| The Fallacy of the Old Law/New Law Dichotomy, Part 1 |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, June 23 2008 00:00 |
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In Hebrews chapters 8-10 we read of how God in Christ takes away the old covenant to establish the new covenant. The writer of Hebrews labors to establish the superiority of the new covenant to discourage Christians who have come out of the bondage of Mosaic law under the first covenant to return to it. This discussion has led many, especially those accustomed to thinking in terms of salvation being the reward for faithful commandment-keeping, to think that he is speaking of the removal of the old law to be replaced by a new law. However, the New Testament never speaks of a “new law.” We may conclude there is no such thing as a “new law.” Do Christ’s commandments and those of the apostles not constitute a “new law” for Christians? No, Christ taught that He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). This verse is important. Whereas there is a change of priesthood that involves a change of law regarding sacrifices for forgiveness of sins (the function of a priesthood), and a change of covenants (Heb. 7:12), there is not a change of the fundamental moral law that originated at creation for a new moral law, but a fulfillment of all law in Christ. How did He fulfill it? In two ways. First, He kept it perfectly. He is the only person ever to do so. Adam had an opportunity to do so, but he sinned. The second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45-48) did not sin. By His perfect obedience we can now be declared in Him perfectly obedient to all the righteous requirements of the law ( Rom. 8:4). We speak of this declaration of our being considered in the sight of God as having fully met all these requirements as a result of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness at the point of faith. It is what Paul meant when he said that in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed (Rom. 1:17, 3:21). The righteousness through which we appear before God as sinless is an alien righteousness, not our own, a righteousness from God. It is the result of Christ’s having kept the righteous requirements of the law fully. (to be continued) |
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