Today’s Bible Study, Authored by Arthur
Cincotti. 03/17/2024
Listen to our Bible
Study Discussion at: Which Laws to Obey Podcast
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Which Laws to Obey
“The law of the LORD is
perfect, converting the soul; Ps.
19:7
If the above statement is
true then we should most likely pay far more attention to the law. The early
church did, in fact, pay attention to the law and hotly debated what laws to
retain from the Old Covenant. I think the short answer is all and none.
If that’s not satisfying, we
might need to go deeper.
Rm. 10:4 says, “For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone who believes.”
And Jesus said, “Do not
think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.
I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Mt. 5:17
Let’s consider the law:
Paul, speaking to the
Galatians about the promise given to Abraham said, “What purpose then does
the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should
come to whom the promise was made…” Gal. 3:19
He goes on to say, “But
before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith
which would afterward be revealed.” Gal. 3:23
In an article from Judaism
101, entitled “Halakhah: Jewish Law, it says, “The word “halakhah” is usually
translated as “Jewish Law,” although a more literal (and more appropriate)
translation might be “the path that one walks.” The word is derived from the
Hebrew root Hei-Lamed-Kaf, meaning to go, to walk, or to travel.
To answer our above question
it is helpful to categorize the law. There are many broad categories that can
be best narrowed to four: ceremonial law, dietary law, civil law, and moral
law.
Ceremonial law:
This may well be the most confusing to us as it was to the first-century
Christian. This includes feasts, sabbaths, sacrifices, and other religious
rituals prescribed in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers; given to Moses and the
children of Israel in the wilderness.
Paul speaks to matters of
ceremony in Col. 2:16-17
“So let no one judge you
in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which
are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”
And Rom. 14:5,6 “One
person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each
be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the
Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it…”
Other ceremonial matters were
settled in community during the Apostolic era. Act 15 speaks of the Jerusalem
Council which settled the matter of circumcision and I Cor. 16:2 and Phil. 1:5
speaks of believers meeting together on the first day of the week.
The ceremonial laws
surrounding the priesthood are spoken to in Heb. 7:12, “For the priesthood
being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.” and also
the balance of ch. 7 and 8.
Heb. 8;1, “…We have such
a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in
the heavens.
Dietary law:
Dietary law is also spoken to in Rom. 14, and Col. 2, but
most particularly in Acts 10:15, “And a voice spoke to him [Peter] again the
second time, What God has cleansed you must not call common.” We can also
apply this word to having touched a dead body and/or a woman having her cycle.
Often we see commonsensical
prohibitions in the law that we should obey even though we have freedom.
Civil Law:
In regard to civil law I will simply say that it applies to
the nation of Israel and their relationships with surrounding people groups.
The greatest impact of the New Covenant is the grafting in of the Gentiles.
Gal. 3:26-28, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male
nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Moral Law:
The moral law causes the most controversy. The grace and
freedom crowd insists that any moralizing is abject legalism and an expression
of salvation by works. The pushback is equally passionate that the whole
spectrum of the moral law is in play under the New Covenant without a wink to
the understanding that we couldn’t keep it before we knew Christ and that He is
making even higher demands.
Paul gives quite an ominous
laundry list in I Cor. 6:9-11 and beyond, “Do you not know that the
unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?…And such were some of you.
But you were washed…”
The higher calling that Jesus
puts upon us regarding the moral law is to expose that all unrighteousness is a
condition of the heart.
Mk. 7:14-23 expresses this.
vr. 21. “For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts…”
Heart transformation is
always both an action and a process. God gives us a new heart in salvation; one
which is pliable and receptive to His word. What we do with it after that can
mount up some issues, but it is still and always a received gift that is
irrevocable.
The big question on
everybody’s mind is, what can we do and what can we not do???
In I Cor. 3:21-23 Paul makes
a gripping statement of freedom, “Therefore let no one boast in men. For all
things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or
death, or things present or things to come – all are yours. And you are
Christ’s and Christ is God’s.”
But later in the letter he
qualifies this. I get some help here from a Christian classic entitled “The
Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges. From memory I recall Jerry’s formula for
this subject:
I Cor. 6:12 and repeated in
10:23 Paul writes, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not
helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the
power of any.”
This is a good litmus test to
question yourself whether a thought or action which precipitates from a thought
is acceptable or if it needs to come under the authority of “the obedience of
Christ.”
Bridges finishes with a third
test. I Cor. 8:13 says, “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will
never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”
These three demonstrate our self-awareness,
our understanding of the gospel, and our sense of community, all of which we
are accountable before God.
In most cases wherein we
question the rightness of an action, we know deep inside what the answer is.
The battle of our soul is what hinders us from making wise choices.
Self-government is the
highest form of government.
I will close with one
thought:
Duet. 22:5 says, “A woman
shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a
woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the LORD your
God.” We don’t pay any attention to
this anymore, but look at the havoc that disobeying this has caused in our
culture.
Os Guinness writes, in his
book, “A Free Peoples Suicide,” “The greatest
enemy of freedom is freedom.”
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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