?
If the Ten Commandments do not have eternal value, then what
replaces them in New Testament teaching which would prevent
Christians from living lawlessly? Furthermore, if Paul is
in a way opposed to the Law, does not that place him in clear
contradiction with our Lord Jesus who said at least once
concerning the Law and the Prophets, “I have not come to
abolish them but to fulfil them” (Matthew 5:17)?

SHOULD WE CONTINUE IN SIN?

In response to the objection of his critics, the Apostle

says that their logic is groundless because they have not

truly understood the radical nature of the transformation

that conversion to Christ brings about in the life of the

believer (cf. Romans 12:2).

Freedom in Christ leads to the joy of obedient service to
the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Christian
cannot turn this wonderful liberty into on opportunity for
sin (cf. Galatians 5:13; 1 Peter 2:16; 1 Corinthians 8:9).
Paul says that now that we are freed from sin by the
redemptive work of Christ for us, and have become slaves
of God. We have as fruit holiness and no longer look for
the gratification of fleshly desires in immorality and the
abuse of the body and the things which God gives to us
(Romans 6:21).

Therefore, to the question, “Shall we sin because we are
not under law but under grace?” there is only are possible
answer: “By no means!” (Romans 6:15). The situation is
inconceivable and the question is rather foolish, if we
understand the Christian realities of union with Christ.
As Paul had already said to his Roman readers, “We died
to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (cf. 6:2;
Galatians 5:16), we whose “old self was crucified with
him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that
we should no longer be slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6; cf.
1 Corinthians 10:13).

By the power that God gives to us, we are now set free
not to do just anything but to do what we ought to do,
being slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18). This idea
does not originate with Paul but it is rather the
theological development of the implications of certain
things that were said and done by Jesus Christ himself.

JESUS AND THE LAW

Jesus was victim of a lot of criticism because of the

miracles he worked an the Sabbath. However, we do not

find a single instance where he really disobeyed the

Law of Moses, surely because he was fulfilling all

righteousness (cf. Matthew 3:15), he who was born under

the Law (Galatians 4:4). The Pharisees criticized him

especially because he and his disciples did not respect

the Jewish traditions. He questioned their moral and

theological development of certain regulations of the

Old Testament (cf. Mark 7:8-13) and even certain

stipulations of the Law of Moses itself, especially

when Jesus declared all food to be clean (Mark 7:19).

He also questioned the legal ordinance of divorce (10:5).

His opponents could not convict him of sin (John 8:46)

so, due to a lack of anything better, the Jews were forced

to resort to false witnesses in order to have him crucified.

Here we see that contrary to what most readers think,
Jesus never asserted that the Law was to be permanent.
It is true that Christ quoted, although rarely, the
Decalogue, which was still in effect to convict of sin
since the Spirit had not yet come. However, this does
not at all mean that the Ten Commandments were of a
permanent nature, any more than the tithe was which
was set aside for the Levites, which is mentioned in
Matthew 23:23 (cf. Deuteronomy 26:12), or the offering
made at the Temple altar (cf. Matthew 5:24), or even the
Temple itself about which Jesus said, “My house will be
called a house of prayer for all the nations” (Mark 11:17)
— just shortly before he predicted its destruction!
(cf. Mark 13:2).

Even in Matthew 5:17 our Lord was not declaring that
the Law would have a permanent validity. To do that
would be to go too far because, when he said, “I have
not came to abolish them, but to fulfil them,” he was
speaking of the entire Old Testament, “the Law and the
Prophets.” What he is asserting is that he came to fulfil
them by his life and by his death. This point must be noted.
Besides, it is sure and certain that fulfilled in him,
the Law and the Prophets are not abolished but rather
obsolete and so nullified for the Christian just as much
as the colonial law is for the African today.

“UP UNTIL JOHN

IT WAS THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS”

According to the description given by our Lord, John

the Baptist was in a way the last prophet of the old

covenant (or Testament) who foresaw and was waiting for

the fulfilment of the promises of the prophets in the

coming of the Messiah, Jesus-Christ. Because John was

from this former era, the children of the Kingdom of God

are greater than he, according to a statement made by

Jesus (Luke 7:28). “The Law and the Prophets were

proclaimed until John. Since that time the good news of

the kingdom of God is being preached,” said our Lord Jesus

(Luke 16:16). In Christ and his ministry, the Kingdom

(the reign of God) has finely come (Matthew 12:28) and

the age of the Law has come to its end.

The regulations concerning food were as fundamental for the
Jews as those that the Lord gave in the Old Testament concerning
the Sabbath or even circumcision, which was described as the
sign of a perpetual covenant (Genesis 16:13). We must note that
by his behaviour Jesus clearly challenged these ordinances
(cf. Mark 7:19) and the Decalogue itself. After all, the
Sabbath alone takes up a whole commandment.

On one occasion Jesus even placed one of the Ten Commandments
beside a commandment of the ritual law to argue against the
Pharisees and their traditional position. Besides, like all
the biblical authors, he never distinguished between the moral
law and the civil or ritual law the way certain theologians do,
often to try to establish the present and continual validity
of the Ten Commandments, for the Ten Commandments are included
in the Law fulfilled in Christ.

Let us briefly consider that enlightening incident found in
the Gospels. To justify the behaviour of his disciples on a
Sabbath when they picked and ate heads of grain, Jesus used
the example of David in the Old Testament when he broke the
Law concerning the sanctuary by eating the consecrated bread
(Matthew 12:3-4). The comparison is no doubt significant to
our discussion. However, that which is all the more so is
Jesus’ goal in alluding to David’s action, which is revealed
by what directly follows. Our Saviour solemnly adds: “I tell
you that one greater than the temple is here... For the Son
of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:6-8).

Even if the disciples were innocent, that is not the point.
Jesus took advantage of this incident and of the criticisms
of his enemies to emphasize once again that he is the Lord
of all things including the Sabbath because of the authority
that he shares with the Father (cf. John 5:16-18). He is
greater than the Temple and, just like the Law with its
commandments, even the Temple with its sacrifices will be
obsolete once the work of the incarnate Christ is complete
(cf. John 19:30; Hebrews 7:27; 9:26).

Just before this incident, we find in the gospels of Mark
and Luke a saying which introduces this in such a way as
to show the superiority and importance of the ministry of
Jesus. It shows up all the futility of the narrow-minded
attitude of the Pharisees. By these words, “No one pours
new wine into old wineskins” (Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37), Jesus
was already sounding, at the beginning of his ministry, the
end of Judaism as a special religion. He even predicted the
reactionary attitudes and hard-heartedness of his fellow Jews,
because people prefer as a general rule that which is old and
known, saying, “The old is good” (Luke 5:39). Were they going
to be able to accept that their religion was obsolete and no
longer valid. Nothing was less certain!

But what Matthew also shows us through his presentation is
very striking. Just before the incident with the disciples
in the field of wheat on a Sabbath rest-day, he inserts a
saying which encourages us to find our rest in Christ. This
is surely significant in this context. Jesus says, “Come to
me... and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and
learn from me... and you will find rest for you souls”
(Matthew 11:28). So we will find peace and the true Sabbath,
of which the other was but a shadow (cf. Colossians 2:17),
when we come to Christ, the fulfilment of the Law. So also
the Letter to the Hebrews says, “There remains, then, a
Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters
God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from
his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest”
(Hebrews 4:9-11).

CHRIST, THE END OF THE LAW

Paul, who had received extraordinary revelations of the

Gospel and of the doctrine of Christ (Galatians 1:11-12),

often emphasized this aspect of the fulfilment of the Law

in Jesus. Speaking of his Jewish brothers, he says, “They

are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on

knowledge.” And now he adds, “Christ is the end of the

Law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who

believes” (Romans 10:2, 4).

This seems to mean that Jesus was not only the goal
towards which the Law was heading in order to find
its reason for existence. What is more important is
the fact that the Law was fulfilled and surpassed in
Christ, the Messiah now in us by his Spirit.

Let us remember that Pentecost was the occasion on
which the Jews remembered the gift of the Law on Sinai.
It was during this special festival that the Lord chose
to give the Comforter — the Holy Spirit — to guide us just
as Christ taught and led his disciples during his time
on earth. We can therefore conclude that the Law as such,
and with it the Ten Commandments, has little importance
for the behaviour of the believer who is united with
Christ and finds his justification in him.

Paul developed the implications of the teaching and of
the sovereign behaviour of Christ saying that the age
of the Law has reached its end in so far as the
Spirit-filled people of God is concerned.

PAUL AND THE LAW

Paul deals with this topic in more detail in his

epistle sent to the Galatians who wanted to continue

observing the Law. He writes to them in these terms:

“Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the

law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the

law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might

be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are

no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all

sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus”

(Galatians 3:23-26).

The era of the supervision of the Law had to come to
an end because one is only under guardians and
administrators until a certain point in time while
waiting for the set moment of fulfilment (Galatians 4:2-4).

According to Paul, we are now with the Teacher himself,
and so have consequently become children of God along
with all that that implies (cf. Galatians 4:4; John 1:12;
15:12-15). So the supervisor (or tutor or governor) is no
longer of use to us. After all, says Paul, “The entire
law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbour
as yourself” (cf. Galatians 5:14; 6:2). But we must walk by
the Spirit. He says this clearly to his readers, “If you are
led by the Spirit, you are not under law” (Galatians 5:18).

PAUL AND THE SABBATH

In Paul’s writings, we can find a development of his

understanding of these things in the way he deals with

the question of the Sabbath.

We all know that there was a commandment of the Decalogue
concerning the seventh day of the week which was given to
Moses and the people of Israel as a mandatory day of rest.
This was the Sabbath set aside for the Lord (Exodus 16:23;
20:8; 35:2). We also know that there are very few Christians
who observe this commandment, no doubt because of Paul and
the attitude of our Lord Jesus towards it. The observance
of the Sabbath is even a distinctive mark of certain
legalistic African and western sects and cults.

Paul juxtaposes the question of what a Christian is
permitted to eat with the question of the Sabbath, proof
that he respected no more than our Lord did the distinction
often made nowadays between the moral law and the ritual law.
With regards to food be says, “The man who eats everything
must not look down on him who does not...” (Romans 14:3).
Similarly he says, “One man considers one day more sacred
that another; another man considers every day alike. Each
one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (14:5).

So for Paul Christians were free to respect whichever day
they wanted to, or not to observe any special day at all if
they preferred to act in that way, so long as they realized
that it was a personal matter, had a clear conscience, and
assembled with the brethren for a time of sharing edification
and worship (cf. Hebrews 10:25).

His remarks in the Epistle to the Colossians indicate the
same thing. After having talked about the work of Christ,
he writes, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what
you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival,
a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day” (Colossians 2:16).

Once again we see that it is forbidden to look down on a
brother for observing or not observing the Sabbath or a
festival. And also for what he eats or drinks (which is
different from the way in which one eats or drinks).

Isn’t it amazing that it is in these very same areas that
legalistic brothers often want to judge others? Paul says
that these things are secondary (Colossians 2:17) and that
they are God’s business, for he alone knows how to judge.
It is he who sustains the believer by his Spirit (Romans 14:4).

To return to the way of submission to regulations and
ordinances is the same as a return to pagan attitudes and
practices, declares the Apostle. He writes, “Since you died
with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as
though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules?”
(Colossians 2:20).

It is probably unnecessary to say here that, consequently,
the Christian possesses unlimited liberty concerning the way
in which he uses the Day of the Lord, the first day of the
week. Nowhere in the Word of God is it taught that this day
is the Sabbath for Christians, thus obliging them to rest,
even though this can be beneficial. On the contrary, the
true Sabbath of the Christian is the Sabbath of our rest
in Christ (cf. Hebrews 4:3, 9). The early Christians did
not rest on Sunday. They gathered in a “church” meeting,
an assembly, probably in the evening at the end of a hard
day’s labour as slaves, employers and employees (Acts 20:7-11).

It is certain that very early in the New Testament, Sunday
became the day on which the early Christians assembled in
the name and in memory of their dead and risen Lord, and
they no doubt then partook of the Lord’s Supper. So the
early Christians freed themselves from the observance of
the Sabbath prescribed by the 7th Commandment.

TWO MAJOR ERRORS

To better understand the teaching of Paul, notice that in

his letters of the New Testament, we find that the subjects

taken up are often chosen because of two major errors already

frequent in the early church of the apostolic era. They are

matters of Christian ethics. On the one hand there was an

erroneous judaizing teaching which was fundamentally

legalistic. Paradoxically, linked to this was, at the

other extreme, an error or practice that was lawless

and immoral.

The legalistic teachers did not so much exaggerate
the Law’s importance in the way the Pharisees did,
but they emphasized that Christians were still subject
to the Law of Moses (Galatians 2:4; 3:3; 4:21). They
went so far as sometimes saying that one could not be
saved without observing the Law (Acts 15:1). Of course
we know that there was an important faction of the
Jerusalem church that strictly adhered to the Law of
Moses (cf. Acts 21:20; 15:1). Paul writing to Titus
also reveals that there was a real conflict with those
who called for obedience to “Jewish myths or to the
commands of these who reject the truth” (Titus 1:14).

In response to this way of thinking the apostle says
that “to the pure, all things are pure, but to those
who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure.
In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted”
(vs. 15). Paul means, no doubt, that they are too
narrow-minded and that they have really not understood
anything about Christian freedom.

Here the issue is probably circumcision and forbidden
meat but the principle is the same. If one feels obliged
to observe the Law, one must keep the whole Law, as Paul
says in Galatians 5:3. For this reason the Apostle forbids
quarrels about the Law. According to the context of his
remarks, he seems to say that they should drive away those
who cause divisions among the brethren because of their
desire to impose Jewish practices (Titus 3:9-10; cf.
Philippians 3:2).

We cannot study in any detail the second important error
linked to Christian ethics. Perhaps it is enough to say
that those who practised lawlessness thought, contrary
to what the legalists taught, that the believer’s
behaviour was not at all important, absolutely everything
being permitted for those who are free in Christ
(cf. 1 Corinthians 5:12; Galatians 5:13).

These two errors are still present in our various
congregations, as well as in sects and in the mentality
of nominal Christians. Their reactions have not changed
either. It is always easier to follow traditions and rules
created by men than it is to live out our personal and
collective responsibilities before the Lord who wants
to work in us by his Spirit so that we might be more
conformed day after day to the holy image of his Son
(Romans 8:29).

PAUL AND THESE ERRORS

On the one hand Paul did not deny the freedom of the believer,

and on the other hand he did not at all encourage libertine

and dissolute behaviour. On the contrary, he always stressed

evangelical liberty, which is responsible freedom, saying that

because we are free, we are no longer to place ourselves under

the yoke of slavery, neither to the Law (Galatians 5:18) nor

to immorality (5:16)! Each individual is to exercise his

liberty before God (who alone knows how to judge according

to our faith — Romans 14:3-4, 23). We must also be considerate

of the weaker brother (v21; cf. 1 Corinthians 8:12-13) in order

not to cause him to fall (cf. Romans 14:15, 20-21;

1 Corinthians 8:9).

It is true that Paul says that the Christian is not under
the Law, but this does not mean that he is without law.
There is also the law of Christ which is the driving force
of the Christian (1 Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 6:2).
In a moment we will discuss what this expression “the law
of Christ” means. Suffice it to say here that this is
certainly not a matter of rules and regulations or of a new
law for Christians anything like the Law given to the Jews.

For Paul, going back to regulations and ordinances, which
are obsolete in this era of the Spirit in which we live,
is the equivalent of abandoning the faith. He said to the
Galatians that just as they once worshipped in vain
non-existent gods, following the Law would be a return
to “myths and weak elementary principles” and becoming
once again enslaved (Galatians 4:9). In fact, there he
was speaking about observing “days and months and seasons
and years” (v10). Among them the Sabbath is no doubt
included. In his frustration, after having said earlier,
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” (3:1)
(as if they had been bewitched or enchanted by a magical
force, juju or a “medicine” of some kind), he now says,
“I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts
on you” (4:11). He was wondering if he had wasted his
time with them, evangelizing and teaching.

THE LAW MADE OBSOLETE

What Paul said to the Galatians is important because

we can say that Christ, by his death on the cross,

destroyed the wall of separation, the barrier which

existed between Jews and Gentiles. After all, declares

the Apostle, Jesus Christ has done that by “abolishing

in his flesh the law with its commandments and

regulations” (Ephesians 2:15).

What a wonderful and revealing affirmation! If
Christ has really abolished the Law with its commandments,
then we should not be at all astonished to see in the
Epistle to the Galatians the brusque reaction of the
Apostle. He was flabbergasted by the blindness of those
believers who still wanted to make this Law the basis of
their ethics and, moreover, wanted to impose it an others,
thus causing them to loose their liberty.

THE DECALOGUE ABOLISHED WITH THE LAW

We have just seen that Paul wrote that Christ has abolished
the law with its commandments. We can translate abolished in
Ephesians 2:15 by render inactive or without effect. This
helps us to better understand the idea of this passage. A
parallel text says, “Having cancelled the written code, with
is regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed
to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross”
(Colossians 2:14).

Let us say here that it is true that the Law continues its
existence convicting and condemning unbelievers. However,
it no longer controls the children of God united in Christ
Jesus by the Spirit. For us the Law is abolished, inactive
and obsolete — and replaced by something better.

Set free then by Christ, we have an important duty. Paul
says, “He has made us competent as ministers of a new
covenant — not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the
letter kills but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6).

THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT

The Spirit therefore has replaced the written code, and

now believers are “a letter from Christ ... written not

with ink but with the Spirit of the living God”

(2 Corinthians 3:3). From now on the emphasis is removed

from the “tablets of stone” (as in the former days). God

is now acting in our hearts. Paul said to the Galatians,

“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law”

(Galatians 5:18).

This is even the guarantee of our ultimate victory, “For
sin shall not be your master, because you are not under Law,
but under grace” (Romans 6:14). We are living in the new era
of grace and of the Spirit. For the Apostle, the circumcision
which counts is “...circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit,
not by the written code” (Romans 2:29). Thus the true Jew is
he or she who is one inwardly. Times having changed. We are
no longer under written law. The Apostle declares, “For the
law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin
and death” (Romans 8:2). This law of the Spirit that he
is talking about is not some new set of commandments but
the law of Christ.

THE LAW OF CHRIST

The apostle John expresses, like Paul just did, the main

point in terms which stress the practical aspect of the

true Christian faith. This helps us understand what is

meant when we speak of the law of Christ. It is not a

written law similar to that in the books of Moses, nor

is it a new Christian set of rules. On the other hand,

nor is it something that is completely subjective, like

an internal and spiritual light.

The New Testament gives us principles (cf. Romans 14:13-23)
so that we might know how to put into practice this law of
Christ. But let us say here and now that it is really about
a spiritual commitment in Christian love, as we shall see.

In Christian circles we can too easily talk about faith
and obedience in a purely theoretical way which dodges
what really matters — the strength that can motivate us
in the spiritual battle. According to John, God wants us
to keep his commandments and do that which is pleasing
to him (cf. 1 John 3:22). But as we see with Paul, the
commandments of God boil down in a way to two or even
only one.

Immediately after having spoken of the commandments of
the Lord, using the plural, John summarizes his idea
showing that he was not at all thinking of the Decalogue
but rather about the principle of Christian ethics. He
says, “And this is his command: to believe in the name
of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he
commanded us” (1 John 3:23). Still according to John, to
do this would be to keep his commandments and so remain
in him (cf. v24).

We perceive that this idea is not far from what Paul says
in his wonderful chapter on Christian love. In
1 Corinthians 13:3 he writes that even generous
charitable acts and giving all one’s possessions
away without love, are in vain. After all, love is
the greatest of all things (v13; cf. Galatians 5:14).

There are Christians who think that what is essential
in Christianity is to profess Christ as Saviour and to
try to obey the commandments of God. That is an error.
The Word of God gives us the touchstone by which we can
know if we are really Christians — brotherly love.
According to the Bible, loving one’s neighbour is
absolutely necessary if we say that we love God.
The apostle John writes, “...If we love one another,
God lives in us and his love is made complete in us”
(1 John 4:7-13).

This point is so sure that John dares to write, “If anyone
says: ‘I love God,’ and yet hates his brother, he is a
liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he
has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (cf.
1 John 4:20). In other words, as is often the case with
things Christian, what we do shows who we are in reality. We
cannot love God without loving each other. So, surprisingly,
we can say that the command to love one’s brother is the one
that governs that of loving God, and not the other way around.

Love for God without love for one’s neighbour is simply
theoretical and subjective and such a thing would be a
misrepresentation of what God wants us to do. As John says
elsewhere, “We know that we have passed from death to life,
because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love
remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a
murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life
in him” (1 John 3:14-15).

In the whole world there is no law against love, the fruit
of the Spirit in the life of the Christian shown in his
dealings with the brethren and unbelievers (Romans 12:10,
17-18). As Paul explicitly says after having given his
wonderful list, “Against such things there is no law”
(Galatians 5:23).

CONCLUSION

Being transformed by the Holy Spirit in order no longer

to be conformed to the present world, the Christian is

not under the Law, that instruction from God which was

the foundation of Jewish ethics. The times have changed

and by Christ and in him the Law has expired and is

obsolete. The Law is not sufficient for the Jew; how

much more is it unnecessary for the Christian converted

from paganism!

The Ten Commandments of the Jews do not constitute the
norm for the moral conduct of the Christian. He rather
walks by the Spirit, in communion with God, so as not
to fulfil the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). To
please God, as the basis of his conduct and his Christian
ethics he has the law of Christ. That means that he is
expected to love his neighhour and seek his good
(1 Corinthians 10:24) as the rule of his life and
obedience to Christ.

Besides, the true born-again believer cannot live in
moral laxity, being united with Christ who quickens
and gives life (Romans 6:3-13), making him capable of
every good work. It is just because we are freed from
the Law by the Word and the Spirit of our Lord Jesus
Christ that we are assured of victory, “For sin shall
not be your master, because you are not under law, but
under grace” (Romans 6:14; 1 Corinthians 10:13). Let us,
therefore, exercise our liberty in a responsible way
which continually renders glory to God and testifies
to our neighbour about the complete liberation that
we have thanks to our Lord and Saviour.

Update and HTML Modifications: 17/9/1998

CLICK HERE to go BACK to Home Page

visitors
LE FastCounter