DEFINING LAW
12/04/18 10:29
When I ask Christians, “If I talk about ‘Law’ according to the Bible, what do you think I’m talking about?”, their response is, “The Ten Commandments”. The answer is not all wrong, but it’s not all right either. There are several Laws in the Bible and knowing the difference in these laws will greatly improve the understanding of what is going on. Not understanding these different Law will cause a contraction in one's belief versus Holy Scripture. I want to use this section to concentrate on the subject of the different Laws. This is important, as “we are in a New Covenant” advocates generalize “Law” into the Ten Commandments and the modern teachings of the Old Covenant. It’s also important because once one starts to get the basics of the different laws, they start to see the webbing and unity of Holy Scripture in a more fulfilling way.
No one has a full grasp on what we are looking at in this section, and in this series; and I am just a young student under the Spirit of God. So, I’m going to try and do my best to explain the different Laws in this section; and the relationship of the Old and New Covenant in this series.
The problem in understanding these two principles is in the translation. One Hebrew or Greek word may have multiple meanings in our language; like, chadasha which we will be looking at later in the series. Sometimes there are several words that translate to one English word. A good example is in Hebrews 4:1-10. The English word “rest”, in this section of Holy Scripture, came from three different Greek words for rest. One must study each word and look at their context, in other portions of Scripture, to determine what kind of “rest” was being discussed with each use in that section of Scripture. One rest means an eternal rest, one is a physical rest, and one is a Sabbath rest. The error on the translators is that they should have established this WITHIN the translation. This is the problem we are having with the translated word “Law”.
TEN COMMANDMENTS
Romans 3:21
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets...”
When we look at Romans 3:21, we see two law’s listed; and they contradict one another; because Paul is saying ASIDE from the “Law”, God righteousness is revealed BY the “Law”. The first “Law” is talking about the Ten Commandment and Statutes of God. We know this because the context is Righteousness, and Righteousness is gained by obedience to what God has commanded (Rom 1:16).
The Ten Commandment Law is the Moral Law, or what is the morality of man. Since the coming of the Promise, which is Christ, the Moral Law is written within the hearts of man. We forsake that law, through the traditions of our fathers (1 Peter 1:18) and sear the conscience (1 Tim 4:2), this then makes wicked actions of men. Think about the time before the Promise came; when the Moral Law of God was not in the heart. This would mean that men had no morality within them, it was nothing to murder, steal, and the likes. They did not feel the remorse, as one would today. When “Law” is referring to the Ten Commandment, it’s usually joined with a characteristic of God.
God is love - 1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16
The Law is love - Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 5:14
God is perfect - Matthew 5:48
The Law is perfect - James 1:25, Psalms 19:7
God is Holy - 1 Peter 1:15, Psalms 99:9
The Law is holy -Romans 7:12, 2 Peter 2:21
God is eternal - Romans 16:26, Deuteronomy 33:27
the Law is eternal - Psalms 111:7-8, Luke 16:17
... and this could go on and on. There are actually 32 links, in Holy Scripture, between the character of God and the character of the Ten Commandments. It’s by these character traits, added to the word “Law” that we can determine which “Law” is being talked about in that particular passage.
The Ten Commandment, Moral Law, existed before Mount Sinai; they are what tells us what morality is. We will look more at their time of existence later in this section.
We will return to Romans 3:21, later in this section also, to talk about the other “Law”
STATUTES
Religion has divided Holy Scriptures into two parts, Old and New Testament. Later in this series, we will look at how and why this has happened. With the dividing of Scripture came the dividing of two covenant’s, while this is the subject of this series, we are going to concentrate on the different Covenants right now.
I’ve heard people refer to the Levitical Law, putting it all under an Old Covenant, but there are actually two “Law’s” within this Levitical Law reference: the one we are going to look at first is the Statute Laws.
Because the Levitical Law is put in one lump sum, many write off all the Levitical Law’s as past; or null and void. Let’s look at a few of the Statutes of God, located in the Levitical Law. While we are concentrating on the Statutes within Leviticus, the Statutes of God are spread throughout Holy Scripture; and even these, we will be discussing here, are just a fraction of the Statutes found in Leviticus.
Lev 13:46
“All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.”
We see that we are told to quarantine those who are sick.
All Leviticus 18 talks about the need for moral living in our lives.
Lev 3:17
“It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood.”
Perpetual means everlasting, and it’s interesting that this vastly overlooked Statutes lies within the New Testament teachings as well (Acts 15:19-21, 27-29).
Lev 19:17-18
“You will not hate your brother in your heart: you will in any wise rebuke your neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him. You will not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you will love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
Leviticus 19:29 “'Do not prostitute your daughter, to cause her to be a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry, and the land become full of wickedness.”
Leviticus 19:31 “'Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.”
Leviticus 19:32 “'You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the LORD. “
Now, considering that these are just a few of the Statutes given, it seems they are pretty important for us to maintain.
Deuteronomy 28 has blessings and curses for the keeping or not keeping of God’s Moral Laws and His Statutes. While these blessings and curses were given, by God, after the establishment of the ceremonial tabernacle system, the blessings and curses do not pertain to whether or not one does the ceremonial laws of the Tabernacle system; but only include the Statues and Ten Commandments: these curses we are seeing today; because of the non-keeping of either of these “Laws”.
I do want to answer a question of debate, and ridicule of Scripture, in which the death penalty, or banishment from the people, are ordered for those who break these Statutes. Hebrews says that these things were a shadow and example of what was to come (Hebrews 8:5). From the ceremonial law’s to the Statutes, these are examples of what is or is going to be. While we will look at the ceremonial law in a moment, the Statutes provided a look at what will be in the very end. Those who live in disobedience to the will of God will be separated from the people, they will die the second death.
Like the Ten Commandments, the Statutes of God were existent before the children of Israel were freed from Egypt before they were reminded of the “Laws” through Moses. And while we will look at this fact in a moment, there is no way, with the importance of these “Laws”, that the Statutes of God are gone; or we would not be seeing the curses for not keeping them.
CEREMONIAL LAW
The other “Law” that lies in the Old Testament, and considered to be Levitical Laws as well, is the Ceremonial Laws. When one reads through Exodus and Leviticus, they will see commands of God which He uses the term “ceremonial”. These are associated with the workings around the tabernacle system, and aside from the obedience of His Moral Laws and Statutes, had to be performed by the High Priests and people in order to be saved from death. The ceremonial laws were a shadow and example of what is today, which is Christ; our High Priest, our Lamb, in the Tabernacle which is in Heaven. These Ceremonial Laws are those which include some of the feast’s and festivals, the killing of the lambs, the washings and offerings to be ceremonial made clean, and the likes. We see reference to such ceremonial works in Hebrews 9:10
Heb 9:10
“concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation”
In the New Testament, anytime “Law” is referring to the ceremonial laws, there will be references of the ceremonial works performed; such as, circumcision, meats, foods, drinks, days, moons, and Sabbath (which is referring to the annual Sabbath days of Israel, and not the weekly Sabbath days located within the Moral Law).
Gal 3:2
“This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith”
Any time you see, “works of the Law” or just “works”, the author is talking about the ceremonial laws, for it was by the works of the ceremonial laws that one was saved. The Moral Law’s and Statutes did not save, never did. The Moral Laws tell us what sin is and the Statutes are the commands of God so that we have a good life. Through time, the term “works” has gone from the ceremonial rituals that one had to do to be saved into anything that is in obedience to God; which in turn makes the Christian religion look foolish, hypocritical, and contradictory to its own teachings and beliefs.
TORAH
When talking of the Ten Commandment and Statute Laws, I said that they were around BEFORE Mount Sinai.
Genesis 26:5 “ because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws."
Abraham was 430 years before Mount Sinai, yet we see God’s Statutes and Laws talked about, and it was because of this great Faith, in obedience, that it was accounted to Abraham for righteousness (Romans 4:3; James 2:21-22). All through the book of Genesis, from Abraham to Cain, to Jacob, we see the Statutes and Moral Law’s of God listed as sin for not observing, yet this was BEFORE Mount Sinai.
Romans 3:21
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets...”
In the passage of Romans 3:21, we see the Righteousness of God is WITNESSED by the Law and the Prophets. The definition of witness is evidence or proof, so the evidence or proof of getting the Righteousness of God is through the Law and the Prophets. Yet, we’ve already established that this cannot be talking about the Ten Commandment Law; it does not list any works, so it’s not the ceremonial law.
Acts 13:15 15 And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, "Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on."
The Law and the Prophets is the term used to describe what we know as much of the Old Testament writings. The Tanakh, which is the Jewish Bible that we know as the Old Testament, consist of the Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim. The Torah and Nevi’im are the Law and the Prophets. The Law, or Torah, is the Covenant and promise made to Abraham. While the book of the Torah includes the works of the Law, which was given on Mount Sinai, there is a division between the covenant of Abraham and that which was given on Sinai: we will be looking at this more in this series. The Prophets, or Nevi’im, is the prophecies of Israel and the Messiah to come.
The Covenant was made with Abraham because of his faithfulness to God, his obedience, and it was given to him as Righteousness; which is what we are talking about in Romans 3:21: the Righteousness of God.
Romans 3:22
“even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference”
When we continue reading the passage in Romans 3, we see the Righteousness of God is witness by the Original Covenant with Abraham (Torah), and the prophecies of the coming Messiah (Nevi’im). AND, it’s even witnessed through the faith in Messiah Yeshua, in all that believe in Him. BECAUSE there is no difference in the witness of the Law and the Prophets and of Y’shua; because He is the fulfillment of them.
We are going to look at the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets more, as we look deeper into the Covenants - Old and New.
CONCLUSION
While people tend to associate the “Law” with the Ten Commandments, we see, by the use of Holy Scripture, that the word “Law” refers to The Ten Commandments, the Statutes of God, the works of the Law required for salvation before Christ, and the Original Covenant made with Abraham. The differences in these “Laws” in writings, can usually be determined by the characteristic that is associated with them, or the lack of characteristic.
Part 3 - Not Exactly What is Being Taught
No one has a full grasp on what we are looking at in this section, and in this series; and I am just a young student under the Spirit of God. So, I’m going to try and do my best to explain the different Laws in this section; and the relationship of the Old and New Covenant in this series.
The problem in understanding these two principles is in the translation. One Hebrew or Greek word may have multiple meanings in our language; like, chadasha which we will be looking at later in the series. Sometimes there are several words that translate to one English word. A good example is in Hebrews 4:1-10. The English word “rest”, in this section of Holy Scripture, came from three different Greek words for rest. One must study each word and look at their context, in other portions of Scripture, to determine what kind of “rest” was being discussed with each use in that section of Scripture. One rest means an eternal rest, one is a physical rest, and one is a Sabbath rest. The error on the translators is that they should have established this WITHIN the translation. This is the problem we are having with the translated word “Law”.
TEN COMMANDMENTS
Romans 3:21
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets...”
When we look at Romans 3:21, we see two law’s listed; and they contradict one another; because Paul is saying ASIDE from the “Law”, God righteousness is revealed BY the “Law”. The first “Law” is talking about the Ten Commandment and Statutes of God. We know this because the context is Righteousness, and Righteousness is gained by obedience to what God has commanded (Rom 1:16).
The Ten Commandment Law is the Moral Law, or what is the morality of man. Since the coming of the Promise, which is Christ, the Moral Law is written within the hearts of man. We forsake that law, through the traditions of our fathers (1 Peter 1:18) and sear the conscience (1 Tim 4:2), this then makes wicked actions of men. Think about the time before the Promise came; when the Moral Law of God was not in the heart. This would mean that men had no morality within them, it was nothing to murder, steal, and the likes. They did not feel the remorse, as one would today. When “Law” is referring to the Ten Commandment, it’s usually joined with a characteristic of God.
God is love - 1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16
The Law is love - Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 5:14
God is perfect - Matthew 5:48
The Law is perfect - James 1:25, Psalms 19:7
God is Holy - 1 Peter 1:15, Psalms 99:9
The Law is holy -Romans 7:12, 2 Peter 2:21
God is eternal - Romans 16:26, Deuteronomy 33:27
the Law is eternal - Psalms 111:7-8, Luke 16:17
... and this could go on and on. There are actually 32 links, in Holy Scripture, between the character of God and the character of the Ten Commandments. It’s by these character traits, added to the word “Law” that we can determine which “Law” is being talked about in that particular passage.
The Ten Commandment, Moral Law, existed before Mount Sinai; they are what tells us what morality is. We will look more at their time of existence later in this section.
We will return to Romans 3:21, later in this section also, to talk about the other “Law”
STATUTES
Religion has divided Holy Scriptures into two parts, Old and New Testament. Later in this series, we will look at how and why this has happened. With the dividing of Scripture came the dividing of two covenant’s, while this is the subject of this series, we are going to concentrate on the different Covenants right now.
I’ve heard people refer to the Levitical Law, putting it all under an Old Covenant, but there are actually two “Law’s” within this Levitical Law reference: the one we are going to look at first is the Statute Laws.
Because the Levitical Law is put in one lump sum, many write off all the Levitical Law’s as past; or null and void. Let’s look at a few of the Statutes of God, located in the Levitical Law. While we are concentrating on the Statutes within Leviticus, the Statutes of God are spread throughout Holy Scripture; and even these, we will be discussing here, are just a fraction of the Statutes found in Leviticus.
Lev 13:46
“All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.”
We see that we are told to quarantine those who are sick.
All Leviticus 18 talks about the need for moral living in our lives.
Lev 3:17
“It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood.”
Perpetual means everlasting, and it’s interesting that this vastly overlooked Statutes lies within the New Testament teachings as well (Acts 15:19-21, 27-29).
Lev 19:17-18
“You will not hate your brother in your heart: you will in any wise rebuke your neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him. You will not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you will love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
Leviticus 19:29 “'Do not prostitute your daughter, to cause her to be a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry, and the land become full of wickedness.”
Leviticus 19:31 “'Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.”
Leviticus 19:32 “'You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the LORD. “
Now, considering that these are just a few of the Statutes given, it seems they are pretty important for us to maintain.
Deuteronomy 28 has blessings and curses for the keeping or not keeping of God’s Moral Laws and His Statutes. While these blessings and curses were given, by God, after the establishment of the ceremonial tabernacle system, the blessings and curses do not pertain to whether or not one does the ceremonial laws of the Tabernacle system; but only include the Statues and Ten Commandments: these curses we are seeing today; because of the non-keeping of either of these “Laws”.
I do want to answer a question of debate, and ridicule of Scripture, in which the death penalty, or banishment from the people, are ordered for those who break these Statutes. Hebrews says that these things were a shadow and example of what was to come (Hebrews 8:5). From the ceremonial law’s to the Statutes, these are examples of what is or is going to be. While we will look at the ceremonial law in a moment, the Statutes provided a look at what will be in the very end. Those who live in disobedience to the will of God will be separated from the people, they will die the second death.
Like the Ten Commandments, the Statutes of God were existent before the children of Israel were freed from Egypt before they were reminded of the “Laws” through Moses. And while we will look at this fact in a moment, there is no way, with the importance of these “Laws”, that the Statutes of God are gone; or we would not be seeing the curses for not keeping them.
CEREMONIAL LAW
The other “Law” that lies in the Old Testament, and considered to be Levitical Laws as well, is the Ceremonial Laws. When one reads through Exodus and Leviticus, they will see commands of God which He uses the term “ceremonial”. These are associated with the workings around the tabernacle system, and aside from the obedience of His Moral Laws and Statutes, had to be performed by the High Priests and people in order to be saved from death. The ceremonial laws were a shadow and example of what is today, which is Christ; our High Priest, our Lamb, in the Tabernacle which is in Heaven. These Ceremonial Laws are those which include some of the feast’s and festivals, the killing of the lambs, the washings and offerings to be ceremonial made clean, and the likes. We see reference to such ceremonial works in Hebrews 9:10
Heb 9:10
“concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation”
In the New Testament, anytime “Law” is referring to the ceremonial laws, there will be references of the ceremonial works performed; such as, circumcision, meats, foods, drinks, days, moons, and Sabbath (which is referring to the annual Sabbath days of Israel, and not the weekly Sabbath days located within the Moral Law).
Gal 3:2
“This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith”
Any time you see, “works of the Law” or just “works”, the author is talking about the ceremonial laws, for it was by the works of the ceremonial laws that one was saved. The Moral Law’s and Statutes did not save, never did. The Moral Laws tell us what sin is and the Statutes are the commands of God so that we have a good life. Through time, the term “works” has gone from the ceremonial rituals that one had to do to be saved into anything that is in obedience to God; which in turn makes the Christian religion look foolish, hypocritical, and contradictory to its own teachings and beliefs.
TORAH
When talking of the Ten Commandment and Statute Laws, I said that they were around BEFORE Mount Sinai.
Genesis 26:5 “ because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws."
Abraham was 430 years before Mount Sinai, yet we see God’s Statutes and Laws talked about, and it was because of this great Faith, in obedience, that it was accounted to Abraham for righteousness (Romans 4:3; James 2:21-22). All through the book of Genesis, from Abraham to Cain, to Jacob, we see the Statutes and Moral Law’s of God listed as sin for not observing, yet this was BEFORE Mount Sinai.
Romans 3:21
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets...”
In the passage of Romans 3:21, we see the Righteousness of God is WITNESSED by the Law and the Prophets. The definition of witness is evidence or proof, so the evidence or proof of getting the Righteousness of God is through the Law and the Prophets. Yet, we’ve already established that this cannot be talking about the Ten Commandment Law; it does not list any works, so it’s not the ceremonial law.
Acts 13:15 15 And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, "Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on."
The Law and the Prophets is the term used to describe what we know as much of the Old Testament writings. The Tanakh, which is the Jewish Bible that we know as the Old Testament, consist of the Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim. The Torah and Nevi’im are the Law and the Prophets. The Law, or Torah, is the Covenant and promise made to Abraham. While the book of the Torah includes the works of the Law, which was given on Mount Sinai, there is a division between the covenant of Abraham and that which was given on Sinai: we will be looking at this more in this series. The Prophets, or Nevi’im, is the prophecies of Israel and the Messiah to come.
The Covenant was made with Abraham because of his faithfulness to God, his obedience, and it was given to him as Righteousness; which is what we are talking about in Romans 3:21: the Righteousness of God.
Romans 3:22
“even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference”
When we continue reading the passage in Romans 3, we see the Righteousness of God is witness by the Original Covenant with Abraham (Torah), and the prophecies of the coming Messiah (Nevi’im). AND, it’s even witnessed through the faith in Messiah Yeshua, in all that believe in Him. BECAUSE there is no difference in the witness of the Law and the Prophets and of Y’shua; because He is the fulfillment of them.
We are going to look at the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets more, as we look deeper into the Covenants - Old and New.
CONCLUSION
While people tend to associate the “Law” with the Ten Commandments, we see, by the use of Holy Scripture, that the word “Law” refers to The Ten Commandments, the Statutes of God, the works of the Law required for salvation before Christ, and the Original Covenant made with Abraham. The differences in these “Laws” in writings, can usually be determined by the characteristic that is associated with them, or the lack of characteristic.
Part 3 - Not Exactly What is Being Taught
