Skip to main content

What is the difference between "the law of Moses" and "the law of Christ"?

The coming of Christ changes everything. The Old Testament is not to be discarded; it remains God's word for us. But we read the Old Testament, and obey the Old Testament laws, through the prism of Christ and the New Testament. 

As Christians, we are not "under" the law, that is to say we are *not* bound to keep ("do") the Old Testament laws in the Old Testament way (Gal. 5:3). Rather, we "fulfil" the law in a New Testament way (Romans 8:4; 13:8,10; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8). Not only are we "not under law" in respect of the detailed laws (e.g. Exodus 21-23); we are also "not under law" in relation to the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). The Ten Commandments do not constitute a timeless universal moral code, but rather represent specific commandments given to the people of Israel in the context of the Exodus from Egypt (20:2), and future life in the promised land of Canaan (20:12).  

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9,

"To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law." (vv. 20-21)

In Romans 7, he writes,

"Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code." (vv. 4-6)

So, according to the New Testament, Christians are not "under the law [of Moses]", but we are "under the law of Christ". Christ fulfilled the law of Moses by keeping it perfectly in all respects; we fulfil the law of Moses by personally obeying Christ. Serving "in the new way of the Spirit" means a whole different approach to obedience to God, focused not on observing Old Testament commandments in the precise way they are framed (e.g. Exodus 35:3), but rather personally obeying Christ.

"The law of Christ can be defined as those prescriptive principles drawn from the example and teaching of Jesus and his apostles (the central demand being love), which are meant to be worked out in specific situations by the guiding influence and empowerment of the Holy Spirit." (A. Blake White)

This understanding broadly matches up to what is called "New Covenant Theology (NCT)", as also espoused by Douglas Moo

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The history of the Christian Church in twenty places

α. Jerusalem (30 or 33 AD) The place where Christ, the Son-of-God-become-man, died on the Cross, was raised from the dead on the third day, and from where he ascended back to heaven. This is also where the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first disciples. Sometime after AD 44 (Acts 12), Peter, John and other Apostles dispersed across the world to bear testimony to the risen Christ. 1. Ephesus (approx. 100 AD) The place where the Apostles, Paul and John, handed over to the next generation of Christian leaders, which included the “Apostolic Fathers”. One such “Apostolic Father”, Ignatius of Antioch, passed through Ephesus on his way to martyrdom at Rome, and addressed a letter to the church at Ephesus. 2. Athens (second century) The centre of Greek thought, which Justin Martyr and other Second Century Apologists addressed in their presentations of the Christian faith, proclaiming Christ as the Logos (the Word or principle underlying the universe). 3. Lyon (from 177) The church in

Bury, Greater Manchester - Timeline of churches

979?      First Church on the site of the present Parish Church (the picture below is an artist's impression of Bury parish church in 1485)  1585      Parish church (re)built in the gothic style . 1662+    Chapel on Bass Lane for Henry Pendlebury of Holcombe , supported by Richard Kay , and others ejected from the C of E (replaced in 1712 by Dundee Chapel, Holcombe) 1669      The vicar of the parish reported to the Bishop of Chester that he heard that several conventicles were 'constantly kept at private houses of Independents, Presbyterians, Dippers and other such like jointly, of the bset rank of the yeomanry and other inferiors.' 1689      The passing of the Toleration Act and services held openly by a congregation at Bast House, Walmersley, the home of Richard Kay, 1712      Edward Rothwell , became minister of what would become Bank Street Presbyterian Church, Bury. He ministered at Bury, Holcombe and surrounding district. (D. 1731) 1719      Presbyterian Chapel ("

Bible translations

God has given us his written word in Hebrew and Greek (plus a little bit of Aramaic in the book of Daniel).  In order for God's word to be accessible to those who speak other languages, since Biblical times God's word has been translated into other languages.  At the time of Nehemiah, the Levites "gave the meaning" of the Scriptures. This would probably have involved oral translation (interpreting) into the Aramaic language people used for everyday speech. Jesus himself, when quoted in the gospels, spoke Aramaic and quotes the Scripture in that language. Likewise, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the believers and enabled them to declare the wonders of God in the languages of those present.  There is also a longstanding history of written translation (as opposed to oral translation). The best-known translation of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint, a translation into Greek commissioned by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BCE). There were als