Should we view the law of Moses as a positive influence or a negative influence? Is it helpful or hurtful? The answer is “both”—as exemplified by the seventh chapter of Romans. Since the law came from God, it is good. Since it applied to humans, it brought them death. “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me” (Romans 7:10). This tension calls for care in handling the Scriptures. A person with a particular bias can find support for his position. Likewise, a person with an opposite bias can find support for his position.
But the person who honestly learns from God takes the full range of Scriptures into account—which this course attempts to do. But parts of the course’s purpose is to teach skills that will help in many areas of Bible study. In order to facilitate your own investigation, the following chart offers a survey of passages about the law. “Positives” speak to strengths of the law. “Negatives” speak to the law’s temporary nature, its weakness, and its association with death.
Positives / Negatives
Defense against temptation Mt 4:3-11
Firmer than heaven and earth Lk 16:17 / “Until” (implying end) Lk 16:16; Mt 5:18; Heb 9:10
Fulfill, firm even in least part Mt 5:17-19
Love, virtue supreme Mt 7:12; 22:36-40; 23:23
Obey law to live Lk 10:26-27; Rom 2:13
About Christ Lk 24:44-47; Jn 1:45; 5:39; Acts 10:43
Just Jn 7:51; 8:17; Acts 23:3 / Disobeyed Jn 7:19; Acts 7:53; Rom 3:10-20
Read in every city Acts 15:21 / Could not free Acts 13:39
Believers zealous for the law Acts 21:20 / Unbearable yoke Acts 15:10
Believers as law-keepers Acts 22:3; 21:24
Paul believed all of law Acts 24:14; 25:8
Gospel preached from law Acts 3:24; 7:37; 28:3
Knowledge, truth Rom 2:20 / Judged Rom 2:12
We uphold the law Rom 3:31 / Knowledge of sin Rom 3:20; 5:20; 7:7; Righteous apart from law Rom 3:21,28
Jews privileged Rom 9:4 / Law brings wrath Rom 4:15
Holy, righteous, good Rom 7:12, 16 / Released from, dead to law Rom 7:3-4
Spiritual Rom 7:14 / Aroused passions, killed Rom 7:5-11
Teaches us non-revenge Rom 12:19-20; 8:36 / End of law Rom 10:4
Love fulfills law Rom 13:8, 10
Source of hope, faith Rom 15:4; 16:26
Teaches us to support 1 Cor 9:8-10; / 1 Tim 5:18 Not under the law 1 Cor 9:20
Teaches us submission 1 Cor 14:34
Written for our instruction 1 Cor 10:1-11 Power of sin is the law 1 Cor 15:56
Attests to Gospel 1 Cor 15:1-4 / Ministry of death on stone 2 Cor 3:6-7
Started with glory 2 Cor 3:7 / No glory by comparison 2 Cor 3:10
Teaches us about supply 2 Cor 8:15; 9:9 / Fading away, veiled 2 Cor 3:11,15; No justification Gal 2:16-21; 3:11
Not contrary to promises Gal 3:21 / Brings curse Gal 3:10; Not of faith Gal 3:12; “Until” Gal 3:19,23; 4:2; Prison, slavery Gal 3:23; 5:3; Weak, miserable Gal 4:9; Hagar, driven out Gal 4:30
Law summed up in love Gal 5:14 / Alienated, fall from grace Gal 5:4; Wall of hostility Eph 2:14-15; Abolished Eph 2:15; Shadow, no authority to judge Col 2:16-17
Good if used properly 1 Tim 1:8; 4:13 / Made for rebels 1 Tim 1:9
Wisdom for salvation, inspired 2 Tim 3:15-16 / Change of law Heb 7:12; Weak, useless, not perfecting Heb 7:18-19; Faulty, inferior to New Heb 8:6-8; Obsolete, disappearing Heb 8:13; Temporary, external Heb 9:9,13; Mere shadow, not reality Heb 10:1; Cannot remove sin Heb 9:9; 10:4; Set aside Heb 10:9
Fulfill “love your neighbor” Jas 2:8-12; 4:11
Examples for us Jas 5:10
Teaches us holiness 1 Pet 1:15-16
Pay attention 2 Pet 1:19-21; 3:2
What are we to think of such tensions? Firstly, we respect and accept all of Scripture— “every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4 cf. 2 Timothy 3:16). We resist the temptation to promote favorite Scriptures and ignore others, a trick the devil has used to spawn many false doctrines and sects.
Secondly, we view changes in the context of continuity. The God of the Old Covenant is the same as the God of the New Covenant. Though His methods have changed (Hebrews 1:1-2), He has not changed (Numbers 23:19; Malachi 3:6; James 1:17). Nor has His purpose changed. Before creation, Christ was already given up for sacrifice, and His saved people were foreknown (Revelation 13:8; 17:8; Ephesians 1:4 cf. Hebrews 9:26). In a sense, Abraham heard an early version of the Gospel and foresaw Christ (Galatians 3:8; John 8:56). Christ was present with Moses as the Rock that watered the Israelites (1 Corinthians 10:4). In the fullness of time He became flesh (John 1:14; Galatians 4:4), but His divine nature remains unaltered (Hebrews 1:12; 13:8). Likewise, His fundamental principles remain the same. For example, God has required faith, no matter what the system or the age (Hebrews 11:1-40).
Thirdly, we let the Scriptures themselves resolve their tensions. Romans 7 and 8 provide a good example of this. Clearly, the law is holy, good and spiritual (Romans 7:12, 14, 16). Yet that very goodness killed God’s people since they were bad; they never measured up to the law (Romans 7:5-24). They had to be freed by Christ’s death. Romans is emphatic about this final release from the law of Moses (Romans 7:4-6; 10:4). Having certified our death to the law, Romans then seems to bring the law back into play.
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4)
This passage offers both tension and resolution. Notice that this fulfilling of the law is another result of Christ’s death. It is not that Christians are so perfect. Were the law still in place as a legal system, we would still be condemned. Nor is it that “the righteous requirement of the law” disappeared altogether. God’s character still makes demands that were well expressed by the law. The difference now is Christ’s death, which frees us from the law as a legal system (Romans 7:4-6). He covers us with grace. His Spirit empowers us. Therefore, the law’s goodness—which humans could never satisfy under the law itself—now finds fulfillment in us who trust and wear the righteousness of Christ.
Divine principles continue from age to age. Jesus affirmed that all of the Law and the Prophets rested upon their greatest commands, love for God and love for people (Matthew 22:36-40). Did love’s greatness begin just in Moses’ time? Surely the importance of love goes back to eternity before time, to the unchanging truth that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). So, the law’s command to love represented the priority that existed long before the Old Covenant, and during the Old Covenant, and that continues after the Old Covenant’s end. It is a continuing “law” that also found expression in “the law.” James speaks of it this way:
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. (James 2:8-12)
Notice the connection with the past covenant and the present covenant. The original quote is from the law of Moses, the Old Covenant. Yet James’ fresh wording calls it “the royal law” (also translated as “the law of our King”). What once seemed to belong to Moses is acknowledged as rightfully belonging to the King, who in the New Covenant is Jesus. Further, James 2:12 refers to “the law of liberty” (cf. James 1:25). The principle of love that had once been stated in a legal system now continues, but in a system of grace and freedom.
Similarly, Paul says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). By the time this is said in Galatians, the case has been made that Christians are no longer under the law (Galatians 3:25). Therefore, if love and care for each other continue, they do so, not as a matter of slavery to the law, but as part of our freedom under “the law of Christ” (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:21; Romans 8:2).
Continuity is evident throughout the New Testament. Take as an example Hebrews, the book that most sharply contrasts the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Hebrews was written to Jews who were in danger of slipping back into the Old Covenant. Hebrews, therefore, graphically portrays the law’s weakness and demise, and contrasts those with the complete superiority of Jesus and His New Covenant. Yet throughout the discussion, Hebrews quotes from the Law and the Prophets. Is that consistent? Yes. There has been a definite break; Hebrews is unequivocal about the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New Covenant. At the same time, Hebrews continues to honor the basic truths revealed in the Old Testament. Here are a few examples of enduring principles that Hebrews applies today.
Psalm 102:25-27—Nature of God—Hebrews 1:10-12
Psalm 2:7; 2 Samuel 7:1—Nature of Christ—Hebrews 1:5-13
Psalm 8:4-6—Nature of Man/Incarnation—Hebrews 2:6-8
Psalm 95:7-11—Nature of Rebellion—Hebrews 3:7-15
Psalm 110:4—Nature of Christ’s Priesthood—Hebrews 5:5-6
Jeremiah 31:31-34—Nature of the New Covenant—Hebrews 8:8-12
Psalm 40:6-8—Nature of Sacrifice—Hebrews 10:5-9
Habakkuk 2:3-4—Nature of Confidence—Hebrews 10:37-38
Genesis 15:6; O.T. examples—Nature of Faith—Hebrews 11:1-40
Proverbs 3:11-12—Nature of Suffering—Hebrews 12:5-6
Deuteronomy 31:6—Nature of Security—Hebrews 13:5-6
Hebrews plainly prevents us from returning to the Old Covenant. As a covenant, the Old is “obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13). However, Hebrews does not hesitate to rely on its writings as a foundational record with many principles and lessons. So, the Bible reveals both a great change and a great continuity. We honor both by learning from the Bible itself how the two interact.