The Previous Section: The New Marriage Contract
The law came in to show us our sin. It defined sin and the penalties for sin. We were not living as we should, so the law came in to show us that. In so doing, it increased the transgression by defining our wrong-doing. Paradoxically, the increase in transgression also increased the grace that would be shown through Christ. So sin reigned in death, meaning that the law demonstrated how violations of the Torah ended with death. But through Christ, Torah violations were granted grace and forgiveness, such that the blessings of law could be realized as God intended. If a Christian denies that we should follow Torah, ask them to define sin. They cannot. They will claim it is loving God and loving neighbor, but do not understand that loving God/neighbor will be completely different from person to person. They must acknowledge that ‘love’ can mean different things to different people. For example, some will use love of neighbor to affirm transgenderism or homosexuality. Is that in line with Biblical teachings? No. Most Christians won’t acknowledge that these two commandments from Christ in Matthew 22:37-40 come from the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18), and define the first 4 and second 6 of the 10 commandments, respectively. Those that do acknowledge that the 2 commandments to love God and neighbor actually just summarize the 10 commandments, draw a line in the sand that somehow the 10 commandments are the only laws that need to be followed. This makes it easy to not make the logical next step, and understand that the 10 commandments summarize the remaining 613 laws of the Torah.
So a better interpretation of the Torah is summarized as the 2, the 10, and the 613. We do not practice all 613 because many relate to the sacrificial system, and that has been paid for in Christ’s blood, but it doesn’t mean we completely disregard them. It simply means we acknowledge that they were paid for. Forgetting God’s feasts, dietary restrictions, and practices of binding the Torah to ourselves through a Tzitzit and Mezuzah, does not seem like a sound Biblical position, since Christ lived by those very same practices. Christ did not abolish those things, he lived them out fully, and we would be wise to remember that.
Dismissing the Torah as having been made obsolete through Christ, denies the power of OT scripture to define sin, and places too much faith in ones own ability to define right and wrong. According to what standard? Sin is not clearly defined in the NT, so one cannot use it solely as a means to live their life as God intended. The NT is meant to reveal the true nature of the OT, it is not stand alone scripture. Some have said that the NT is the OT revealed, and the OT is the NT concealed. That statement holds truth, for the OT and NT are inseparable. Attempts to separate them remove the objective identification of sin. As Paul articulates, Sin is defined by the Torah.
“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
Romans 3:20 ESV
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 5:12-13, 20-21 ESV
”The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.“
1 Corinthians 15:56 ESV
If we go to Romans 6, we see that we obey the law out of slavery to Christ, lest we become a slave to sin (which again, is defined as violating the Torah). If sin, or the trespass, is defined as violations of the Torah, (see Romans 5:12-21 above), and we are no longer under the Torah’s death penalties, are we allowed to violate the Torah because we are under grace? Paul says no in Romans 6. Within the verses, if you replace ‘sin’ with ‘violating God’s Torah’ you will see what he is saying with new eyes:
“What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.”
Romans 6:15-19 ESV
Read the following excerpts from Romans 7 and understand that Paul is not denying the power the Law, he is emphasizing that the Christ follower is free from the death brought by believing one is justified by works of the Law. That the written code says that transgression is met with a death penalty, but through Christ, there is no need for a penalty any longer because there is no transgression for those in Him. There is no transgression because Christ in them prevents repeated purposeful transgression. It is that simple. Our sinful nature was heightened by the law, for it demonstrated our lawlessness clearly to us, but in Christ, that nature is changed, so that being under that captive or guardian is no longer required (see Galatians 3:24), for we now follow the law implicitly. But just because we are no longer under a guardian, does not mean we throw away what the guardian taught. We serve the Law in the new way, being led by the spirit, not led strictly by the letter. We know that according to the letter, violations literally brought death. As Paul writes:
”And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.“
2 Corinthians 3:3-11 ESV
As we’ll read in detail in Romans 7 below, Paul is not saying we should not follow the Law. He is saying that you have to follow it for the right reasons, and put it into the right context. The law of God is something to be cherished in our minds, and something we should desire to do. But we often cannot, and for this reason, our bodies serve a law of sin, or put differently, a law that violates, or cannot live up to, the Torah. To understand the law of sin and death, just realize that the law brought death for those who violated it. Sin, or violating God’s Torah, brought death.
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
Romans 7:25 ESV
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
Romans 8:1-2 ESV
So we do not throw out the law, for the law defines sin, and we know that those in Christ are forgiven their transgression for they are trying to follow it wholeheartedly. Paul asks below, is the law itself sin? He answers, by no means, it defines sin and lays it out for us. The law is holy, righteous, and good.
“Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
Romans 7:4-7, 12, 14, 22-25 ESV
Christ died so we don’t have to. He died to serve as the eternal sacrifice for sin, or violations of the law. The Law is good and Holy, but brings death when not followed. Christ did not die to abolish the law, but to redeem us from the penalty that is due when we fail to follow it. It cannot be more clearly said in Galatians 3:10-14. Christ redeemed us from the penalty, or curse, of the law. He showed us the right way to follow the Law, through faith and a true heart, not because we are trying to accrue good works, as though our good works could buy us heaven. Such thinking is doomed to death.
“For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
Galatians 3:10-14 ESV
Christ did not redeem us from the law, Galatians 3:10-14 above state He redeemed us FROM THE CURSE, or penalty of the law, by becoming our penalty or curse. Sin is lawlessness, and Christ did not die so we could sin.
It cannot be said any clearer than in 1 John 3:4-6. John says that sin is lawlessness, or not following the Torah. He states that Christ appeared to take away lawlessness, or sin. In other words, Christ died to remove Torah disobedience. No one who abides in Christ disobeys the Torah and keeps on doing so (sinning). They find that keeping the law is easy, for they desire it in their heart. We see this reiterated in 1 John 5:2-3 as well.
“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”
1 John 3:4-6 ESV
“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”
1 John 5:2-3 ESV
Ask yourself, if the law was done away with, how is sin defined? If you say, love God and neighbor, then what seems good to one person, is not the same as another. If you say, just keep the 10 commandments, what scripture is that based on (why not 9, or 7)? The Torah defined our sin, our transgression. Our transgression against the law was forgiven, not so that we could keep on transgressing it.
Next Section: Christ Fulfilled the Eternal Sacrifice
