Law & Covenant
Psalm 119:97 O how I love
your law!
All day long I meditate on it.
119:98 Your law makes me
wiser than my enemies,
for I am always aware of it.
119:99 I even have more
insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your rules.
Galatians 3:1 You foolish
Galatians! Who has
bewitched you? … Although
you began with the Spirit
are you now trying to finish
by human effort?
5:4 You who are trying to be
declared righteous by the
law have been alienated
from Christ; you have fallen
away from grace!
1
The Problem
A.
We easily apply some laws (usually the “moral” ones)
1.
2.
B.
But not others
1.
C.
Leviticus 19:18 You must not take vengeance or bear a
grudge against the children of your people, but you must love
your neighbor as yourself.
Exodus 20:13 You shall not murder.
Leviticus 19:19 You must keep my statutes. You must not
allow two different kinds of your animals to breed, you must
not sow your field with two different kinds of seed, and you
must not wear a garment made of two different kinds of fabric.
So how do we know?
2
1. Toward a solution: First,
what books make up the Law?
A. ____________
Exodus 19-24 is the first formal statement of
the Constitution (Book of the Covenant, 24:7)
with its summary (10 commands) and ratification
(24:1-13)
B. Leviticus
_______ adds much ceremonial or sacrificial
law
Deuteronomy
C. ___________ is the more formalized and
comprehensive statement of the Law as the best
statement of the Constitution of the nation.
3
D. Semantic range of “Torah”
5 books of Moses,
i.e., Pentateuch The three books
Just mentioned
Deuteronomy
Any law, command
Statute, guideline
In the OT
4
2. Second, The Law is like a
diamond: whole lot of facets
A.
To Reveal who God is
“You shall have no other gods before me” Why? Because he alone is
supreme and all others are imposters.
“Love your neighbor.” Why? Because God loves his creation even in
rebellion.
“Be honest.” Why? Because God is true and dishonesty is destructive.
B.
To Guide Israel, (showing Israel how to enjoy life and
flourish). The Law was given to a nation already in
covenantal relationship with God to show them how to live
well with Him as their king. (Deut 6; 28:1-14)
1.
2.
3.
Even in the NT Jesus says “If you love me (relationship) you’ll keep
my commands” (evidence, John 14:23).
“If you knew all that God knows you would easily and quickly
choose his way every time.” “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined
to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go
well with them and their children forever! (Deut 5:29).
The Law never produces a relationship with God, it only measures
5
or evidences it.
2. Second, The Law is like a
diamond: whole lot of facets
A.
B.
C.
To Reveal who God is
To Guide Israel, (showing Israel how to enjoy life and
flourish). The Law was given to a nation already in
covenantal relationship with God to show them how to live
well with Him as their king. (Deut 6; 28:1-14)
To make sin obvious. The law shows unbelievers in the
nation how and when they fall short, but with a redemptive
intent (Deut 28:15-68)
1.
2.
The Law was never intended as a means of earning merit with God
Nor did it ever require sinless perfection; rather, it assumed sin on
the part of the people, and forgiveness on the part of God via the
sacrificial system
6
2. Second, The Law is like a
diamond: whole lot of facets
D. To prepare the nation to want Messiah.
At his best, David, gives a glimpse of Messiah…
but David & the other kings leave us longing for
more, especially in the exile and the ensuing
Roman oppression—the “curse of the law”
E. To isolate and protect them from the enemy
and a culture of death until Messiah came.
a kosher diet is a powerful social force.
F. To provide for organization and order in
society.
7
3. Third, exactly WHY do we
not follow the law today?
•
•
It was a way a way of
earning merit with God
Now, in the New
Testament we have
replaced all rules (law)
with “freedom” (grace)
It was the constitution of an
ancient nation, of which
none of us are citizens.
It contained not just moral, but
civil laws (taxes, building
codes) that were specific
to the nation.
It contained many laws of
worship that have been
superseded because of
the Seed’s coming.
8
3. Third, exactly WHY do we
study the law today?
1. It still reveals much about the character of God
2. We can still learn a lot about how to live
3. It provides the necessary background to God’s
program in Christ to redeem and restore his
creation.
9
How to study for
Celebration #1 on Monday
A. The test itself
1. Multiple choice questions that test your ability
to think through class material
2. Open, unmarked, non-study Bible
3. People generally take from 30-50 minutes to
complete
10
How to study for
Celebration #1 on Monday
B. My strategy
1. Not to trick you, but to test your knowledge of
the most important concepts.
2. Open the PowerPoint files on the S drive and
pretend you’re teaching your imaginary friend.
3. Answer the study questions (correctly) on the
S: drive
11
How to study for
Celebration #1 on Monday
C. Your strategy (in my opinion).
Study in little chunks of time long before
the exam.
1 hour tonight of concentrated study
each night before Sunday and several hours
on Sunday and you should be good.
The Celebrations are the most
significant percentage of your grade, so
overstudy for the first exam, until you get an A
12
How to study for
Celebration #1 on Monday
1.
The main goal of the Bible is to teach us about:
a.
b.
c.
2.
History
Morality
Theology
If we had to make an educated guess we would say that most of the men in the genealogy
of Genesis 5 are ______
a.
b.
c.
3.
Saved
Unsaved
We don’t know
The main idea that God wants the reader to learn from the story of Cain and Abel is
a.
b.
c.
4.
This is the very first recorded murder in the Bible
Jealousy between brothers can easily erupt into murder
People from different lines have conflict between them.
The significance of the price that Abraham had to pay for the cave in 23:1-20 is that at that
time:
a.
b.
c.
d.
God had fulfilled his promises to Abraham
Abraham had to pay the going rate for funeral plots
God had not fulfilled his promises to Abraham
God had blessed Abraham with sufficient resources
13
4. Fourth, the nature and
function of law
A.
B.
Apodictic law is the declarative law consisting of
commands and prohibitions.
Casuistic law describes a particular event and
prescribes consequences, e.g., “If A takes place, then B
is the consequence”
1.
2.
C.
Even in modern systems of jurisprudence, laws are often made
to speak to a particular situation or violation.
This is why law students study specific cases of “Dean versus
New Hampshire” or “Roe vs Wade”. These specific cases make
precedents from which a whole host of other similar cases can
be compared and then adjudicated.
BUT, both of these laws are representative of the kind of
behavior desired, not exhaustive listings which cover
every possibility.
14
A weak (perhaps) analogy
15
A weak (perhaps) analogy
The laws of the OT are like the poles of a fence…
They are the anchor points that stake out the
main boundaries.
However, inherent in the meaning of law is that
there are almost unlimited implications or
parallel cases which, though unstated, are like
the chain link fencing that stretches between the
poles.
These implications are the “spirit of the law”
1. E.g. “Don’t get drunk with wine, but be filled”
2. Jesus and “Don’t murder” also means “Don’t get
angry” and “don’t treat other with contempt”
16
4. Fourth, the nature and
function of law
D. A misunderstanding of this truth is the
basis for much legalism, particularly the
error of keeping the “letter” of the law, but
not the “spirit” thereof. One can not say “I
haven’t violated this very specific instance,
therefore, I have kept the law.”
17
When Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount
(Matt 5-7) “You have heard it said” he was
NOT contrasting OT Law with His law
Rather he was contrasting
a Pharisaic
misunderstanding of
the letter of the law
(just the poles) with
the true meaning of
the OT Law, i.e., the
Spirit of the law (the
chain-link fencing too).
18