Re-Thinking the Role of the Law

When we arrived in Niugini one of our first tasks for ministry was to work out the belief systems already in place. Besides our church, the local area was mainly Seven Day Adventists (SDAs) and “heathens,” that is literally what they call themselves! We used to joke that the number of SDA churches in our district must make it the SDA headquarters of the entire world. There were 3 just in our village of about 2000 people. (Though I’d also like to preface that the SDAs there, are not like any I have ever met anywhere else, and everything I say is based solely on the ones I met in our village and does not reflect the religion as a whole.)

The SDAs teach that you must keep the Old Testament Law for salvation. They literally call themselves the ‘Sabbath-keepers’ and teach that worshipping on Sunday is the ‘mark of the beast.’ They also make statements like, “We keep every commandment from In to Amen,” meaning every instruction given from the first word of Genesis to the last word of Revelation. Now in reality they actually attempt to keep very few, if any of the Mosaic Law, but that isn’t the issue. We realised that to minister to them we had to answer the underlying question: how are we meant to interpret the Law in the light of Christianity?

We believe that salvation means we are not under the Law, because that is very clearly stated in the New Testament (eg. Galatians 2:16, Romans 6:14, 7:4-6, and Hebrews 8:13):

But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. (Galatians 5:18)

However, we also realised that in practise it was quite different, because like many churches, we then chose some laws and claimed we are still under those ones. For example, we had always taught that Christians must still obey the Ten Commandments. If this line of thought was ever questioned, for example an SDA or a new convert who was previously an SDA asked,

“If we still need to follow the Ten Commandments, why don’t we keep the Sabbath?”

We faltered. Though we were familiar with the most common answers: that some churches will make a distinction between moral and ceremonial laws or that others will explain that Sunday is now the Sabbath. We also knew neither of these positions are explicitly taught in the Bible, and don't come with a straightforward chapter and verse.

But if we didn't have a verse to take them to, how could we easily explain that we still need to follow the Ten Commandments but not the Sabbath? If fact, they don’t use only the Law in there argument to keep the Sabbath, they go all the way to Genesis chapter 2. Now, we could have just claimed that their some of arguments were silly: but that stance wouldn't lead to anyones salvation. These were the people we were ministering too. We had to be able to answer their questions. And our argument couldn’t be convoluted or too nuanced, or we ended up going around in circles. We weren’t talking to well-educated people or even many that could read with comprehension. So there had to be a simpler way to explain it.

Now, I realise most Western churches will argue that we don’t follow the Ten Commandments for salvation, we follow them because of salvation. But it still led to the same question: why don’t we keep the Sabbath because of salvation, why is that law excluded? Which also led to them asking more questions: If we pick and choose through the Law who gets to decide anyway? What if I pick different ones to you? Who’s right and who’s wrong? Why do some of your churches point to laws about cross-dressing, tattoos, and eating pork and say we must still be obedient to those ones, but others don’t? Shouldn’t we just keep all of them?

So, to successfully minister to these people, we had to unpack the role of the Law for the Christian and how it is often utilised in Western Christianity.

Being an expat is a funny experience. Certain Australian rules, social conventions and laws are ingrained in my personality, most of which don’t apply when you live in a different country. For example, it wasn’t considered rude to pick your nose in public in our area of Niugini, but it was a sight I never got used to. It is also legally permitted to carry people on the back of a ute (a pickup truck for my US friends), but in Australia you can’t legally carry anyone on the back of a ute. Now as an expat I wasn't required to follow the Australian laws anymore, so our family travelled on the back of one when needed and our boys loved it. And the Niuginians definitely don’t need to follow the Australian laws, because they were never even under them.

And that picture of the ute is a good example of the Law and is actually the illustration I ended up preaching in Niugini. A Jewish Christian is like the expat, they don’t need to follow the laws from their old country, just the ones in the new country. Though often the old rules feel ingrained and are hard to let go of. But just like the Niuginians were never under the laws from my old country, Gentile Christians were actually never even under the Law. The Law was part of the covenant God made with the Israelites. Jesus alludes to the incompatibility of the old and new covenants in Parable of the New Wine and the Parable of the New Cloth (Matthew 9:16-17). While Paul makes it very clear that the Old Covenant Laws never applied to the Gentiles anyway (Ephesians 2:11-12, Romans 2:14, 9:4, Galatians 4:22-30).

The epistle to the Galatians become one of my favourite books to minister out of because it deals with this exact topic. The churches at Galatia were mainly Gentiles, but false brethren (Galatians 2:4) came to visit and tried to put them under the Old Covenant, in particular the law of circumcision. In response, Paul tells the Galatians if they try to put themselves under even one law, God will judge them by all the law (5:2-3). It definitely doesn’t sound like he advocated picking and choosing some laws to follow. Paul describes living as a Christian as liberty (2:4, 5:1) comparing the Law to bondage (4:9, 24; 5:1). And more, he links trying to keep the Law not just to salvation but to how we continue in our Christian walk:

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (3:3)

He calls adding the Law into Christianity leaven, that infects the whole lump (Galatians 5:9). Though he also warns, not to use our liberty in Christ as an excuse to live sinfully, but rather to love and serve one another (5:13).

I find it a helpful practise to think ‘new covenant’ rather than ‘New Testament’. Though they mean different things in English, both are originally from the same Greek word (diatheke: Strong’s G1242). So the New Testament, is the new covenant that Christians have entered into with God. And under the new covenant we are actually given a huge list of instructions God wants Christians to try and live by (James 1:22). There are literally hundreds of instructions for Christians in the new covenant. For example, there are over 40 instructions in the Sermon on the Mount alone, and Thessalonians 5, contains 17 instructions in a single chapter. And actually, every one of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the new covenant, except keeping the Sabbath (Matthew 22:37, Mark 7:21-22, Ephesians 6:2, and Hebrews 13:4).

So, if we just accept at face value that we as Gentile Christians were never under any part of the old covenant and its laws and are therefore not required to follow any of them, everything falls into place. But Christians are under the new covenant.

Now, we don’t follow the instructions in the new covenant to gain favour or for salvation. We simply try to follow God’s instructions because we love God (John 14:15). And we keep trying, even knowing that as frail people we will definitely fail, because we also know we always have forgiveness. God didn’t wipe my slate clean at salvation and then start keeping a tally again. My slate can never be written on again. It doesn’t matter how many times I stuff up because all judgement is gone. It’s gone forever. God will never declare me guilty of any sin ever again (Hebrews 10:14-22). So, my love for God for such great a salvation drives me to want to follow his instructions, to walk in his spirit, and to do everything he asks of me. And I don’t need to turn back to any of the Old Covenant Laws to do that.

As Christians, we don’t need to pick and chose through the Old Covenant Laws, because we were never even under them; but we do need to attempt to follow the instructions contained in the new one:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-25)

And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. (1 John 3:23)

Simple.

All Glory to God,