The law of the Lord is described in the first five books of the Bible and referred to in Hebrew as the Torah. Torah means to teach and it comprises God’s directives to which his people Israel were to live accordingly. There are 613 instructions in the Torah, which is also described as the Pentateuch. There are basically eight categories of laws that can be distinguished:
Laws on Israel’s relationship with God, with particular reference to the worship, honouring, and following of Yahweh, sacrifices, forgivingness, as well as a prohibition of idol-worship. No other gods were to be brought before God.
Laws on a theocratic government. God has supreme authority over His people, and for this reason they were obliged to acknowledge the Lord and inquire of Him before taking decisions. The leaders of Israel were to observe all God’s laws and teach their people to do the same. They were also to collaborate with the priests and prophets of God and ensure that the young generation be raised in the fear of the Lord. Wars were to be waged against the enemies of God.
Laws on human relations, and moral and ethical matters. This category includes a large number of regulations on marriage, relationships between men and women, parents and children, employers and employees, and also the relationship with foreigners such as slaves and proselytes. Furthermore, personal conduct, the commitment to compassion, morality, different kinds of impurity, clean and unclean types of food, purification rituals, etc. are also determined by the law.
Laws on economic matters. This includes laws on labour, wages, tithing, agricultural activities, harvest and slaughtering procedures, as well as nature and soil conservation.
Ceremonial laws pertaining to feasts and Sabbaths were all shadowy indicators of the coming of Messiah. They served the purpose of preparing Israel on the coming of the Messiah.
Sacrifices and other rituals pointed to the once for all sacrifice of the Messiah, when He offered Himself in the fullness of time. In this way Israel was prepared to grasp the significance of the Messiah’s once for all sacrifice on the cross when He sacrificed Himself as the perfect Lamb of God to atone for the sins of all people.
Laws on the priesthood under the leadership of a high priest. The mediatory role of the priests which would be fulfilled with the coming of Messiah, who would be High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, and therefore occupy an unchangeable priesthood that would continue forever. Through His death on the cross all believers would have free access to the throne of grace.
Laws on prophets. In the Old Testament it is stated that the prophecies of a prophet should be 100% correct, being strictly in accordance with what the Lord revealed to him. False prophets who uttered their own, deceptive words were to be stoned to death. The office of prophet would, according to Moses, only continue until God raised another Prophet like Moses – the Messiah (Deut. 18:15,18).
From the nature of the different categories of laws it is evident that they were strict, basic rules aimed at ensuring an orderly society that would only later be fully realised. That is the reason why many of the laws only served a preparatory function with a view to the coming of the Messiah. In Him they were finally fulfilled, and their subsequent observance would not be possible without denying the Messiah. Even the moral rules were also fulfilled in the Messiah as only He could fully observe the law. Through His work of grace and the power of the Holy Spirit He enables believers to honour and practise the spiritual and moral principles of God’s law (a pure heart, a pure life and true service to the Lord). He enables us to fulfil the high and noble objectives of the law (Micah 6:8).
How can we know in which way the principles of God’s law should be honoured in the NT? The Lord Jesus summarised everything in the law of love when He was asked: “Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:36-40).
In this summary Christ quoted scriptures which divide the Ten Commandments into two parts, i.e. love towards God (Deut. 6:5) and love towards our neighbour (Lev. 19:18,34). By honouring the law of love we will fulfil all the laws which govern the relationship towards God and our neighbour. If we truly love God we will live holy in His sight and never bring any other gods before Him (2 Cor. 6:14-18). The same principle of love applies to our relationship with other people: “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilment of the law” (Rom. 13:8-10).
Nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament, summed up in the law of love and applied to all believers. The first three commandments demand love towards God (Ex. 20:2-7) while the last six determine the nature of our human relations (Ex. 20:12-17). The fourth commandment relates to observing the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week (Ex. 20:8-11). That is the only one of the Ten Commandments which is not included in the summary of Christ, as He purposely omitted it. Why? Because it was only given to Israel as a sign between them and God (Ex. 31:17). Keeping of the Sabbath served the purpose of reminding Israel of the exodus from Egypt (Deut. 5:15), through which God saved them and sanctified them for His service (Ezek. 20:12). After the Babylonian captivity exile Sabbath observance among the Jews became distorted through the addition of many new rules by the Pharisees on what was permitted on this day and what was not. On this doctrine of theirs Jesus often came in conflict with them (cf. Matt. 12:1-8).
The Sabbath was one of the ceremonial laws which only had a shadowy meaning in the Old Testament, pending the coming of the Messiah. Paul said, “Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Col. 2:16-17). We are not subjected to laws on food (except that which has been defiled by idols), feasts or sabbaths, as the new life in Christ is not dependent on observing these things. In Christ Jesus we have entered into the rest of the Lord, in which every day should be a day of dedication unto Him.
Whether we have special days of dedication to the Lord or not, is a matter of personal conviction in the light of our circumstances: “One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind” (Rom. 14:5). We do not have rigid commandments in this regard, only a long Christian tradition of Sunday worship. It started with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead on a Sunday and preaching to His disciples on the same day (John 20:1,19-22), their meeting a week later, again on a Sunday, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the seventh Sunday after the resurrection of Jesus. After that, the disciples of Jesus spontaneously assembled on Sundays to celebrate His resurrection day, while at the same time dissociating themselves from the legalistic meetings by orthodox Jews on the seventh day (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1-2).
New Testament believers from the Gentiles should be mindful of the fact that they never formed part of Israel, their covenants and laws, and that they do not become part of these things after their salvation. An important aspect of God’s covenant with the Jews is their right of occupation in the land of Israel. This right, as well as other aspects of their covenants with the Lord, has not been transferred to the church and therefore not applicable to them.
The question in the first century was: which of the laws should be made applicable to the Gentiles, seeing that there are general principles of God’s laws that are applicable to all people? As already indicated, the law of love applies to all believers, and is embodied in various New Testament commandments. Apart from this, a decision was taken by the early church in Acts 15, in which it was ruled that only three of Israel’s moral laws would be applied to congregations in the Gentile world:
Firstly, Acts 15:20 refers to food that was contaminated by idols. This injunction should be understood in the light of Revelation 2:14 and 20, where the Lord Jesus clearly warns two of the early churches against eating things sacrificed to idols. It was a common practice among Gentiles to attend receptions and feasts in pagan temples where they ate food sacrificed to idols. Paul denounced this practice in 1 Corinthians 10:14-20 and said, among others: “What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? But I say the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.”
Secondly, sexual immorality was so common among the Gentiles that many believers also participated in this practice. Paul strongly warns the church against this sin (1 Cor. 6:12-20). He emphasizes that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and says, “Flee sexual immorality… he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body… you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:18,20).
The third commandment dates from Genesis 9 where God concluded a covenant with Noah which is still relevant today. He gave people the right to eat meat after all the blood has been drained from it. That also means that blood sausage is not to be eaten.
All three of these prohibitions should be seen as moral and ethical rules. By honouring them, Christians would maintain high moral standards, thereby refraining from giving offence to Jews who knew these prohibitions well. It is to be clearly noted that these commandments which were given to Gentile Christians to uphold did not include any ceremonial laws such as feasts or Sabbaths, neither any animal sacrifices or rites such as circumcision. By this ruling the demands of the Judaisers who tried to subject the church to the law were rejected.
The fact that the great majority of Israel’s 613 laws were not transferred to the New Testament church among the Jews and the Gentiles, and that the few that were transferred were redefined within the framework of the completely new covenant of grace, is indicative of the fact that the dispensation of the law has expired. However, in the light of the progressive unfolding of God’s counsel with humanity the law served a very important dispensational purpose in Israel. What was this purpose?
The law is not related to salvation. Israel only received the law after they had been saved from their Egyptian bondage by a sovereign act of God. The killing of the sacrificial lamb in Egypt, the sprinkling of the doorposts, as well as their miraculous exodus, was the outward sign of God’s saving grace upon Israel. The paschal lamb prophetically referred to the Lamb of God who sacrificed His life on the cross in the fullness of time to take away the sins of Israel and the world (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19).
The law contains extensive guidelines according to which God’s saved people should walk. Israel was already the delivered people of God when the law was given: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Ex. 20:2). Israel now had to be taught how to lead a separated, holy life to please God. They had no knowledge of the righteousness of God, and had to be practically taught through a great number of laws as to ‘what to do and what not to do’. By faithfully following these instructions they would serve the Lord and have no fellowship with the moral depravity and idolatry of the heathen nations around them.
The law inculcates the principle of love in Israel. They were called upon to love the Lord with all their heart (Deut. 6:5). They also had to love other Israelites like themselves, and further extend this love to include strangers who dwell among them (Lev. 19:18,34). However, the inner spiritual motivation to give expression to love was absent during the dispensation of the law, since the law did not enable people to prevail over their sinful nature.
The law brings knowledge of sin. Without the laws of God Israel would never have known what sin is, because sin is a conscious transgression of a known law of God. Paul says, “…by the law is the knowledge of sin… I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law has said, You shall not covet… where there is no law there is no transgression” (Rom. 3:20; 7:7; 4:15). “The strength of sin is the law” (1 Cor. 15:56) as the law is the mirror in which we can see the sin and rebellion of humanity. The law actually caused sin to abound because the law defined the great extent of sin – the more legal stipulations there are the more sins there are (Rom. 5:20).
The law makes people slaves of sin. Since the law cannot change the fallen, sinful nature of humanity, it makes them slaves of sin by setting an unattainably high standard to them. Because of their sinful nature all persons under the law are by nature violators of the law and by definition hell-bound sinners. The law does not only render people sinners but also subjects them to the wrath of God because of their failure to observe the law continuously and in all respects: “…because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression… For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Rom. 4:15; 5:13).
The law demands forgiveness of sins by virtue of God’s mercy and grace. Because the law sets a standard which could never be met by a single person except for God’s perfect Son, Jesus Christ, it demanded daily institutions through which the people could obtain forgiveness for their manifold sins. This gave rise to the extensive sacrificial service of the Old Testament, as well as an order of priests who acted as mediators between sinful people and a holy God. The law branded all people as sinners, including the priests, and because of that even the High Priest could only enter the Holy of holies in the temple once a year to bring a blood sacrifice for the nation’s sins. God is full of mercy and grace and always forgives people’s sins of transgressing the law when they sincerely confess their sins and repent from them.
The law was an essential preparation for the coming of Messiah and His work of grace. The animal sacrifices that were brought according to the demands of the law for the atonement of sins were imperfect and insufficient – they had to be fulfilled by the ‘once for all’ sacrifice for the sins of the whole world: “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come… can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect… For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He came into the world, He said, Sacrifice and offering did You not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me… Then I said, Behold, I have come… to do Your will o God… By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:1-10). The sacrifices during the dispensation of the law could, therefore, not ensure continuous change, and for that reason the promise of a new covenant under the Messiah was made to Israel. They eagerly looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, but they were spiritually so blind that the leaders of Israel could not even recognise Him when He came.
The sacrifices under the law only had a typological meaning as they pointed to the crucifixion of the Messiah. Jews in the Old Testament were provisionally saved by virtue of the Messiahs future world of grace on the cross, thereby emphasising the typological meaning of animal sacrifices. “And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise” (Heb. 11:39). But the Messiah in whose coming they had hoped, did come and became the second Adam to all people who inherited a depraved nature because of the first Adam’s fall. Only the Messiah could comply with the demands of the law and bring about salvation to all who were under the wrath of God because the law condemned them as sinners. The Messiah is the hope of Israel and the whole world – the only Saviour who can offer salvation to sinners (Rom. 5:19).
The law has many restrictions due to human infirmities and imperfect sacrifices. The dispensation of the law was impeded by the service of imperfect high priests, and had to be replaced by the world of grace of a perfect High Priest. The animal sacrifices were also insufficient and had to be replaced by the sacrifice of the perfect sacrificial Lamb. “For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness” (Heb. 7:28). They first had to sacrifice for their own sins and then for the sins of the people (Heb. 7:27). Neither could the sacrifices that they brought make any real difference: “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins (Heb. 10:11). Israel were kept under guard by the law until the coming of the Messiah to do for them what the law could not do: “Before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterwards be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:23-24).
The law paved the way to a new covenant. The law imposed clearly defined but humanly unattainable demands regarding God’s righteousness upon people. The absence of a true basis for atonement, as well as the imperfect ministry by priests who were beset by weakness, explains the fact that the law was only a preparatory phase for a better covenant. “Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant… Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him… For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfect for ever… He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant [under the law] had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second” (Heb. 7:22,25-28; 8:6-7).
The old covenant was concluded with the people of Israel, which are the biological descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob. Membership of the covenant people was obtained through birth, and for that reason the covenant sign of circumcision was administered to baby boys a few days after birth. In spite of Israel’s calling as God’s people, as well as the covenant sign in their flesh, all of them were born in sin and needed to be spiritually revived. They had to become believing Israelites whose hearts are also circumcised.
Their hearts were changed through this spiritual experience and God’s law of love was written on the tablets of their hearts: “The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deut. 30:6). This call to repentance was often made to circumcised Israelites: “If you will return, O Israel, says the Lord, return to Me… Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Jer. 4:1,4).
Circumcision of the heart was a spiritual experience which the Lord Jesus explained to an ignorant Jewish leader as being “born again” (John 3:3). Biological birth alone, accompanied by a covenant sign in their flesh, did not produce true, spiritual Israelites with changed hearts. Faith was still absent in their hearts, and God was not well pleased with such Israelites (1 Cor. 10:5). Their problem was a lack of faith, as indicated by Paul: “…the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it” (Heb. 4:2).
No Israelite could be saved by outward efforts to observe the law – he or she had to have a relationship of faith with the Lord. That meant that they had to repent wholeheartedly and to ask for forgiveness of their sins within the framework of the Old Testament’s sacrificial service. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isa. 55:7). “The pride of Israel testified to his face, but they do not return to the Lord their God” (Hos. 7:10). A true repentance (turning around) and the forgiveness of sins by virtue of the Messiah’s future atoning sacrifice (that which all the animal sacrifices alluded to) was the basis of the Old Testament’s doctrine of salvation. No overt efforts towards law-abiding alone, without repentance and the confession of their sins, could save any Jew. His sins that were revealed by the law were meant to drive him to the Lord to ask for forgiveness.
With the coming of the Messiah, and specifically His crucifixion, resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit after His ascension, the dispensation of the law as an integrated system finally expired. Not only did the sacrificial service and mediation by imperfect priests expire, but the slavery to sins that were identified by the law and placed a heavy yoke on people to bear, came to an end through the salvation that was wrought by Christ. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4).
Christ was the final purpose of the law as only He could perfectly fulfil it. Through His death He also paid the price for the salvation of all people who were condemned by the law because of their sins. By accepting His atonement in faith, the grace of the Lord’s salvation is imputed to lost sinners. All people have need of this salvation as all have sinned and fallen short of the righteousness of God. But many of the Jews preferred the impossible way of establishing their own righteousness through imperfect efforts to observe the law, thereby rejecting the righteousness of God which was offered to them through the Lord Jesus Christ.
What happened to the Jews who lived and died under the law? Many of them did not only try to live according to the letter of the law outwardly, but their hearts were also circumcised by the Lord (cf. Rom. 2:28-29). They had a clear conviction of their sins and prayed to the Lord for the forgiveness of these sins within the framework of the sacrificial service. Forgiveness was granted to them as the sacrifices pointed ahead to the ultimate sacrifice of the Messiah. Although they did not receive the promise of the Messiah’s coming during their lives, they saw it afar off and accepted in faith (Heb. 11:13). They did not boast in their impeccable law observance, but sincerely confessed their sins and asked for forgiveness.
David prayed: “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight… Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow... Blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, o God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me… I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You” (Ps. 51:4-13). Old Testament believers like this one all expected the salvation of the Lord. According to Isaiah 53:5 they knew that He would be wounded for their transgressions and bruised for their iniquities. The judgement for their transgressions of breaking the law would be upon Him, and by His stripes there would be healing for their afflicted souls.
For this reason an angel said to Joseph before the birth of Jesus: “You shall call His name Jesus [that means Yahweh is salvation] for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). God-fearing Israelites were strongly inclined towards the coming of the Messiah and utterly rejoiced when it happened. Zacharias said: “Blessed is the Lord of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people” (Luke 1:68). Simeon was a just and devout man, waiting for the consolation of Israel. The Holy Spirit revealed to him that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. When the parents of Jesus brought Him to the temple, Simeon took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said: “Lord, now You are letting your servant depart in peace… for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).
People like this have sought their righteousness by faith in the Messiah and thus became partakers of God’s saving grace. They did not boast in their own achievements of law-abiding, but on the grace and forgivingness of a merciful God. That was the disposition of believing Jews before the coming of the Messiah. After His coming, Messianic Jews only gloried in His work of grace – not in the law or the works of the law. To them, the Messiah was the end of a legalistic religion and a door to the true righteousness of God.
Paul also made this clear transition from the dispensation of the law to the dispensation of grace, based upon faith in Christ’s death and resurrection. Before his salvation he was a legalistic Pharisee who sought his righteousness in keeping the law, and not in God’s mercy and forgiveness of sins. He describes his life before salvation as follows: “If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Phil. 3:4-6).
Paul’s keeping of the law was only blameless in his own eyes and in the eyes of other Pharisees. In spite of this he was so far out of touch with God that he persecuted the Messiah and the assembly of the Messiah. The law could not save him, therefore his prayer to be found in Christ, “not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:9-10).
Love is the most important characteristic of God (1 John 4:8). That was the basic motivation why He showed mercy to fallen humanity by sending His Son to the earth as a sacrifice for our sins (John 3:16). God’s love is foundational to all righteousness as it is the divine principle from which the plan of salvation was born. Jesus Christ is the personification of God’s agape love. He left His heavenly glory and came to earth in the form of a servant to demonstrate the Father’s love by dying on a cross to pay the death penalty for all sinners who have transgressed the law. The law became a curse to Israel because it imposed the death penalty upon all transgressors. Christ became a curse for them and for all sinners outside Israel – that is a person who was condemned to death and, according to Galatians 3:13, had to die on a cross – in order to save those who were subjected to a curse because of breaking the law (Ezek. 18:20; Gal. 3:10).
The Lord Jesus expects from all those who wish to received Him as their Saviour, to become new people through spiritual regeneration, and to follow in His footsteps: “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6; 1 Pet. 2:21). Because Jesus is the personification of God’s love, He should dwell in our hearts through faith so we can be rooted and grounded in His love (Eph. 3:17). This love which was revealed to us by Jesus Christ and poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5) is our principle of life and the New Testament law according to which we live. This principle gives rise to various directives and commands which the Lord Jesus gives to us.
We should always distinguish Christ’s law of love which is observed through faith in Him, from the Old Testament law. We are not engaged in outward, human efforts to keep the law, but give expression to divine love which we have already received from the Lord. We can only love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). We have been instructed to live in terms of the command of love:
• “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34).
• “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).
• “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love Him and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21).
• “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love… This is My commandment, that you love one another as I loved you” (John 15:10,12).
• “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22).
• “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).
The Lord gives us the power and grace to keep His commandments, which means to truly love Him and to love all people – including our enemies. We have an upward call in this life of love, which is to honour God’s Word in such a way that His love will be perfected in us (1 John 2:5). This love keeps us from sin and gives us boldness not to fear the judgements of God upon the wicked (1 John 4:17), “and to wait for His Son from heaven… even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10).
We must remember that it is the same loving God who wishes to save our souls through Jesus Christ and impart His love to us, who will also pour out his just wrath upon the sinners who despised His love. We should not make the mistake of turning God’s love into licentiousness, for then we will deny the Lord Jesus (Judas v.4). The New Testament law of love towards God and our neighbour demands that we put off all carnal, sinful works which are contrary to the nature of God’s love, and to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:13-25).
With a view to this challenge Paul could confidently say that he is under the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21). Do you practise this law in your relationships with fellow believers and all other people? “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2).
Most Jews have, like their leaders – the Pharisees, Sadducees and other scribes – rejected the Messiah and continued with their legalistic religion which only yielded a form of godliness. They gloried in their own efforts to live according to the law; consequently, they were not under the conviction of their sins and did not truly serve the Lord. They turned the law itself into an instrument of salvation, which it was never intended to be. The laws were given as guidelines to God’s redeemed people, and could not be honoured without the Lord’s help and the regular forgiving of sins. But many of the Jews, like Paul before his conversion, gloried in their blameless, legalistic lives. The Pharisee in the temple thanked the Lord because he was such a good person: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess” (Luke 18:11-12). The tax collector only said, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). The judgement of the Lord Jesus on these two people was as follows: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other” (Luke 18:14).
From this parable it is evident that many Israelites were not serious in serving God and were therefore not convicted of their sins. They only honoured the Lord with their lips but their hearts were far from Him (Matt. 15:8). The Lord Jesus warned the Jews that unless their righteousness exceeded that of the scribes and Pharisees, they would by no means enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:20). These people’s lives only outwardly looked good, like whitewashed tombs, but their hearts were evil.
Jesus said to them: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in” (Matt. 23:13). In their form of godliness the letter of the law was the only norm, and for that reason they only judged Jesus from a narrow, legal point of view and wrongfully branded Him a violator of the law and a sinner (Matt. 11:19; John 19:7). They regarded His power to cast out demons and to heal people as coming from the devil (Matt. 9:34; 12:24; John 8:48), thereby slandering the Holy Spirit and committing an unpardonable sin (Matt. 12:28,32).
Only the God-fearing Jews who did not rely on a legalistic religion, who confessed their sins, trusted God and put their hope in the coming of the Messiah, have recognised and accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah. They believed John when he said about Jesus: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). He was the perfect and sinless Lamb of God (Heb. 4:15; 7:26). “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9).
With the coming of the Messiah the dispensation of the law with all its shadowy institutions and human limitations has been concluded. In Jesus Christ all God’s promises of the good things to come became a glorious reality. The time when weak, sinful priests conducted the temple service, “offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins” (Heb. 10:11), was concluded with the coming of the Messiah. He was perfect and sinless, and by His willingness to humble Himself to the point of dying on a cross He became a perfect sacrifice to atone for the sins of all people. Only He can save His people from their sins – a guilt which they put on themselves by breaking the law.
Unfortunately, there are people who compromise with the old covenant by returning to certain of its commandments, in spite of the fact that the Gentiles were never part of the old covenant. Acts of this nature have very serious implications since the fulfilment of the law in Jesus Christ is hereby denied. Paul said to the Judaisers who tried to subject the church in Galatia to the law: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the learning of faith? … Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Gal. 3:1-2; 5:2-4).
Compromise of this nature does not only refer to circumcision but also to the legalistic observance of Sabbaths, feasts, sacrifices and dietary laws which are not part of the New Testament command of love towards God and our neighbour. The law has been completely fulfilled by Christ, and His love was poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We would certainly deny Him should we revert to the shadows of the law. Paul blames such people by saying: “…how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years” (Gal. 4:9-10).
Profs. Walvoord & Zuck (The Bible Knowledge Commentary, p. 602) comment as follows on this scripture: “Under the influence of the Judaizers the Galatians had at least begun to observe the Mosaic calendar. They kept special days (weekly sabbaths), and months (new moons), and seasons (seasonal festivals), and years (sabbatical and jubilee years). They observed these special times, thinking that they would thereby gain additional merit before God. But Paul had already made it clear that works could not be added to faith as grounds for either justification or sanctification.”
By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in the sight of the Lord, for by the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20). We should stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and not become entangled again with a yoke of bondage to sin or to the law (Gal. 5:1). Anyone preaching a gospel which is contrary to complete and absolute salvation by grace, based upon Christ’s atoning death, must be accursed (Gal. 1:8-9).
When the principles of divine love have been written by the Holy Spirit on the tablets of our regenerated hearts, we truly have a message to a needy world and will be able to spread the fragrance of Christ everywhere. It will enable us to overcome evil with good, and thus be examples of Christ’s love, forgiveness and saving grace. We are also called to provoke orthodox Jews to jealousy by the way in which we serve the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob through the Messiah (Rom. 11:11). This purpose will be completely defeated if we become partakers in Jewish feasts which are prescribed by the law, e.g. the Sabbath, since Christ is denied by these feasts. We will then pursue shadows instead of the reality of the Messiah who has already come. All Messianic Jews who were previously under the law should say with Paul: “Now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter” (Rom. 7:6).
Saved people may only participate in truly Messianic feasts such as the Supper of the Lord or the Resurrection Day of the Messiah on Sundays. Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles can also be celebrated as Messianic feasts in which the first coming of the Messiah, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the expectation on the second coming of the Lord Jesus are explicitly recognised. When these conditions are met the feast will no longer be a mere shadow of things to come, but celebrate their fulfilment in the Messiah (Col. 2:16-17). In that we the participants in the feast will tell Israel and the whole world that their celebration is not within a legalistic framework, but within the Messiah’s New Testament plan of salvation for all people. Paul had such a Christian feast in mind when he said: “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast…” (1 Cor. 5:7-8). We as Christians should never, for the sake of acceptance by orthodox Jews or other unsaved people, be ashamed of Jesus and keep silent about His name when celebrating feasts. He is a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel (Luke 2:32). But Israel is not His people if they do not recognise and accept Him as Messiah. The same condition applies to the Gentiles as they have to accept Him by faith if they wish to belong to Him and share in His grace. Have you done that and do you serve Him wholeheartedly under the guidance of the Holy Spirit?