How Do Christians Approach The Law?
Do Christians Obey the Old Testament Law?
And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?
-Deuteronomy 10:12-13, ESV
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
-2 Timothy 3:14-17, ESV
Recently, I read through the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) in my morning quiet times. This is the part of the Bible where reading plans often die. While there are many fascinating stories throughout Genesis and the first half of Exodus, the majority of the rest of the Pentateuch lays out the Mosaic Law. Following the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, the rest of Exodus contains various laws that begin to establish the Jewish religious and civil code along with very specific instructions on how the Tabernacle and everything in it is to be made. Leviticus then lays out the rest of the Jewish religious law. Numbers gives the rest of the Jewish legal code amid various stories of Israel’s journey to the Promised Land. Deuteronomy retells the Law to a new generation as they prepare for their conquest of the land. If we are honest, we must admit that these laws can get a little bit tedious and not a little bit uncomfortable, leading us to all but avoid them. Even if we don’t avoid them, what do we do with them?
Of the numerous laws found in the Pentateuch, there are many that even the most devout Christians do not follow. We eat bacon, wear blended fabrics, and lend money at interest. We don’t observe the Passover, execute rebellious children, or sacrifice animals. Yet we will point to parts of the Mosaic Law to argue against abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, extramarital sex, and various other topics, as I did in a previous post. Are we arbitrarily picking and choosing which parts of the God’s Law we follow, as is so often charged against us?
The Types of Laws
Clearly, there are some Old Testament laws that we follow and others that we do not. But we are by no means arbitrary in how we determine which laws to follow. Many Christians use the New Testament as the standard for identifying which laws are still binding. They hold that if an Old Testament law is repeated in the New Testament, that means that it is still binding, while the laws that are not repeated are not binding on Christians. While it is certainly true that the laws repeated in the New Testament are still binding, we cannot immediately conclude that a law is not binding just because it is not repeated in the New Testament. Instead, we identify which laws are still binding by which type of laws we are dealing with. As I discussed in a previous post, there are three types of laws: moral, ceremonial, and civil/judicial. [1]
Moral laws are rooted in God’s unchanging nature and are thus binding on all people worldwide and across all of time. All of the Ten Commandments are part of the moral law, as well as commands accompanied by statements like “I am the LORD” or that reference the prohibited activity as an abomination. These moral laws are often not only repeated in the New Testament but actually expanded. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus extends the prohibition against murder to include hate and adultery to include lust, thus making the standard to which Christians are held even more stringent than the Mosaic Law. This means that even some things that were allowed under the Mosaic Law are not allowed for Christians (more on that later). Regardless, any moral law is still in effect regardless of whether it is repeated in the New Testament or not. Therefore, prohibitions against abortion (a form of murder), homosexuality, extramarital sex, and identifying as a gender clearly inconsistent with biology are part of the moral law and therefore just as binding on Christians today as they were on Jews over three thousands of years ago.
The ceremonial laws deal with the sacrifices, festivals, rituals, and cleanliness standards of the Jewish religion. In addition to sacrifices and festivals, the restrictions on diet and clothing material are part of the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law pointed to Christ and was thus fulfilled completely by His life, death, and resurrection such as to make them no longer binding on Christians. Large sections of Romans, Ephesians, and Colossians as well as almost the entirety of Galatians and Hebrews are devoted to how Christ has fulfilled the ceremonial law: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4). As discussed in the last post, Jesus explicitly did away with both the dietary laws (Mark 7:19) and the separation between Jews and Gentiles (Matthew 28:19, Acts 10:28) that were major topics in the ceremonial law. When Jesus died, the veil of the Temple was torn, signifying that the separation between God and His people had been removed by Christ’s perfect atonement, therefore eliminating the need for further sacrifices. The Temple was ultimately destroyed in 70 A.D. in large part to show that the ceremonial law had been completely fulfilled by Christ and thus replaced by Him as the mediator between God and man.
Finally, civil laws apply the moral law to the specific context of theocratic Israel, so those specific laws have not been binding since Israel ceased to be a theocratic nation, even while the moral laws that undergird them are just as binding today as they were then. The regulations on slavery, execution of rebellious children, and prohibition of charging interest (along with most of the other laws that we find uncomfortable) are all civil laws that are not binding on Christians. These were specific to the context of ancient Israel and must be viewed with that context in mind. Therefore, if Christians were to come to power in any nation today (much as the Puritans did for a short time in Mid-Seventeenth Century England), it would be improper for them to use the civil laws of the Mosaic Law as the law of the land. Instead, they would be wise to examine how the civil laws of Israel applied the moral laws to Israel’s specific context and use that to inform how they might apply the moral laws to their own context. Therefore, Christians are selective in obeying Old Testament laws, but not arbitrarily selective. We follow moral laws (which are still applicable to everyone), do not follow ceremonial laws (which were completely fulfilled in Christ), and use the civil laws as an example of how to apply the moral laws to our specific context.
What of Difficult Laws?
Even if they are no longer binding, some of the civil laws have a tendency to make modern Western readers quite uncomfortable. From our modern perspective, laws allowing slavery, forced marriage, and execution of rebellious children while banning interracial marriage certainly seem cruel and oppressive. This can lead us to question why a loving God would include them in His Law. While it is impossible to fully know God’s reasoning for including such laws in Scripture—since the secret things belong to God (Deuteronomy 29:29)—there is still much that we can glean from Scripture to help us understand them. These laws are difficult to understand, so it would be tempting to simply ignore them, but they are important to consider since these laws are often used by opponents of Christianity to make both the Bible and its divine Author seem cruel and oppressive. This should not be surprising, as David says:
With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.
-Psalms 18:25-27, ESVnone
Peter would later say that wicked and unstable people twist such difficult passages to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:16). For them, these laws are convenient evidence with which to undermine the authority of Scripture and charge God with being cruel and vindictive. More concerning is that these laws can cause genuine Christians to doubt the goodness of God. To address this, we must view these laws in their original context. When we do, even people with no expertise in ancient legal codes (like me) can see that these laws are not cruel and oppressive. Let’s look briefly at a few of them:
Slavery: The form of slavery allowed in the Mosaic Law is very different from the form of slavery practiced in the Americas. It was heavily regulated, temporary, and ultimately a form of welfare (Exodus 21:1-27, Leviticus 25:39-40). In fact, the slavery practiced in the Americas would have been slave trading, which was a capital offense in the Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 24:7).
Executing Rebellious Sons: While we would consider it extreme to execute a rebellious child, we must remember that the ancient Near East had a much higher regard for elders in general and parents in particular than we do (to our detriment). The Mosaic Law regarding rebellious sons in Deuteronomy 21:18-21 actually preserved the rights and dignity of the son by requiring parents to first exhaust all other forms of discipline and that the magistrates would have the final say whether execution was appropriate.
Interracial Marriage: It is clear from context that the laws seeming to prohibit interracial marriage are not against mixing ethnicities but religions (Deuteronomy 7:3-4). Foreigners who gave up their former religion to worship God could marry Israelites, which happened with Caleb, Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah. I talk about this in more detail in a previous post. Furthermore, God strongly supported Moses for his interracial marriage with a Cushite—a black African from the region south of Egypt—by striking Miriam with leprosy when she opposed it (Numbers 12).[2] Essentially these laws are the same as the New Testament command to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14), not a ban on interracial marriage.
Forced Marriage: Some of the most disturbing laws (and thus favorites of Scripture’s opponents) are laws that force women into marriage. One of these is in the situation of sexual assault in Deuteronomy 22:25-29. While assault of a married or betrothed woman was a capital offense, these verses suggest that a woman who was not married or betrothed would have to marry the man who assaulted her unless her father refused to allow it (Exodus 22:16-17). When we view this in context of the whole Law, we clearly see that heterosexual marriage is extremely important to God—so important that a less-than-ideal marriage is preferrable to sex outside of marriage. Furthermore, the prohibition against divorce in this case underscores God’s requirement that physical intimacy come only in the context of the marriage covenant. Thus the man would be forced to make and keep that marriage covenant. This law would have therefore likely served as a deterrent against such assaults by removing the possibility of intimacy without long-term commitment and responsibility. Another such law permits Israelite warriors to marry women captured in war. This law shows how highly God values marriage while also maintaining the dignity of the woman by not only requiring intimacy to be within the context of marriage, but also preventing the man from consummating the marriage until after an entire month from the time they returned home from the campaign. This law therefore prohibited the sexual assault of women in warfare which has been the ugly reality of war from ancient times to our own day. Instead of devaluing women, when viewed in their historical context these laws actually recognize and uphold their dignity while also underscoring the importance of marriage.
Polygamy: The lack of an outright ban on polygamy in the Mosaic Law has often been taken as condoning the practice. However, while stopping short of condemning it, the entire Old Testament does much to discourage it. The first recorded polygamous man was Lamech (Genesis 4:18-24), who represents complete wickedness and is thus not to be emulated. Every biographical example of polygamy that followed (including Abraham, Jacob, Esau, Gideon, Elkanah, David, and Solomon) was fraught with trouble, showing how polygamy is a gross distortion of God’s design for marriage and should thus be avoided. While certain laws do allow for polygamy, nowhere in the Mosaic Law is it condoned. In fact, Deuteronomy 17:17 all but prohibits kings from being polygamous. So while the Mosaic Law does not condemn polygamy, it certainly does not condone it but in fact discourages it.
Genocide: Another favorite target of Scripture’s opponents is the presence of commands to wipe out entire nations. In the Mosaic Law, God explicitly commands the Israelites to kill every man, woman, and child of the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 7:2, 20:17). Rather than condoning genocide in general, these passages are declaring God’s judgment on specific nations. God is the creator and sustainer of all life, so God has the authority to end any life whenever and however He pleases. Repeatedly throughout the Law, God states that He is the one wiping out the Canaanites for their depravity and idolatry. When idolatry, child sacrifice, witchcraft, necromancy, and other abominable practices are forbidden in the Law, the reason given is that the Canaanites practiced them and therefore God was driving them out. Thus as the Israelites wiped them out, it should have served as a reminder to them not to follow in their footsteps—otherwise God would likewise wipe them out. Therefore, the Israelites were God’s instruments of judgment against the Canaanites just as the Assyrians and Babylonians would later be instruments of God’s judgment against them for their wickedness. Clearly, this was a very specific circumstance that in no way condones genocide. Its presence in the Law should also remind us of just how serious our sin is, since we all deserve to be likewise wiped out.
So we see that when viewed in their proper historical context, these seemingly cruel and oppressive laws were actually progressive for their time. The reason we can see them as cruel and oppressive is because Christianity has had such an impact on the world that what was once common is now abhorrent. But that still does not answer the question of why these laws exist in the first place? Since God is omniscient, He could have easily specified laws that prohibited slavery, polygamy, and forced marriage while making sexual assault a capital offense in all cases. So why didn’t He?
One possible answer is that these laws are meant to make people uncomfortable. While the Holy Spirit makes the entire Word of God beautiful to Christians, those same Scriptures are ugly and foolish to those who are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18-25, 2 Corinthians 2:15-16). So just as many disciples left Jesus after He spoke figuratively of the need to consume His flesh and blood in John 6, these laws cause many to say, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60). But to believers, difficult passages like this cause us to abandon our own understanding and cling to Christ all the more, saying with Peter: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69). Still, I think the best answer for this comes in the way Jesus addressed divorce in Matthew 19 and Mark 10. Like these difficult laws, the law on divorce in Deuteronomy 24 was part of the civil law. Jesus noted that Moses allowed for divorce because of the people’s hardness of heart, being careful to emphasize the way marriage was created to be: one man and one woman for life. This means that while God designed lifelong monogamous marriage as the ideal, it was so distorted by sin that sometimes it was appropriate to end it. But as part of His work of restoration, Jesus severely restricted the circumstances under which divorce was appropriate such that divorces that would have been allowed under the Mosaic Law were not allowed by Christ.
These less-than-ideal laws therefore exist because we live in a less-than-ideal world. The fallenness and depravity of mankind made these laws necessary, but as God is steadily restoring creation to its pre-Fall state, these laws are replaced by laws that better apply the moral law to cultures in which God’s transforming work is being applied. As I mentioned earlier, the New Testament is much stricter than the Mosaic Law in some cases—and these laws are no exception. What was once tolerable but regulated in the Mosaic Law becomes intolerable of the Kingdom of Christ. If we are all one in Christ (Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11) and belong to God (1 Corinthians 7:3), slavery becomes no longer acceptable (which is exactly what led to its prohibition in the West). If marriage represents the relationship between the One Christ and the One Church (Ephesians 5:22-33)—and all forms of sexual immorality must not even be named among God’s people (Ephesians 5:3)—any perversion of marriage (including polygamy and forced marriage) become unthinkable and absurd. Since the Kingdom of God is not advanced in the same way as worldly powers (2 Corinthians 10:4), genocide that was directed in a specific circumstance becomes unthinkable in any other circumstance. These laws should therefore not cause us to question God’s goodness but to recognize His plan of redemption that has already transformed society so much that these once progressive laws would now be regressive—and He will continue to transform society until all people have either bowed the knee to Him or been crushed under His feet.
The Uses of the Law
So if the ceremonial and civil/judicial laws are no longer binding, why are there so many in Scripture? Paul makes clear that the entire Old Testament was written for our benefit (Romans 15:4). In truth, these laws are useful to Christians because there are uses of the law other than obedience. The Law restrains sin and promotes righteousness, brings about conviction of sin by showing us we cannot meet its requirements, and informs the way Christians are to live.[3] This means that when we read the ceremonial and civil laws, we must see them as more than laws. The entirety of the Law exists to teach us who God is and who we are as well as point us to Christ. The myriad of ways one can become unclean in Leviticus should remind us of how both our perpetual sinning and sin nature stain us and everything around us so comprehensively that even our good deeds are filthy in God’s sight apart from Christ (Isaiah 64:6). The constant sacrifices should remind us of just how serious our sin is and just how sufficient the atonement of Christ is. The entirety of the Law should leave us awestruck by how holy God is and how far from that holiness we are, such that we cannot possibly be reconciled to God by our own efforts or merit. All of this should lead to the utmost humility and gratitude for the amazing work of Christ on our behalf (Galatians 3).
During this time through the Pentateuch, I have also meditated on a few specific things. First, all of the animals sacrificed had to be killed by the offeror and their blood poured out beside the alter. This would have reminded the offeror that his or her sin required this innocent animal to die the brutal death that the offeror deserved. The sheer number of sacrifices offered every day also meant that the ground around the alter would have been saturated with blood, which the priests would be standing and walking in throughout the day as a constant reminder of the pervasiveness of sin and the immense amount of blood needed to atone for it. I also noted that both the materials and skilled craftsmen required to make the Tabernacle and its contents were provided by God, underscoring the fact that we can give nothing to God that He has not already given to us. Additionally, the precise directions for how the priests were to perform their duties in the Tabernacle often included a caution that they take care to follow those directions precisely lest they die. This shows how deeply God cares about the manner in which He is worshipped. These directions would have caused the priests to go about their duties with a certain amount of fear. While the work of Christ has opened the way such that as God’s adopted children we now have unfettered access to God, we must still approach Him with reverence and awe (Hebrews 12:18-29), being careful to worship Him as He has commanded us to worship Him and not how we feel like worshipping Him.
Furthermore, in Deuteronomy I noticed how often Moses tells Israel to be careful to obey the the entire Law while also emphasizing the importance of both fearing and loving God. As sinful humans we have a tendency to emphasize certain commands of God while ignoring those that conflict with our pet sins, so we must be reminded of the importance of keeping all of God’s commands, since sinning against God by breaking one of His commands is the same as breaking all of them (James 2:10). Finally, I was struck by how frequently a sacrifice was referred to as “a pleasing aroma to the LORD”. While there was certainly some sweet-smelling incense involved, it would not have been sufficient to mask the stench of burning carcasses from the numerous sacrifices, so what was pleasing to God would have been very unpleasant for the people in and around the Tabernacle. This grisly scene was pleasing to God not because the aroma was itself pleasant but because of the atonement for sin that was being accomplished, bridging the void between God and man. Since it is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6), what pleased God about these sacrifices was that they were offered in faith. Specifically, these sacrifices were a pleasing aroma to God only because they pointed to the only sacrifice that could please God: the atonement of Christ. Ultimately, all of the Old Testament pointed to Christ’s life, death, and resurrection (Luke 24:44), so when we read the Law, we should see Christ.
Conclusion: Love the Law
While the Law can be difficult, it is still the Word of God and therefore we should not skip over it, nor should we quickly skim through it to get to “the good stuff”. No, we should actually love the Law. David said that a righteous man delights in the Law and constantly meditates on it (Psalm 1:2). This is the main theme of the longest chapter in the Bible. Psalm 119 is an acrostic of 22 8-verse stanzas on the topic of delighting in and meditating on the Law. The psalmist asks God to open his eyes to see “wondrous things out of your law” (verse 18). The psalm is filled with references to loving the Law, longing after the Law, and desiring the Law, along with promises to keep the Law and requests that God would teach him the Law. Even though the ceremonial and civil laws are no longer binding on us, their other uses should cause us to love similarly love and meditate on them. Since the Law points us to Christ, we should actually delight in it even more than the psalmists did. So let us delve into the Law and there find not only who God is and who we are, but also it’s final unfolding in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we can say with Moses:
For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
-Deuteronomy 4:7-8, ESVnone
So let us pray that God will instill in us a love for the Law even greater than the psalmists, because when we read the Law we see Christ.
Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments. Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name. Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. Redeem me from man’s oppression, that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes.
-Psalms 119:129-135, ESVnone
[1] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion: Translated from the First French Edition of 1541 by Robert White, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2014: 179-181, 453-460, 768-769.
[2] John Piper, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, Wheaton, IL: Crossway: 2011: 203-215.
[3] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2021: 641.
