The 'End' of the Law
The 'End' of the Law
This article is part of the "Vitalize" pack
It is impossible to count the tendencies and religious movements clashing on the subject of law and grace – pros and cons – that is, one always in the foreground and the other in the background.
Many even get to the point where they can’t fundamentally explain the apostle Paul’s teaching about the New Self in an acceptable way — so they put it aside.
- Christ's teaching about the purpose of the Law
- Apostolic testimonies about the Law and the Change
- The apostolic revelations about Fulfilling the aim of the Law and the trustful freedom of the Love
- Apostle Paul's words about the link between faith, grace, justice, and deeds.
There are also some more complex link, pointing to each other, so I’ll help you a bit with the orange highlights.
The Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible {https://www.esv.org} and sometimes I used the equivalent / parallel word of the original Greek text with slash / mark.
I'd like to recommend this note as a help, or contemplation,
NOT like a pre-chewed,
instant doctrine.
The purpose of the Law - today
Jesus Christ says: This is my purpose with the Law
In Matthew 5:17 Jesus says:
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.
For truly, I say to you,
Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
↓
7:12
So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Jesus about the "S'ma" prayer and love:
Mt 22:37
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the great and first commandment.
The second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.*
*According to the Hebrew thinking, "Law" means not only the 10 commandments but the all writings that explain it, while "Prophets" means the totality of the scrolls they write. Therefore "the Law and the Prophets." refers to the period between the Abrahamic Mosaic covenant and the covenant of Christ.
Periods or ages I.
Matthew 11:12
From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John...
Lk. 16:16
The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one iota {dot} of the Law to become void.
Lk 24:44
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.
↓
Jn 1:44
Philip found Nathanael and said to him,
“We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
This change of age was observed by apostle John as follows:
Jn. 1:16-17
... from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
In his Gospel John also quotes Jesus' opinion on the effectiveness of the Law in practice:
John 7:19
Has not Moses given you the Law? Yet none of you keeps the Law.
↓
In Acts 7:51-53, Stephen said the same thing:
You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. {Neh 9:16-17; Jer 6:10}
Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the Law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.
{See also Jer 31:31 later}
↓
Paul speaks similarly to the Jews in Antioch of Pisidia:
Acts 13:38-40
Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the Law of Moses. Beware, therefore...
& in verse 46. {after the Jews contradicted}
It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
Apostolic Testimonies
Paul said when they began to beat him in Jerusalem at the Temple:
Acts 22:3
I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. {Acts 9:11; 21:39; 5:34; 2Cor 11:22}
I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, {Acts 8:3; 9:1; 26:9; 1Cor 15:9; Gal 1:13; 1Tim 1:13} as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness.
Paul's Defense Speech to Governor Felix in Caesarea
Acts 24:13
{My accusers can not}...prove to you what they now bring up against me. But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a Resurrection of both the just and the unjust. So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.
Paul before Festus in Caesarea
Acts 25:8
"I have not sinned against the Law of the Jews, nor against the Holy Place, nor against the emperor."
Paul in Rome:
Acts 28:23
... he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.
And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved.
Periods or ages II.
The educational role of the Law and its end
Galatians 3:22-23-24*
the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the Law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
So then, the Law was our guardian** until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God***, through faith.
*here we can see a great parallelism. This technique is well known in biblical texts: one sentence reflects the meaning of another. Moreover, there is not simply two cohesive sentences here, but a triple statement.
** it's actually NOT a 'guardian' but a temporary slave-educator: a paidagogos = an educated domestic slave who is to coach, educate and punish young men until they were adults.
Then in a dedicated day, finally having the adult status and position in the family – instead of a tunic, they got a toga and a ring.
***From then on, they were matured citizens with full right in the family & heritage and right to poll – from that very day the paidagogos slave could not touch them!
Some people are members & recipients of the Law but others are holders of New Life under the righteousness of Redemption:
Rm. 3:19
Now we know that whatever the Law says it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the Law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it {Rm 1:17; Fil 3:9;} — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. ...
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law....
Do we then overthrow the Law {or: do we deprive the Law of its scope} by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold {validate} the Law.
↓
Jms 2:20
Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works (acting/exhibiting) is useless?
Paul speaks of the promise and faith of Abraham, who is "the father of many nations." Thus, well before the age of the Law, Abraham, the Aramaic chief our forefather received a covenant of faith from Gd:
Romans 4:9
(the) faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of ALL who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. {Gal 3:18;} For the Law brings wrath, but where there is no Law there is no transgression. {Jn 15:22; Rom 5:20; 7:8; Gal 3:19;}
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring (generation) —not only to the adherent of the Law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written,
“I have made you the father of many nations” {Gen 17:5}
The new morality
Now we can see that the ceremonial laws & doings attached to the Temple building complex & to the Levitical order has been cancelled. But what about the moral Commandments? Yes. Morality also found a different way in the life of the new man.
Let me write here down Drew Hunter's thoughts (MA, Wheaton College):
What about other commands that seemed more directly ethical—like “do not murder” and “do not commit adultery”? Jesus addressed a sampling of these in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. He showed that they prophetically anticipated this new covenant era where we would give a deeper and holistic obedience.
Well said. And well prepared. We must never forget that nothing happens in human history without the Lord speaking through the words of the Prophets. If there has been such a great change in the use of the Law, it is also evident in prophetic preparation.
In the prophet Jeremiah we read the promise of an even closer relationship and understanding with God.
..this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord:
Jer. 31:33-34 NRSV
The New Testament is better.
The Apostolic Thoughts about Jer 31:31
Heb 8:7
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
For he finds fault with them when he says:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,
not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.”
{Jer 31:31-34; → see: Zac 8:8; 2Cor 3:3}
“And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
Paul on the relationship between grace and morality:
Romans 6:12
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. {Luk 1:74; Rom 12:1; Gal 2:20; Heb 9:14; 1Pt 4:2;} For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under Law but under grace.*
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart...
I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
↓
Tit 2:11-14
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
↓
* Gal 5:16 and 18 says the same:
Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh... But if you are led by the Spirit,** you are not under the law.
↓
1Cor 15:56
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
{See 1Jn 5:5}
**the dead Old Husband vs. the living New Groom
Rm.7:1-6
... Or do you not know, brothers —for I am speaking to those who know the Law — that the Law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage...
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. ...
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 (a) and not in the old way of the written code (b).
{See Jer. 31 31}
a) a lifestyle in an intimate community by the Spirit
b) a doctrine of principles, see: Is 28:10
↓
{the same idea helps here again:}
James 2:20
Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works/practice is useless?
↓↓
Fulfilling the aim of the Law and the freedom of the love
Matthew 13:41-43
The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
↑
Its complementary pair is:
Heb. 4:16
Let us then with confidence (of the free speech) draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
{See also Heb 6:6}
The apostle John also teaches about this trustful freedom against judgment
1John 5:14
And this is the (freely spoken person's) confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
{Jer 29:12; Mt 7:8; 21:22; Mk 11:24; Luk 11:9; Jn 14:13; 15:7; 16:24; Jms. 1:5; 1Jn 3:22} And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
This intimate relationship is our status before the spiritual and visible world
Ephesians 3:10
{this grace was given, to preach} that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. {1Pt 1:12} This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness/freedom {Heb 10:19} and access with confidence through our faith in him.
↓
Eph 6:19
also pray for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly/freely to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
See: {Fil. 1:14; 1:20; 1Th 2:2}
↓
Rom 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the Law of sin and death. {Jn 8:36; Rm 6:18; 6:22; Gal 5:1;}
For God has done what the Law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, {Acts 13:39; Rm 3:28; Gal 2:16; 3:13; Heb 7:18; 2Cor 5:21;} in order that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
To live in freedom, accepted & adopted into the family
Romans 8:15
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Daddy!” {1Cor 2:12; 2Tim 1:7; Isa 56:5; Gal 3:26; 4:5-6;}
Fulfilling the Law with love II
Rm 13:8
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the Law.
{Gal 5:14; 1Tim 1:5;}
For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself!”
{Exod 20:13; Deut 5:17; Mt 19:18; Leviticus 19:18; Mat 22:39; Mk 12:31;}
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working (made effective) through love...
For you were called to be free, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Gal 5:6, 13-14;
Indeed, if you keep the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.
Jms 2:8;
↓
Jms 2:20
Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works/action is useless? (barren)
Summa
The righteousness before Gd has nothing to do with the Law. Paul explicitly says:
Rom 10:3-4
{they, the Jewish believers}, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
It must be considered that Jesus Christ, who is God – by His sovereign righteousness –, acted in a completely free and sovereign manner. Therefore, He acted freely from the power of the Law, as He Was and Is the Lord of the Law. {Matthew 12: 8; Mk 2:28; Luke 6: 5} He acted freely from the Law for he is the Great High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek,* not by the Aaronite order.
Therefore he often healed on the Sabbath, even the leper touched him, and he could deliver the person who committed adultery.
His authority for release/deliverance has been initiated
"Come unto me who ..."
“Go and sin no more! "
And we are the Christians, the Christ followers - we are to follow him. We, the-believers-together are the royal priesthood {1 Peter 2:9}. We are to represent Him. *With the change of the priesthood, the status of the Law also changed. {Heb 7:11-12}
Despite the fact that to this day two groups - Judaizers and "Grace party" - are at odds with each other, a new Unity has been born. Law and grace cannot be set against each other or, in the fashionable phrase, can not be "balanced". The Law is not on a par with Christ and his work. Neither can the Jewish religion be given a separate and distinct value in Christ's Kingdom:
He is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.
So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Eph 2:14-17
However, this is another topic.
Isa 59:20; Jer 31:31-34; 2Cor 3:3; Heb 7:17; 7:21; 7:28; 8:8; 8:10;
· Two different eras
· Jesus is better (recommended)
· Melchizedek and his Priesthood (recommended)
· Are Christians required to keep the Old Testament Law?
· Reality - walking in the Truth
HU
