The Spirit of the Law

The Spirit of the Law

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The Spirit of the Law

In Paul's day the Tenak, which was the Law, the prophets, and the Old Testament writings, were all the Scriptural text that was available. Both Jesus and Paul taught that believers should be guided by the Spirit of God to fulfill the Law through faith and love. Although Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial or sacrificial part of the Law by dying on the cross, we still see the principles of the Law, such as the priesthood and the atonement, evidenced today in the ministry of the church. In short, the manifestation has changed, but the spirit of the Law that exposes sin and produces light and life is the center of New Testament teaching.

The question is asked, what about Paul's assault on the Law in his epistles? All the letters of Paul were addressed to predominantly Gentile congregations, which in regard to salvation, had nothing to do with the 613 Laws of Moses that were given as the lifestyle of the Jewish people. It is understandable that Paul, apostle to the Gentiles, would get upset with a few Judaizers who consistently tried to hinder his work by requiring his Gentile congregations to keep Jewish customs for salvation. In this book we will show that not once did Jesus or Paul stop or ever suggest that any Jew not keep the lifestyle prescribed to them in the Law as a covenant people. It should be noted that verses like Mark 7:15, where it appears Jesus is differing with the Jewish food laws (when he points out the difference between physical and spiritual pollution) do not suggest that He abandoned the food laws given to all Jews. It should also be noticed that many Jewish scholars of the New Testament, such as David Flusser in his book called Jesus conclude that, "Jesus as a Jew was faithful to the Law." The problem in understanding Paul's letters is similar to the game show Jeopardy where contestants have the answers, but do not have the questions. Because Paul's epistles were written to straighten out problems of his Gentile converts, who were not familiar with the ways or laws of God, to the casual reader they sometimes give the appearance that he was against the Law of God. Actually, Paul only directs his seemingly negative comments concerning the Law toward two groups: (1) Those non-Jews who thought they needed to keep the Law for salvation, and (2) some fundamentalist Jews who tried to make it a prerequisite that non-Jews must keep the Law for salvation.

When some Christians suddenly appear defensive at the mention of God's Law, there is a temptation to ask, "Which law makes you feel uncomfortable?" This is a rather startling reaction for the Law only condemns law-breakers. For the most part, the church since the first century has misunderstood the Law that both Jesus and Paul loved and lived by. There are at least three basic reasons for this information gap concerning the Law in the modern church:

First, when the early church gradually moved from Jerusalem to the west, many of the Roman converts who became church leaders retained certain of their pagan cultural practices. As a result, the Roman leaders read the Hebrew Scriptures against their Greek background. They imposed on the biblical text a foreign interpretive scheme that established incorrect information in church theology concerning God's Law that was irreconcilable with the Word of God that Jesus and Paul knew.

Second , to Paul the Law was the Word of God, and he certainly did not intend to start a new religion that opposed Scripture. Paul's heated arguments that appear to be directed against the Law were actually against the misuse of the Law by those who were putting his Gentile congregations in bondage by teaching that the Law was for salvation.

Third, the teaching that the Law of God was superseded by or in opposition to the grace of God did not originate with Paul, but developed as a result of the heretic Marcion's interpretation of Paul's writings. Marcion, who died about 160 A.D. rejected the Old Testament completely. He believed, through the influence of Gnosticism, a demiurgic notion that the God of the Old Testament was cruel and a totally different God. He was so consumed with the belief that Paul's message of God's grace opposed God's Law that he only kept an edited portion of Paul's writings that agreed with his theology. Marcion's theology was so foreign to God's Word that the great pastor Polycarp, who was a student of John, called him the "first-born of Satan." Marcion went to Rome about 139 A.D. and made a generous gift to the church, but after examining his views the church gave back his money and excommunicated him. Marcion founded his own church which merged Gnosticism and orthodox Christianity, creating a theology that was sharply dualistic, violently antagonistic to Judaism, strictly ascetic, celibate, and yielded a wide and destructive influence in Christendom. Unfortunately, some modern Christians have unknowingly endorsed his ideas.

Later Augustine, a Roman Catholic monk, championed Marcion's ideas about grace opposing God's Law and made it a major part of church theology. At the time of the Reformation, men such as John Wycliffe with his first manuscript English Bible , and Miles Coverdale the English translator of the first printed English Bible were heavily influenced by Augustine. In 1514 Coverdale was ordained a priest and later entered the Augustine Monastery at Cambridge. The notion of grace over Law was accelerated when the French Reformer John Calvin endorsed this position in his "Institutes of Christian Religion," which became the guide for the Reformed Churches of Protestantism.

In the New Testament what appears to be the substitution of grace for Law is nothing more than a difference in the way God's eternal principles of Law are manifested. In the Old Testament the principle of sacrifice was portrayed through animals, but in the New Testament Christ is ever fulfilling that dimension of the Law as the "Lamb of God." Each time a life is redeemed, the spirit of the Law with the principles of sacrifice and priesthood of the Messiah is even more evident today than before.

The Law Was Only Until John

It is common to hear someone point to the misunderstood phrase from Luke 16:16, "Did not the New Testament say that the Law and the prophets were only until John?" Along with the question, "Aren't we under the Age of Grace today?" This verse is often wrongly interpreted. Luke 16 is simply stating that the Law and the prophets until John was all the Scripture there was at that time.

The New Testament, as we know it today, was not canonized until some 150 years later. Furthermore, the Book of Luke could not possibly mean that the Law of God was outdated, because it was used constantly by the church after John the Baptizer a minimum of 185 times in the New Testament writings. This is not to imply that the writings of Luke were not inspired, but that it was not until approximately 200 A.D. that the New Testament was collected into a recognized corpus of writings that were listed as authoritative. It is clear that Paul, like Christ, never intended to be understood as replacing God's eternal Law [Matthew 5:17-20; Romans 3:31]. It is equally clear that Paul had strong feelings about his Gentile converts not having to live by or attain salvation through the Law that the Lord gave as a covenant to the Jews [I Corinthians 7:17-201.

Jesus Went Beyond the Letter of the Law

Often Jesus went beyond the letter of the Law and instructed His disciples in the spirit of the Law. A couple of obvious examples of this can be seen as He cautioned that if any lusted they had already committed adultery, and if they called a brother a fool they were in danger of Hell fire [Matthew 5:19-30]. Each of the above examples are far beyond anything the Law ever suggested.

What was Paul's intent when he taught that the letter of the Law kills? It is obvious that he did not mean the Law of God is bad and will put one in bondage, as is suggested by these words today. Paul kept the Law and encouraged Jews everywhere to do the same [I Corinthians 7:18]. We should remember this statement was written to the Gentiles at Corinth, never to Jewish believers [II Corinthians 3:61. Even the best qualities of the Law of God have always been referred to as "ministration of death" to those in sin. The purpose being that the very intent of the Law is to expose and define sin. For the Gentile converts to try to keep a Jewish lifestyle without the godly disciplined background, it would become a bondage that was neither necessary nor proper. In this context Paul said the letter of the Law kills, but he went on to point out that the spirit of the Law gives life. Paul was addressing salvation to the Gentiles and concerning this issue the letter of the Law is death and only through the spirit can life come. The summary of Paul's view is found in his statement to the Romans "for the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death ... that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in me" [Romans 8:2-4].

What Christian Leaders Said About the Law

Was Martin Luther, the great faith reformer, against the Law? Not at all, in fact he said, "The first duty of the Gospel preacher is to declare God's Law and show the nature of sin, because it will act as a schoolmaster and bring him to everlasting life which is in Jesus Christ." John Wesley said, "Before I preach love, mercy and grace, I must preach sin, Law and judgment." Wesley later advised a friend, "Preach 90 percent Law and 10 percent grace." Charles Spurgeon, who is known as the "Prince of Preachers," said, "They will never accept grace until they tremble before a just and holy Law." Charles Finney who is labeled as having a 80 percent success rate in his ministry said, "Evermore the Law must prepare the way for the Gospel; to overlook this in instructing souls is almost certain to result in false hope, the introduction of a false standard of Christian experience, and to fill the church with false converts." John Wycliffe, the "Morning Star of the Reformation" said , "The highest service to which a man may attain on earth is to preach the Law of God." D.L. Moody, who is credited with having over one million disciples for the Lord, put it in perspective when he said, "God being a perfect God, had to give a perfect Law, and the Law was given not to save men, but to measure them."

If we were to ask the Apostle Paul why the Law was given and if it had any effect on the world today, the Scriptural Text gives us his answers. We would expect to receive the same answer he gave to the Romans "that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" [Romans 3:19]. The most significant tribute to God's Law comes from the Saviour when He said, whosoever does and teaches the Law will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven [Matthew 5:19]. The sad truth is that since the turn of the century, various new ideas have been substituted for the teaching of God's Law and standard in Christendom to the extent that Mr. Finney's above three areas of warning concerning the Law have been self-fulfilling.

The Nine-fold Purpose of the Law

Even in the New Testament and apart from being the guideline of God's covenant people Israel, the Law has at least a nine-fold purpose to all people. This is not to say that all the Law applies to all people, for much of it was a direct covenant to Israel alone. Note the detail of some of the universal aspects of God's Law:

First - To teach the believer how to serve, worship and please God [Psalm 19:7-9; Acts 18:13,14].

Second - To instruct the believer how to treat his fellow man and have healthy relationships with him [Leviticus 19:18; Galatians 5:14; Galatians 6:2].

Third - To teach believers how to be happy and prosper here on earth by manifesting the power and authority of God's reign in their lives [Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1-3; Luke 12:32].

Fourth - The Law was given, not to save, but too measure man's deeds both toward God and his fellow man, straightening out all matters contrary to sound doctrine [I Timothy 1:8-10; II Timothy 2:5; 1 Corinthians 6:1-12; I Corinthians 3:13; Romans 2:12; Revelation 20:12, 13].

Fifth - The Law is a schoolmaster showing that we are guilty and then leading us to Christ our Messianic justification [Galatians 3:21-24; Romans 3:19].

Sixth - The Law gives us both the knowledge and depth of our sin [Romans 3:20; Romans 4:15; Romans 7:7, 8; Luke 20:47 - greater damnation].

Seventh -The Law reveals the good, holy, just, and Perfect nature of God and serves as the visible standard for God's will [Romans 2:17, and please God [Psalm 19:7-9; Acts 18:13, 18; Romans 7:12; II Peter 1:4].

Eighth - The Law is to be established or accomplished by our faith, therefore, it is called the Law of faith [Romans 3:27; Romans 3:31].

Ninth - The same Law today is written on our hearts, and through God's Spirit we can delight and serve the Law of God [Romans 7:6-25].

Section Two

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The Spirit of the Law: Table of Content