New Testament Conception of Law : Contemporary problems and ancient solutions Part II

The focus of the last post was on the law of love. In the liberal or secular equation, the law of love equals tolerance of moral relativity, even immorality. In both the gospels and Paul’s letters, the law of love means fulfilling the moral law of God because of the abiding love for God and for others. This kind of love is result of experiencing the redeeming and restorative love of God. According to Paul, the law of love sums up the whole Law of Moses, but how exactly did Jesus and Paul regard God’s law.

Many believe the Mosaic Law ended forever with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Following this view to its conclusion, the view of life lived by faith and love is the only law of God. Moral law somehow ended with Christ. Is this liberal conception of law represented in the gospels, teaching of Paul or John?

Jesus’ View of Law According to the Gospels

Jesus said he came to fulfill the law not abolish it. When Jesus spoke about the law, he meant Torah law. The law of Israel was the Law of Moses. This is the law God gave Israel. Jews were subject to the laws of foreign empires like those of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. As it today, liberalization of local law gave some excuse to live immoral lives. Nonetheless, the law of God was Israel’s local law. It was under Roman influence that Jesus lived and died.

Under the laws of Moses, the Jewish people were promised a life of good health and healing. It seemed that Jesus had no problem with breaking God’s laws. He healed on the Sabbath. He and disciples picked grain to eat while traveling during the Sabbath. To many Jewish leaders, these actions were crimes against the law. To Jesus, the law was being fulfilled. No human heals another. Medicine does not heal. It enables the body’s immune system to fulfill its job of healing. Otherwise, medicine kills diseased cells or effected organs surgically removed. Because only God heals, Jesus was simply following God. Eating on the Sabbath was not a sin. Because Jesus followers had no food, they picked grain to eat. So how could picking grain to satisfy hunger be a crime to God? At least that is the implication. What offended the Pharisees more than doing some work on the Sabbath was the authority Jesus claimed for allowing his followers to do so. Jesus justified it by saying his was Lord of the Sabbath.[1]

Beyond these issues, Jesus explicitly said he did come to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfill both. His position about law was made in the Sermon on the Mount, in which he said,

“Do not think I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say unto you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever annuls one the least of these commandments, and teaches other to do the same, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”[2]

When lepers were healed, Jesus instructed them to go fulfill the requirement of the law.[3] When a disabled man was healed, Jesus told him to sin no more.[4] When Jesus forgave an adulterous woman caught in the act, he told her to sin no more.[5] It seems Jesus was being tolerant towards the adulterer, but actually, he was simply being just. The unjust Jews did not fulfill the law by bringing the man also caught in the act. The law required judgment of both adulterers. Therefore, it was only just for the women to have a second chance as well. When we consider the various acts of healing, exorcisms, and forgiveness, we witness Jesus instructing those who received mercy instead of judgment for their moral crimes to sin no more unless worse consequences occur. Jesus did not give anyone an excuse not to keep God’s moral laws. Jesus upholds the validity of God’s law. Jesus in no way suggests that he has eliminated the requirements of the law of God. His purpose was not to create antinomianism or anarchy, but his purpose was lead all to fulfill God’s law.

Jesus made another interesting statement in the Sermon on the Mount. He said,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father…. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.’”[6]

The key to understanding this statement is the word lawlessness. This means two things: (1) God does not accept people who live contrary to the moral law of God. How could people live in the kingdom of God if they will not live according to God’s laws? In Acts 2:36, Peter confirms that Jesus was made Lord of God’s kingdom. Jesus’ perfect fulfillment of God’s law does not excuse anyone from breaking it. On the contrary, followers of Jesus receive the Spirit of God in order to fulfill that law. Those who enter the kingdom do so through Jesus. When they do, they are still accountable for obeying the law of the kingdom. (2) Lawlessness also means doing work of the kingdom without fulfilling God’s will. Notice Jesus said those who do the kind of works he did was not a ticket to heaven. If self-aggrandizement was the purpose of those who healed the sick and cast of demons, the aggrandizement is their only reward. Most people can think of a charlatan who pretended to do miracles only to get rich. This is implied in Jesus’ statement. His statement also means those who do not do what the Lord wanted them to do. Beyond living out the moral law, when people disregard Jesus revealed will about doing or not doing something, for example, praying for someone in need or some other service would be to disobey the Lord, which is lawlessness. Of course, one cannot disobey what has not been clearly revealed or commanded.

Obeying a command from the Lord Jesus and keeping the moral law seems more like duty. It could seem as something motivated by fear of punishment or losing salvation. It cannot be denied that disobedience will result in God’s judgment not his blessing. The purpose of salvation is the restoration of individuals to a right relationship with their Creator and kinsman redeemer. This is an act of God’s love solely initiated by God, which is life changing. It is natural, therefore, for recipients to respond to God with thanksgiving and love. The writer of the First Epistle of John stated it best when he wrote:

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He first loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins. If God so loved us, we ought to love one another.”[7]

The motivation to love God is the result of God’s unmerited love experienced by us. We experience this unmerited love because of the terrible sacrifice and suffering of Jesus. He bore the punish we deserve for the moral crimes we commit against the law of God. Once we have realize the full meaning of Jesus’ suffering on our behalf, our experience love God’s love become the motivation of our love toward Jesus and God the Father. This what Jesus meant when he said,

“He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and he ho loves me will be loved by my Father… and we will come to him and make our abode with him.”[8]

Nowhere in the gospels will the reader find Jesus contradicting, replacing, annulling, or negating the law of God. In addition to the law of redemption, the law of Moses is God’s model of government, of constitutional law, and of a common law. Jesus did not negate that law. The death and resurrection of Jesus satisfied the justice required by God’s law concerning our moral crimes. Consequently, the sacrificial laws are no longer valid for redemption. "By the works of the law no one will be saved."[9] Salvation is by faith alone in Jesus. Without submitting to his Lordship, salvation is not complete. The love of husbands and wives and their mutual submission to each other makes a marriage relationship. In every marriage, one of the spouses leads and the other follows in most things. This is true in most covenant agreements as well. In the kingdom of God, the love between the Lord and us is a mutual one. However, the authority of the covenant belongs to Jesus. We follow and he leads, and God is pleased.

In the next post, Paul’s view of law will be explored.

Notes:
[1] Matthew 12:1-14
[2] Matthew 5:17-19 NASB
[3] Luke 5: 12-15; 17:11-14
[4] John 5:1-17
[5] John 8:1-11
[6] Matthew 7:21-23
[7] 1 John 4:10-11 NASB
[8] John 14:21,23d NASB
[9] Galatians. 2:16

It’s Been Two Days Since the Messiah—Are You Ready?

Two days ago, Jesus of Nazareth was born. Only a few moments ago his holy and short-lived life was snuffed out. He was crucified based on false charges at 30 years old. This was truly an astonishing tragedy!

God pronounced one and only penalty for ‘sin’, which is death. For individuals to be acquitted of past and present moral crimes, each person must meet God requirements. Like Jesus, we all must die. Ultimately, we will all suffer the eternal consequences of separation from God, but there is hope. In fact, the good news is that God regards Jesus’ death as having satisfied divine justice against all moral crimes of humanity. Thank God, Jesus paid the price. The catch is we must appropriate God’s gracious provision for the forgiveness of our legal and moral debt.

It is like being cited for breaking some law but not showing up in court. An unknown benefactor paid the fine, but before that payment can be applied to your crime; you have to appear in court and acknowledge the citation is valid. On then will the court apply acquit you of the crime by applying the payment, and by the grace of law expunge your crimes all court and police records.

So it is with God’s law.

More amazing than Jesus being raised from the dead--people are still being raised from the dead in his name--is eye witnesses reports of seeing Jesus carried into heaven like the prophet Elijah of old. Skeptics may doubt this. Paul, however, encountered the risen and glorified Jesus and so has many others since then. In fact, many people have encountered this same Jesus within the last 20 years. For example, a man crashed his plane; the fuselage exploded which caused the plane to burn. The fire raged all the way to the cockpit. Then, Jesus and an angel showed. Jesus assured the pilot that he was going to make it, after which Jesus blew on the cockpit until help arrived. Although I cannot recall his name, I did see photos of the pilot while he was still in the hospital. He bruise and swollen, but he was not burned. Another example of a modern visited by Jesus is an Egyptian government official who was angry that his daughter has converted to Christianity and was now in a European hospital dying, He had drawn up a legal plan to punish local Coptic Christians for some supposed crime. The night before his plan was to be implemented Jesus visited him. Thus changing his mind about Christians and their religion, he rescinded his previous orders and then left for Europe to be with his daughter. His daughter did not die. Instead, Jesus healed her; thus confirming his promise made during the visitation. A former Israeli officer crippled for life because of an accident also experienced healing by Jesus. So did a young Muslim Egyptian who was dying of a rare but severe form of shingles of the face, which was affecting his brain as well. He said he saw Jesus come into his hospital room and heal him.

Within the past 10 years, a number of well-documented resurrections have also occurred. An African pastor died and was three days later; he rose to life again. An Indonesian Buddhist monk died and was about to be cremated when he came back to life. While dead those 3 days, he saw Buddha while standing at the gate to hell. Later, he met by a man named Peter who told him about Jesus. After he came back to life, he told the crowd at his funeral that the Christian were right about Jesus being the only way to eternal life in heaven. Both of these resurrections have been investigated, collaborated, and found to be true.

What seems too incredible to be real is the fact that since Jesus' ascension until the present time all of these miraculous events have occurred in just two days. This may seem beyond belief to mere mortals but not to God. “For a thousands years is as one day, and a day as a thousand years” to the Creator. (Ps. 90:4; 2 Pe. 3:8)

This brings me to a problem requiring an explanation. We often hear prophecy teachers talk about the end time and the imminent return of the Messiah, about a millennial reign, and about a coming global peace. After thousands of years, these doctrines strike many as a lot of wishful thinking. Skeptics often scoff at such beliefs as myths or worse at childish make-believe. Yet, the warnings of prophets and apostles about such criticism must be heeded. Seemingly unfilled prophecy—hope against hope—is better understood in light of divine time rather than based on human conception of time. Based on God’s timetable, Rabbinical and Christian scholars believe that messianic end time prophecies will be fulfilled at the beginning of the seventh millennium or the seventh day of the creation of the habitable earth. Depending on the calendar followed, the seventh millennium should begin in either the next 50 to 1233 years. To the spiritual enemies of God, the time is short. To followers of Jesus the Messiah, it is not of utmost importance. What is crucial is being alert to what God is doing and aware of the progress of history towards the fulfillment of God’s promises. Jesus said, it is not for you to know times and seasons, but to be watching and always prepared for his coming, whether at death or at the rapture.

In the glorious realm of spiritual reality, time is short. Two days has passed, those beings who rule evil in darkness fearfully anticipate the dawning of the third day. While fear and anger grips the forces of God’s enemies, saints and angels both revel with joy in anticipation of that holy day when God shall rise from his throne to execute final justice. At God's right hand, Messiah Jesus also comes to administrate the eternal reign of God’s kingdom on earth. Vanquished to the abysmal prisons are the forces of violence and darkness, and filling their place will be the peace and righteousness that attends the presence of God. Amen.