What Do We Do With The Law?
Have you ever wondered why we don’t worry about cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk, but we do worry about worshipping idols? Both of these are laws in the OT (Ex. 23:19, 20:3).
Both are God’s word. Yet, intrinsically, they carry a different weight for us.
Jesus does not do away with the law; rather, he says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matt. 5:17 ESV).
The law remains valid and in force. It is not diminished. Jesus stresses this in the next verse in Matthew: “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matt. 5:18). The implication here is that all parts of the Law, even the command about not cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk, remain in effect today.
How then are we supposed to consistently interpret the OT laws?
What Jesus Does With the Laws
The answer to this question is found in what Jesus himself does with the laws. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expands some laws. In our Acts passage, he annuls a law. Some laws, He even transforms around Himself, such as the sabbath. Finally, some laws stay the same, such as “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex. 20:3 ESV).
Jesus does four things with the OT law:
Sometimes he keeps or maintains it,
Sometimes he extends it,
Sometimes he transforms it,
And sometimes he annuls it.
But for us, this process can seem anything but orderly. Often, it can be confusing for us as believers.
Before we dive into how to interpret the OT laws, we need a 30-second crash course on Jesus. He “is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” (Rom. 10:4). This means our righteousness as believers is through believing in Him, not through any obedience we can muster to keep the law.
However, God does call us to obey His commands: “If you love me, you will keep my commands.” (Jn. 14:15 ESV). Our relationship with God is secured through belief in Christ. We are justified by that belief (Rom. 10:10).
We need a consistent way to see the good, the true, and the beautiful in the OT law. The laws in the OT not only reveal what is good, true, and beautiful about God but also about His creation.
The laws are profitable for our Christian living, understanding, and worship.
Three Ground Rules
There are three main questions to ask when interpreting OT laws.
What is the original context?
What does this law tell us about the good, the true, and the beautiful (God, loving others, ethics)?
And what does the New Testament have to say about a given law?
We’re going to go through an exercise looking at all three rules, using Deut. 22:22-24:
22 “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. 23 “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
Original Context
There are two main categories for laws in the OT: base laws and circumstantial or context laws.
Base laws are usually phrased in the second person and take the form of an imperative.
Circumstantial or contextual laws are usually in the third person. They contain if/then/when statements. They are built on the foundational truths of the base laws. Think of these laws as taking the principle of what God has said is good and applying it to everyday living.
For Deut. 22:22-24, work through these questions:
Is the law in the second or third person?
Does the law contain an imperative command, or is there an if/when/then statement?
If the law is a circumstantial/contextual law, what base law (Ten Commandments) does it draw from?
Since Deut. 22:22-24 is a circumstantial law built upon the command, “You shall not commit adultery.” (Ex. 20:14), we can ask some more probing questions about the context of the law.
What are the consequences of this law?
Does violating this law impact the whole community?
Is this a community or private dispute?
Is this a family issue?
Does this law affect/regulate Israel’s worship?
Does this law communicate mercy/equity/justice?
As you answer these questions, you will be searching for God’s intent in giving the law to Israel. Asking these questions helps us go deeper. We can then see God’s love as a lawgiver to His people.
Theological Perspective
All of the OT laws teach us something about God, His creation, or morality and ethics. Each law contains a piece of the mosaic of the good, the true, and the beautiful. So return to Deut. 22:22-24 and work through the following questions:
What does this law tell us about God?
What does this law tell us about loving others?
What kind of wisdom, guidance, or ethics does this law present?
Another helpful question to ask when trying to understand the theological perspective of a law is: What does this law teach about God dwelling with His people?
Many laws were designed to differentiate between clean and unclean. Those who were unclean could not be in the presence of God, because He is holy. Thus, many laws are aimed at mediating God’s presence with Israel. An unclean person could not come into the presence of the holy God; death would result.
Our passage from Deut. stresses purging the evil and uncleanliness from the land. It doesn’t give the details of why. However, the reason is that God is holy.
The New Testament Age
The final place to stop on our journey through interpreting laws is aimed at Jesus. What does Jesus do with a law? How does an OT law function in light of the life (and teaching), death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Let’s put this into practice and ask some questions of our law from Deut.
Does Jesus say anything about the base law in the NT?
What parts of the OT law are changed by the new covenant?
Are there aspects of the law that Christ fulfilled in his life, death, and resurrection?
What implications does this law have for new covenant worship of the LORD?
What implications does this law have for our new covenant lives in Christ?
Jesus is the key to consistently understanding the laws.
In the light of His life, person, and work, we can see the beautiful mosaic of scripture in which the laws are a part. These laws can help teach us how to live out our lives in Christ through loving God and our neighbor with our heads, our hearts, and our hands.
*The interpretive rules and questions provided above have been adapted from Dr. Beau Landers’ lecture material through Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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