Do you always refer to the law of Moses as “the law of Moses?” Do you ever use another term for that body of teaching? If you answer “yes” and “no” respectively, you are following a common Christadelphian practice.
The law of Moses
It is, of course, a scriptural term. Where we tend to diverge from scriptural practice is in using “the law of Moses” almost exclusively. The more common biblical designations are, “the law of the LORD,” “the law of God” and “God’s law.” Similarly, God refers to “my law” and His servants to “thy law.”
It is also useful to observe how frequently, when the law of Moses is identified, there is allusion to God’s authorship in the immediate context. A few examples:
I Kings 2:3 (RSV, as are all quotes) “…keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses…”
II Kings 14:6 “…according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses, where the LORD commanded….”
Ezra 7:6 “…the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given…”
God the author
Of course we know that Moses was not the author of the law. However, an unvarying use of the term, “the law of Moses,” may tend to obscure its divine origin. We may even emphatically contrast this
teaching with “the law of Christ” and thereby conceal the truth that the LORD God is the author of both Old Testament and New and that His eternal principles are consistently revealed from Genesis to Revelation. Bro. Robert Roberts carefully titled his book: The Law of Moses as a rule of national and individual life and the enigmatically enunciation of divine principles and purposes.
Divine principle and purposes do not change from Adam to Abraham, from Moses to Jesus. At times, they are “enunciated enigmatically,” requiring the most diligent attention and analytical consideration; at other times, they are opened up with greater clarity and are more easily comprehended. This is, in fact, true of all parts of the Word of God.
The law — what is it?
What, then is the essence of the law of the LORD? What are its fundamental, eternal principles?
In one of the most concise summaries, God’s law is presented thus: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Here is one statement with two aspects. It is true for Adam and Eve, for Cain and Abel, for Abraham, for Saul, David and Solomon, for Judas and Peter, for Cornelius and ourselves. Like a single coin with two sides, the one law reveals two complementary principles. This flows from the very character of the one God who thus reveals His glory, His goodness, His name (Ex. 33:18,19):
“The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sins, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation (of those who hate me)” (Ex. 34:6,7; 20:5).
The basic elements
Here are identified the basic elements of God’s righteousness in relation to human conduct. “Note then the kindness [but] the severity of God” (Rom. 11:22). According to our reaction to God’s law, with its mercy and grace, our fate is determined.
For the people of Israel, the choice was clarified in graphic detail in Lev. 26: “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase…and I will make my abode among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people…But if you will not hearken to me, and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, I will do this to you: I will appoint over you sudden terror, consumption, and fever that wastes the eyes…I will set my face against you…and I will scatter you among the nations…” (vs. 3-4 ,6,11- 12,14- 17,33).
The alternative reactions and consequences are clarified in Deut. 30, “If you obey…by loving the LORD your God, by walking in His ways, and by keeping His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, then…the LORD your God will bless you…but…if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them…you shall perish…” (vs. 16-18).
In a future article, God willing, we will return to these passages to demonstrate that the requirement involved, primarily, faith and faithfulness, is a matter of direction not perfection. At this time, we seek to establish that these choices reveal the essential, eternal elements of the law of the LORD.
A consistent theme
Throughout scripture, the two primary aspects of the law are amplified and illustrated. Consider a few examples where they are briefly summarized:
Psa. 37:9 “For the wicked shall be cutoff; but those who wait for the LORD shall possess the land [inherit the earth KJV].”
Prov. 3:33 “The LORD’S curse is on the house of the wicked but he blesses the abode of the righteous.”
Jer. 17:5-8 “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the LORD… [but]…Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD…”
These basic principles of the law are still true for us; they constitute the foundations of New Testament teaching.
Luke 6:47-49 “Every one who comes to me and hears my words and does them…he is like a man building a house…upon rock…but he who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation…”
Romans 2:7-8 “To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory…he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, there will be wrath and fury.”
Gal. 6:8 “For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
Eternal principles of divine law
The divine prohibition of sin has stamped its imprint in our minds, our flesh and our very nature. Its impact is deadly. “The wages of sin is death” has been true from the beginning. The law of Moses emphasizes this harsh reality with apparently relentless intensity. Its message was driven home daily to the Israelites through numerous commandments, precepts and rituals.
“…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” When did this become true? Certainly this most gracious aspect of the law of the LORD finds its open manifestation in and after the life, death, resurrection and ascension of our redeemer. Its complete fulfillment awaits his return. But remember, “Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Was Abraham alone in this foresight of faith?
By no means! Did not faithful Israelites rejoice in the assurance of ultimate Messianic deliverance perceived in many gracious provisions of the law? Did they not look for the promised seed, the offspring of the woman, the seed of Abraham and later the seed of David? Was he not there in every sacrifice and offering, in the high priest, in the tabernacle and its appointments?
He had been foreshadowed from the beginning, in the light that penetrated the darkness, in the sabbath rest, in the tree of life, in the man through whose deep sleep the bride was formed. Indeed to the perceptive eye of faith, Christ was alluded to in every gracious Old Testament shadow of the redemptive process.
So David, living under the law of Moses, could rejoice as we do, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit” (Psa. 32:1-2).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One