Once upon a time there was a covenant made between God and the nation of Israel. It was based upon a law of hearing it and doing it. The ultimate goal was to be a doer of that word of law as they pursued right standing with God. In spite of how many may have thought they were performing as required, nobody could actually do it.
About 1,500 years later, the fulfillment of that law arrived in the form of a Person who came to provide a new and better option to completely replace the old one. This covenant would be established between Him and God the Father, available for the entire world, based not on doing— but through faith and believing.
The difference between the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of faith is infinite and eternal. It is important we don't confuse the two or blend them together. Our boasting is in Jesus and His doing.
In a land known as "seminary," it is commonly taught that the law of Moses was basically divided into three different categories, typically referred to as sacrificial laws, ceremonial laws, and moral laws. Dietary commands and many other "miscellaneous" statutes are usually considered as part of the ceremonial group. The misguided approach with this is that the ceremonial and sacrificial laws were brought to an end after the cross, but the "moral laws" are still to apply. This ideology is passed on to the church sheep as it is filtered through Bible teaching from those with educational degrees. The problem? None of this is true. It's completely fabricated. The Bible says no such thing about the law being broken up with some of it eliminated and a small portion of it still in place. Such a concept should be known as cheap law.
There was one law which came through Moses (not multiple laws) ... and it was all bundled together ... of which God declared that nothing shall be added to it or taken from it. The Jews were required to do all of it. Either it all had to remain in effect, or it all had to come to an end. Cherry-picking a few rules here and there while disregarding others is exactly what the law itself says cannot be done. It's interesting to notice that many individual laws the church ignores are mixed right into the very same passages as ones they think should be kept. It's a murky mixture of a covenant combination with glaring inconsistencies.
None of the law was going to pass until it was fulfilled. Jesus fulfilled the entire law, not to mention the Psalms and the Prophets. By establishing a new and better covenant, we now live in a more glorious ministry of the Spirit, where He guides us into all truth, and by grace teaches us how to live in godliness.
We're familiar with the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery who the Pharisees brought before Jesus ... who was teaching in the temple with plenty of witnesses. Of course, they could have stoned her anywhere, but they saw an opportunity to try to trap Jesus into saying something that opposed the law—which would be punishable by death. They knew He wasn't likely to pass judgement on the woman, so they thought they had Him between a rock and a hard place.
Did Jesus somehow go against the law of Moses or disregard it in some way? Some might be left with this impression, but Jesus wasn't about to go against a law that needed to remain in place until He would eventually fulfill it. We provide a perspective on how all of this went down, and why the Pharisees released their rubble and walked away—in spite of the law still being in place and what it had declared.
Okay, okay, we admit it. Last week was going to be our final program in “The Law Abolished” series. But in case you didn’t read the fine print in our podcast contract, we reserve the right to change our minds. We felt another round would be beneficial to finish this series or topic to further address questions that may still be lingering … and there is a handful of potential “light bulb” moments here as we attempt to help bring further consistency to the message of the gospel of pure grace … fully apart from a law of commandments.
Today, God has a very different ministry than before Jesus died and rose. It’s the ministry of the Spirit, which completely surpassed the previous ministry of works from a former covenant which has absolutely no place since Jesus Christ fulfilled it.
At the time we recorded this episode, we were thinking it would be our final program in the series, so you will hear us talk about that. However, the next time we sat down to record, our brain cells started firing and we ended up having a few more thoughts to share, so there will be one more after this one!
This particular episode provides us an opportunity to tie a number of thoughts together regarding the Mosaic law, its purpose and why it is no longer needed today in a covenant of grace. What once had glory has come to have no glory at all … because of the greater and more superior ministry of the Spirit of God.
Our fourth program in the series brings us to a conversation which challenges the idea that the law of commandments from Mount Sinai is still meant to be ministered to people after the cross as a tool to bring them to Christ. There is an effective way to look back on this obsolete law package from the Old Covenant … and the writer of the book of Hebrews shows an example of explaining how it was once the way that Jews attempted to attain righteousness by works—and that it couldn’t be done.
It’s not hard for we grace folks to fall into a similar trap that the legalists have been stuck in—picking and choosing selective bits and pieces of that old law while ignoring other parts that seem more obsolete or abolished. The law only spoke to Jewish people before the cross. It never spoke to Gentiles. So let’s consider a radical idea: stop trying to use the law of sin and death to persuade people and just start sharing the good news of Jesus. He did what the law never could—He fulfilled it in us.
Our third program in the series takes a look at how the Mosaic law was something that had kept people from God, from righteousness, and from a covenant of grace. While it had been meant to ultimately lead the Jewish nation to a Savior, in this New Covenant, we don’t use it in the same way (because nobody is under it). It was a ministry that brought guilt, death, condemnation, and bondage, while bringing a reminder of sins … the precise opposite of what Jesus brings. It came to an end when Jesus became High Priest. It was nailed to the cross and in Paul’s words, it was abolished.
As Paul stated, the law spoke to those who were under it (Jews). Since it has been made obsolete with a new and better covenant, it doesn’t say anything to anyone today. If the law were truly not abolished, that would mean none of it was and it would (all) still have a place … which brings confusion and inconsistency to the message of the gospel of grace.
Prior to the ratification of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ, we find that there was a barrier, a middle wall of separation which was keeping the Jews from attaining righteousness … and the other 99% of the world without a covenant at all. At the time of the Old Covenant (before the cross), Gentiles were described as being without God and having no hope in the world.
What was it that was keeping Jews from righteousness and Gentiles separated from God entirely? It was the law of commandments contained in ordinances from the first covenant. Jesus broke down this law wall—abolishing this enmity in His flesh. This resulted in Gentiles being brought near to God by the blood of Christ, and bringing both groups together into one new man. Inside of a very different covenant, it is not an obsolete, abolished law that lures people towards God … it was having it removed and taken out of the way.
The law of commandments came through Moses during the first covenant made with Israel. There are some in both legalistic and grace circles who will teach things about this law from very different covenant perspectives, but will often both be of the persuasion that the law itself was not abolished. There may be many reasons for this ideology—with one of those having to do with something Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.
Whatever your opinion may be on the subject, our goal during this series will be to help provide a viewpoint for consideration in order to bring as much consistency as possible when it comes to the message of the grace of the gospel.
