So far, we have defined what the Law is and have begun understanding what laws we should continue to adhere to and which ones are no longer required. Scripture has confirmed that circumcision is no longer a required, physical mandate, but rather a spiritual act performed by the Spirit. The sacrificial laws were only a shadow of the reality of what Christ achieved on the cross, and the dietary laws were abolished by Paul, Peter, and the writer of Hebrews.
All of these points are crucial and foundation to understand how New Testament Christians interact with the Old Testament Law.
Today, we will see how all of this understanding and context builds to give a concrete answer to our burning question: What law, if any, do we need to follow?
JUSTIFICATION AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
Justification is a legal term which describes the guilty or non-guilty status of person as determined by the Judge. The biblical view of justification is how God will deliver his verdict of pardon or condemnation. Righteousness deals with the person’s moral right-standing with God.
You can see what this matters. We are either pardoned or condemned, so it is absolutely crucial to understand how we are justified and if it is different today than it was before Jesus came.
OLD TESTAMENT JUSTIFICATION
The Jews were an exclusive group who were chosen by God, given the words of God (Romans 3:2), and knew God’s will through the Old Testament scriptures (Romans 2:20). As previously discussed, Moses gave the Hebrews insight into a right and wrong way of living before they entered into the Promised Land.
Blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.
They were given the Ten Commandments, the sacrificial laws, and other ways of identifying themselves as God’s chosen people. In keeping God’s regulations, the Jews believed they were in right-standing with God, being justified by their obedience. So long as they abided by the Law, they were justified. If they kept to God’s standards, they were considered righteous. If they ever broke the law, the sacrificial system was in place to remove their guilt and put them back in God’s good graces.
Paul emphasizes this in Galatians 3:10 when he explains that a Jew is under direct obligation to fulfil the Torah. In Romans 2:17-24, Paul chastises hypocritical Jews who declare the works of Law with their mouths, yet act in the opposite way. In essence, their justification was contingent on their works by keeping the commandments. This was the OT understanding of justification before the coming of Christ. This now begs the question: are believers in Jesus justified in the same way?
As we will quickly see, Paul will show us how the nature of justification has changed completely.
HOW A CHRISTIAN IS JUSTIFIED AND MADE RIGHTEOUS
The previous post explained that the purpose of the Law was to point to Jesus. The main purpose of Paul’s letter to the Galatians was to refute a false teaching which tried to interject the Old Testament way of justification into the new way provided by faith in Jesus. In chapter two, Paul tells the congregation that anyone who believes in Jesus is no longer justified by the Law, nor are they chained by the power of the sin it reveals.
There is a new way Christians are justified. But if it is not by keeping to the regulations of the Law, what is it? What is it about believing in Jesus that justifies a person? Paul references the concept of justification by faith alone by showing Abraham’s faith in Galatians 3:6-14 and Romans 4:1-25. Paul also gives the clearest description of a believer’s justification a chapter earlier in Romans 3:23-24, which is one of the most quoted New Testament scriptures. Here, Paul gives no ground for faith by works (which was the Old Testament model), but by faith in Jesus and his redemptive work.
What, then, did Jesus do to extend such a wondrous gift to his followers? As it has been clearly displayed throughout scripture, man is unable to keep all the Mosaic laws, so what man could not do, God did himself. God came down to mankind in the person of Jesus to satisfy the legal obligations of the first covenant made through Abraham. When Paul says that Jesus was the end of the law in Romans 10:4, he was saying that Jesus fully met its requirements! Because he obeyed the Law’s commands completely, his death was a sufficient sacrifice to cover all sin for all time, being fully justified before God, and thus completing something much grander than the Law ever could have done.
The believer is no longer married to the Old Covenant Law, because they have died to the old self. In the New Covenant, they have new life in Jesus, and are free to bind themselves fully to Him, their new spouse. Jesus condemned sin while he was still in the flesh (Romans 8:3) and made a fundamental change from justification as an external action, to an inward change enacted by the Spirit of God. God decreed a heart change. Because Christians believe in Jesus’ redemptive work, his atonement is credited to their account and justifies them completely and eternally.
THE LAW AND MORALITY
The Law reveals sin, but it is God who justifies us through faith in Jesus, not through the letter of the Law. This much is now clear and proven in scripture. But this still doesn’t fully answer our question.
We have learned that certain parts of the Law no longer apply, but are there still aspects of the Law that we must keep?
As we have already briefly seen, God reveals his will through the Law, and with it, his character. In it, he has set his standard for holy living. Even if one could set all the regulations aside, there is still an element of the Law which reveals the heart of God, and because of this, Christians do have an obligation in a certain way, to fulfil it.
This moral obligation, however, is not an obligation as one being under the Law, but rather as an internal change that aligns with God’s moral character. It is not tethered to written rules and regulations, but is a liberation in the new life of the Spirit of God (Romans 7:6). It isn’t an obedience to the Law for the sake of the Law, but rather an obligation required by the former and current spouse. To this new obligation, Paul confirms that Christians do have a responsibility to an aspect of the Law that transcends the written code.
THE ONLY LAWS TO FOLLOW
During one of his many discussions with the Pharisees, Jesus consolidated all of the commandments into only two: to love God and love others. To follow these two commandments meant one could actually fulfill the Law. Paul emulates these very words in Romans 13:9-10. Also in Galatians, Paul spent a great deal of time refuting the claim that followers of Christ must follow the whole Law of Moses. In a near mirror image to Romans 13:9-10, Paul reaches the climax of his argument in Galatians 5:14 when he declares that love for one’s neighbor is the fulfillment of the Law.
This can only be accomplished by God’s activity in changing the believer’s heart: taking out the heart of stone and putting in the heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Through this new heart, God will actually help us obey the Law (Ezekiel 36:27). The believer is now empowered to fulfill the law in love through the inner workings of the Holy Spirit.
This one moral obligation, the Law we are to follow, is not enforced from something external any longer, but compelled through the Spirit from within.
The new law all believers are to adhere to today is the law of love as commanded by Christ.”
For Paul, all regulation and means of being set apart from the world have been abolished.
Any works performed by God’s people are no longer ways to be accepted and/or justified by God.
The inner working of the Spirit received by faith, resulting in an outpouring of love is now the fulfilment of the Law.
FINAL THOUGHTS
In a nutshell, even though Paul never provided a detailed list of what regulations Christians were to keep and which ones were no longer valid, he did give clear direction through the various refutations to false doctrines and exhortation to the congregations in Rome and Galatia.
Through these letters, Christians today can understand that those who follow Christ are no longer bound to the Law by way of animal sacrifice, dietary restrictions, circumcision, or justification by obedience to the Mosaic list of do’s and dont’s. Christians are no longer under the Law in these respects.
They have died to their former spouse (the Law) and have been married to another (Christ), who has fulfilled their obligations to the Law and freely justify his people through faith alone. With the Law’s requirements fully satisfied, the only ongoing burden a Christian is to carry today is the burden to love one another. In doing so, we actually keep the rest of the law, because all of the laws are summed up in the command to love God and love neighbor. If we keep these two commands, God works in our hearts to uphold his moral requirements. We are now free to love God’s law because it shows his holiness, character, and morality.
All else has been taken care of Jesus and credited to the account of all believers. This is the understanding Paul handed down in his letters. This is Paul’s gospel to all believers in the new covenant era.
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