Galatians, Ephesians, and Hebrews in the New Testament unequivocally teach that the law makes you a slave, the law was what men received as a result of disobedience, refusal to come into the presence of God; they ended up under the law. But there are those who would say, “Well I have a lot of questions then. Number one, how then would the Bible say, quoting David in the Psalms, ‘I delight in your law O Lord, and I meditate on it day and night.’” and, moreover, ‘The law is righteous.’” (“But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 1:2)
If you say that the law made slaves out of people, how could you also say that the law was righteous? That’s one question. And I have several others from both the Old and the New Testaments.
In addition to that, people say, “But this was the law of God. He wrote it with his own fingers on tablets of stone and Jesus said that He didn’t come to do away with it.” (‘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.’” Matthew 5:17)
Let’s begin there. What about the righteousness that is in the law, or for that matter the glory that was in the law?
Whose law was it?
It was the law that God gave.
Why did God give the law?
God gave the law until the Seed should come:
(What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.” Galatians 3:19)
So then the question is: What was the purpose of the law?
The purpose of the law was to preserve the Jews as a people because the enemy, beginning in the ancient reaches of the Old Testament, was the accuser of the brethren. It meant that if the enemy had any chance to bring an accusation against anyone, his name, Ha-Sataan is that of the prosecutor, the one who brings the charge like he did in the book of Job. What is his intention when he brings a charge against someone? To call down the judgment of God upon a person hopefully for their destruction.
Now were the Jews deserving of this? Of course they were. When God brought them to Mount Sinai and invited them to come up into his presence and they refused, what alternative did that leave God except to destroy them? In fact, God told Moses, he said, “I am going to send the angel of the Lord with you but don’t disobey him because he won’t be tolerant of you. (Exodus 23:20,21) The law was God’s way of protecting Israel from the accuser by setting up punishments, consequences for the infractions of the law, before the infraction occurred. So, once God had spoken, even the enemy was obligated to abide by the rules.
The law then, ironically, though it enslaved Israel, saved Israel… saved Israel from annihilation. This is not about saving people from going to hell; it’s to save them from the consequences, the punishments associated with wrongdoing. It’s like the law may keep you out of prison. If a person is inclined to misbehave, the law may in fact restrain their character and conduct to keep them out of prison. So, the purpose of the law: it was God who gave it, so surely it was God’s law, but why God gave it, and the character of God revealed in and through it are just as important considerations. The character of God was to show mercy, as much mercy as could be shown under the law. That mercy did not include the grace of salvation but it did include the mercy that stayed the hand of God, preventing annihilation.
This served the purpose of God because God was looking forward to the time when the Seed would come because the plan of God was to make humans into his heirs and therefore that they would be preserved until that eventuality, that certainly was consistent with the plan of God. When Israel was unfaithful, God yet showed his mercy. On that day when He brought them out of Egypt and they were assembled at Mount Sinai, except for the fact that it was by the hand of God that they were Egyptian slavery, they were slaves. God had set them free but they were still thinking and acting as slaves. So what did they need? They needed to be made into a nation. They needed to be protected from their enemies. They needed some guarantees for their economy and for their health. And all these things God gave them. What did they do to deserve these things? Nothing. These were the benevolent gestures of God. Did they need these things? Of course they did.
God knew what they needed. Yes they had been freed from Egyptian slavery but beyond that what did they need? Well they needed these things: they needed to be made into a nation. So, the law arranged their relationships to each other and to God, establishing them as a nation. What if God hadn’t given them the law? Then it would have been okay for a man to covet his neighbor’s wife. And if he wanted his neighbor’s wife badly enough there would be nothing wrong with him killing his neighbor to obtain his wife. Well is this anything like what God would have them be? No, of course not.
So the law was righteous in the sense that although they didn’t know what they needed and didn’t know what to ask for, God set it up to protect them and to care for them, but in the sum and substance of the law, in all that the law is, it didn’t touch the transcendent nature of man. It didn’t save anybody’s soul; it didn’t teach them the character of God; it just acted for their best interest. And so when David would see, as debauched as David was—one who would kill another man in order to get his wife, that’s the case of Bath- Sheba and Uriah—when David would see the goodness of God, to himself and to the nation, he, like others before him and like others after him in the New Testament, would comment on the goodness of God.
If you say that the law made slaves out of people, how could you also say that the law was righteous? That’s one question. And I have several others from both the Old and the New Testaments.
In addition to that, people say, “But this was the law of God. He wrote it with his own fingers on tablets of stone and Jesus said that He didn’t come to do away with it.” (‘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.’” Matthew 5:17)
Let’s begin there. What about the righteousness that is in the law, or for that matter the glory that was in the law?
Whose law was it?
It was the law that God gave.
Why did God give the law?
God gave the law until the Seed should come:
(What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.” Galatians 3:19)
So then the question is: What was the purpose of the law?
The purpose of the law was to preserve the Jews as a people because the enemy, beginning in the ancient reaches of the Old Testament, was the accuser of the brethren. It meant that if the enemy had any chance to bring an accusation against anyone, his name, Ha-Sataan is that of the prosecutor, the one who brings the charge like he did in the book of Job. What is his intention when he brings a charge against someone? To call down the judgment of God upon a person hopefully for their destruction.
Now were the Jews deserving of this? Of course they were. When God brought them to Mount Sinai and invited them to come up into his presence and they refused, what alternative did that leave God except to destroy them? In fact, God told Moses, he said, “I am going to send the angel of the Lord with you but don’t disobey him because he won’t be tolerant of you. (Exodus 23:20,21) The law was God’s way of protecting Israel from the accuser by setting up punishments, consequences for the infractions of the law, before the infraction occurred. So, once God had spoken, even the enemy was obligated to abide by the rules.
The law then, ironically, though it enslaved Israel, saved Israel… saved Israel from annihilation. This is not about saving people from going to hell; it’s to save them from the consequences, the punishments associated with wrongdoing. It’s like the law may keep you out of prison. If a person is inclined to misbehave, the law may in fact restrain their character and conduct to keep them out of prison. So, the purpose of the law: it was God who gave it, so surely it was God’s law, but why God gave it, and the character of God revealed in and through it are just as important considerations. The character of God was to show mercy, as much mercy as could be shown under the law. That mercy did not include the grace of salvation but it did include the mercy that stayed the hand of God, preventing annihilation.
This served the purpose of God because God was looking forward to the time when the Seed would come because the plan of God was to make humans into his heirs and therefore that they would be preserved until that eventuality, that certainly was consistent with the plan of God. When Israel was unfaithful, God yet showed his mercy. On that day when He brought them out of Egypt and they were assembled at Mount Sinai, except for the fact that it was by the hand of God that they were Egyptian slavery, they were slaves. God had set them free but they were still thinking and acting as slaves. So what did they need? They needed to be made into a nation. They needed to be protected from their enemies. They needed some guarantees for their economy and for their health. And all these things God gave them. What did they do to deserve these things? Nothing. These were the benevolent gestures of God. Did they need these things? Of course they did.
God knew what they needed. Yes they had been freed from Egyptian slavery but beyond that what did they need? Well they needed these things: they needed to be made into a nation. So, the law arranged their relationships to each other and to God, establishing them as a nation. What if God hadn’t given them the law? Then it would have been okay for a man to covet his neighbor’s wife. And if he wanted his neighbor’s wife badly enough there would be nothing wrong with him killing his neighbor to obtain his wife. Well is this anything like what God would have them be? No, of course not.
So the law was righteous in the sense that although they didn’t know what they needed and didn’t know what to ask for, God set it up to protect them and to care for them, but in the sum and substance of the law, in all that the law is, it didn’t touch the transcendent nature of man. It didn’t save anybody’s soul; it didn’t teach them the character of God; it just acted for their best interest. And so when David would see, as debauched as David was—one who would kill another man in order to get his wife, that’s the case of Bath- Sheba and Uriah—when David would see the goodness of God, to himself and to the nation, he, like others before him and like others after him in the New Testament, would comment on the goodness of God.
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