Will there be judgement for the Jews who were under The Law of Moses?

An American reader asks the following question :

” During the years that the Mosaic Law was in effect, did knowledge of the Law bring responsibility to judgment for the Jews at the judgment seat? Please give any Bible verses that would be applicable.”

REPLY

There does not appear to be a direct answer to this question in any Bible passage, but the impression we get from various passages is that the Law of Moses did bring responsibility to the Judgment Seat. Some Bible students take the opposite view, but each of us must decide for himself in cases where there is no direct answer.

For example, we are told in Matt. 19:16 that a certain Jew came to Jesus, and asked, ” What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” Our Lord’s answer is in verse 17. “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,” and the context shows that Jesus meant the Ten Commandments, which were included in the Law of Moses.

Then we also have in Luke 10 the account of a certain lawyer asking Jesus, ” What shall I do to inherit eternal life.?” The reply of Jesus comes quite near to answering our reader’s question. ” What is written in the Law?” And when the lawyer answered, ” Thou shalt love the Lord thy God . . . and thy neighbor as thyself” (which we know is a summary of the Law), Jesus replied” This do, and thou shalt live..”

In each of these cases, the query concerned eternal life, and it is evident that Jesus said, in effect, that if people kept the Law (perfectly, of course), they would be rewarded with eternal life.

Of course, nobody (excepting Jesus himself) kept the Law perfectly, and so all were accounted lawbreakers, and—as such—earned the wages of sin, i.e., death, as a punishment. Thus the Apostle Paul could say, “The commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.”

It seems evident from all this that rewards and punishments were associated with the Law of Moses, and it follows, therefore, that the Law brought responsibility to judgment upon those Jews who lived under it, since we cannot think of responsibility apart from some form of judgment seat, or tribunal.

But we make a mistake if we think only of judicial condemnation for those Jews. Provision was made for forgiveness in certain circumstances. Hence David could write:

” Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered ” (Ps. 32:1), and “For Thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy with all them that call upon Thee ” (Ps. 86:5).

We therefore confidently expect David himself, and many other worthies of Old Testament times (see Heb. 11) to be rewarded on the Day of Judgment.