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*The Law and the Christian*
I need to wrap up our introduction to the Law, so that beginning next Sunday, Lord willing, we can move into Exodus 19.
So in the next few minutes, I need to summarize the relationship between the Law and the Christian.
This is a topic about which many entire books have been written, and I have 35 minutes.
So please be gracious with me.
Frankly, this is more like a lesson than a sermon.
But first, I have to say, tongue in cheek, that it’s hard for me to be gracious with you, because you all are a bunch of lawbreakers.
* I can see that you have failed to put tassels with a blue cord on your garments (Num 15:38)
* I can see that you have not placed the phylacteries on your heads.
(Deut.
6:8)
* I have been to many of your homes, and I did not see any /mezuzot/ to your doorposts.
(Deut.
6:9)
* Many of you are sitting right here in front of me with a Gentile spouse.
(Deut.
7:3)
* You don’t set aside the new moon as holy.
* You ignore the three major God-appointed festivals.
* Some of you ate pig this morning.
* Some of you enjoy shrimp and lobster.
* You don’t even keep track of the Sabbatical year.
* Some of you have sown multiple types of seed in the same flower bed.
* Most of you this morning are wearing garments of mixed fabric.
* Most of you do not have a wall or railing around your roof.
Each one of you has broken scores of commandments in the Law of God, hundreds - even thousands - of times.
And then you have the nerve to say that you are one of those Christians who loves every word of the Bible!
“Well,” you say, “I certainly try to keep the ten commandments.”
Really?
Do you actually stay inside your house for the entire Sabbath?
And why the ten commandments?
Why not the other commandments?
After all, what Jesus declared to be the two greatest commandments are not found in the ten commandments.
Some people say “Christians are supposed keep the moral law, but not the ceremonial or civil law.”
Well, the command to love your neighbor as yourself (Lev.
19:18) is immediately followed by the command not to sow your field with two kinds of seed.
Is it really so simple to just divide the law into three categories?
Like every verse in the Law gets sorted into one of three buckets, and then you keep one bucket and ignore the other two?
Obviously I’m being facetious, but I’m hoping to spur your thinking so that we will realize we have much to learn in these areas.
Let’s back up now, and try to bring a little bit of clarity to these things.
First of all, look at your list of our 13 principles, and look at #6.
1.
Jesus said: I am the fulfillment of the Law
2. Jesus said: The ultimate standard of righteousness is God, not the Mosaic Law
3. Jesus said: I am Lord of the Law
4. Jesus said: The Law’s foundation is love for God and others
5. The Law + Grace ≠ Justification
6. Christians did not need to obey the Law of Moses (yet they should consider carefully their Jewish brethren).
7. The principles of the Law must be applied by all believers
8.
There is a Law of Christ: Christians are under authority
9. Christ bore the curse of the Law for us and gave the righteousness of the Law to us.
10.
The Law exposes our spiritual bankruptcy and prepares us to cast ourselves upon Christ alone by faith.
11.
The Law guarantees that Christ alone gets the glory.
12.
The giving of the Law did not change the essential nature of salvation.
13.
The Law’s system of priests and sacrifices was not a permanent way to have fellowship with God: it was a temporary illustration (picture prophecy) of the true way.
This was the conclusion of the Jerusalem council: Christians do not need to obey the Law of Moses.
It has been fulfilled and replaced as a covenant agreement.
Follow quickly as we look at several passages that emphasize this point:
* Acts 10:9-16 The animals that the Law had declared to be unholy have now been cleansed by God, so that they may be eaten.
The dietary restrictions of the Law are no longer in effect.
* Acts 15:5, 9-11, 19-20, 28-29 They concluded that it was no longer necessary to direct Christians to observe the Law of Moses.
* Romans 14:5-6
* Everyone understand that when Paul spoke of “regarding one day above another,” his audience would immediately understand that he was speaking of Jewish fasts and festivals and Sabbath.
* So here you have both those who were following certain dietary regulations and those who were observing certain days indicated in the Law.
And in verse 10 Paul says don’t judge one another on these things, and in 15:7 he says therefore accept one another.
Don’t fight over the observance of the Law, because it is not binding on Christians today.
* Colossians 2:16-17
* You may not be familiar with the phrase “new moon” but that was a monthly Jewish observance that God ordained in Num.
28.
It was Law.
You’re familiar with the Jewish festivals and Sabbaths.
So Paul says dietary restrictions, festivals, new moons, Sabbaths – these things were just a shadow, and the reality has come in Christ.
So these are matters of individual conscience and preference, and don’t judge one another on these issues of the Mosaic Law.
* I Timothy 4:3 is most likely a reference to Jewish dietary laws.
* Titus 3:9
* Seems to indicate that it was very easy for Christians to argue about the applications of the Law of Moses.
Paul tells Titus, “You avoid these unprofitable and worthless” arguments about following the Law.
That is not all of the passages that teach this, but a sampling including some we have not considered before this.
So this is a consistent theme in the NT: obedience to the specifics of the Law of Moses is a matter of personal conscience and liberty, not obligation.
Let me tell you two simple reasons why that is true.
First, because the Law of Moses was a covenant God made with Israel.
Most or all of you are not members of the nation of Israel.
Second, it was a temporary covenant.
Hebrews 7-9 says it is obsolete because it has been replaced.
It is not longer a functional, valid covenant.
Even if you are a Jew, God no longer makes the covenant of Moses with you, because God no longer makes the covenant of Moses with anyone.
It was a covenant with the nation of Israel, and it was a temporary covenant.
Because of this, the specifics of the Law of Moses are not binding upon Christians today.
That is the clear teaching of Scripture.
*The Law of Moses is alive and authoritative as the Word of God for Christians today.
*
Now, look back at your list of principles, and look at principle #7: /the principles of the Law must be applied by all believers/.
The Law of Moses is dead as a covenant agreement, but it is alive and authoritative as the Word of God.
Why do I say that?
Because of the passages we looked at three weeks: Hebrews 9, which tells us that through the tabernacle the Holy Spirit was signifying some things for us.
I Corinthians 10, which speaks of Israel’s history and says that “these things were written for our instruction.”
Romans 4:24, which says that Genesis 15:6 was written for our sake.
I Corinthians 9, which takes an obscure law of Moses and says that “God was speaking for our sake” and “for our sake it was written.”
The Law of Moses is alive and authoritative as the Word of God for us.
It is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
It is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.
Now, that may sound like an absolute contradiction.
Don’t obey it – but obey it.
How does a Christian interpret and apply the Law?
How can you read a command, not obey it (as I showed earlier you all do all the time), and yet treat it as the authoritative word of God for you?
Actually, this isn’t as difficult as it sounds.
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