Introduction
What is the value of the Old Covenant Law (i.e. the Law of Moses) for the Christian? That there is value is beyond dispute. Paul expressly affirms that all Scripture is profitable (2 Tim. 3:16), which certainly includes the Old Covenant Law. Moreover, he affirms that it is profitable for teaching, correcting, and equipping Christians. But exactly how the Law profits the Christian is the subject of much dispute.
Historic Reformed protestantism teaches three uses of the Law:
- To reveal sin and the need for forgiveness.
- To provide the rules of Christian living.
- To restrain the actions of unbelievers.
The underlying presupposition is that the Old Covenant Law continues to place demands on men, both believing or unbelieving, Jew or Gentile. The New Testament, however, it seems to me, suggests a different kind of profit for Christians. I propose that there are not three but four uses of the Old Covenant Law (or perhaps, one overarching use with three sub-uses), and that none of them involves a direct obligation to obey its commands in the New Covenant era. I am not herein affirming that Christians are without law, but that is the topic for another post. This article will attempt to sketch the argument. (“Sketch” being the operative word. Full treatment will have to wait.)
Three uses in the life of Israel
The Old Covenant Law was not a universal law binding upon all men. It was specific to Israel. It was the core of the covenant between God and Israel (Deut. 4:13). And according to the Apostle Paul, it had three distinct purposes for the Jews:
• Publicize their sin (Rom. 3:20). Speaking to those under the Law (i.e. the Jews, v9), Paul explains that “through the Law comes knowledge of sin.” By having a list of dos and don’ts, God’s people were shown their failure to obey Him. The Law revealed their wickedness.
• Provoke their sin (Rom. 5:20). This is an unexpected purpose of God’s Law. One which, in fact, contradicts one of the previously mentioned Reformation purposes. Rather than to curb sin, the Law was actually given to induce sin in the Jewish people. Like when a parent commands a child not to touch something and thereby incites in the lad an increasing urge to touch it, so the Law produced a similar urge to do what God had forbidden in the children of Israel (cp. Rom. 7:7-9).
• Punish their sin (Gal. 3, especially v24). The Law was a disciplinarian (such should be the rendering of pedagogue rather than “teacher” or “tutor”). It reprimanded the Jew who stepped out of the bounds allowed by the commandments. It fenced the Jews in and punished anyone who hopped over it.
Prophetic use for Israel and the Church
The fourth use of the Old Covenant Law was its prophetic use. It had a goal (Rom. 10:4). Just like Isaiah and Daniel, the Law predicted the coming of Christ. It did so in (at least) two ways.
• First, it prophesied the coming kingdom and its King. In Matt. 11:13, Jesus says, “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John” (ESV, emphasis added). The Law not only commanded, it foretold. But what was its prediction? Luke 16:16 offers a clue when it says, ““The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached” (ESV). Again, this is Jesus speaking. The message of the Old Testament prophets and the Law has given way to their fulfillment—the arrival of God’s kingdom.
Moses went up on the mountain to receive God’s commands which he delivered to Israel along with God’s promise that if they obeyed them, they would become a kingdom (Exo. 19:5-6). This event was not only significant in the history of Israel, it also prophesied the kingdom of God to come. The fulfillment was Jesus, who Himself went up on a mountain to deliver commands to His people about His kingdom (see Matt. 5). The King of God’s kingdom did not merely restate and reinforce the Law of Moses, as is often taught in Reformed circles, but gave His own authoritative commands for the kingdom (“But I say unto you . . .”). The coming of this King and His kingdom was the fulfillment of the Old Covenant Law’s prophecy.
This, I believe, is getting close to what Jesus meant when He said that He came to fulfill the Law (Matt. 5:17). He came to be what it foreshadowed and to declare God’s righteousness for His kingdom.
• Second, the Law prophesied the need for the Messiah to suffer and die (Luke 24:46). God’s righteousness imposed severe consequences upon law-breakers. They would be cut off from His presence, rejected by Him, and they must die. This was repeatedly demonstrated by the (substitutionary) death of sacrificial animals and the exclusion of sinners from the Jewish community. If any Jew was to have an amicable relationship with God, a substitute more worthy than bulls and goats would need to come and take God’s wrath for him. Jesus took upon Himself the curse of the Law for the Jews (Gal. 3:13). He was cut off from God’s presence (crucified outside of Jerusalem), abandoned by God (“My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”), and He died. All of this was foretold by the Old Covenant Law.
This prophetic character of the Old Covenant Law, not its moral demands, is its profit for the Christian.
Conclusion
Christians should interpret the Law of Moses akin to the way we interpret Isaiah 53, as prophecy which richly foretells the coming of Jesus Christ. As such, the Law is not our source of laws. Certainly, New Testament authors quote and reintroduce Old Testament commands, but they do so as emissaries of the King. And nowhere do they tell us to imitate their practice. There is no New Testament warrant for arbitrarily “principalizing” Old Testament commands without express apostolic authorization. We look to our King for commands to obey (John 14:15; Matt. 28:18-19).