(If All Else Fails…)
“He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” Proverbs 28:9
My people
are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will
also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me:
seeing thou hast forgotten the law
of thy God, I will also forget
thy children.” Hosea 4:6
There is much confusion and disagreement over what the law of God is, its significance, and bearing on salvation and believers.
As is
often the case in modern theology, much of it stems from a misunderstanding of
the original terms. In order to gain a
correct and full understanding of the meaning of Bible topics, we must inquire
as to what it meant to the person who wrote the term and what it would mean to
the original hearers.
We have
come to understand the word law
as meaning “rules and regulations prescribed under an authority to govern the
behavior and actions of people.”
However, we will soon discover that this is not the way that this
word is used in Scripture.
The very
word “law” is actually not the most accurate or clear translation of the Hebrew
term. The Hebrew word is Torah. Torah comes from
the Hebrew root yarah, which means to
teach. Torah is most clearly
translated as “teaching, instruction.”
Thus God’s “law” is actually his “directions” on how to live happily.
Most people have come to understand
God’s law as referring to the Ten Commandments.
This is both correct, and incorrect.
Yes—the Ten Commandments were a part of God’s instruction to his
people; yet this is not what is being referred to most of the times when the
Bible speaks of God’s law, or Torah.
The word law is used literally hundreds of times, yet in not
one single instance is the Ten Commandments as a whole or alone called “the
Law.”
When Y’shua (Jesus) addressed the crowds in Matthew 5, he was
speaking as a Jew, to Jews. He was using
Hebrew terminology, and we must interpret the meaning of his worlds according to how his audience would
understand it.
To a Jew,
Torah is understood as specifically the first five books of the Old
Testament, written by Moses. Further
confusion is brought in by our misunderstanding the term “the Law of
Moses.” We have often used this term to
refer to the ceremonial aspects, or even any of the Old Testament Statutes
other than the Decalogue. It is commonly taught that only the Ten
Commandments are “the law of God” (which is good), so all the other Biblical
laws comprise “the Law of Moses”(which was bad). Again, this is putting a private
interpretation on the Biblical term.
The
New Testament writers, being (for the most part) Jews, used the Greek word nomos with the Hebrew meaning of Torah. Even the Greek word nomos does not mean "law" as we
think of it today. Nomos means
"knowledge," and is seen in our English words astronomy, economy,
and agronomy. When the New
Testament uses the term “the Law of Moses”, it is again referring to the
Torah—the first five books written by the hand of Moses.
This in no way attributed the Torah
as coming from the mind
or authority of Moses. Moses is
not the lawgiver.
“There is one
lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.” James
It was God’s Torah—God’s instruction or teaching. This fact is clearly demonstrated in Luke
chapter 2.
“And when
the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished,
they brought him to
This
clearly shows that the “law of God” and “the law of Moses” are interchangeable
terms, and refer to the same law, or teaching.
When Moses gave Torah to the people, it was his teaching, but of course
Moses would not teach something contrary to God’s instruction, or Torah. He would not “add unto these things,” nor
“take away from the words” (Revelation
This usage
is in accord with the words of Hebrews 9:19,20:
“For when
every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he
took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and
sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, "This is the
blood of the covenant which God
commanded you." (RSV)
The Bible
writers in no way recognized two separate laws.
If we
begin to think as a Hebrew person, we would know that this “lawgiver” or “giver
of Torah/teaching” is none other than Y’shua, for he
is the great Teacher. This is why he
said, Don't ever let anyone call you 'Rabbi,' for you have only one teacher,
and all of you are on the same level as brothers and sisters,” because that’s
what rabbi means in Hebrew—“my
teacher.”
The Bible
clearly tells us that it was the LORD (YHVH) who gave the Torah:
“These are
the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of
“These are the commandments,
which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.”
Leviticus 27:34
“Ezra went
up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the
LORD God of Israel had given.” Ezra
7:6
“And all
the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was
before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the
scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to
Israel. So they read in the book in the
law of God.” Nehemiah 8:1,8
“And they
found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses. Also day by day, from the first day unto
the last day, he read in the book of the law of God.” Nehemiah 8:14,18
“And they
stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their
God” Nehemiah 9:3
In order
to get a truly clear understanding of the term Torah, we must understand that Torah
is not speaking exclusively or even primarily of the commandments, statutes and
judgments, but rather to the entire
volume of the Pentateuch. This is the
Jewish understanding, and the usage of the term in the New Testament.
For
example, in Matthew 22:36, when asked what the greatest commandment in the law was, Y’shua
did not quote one of the Ten Commandments, but rather from Deuteronomy and
Leviticus:
“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:36-39)
Y’shua was not straying from the “law”,
but quoted from the “law,” the Torah—for all five books are the Torah.
Torah is the
general designation for the first five books in the Bible written by Moses, so
that whenever the Bible refers to the Law, whether it be “the Law of the
LORD” or “the Law of Moses,” it is referring to anything found within these
books. Here are just a few examples from
the New Testament:
I
Corinthians 14:34 Let your women keep
silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they
are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith
the law. (Genesis 3:16)
Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid.
Nay, I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
(Exodus 20:17)
James 2:9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye
commit sin, and are convicted of the law as transgressors. (Leviticus 19:15)
Matthew
12:5 Or have ye not read in the
law, how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the Temple profane the
Sabbath, and are blameless? (Numbers
28:9)
Luke
10:26, 27 He said unto him, What is
written in the Law? How readest thou? And he
answering said, Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all
thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. (Deuteronomy 6:5)
There is
yet another dimension of the word Torah.
By the time of Y’shua, the Holy Scriptures
were divided into 3 sections: the “law,” or more correctly, Torah (the first five books of Moses), the Prophets (Hebrew Nevi’im) and the
Psalms, or Writings (Hebrew Khetuvim). This
is still the way the Scriptures are divided in Jewish Bibles, referred to as
the Tanakh—the word itself being an acronym of
the first letters of Torah, Nevi’im and Khetuvim.
Y’shua referred to the Tanakh in Luke 24:44:
“And he
said unto them, These are the words which I spake
unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which
were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning
me.”
Certainly
these passages are not referring to the commandments or regulations, but the
Messianic prophecies contained in the “law and prophets”—the Torah.
Often, the
Scriptures were referred to as simply “the Law and the Prophets,” but were
understood to include “the writings” or Psalms.
See Matthew 7:12, Matthew 22:40, Luke 24:26,27 and John 1:45 for
examples.
Strong’s
3551 tells us that “law” refers to “the whole volume”. Thus Isaiah 8:20 would more accurately be
translated, “If they do not speak in accord with the Torah or the writings of the Prophets, there is no
light in them at all.”
For the
sake of brevity, however, the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings were
commonly lumped together into one term: Torah. For example, in John 10:34 Y’shua quotes Psalm 82:6, but says it can be found in the
“Law”. Again, in John 15:25, the “law”
is actually Psalms 35:19 and 69:5.
This is a
perfectly natural use of the term, for
“All
scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness:” 2 Timothy 3:16.
All
inspired Scripture is God’s Torah—his communication, instruction, directions,
teaching.
Thus we
have seen that the “law” is most commonly referring not to any of the
rules and regulations, but rather to the entire Old Testament, as God’s
teaching and instruction. This should
give serious pause to those who go about crying that the law has been done away
with or nailed to the cross. Correctly
translated, the would be saying God’s instruction, God’s teaching has been
abolished. They would do away with the
entirety of the Old Testament.
For
believers in Messiah, however, Torah is not only the Hebrew Scriptures, but
would also include the New Testament, for it is also God’s teaching and
instruction.
The most
commonly taught view in Christianity is that the Law, meaning the commandments
and statutes, were done away with at the cross.
Others believe themselves more enlightened by dividing the moral code of
Ten Commandments from all other statutes and nailing only the statutes to the
cross. However, we have seen that this
in no way fits with the Biblical teaching on Law. Law is Torah: the entirety of God’s
instruction.
So what
was actually abolished at the cross? Are
we obliged to observe only the two greatest mitzvot (commandments, principles) of the Torah, as quoted in
Matthew? The majority of believers in
Christ think so. Contrarily, are we
bound to continue animal sacrifices and rituals?
Paul tells
us clearly that the faith we have under grace does not annul the
Law.
“Do we
then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the
law.” Romans 3:31
Y’shua said that if we would enter into
life, to keep the commandments, and specifically quoted seven of the Ten
Commandments (Matthew 19:17-19).
Daniel’s
prophecy tells us specifically what was done away with by the sacrifice of
Christ:
“And after
threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself;… And he
shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week
he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” Daniel 9:26,27.
This was
also the interpretation of Psalm 40 by the writer of the book of Hebrews:
“in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again
made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore
when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou
hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is
written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou
wouldest not, neither hadst
pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh
away the first, that he may establish the second.” Hebrews
10:3-9
Jesus himself spoke of the Temple worship ceasing:
“Jesus saith
unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this
mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” John 4:21
With our
new understanding of what the Bible term “law” means, we can now examine Matthew
5 correctly—a passage that is most often ignored or explained away by
Christians:
“Think not
that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law,
till all be fulfilled.” Matthew
5:17,18.
The
objection is often raised, “Yes—he fulfilled
the law”—“fulfilled” being interpreted as in “fulfilling a prophecy,” thus
doing away with it. This is not a
correct understanding, for several reasons: heaven and earth have not passed
away, so “not the least stroke of the pen” (TEV), not “the crossing of a ‘t’ or
the dotting of an ‘i’ “ (TLB) can be done away
with. Isaiah 42:21 tells us that Messiah
would “magnify the law, and make it honourable.” This he did, not by “fulfilling” it in the
modern definition, but as used in the New Testament. In Matthew 3:15, Y’shua
is not saying, “it becometh us to fulfill with all
righteousness” meaning to do away with righteousness, but to fulfill in
the sense of “to fully teach, to complete, to bring to perfection.” Other examples are found in Romans 8:4,
Romans 13:8, Galatians 5:14, Colossians 2:25, Colossians 4:17. None of these texts support “fulfill” as is commonly
understood.
After his
statement that all must be fulfilled, he continued by “fulfilling” one of the
commandments:
“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Matthew 5:27,28.
With this
statement, he did not do away with
the teaching (Torah), but broadened and
amplified its meaning and
bearing.
Y’shua made it clear what he meant when
he said he did not come to abolish the law—he said
“Whosoever
therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so,
he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do
and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:19.
While
rebuking the Pharisees regarding their careful observance of Torah’s obvious
laws while neglecting justice and mercy (the true teaching of Torah), he did not say, “forget tithing and kosher—all
you need is to love!” but rather, “These you should practice, without neglecting the others.” (TEV) Quite to the other point, Y’shua
said,
“I say
unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in
no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:20
One of the commonly quoted texts used to teach that the law was done away with is Romans 10:4:
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”
Various translations do interpret it to mean just that the law was abolished by Christ. The “end” spoken of here can be understood as it is used in I Peter 1:9:
“Receiving the end of your
faith, even the salvation of your souls.”
Certainly Salvation is not the end of faith and trust! Rather, it is the ultimate “end” where our faith takes us. Some translations actually interpret this passage in this way, teaching that the goal or destination that Torah takes us to is Messiah.
However,
even the traditional translation does not anull the
validity of Torah observance. What it
says is very powerful words for people who think they can earn heaven by works;
it says Messiah is the end of Torah (observance) as a means to being
saved. Dispensationalists
teach that salvation was by law in the Old Testament, and by grace in the
New. God did not have one
plan before the Cross and another after.
His plan has always been to bring us back to trust in him. The “New Covenant” was first given in
Ezekiel. Those who believe and teach
this grievous error cannot come up with one single person in the Old
Testament who was saved by the law.
Hebrews 11 testifies that all the Old Testament
heroes—including Abraham, the “father of the faithful”—were saved by their
faith, their trust in God.
It was the
fact that ancient Israel did not understand that the Ten Commandments were
actually promises of what God would transform them into that led to
their observance of Torah in order to be saved. Paul mentions this pertinent fact in the
verse preceding:
“For they
being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”
Romans 10:13.
In other
words, because they misunderstood
“the way in
which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set
up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting
people right.” (TEV).
The
context of verse 4 clearly shows that Paul’s intention was to explain that the
law is not a means of being saved; it never was.
It is
clear that love is the fulfilling of the Law (Romans 13:8-10). If all God wants is for us to love him and
love each other, the natural question arises:
Why did God give us so many rules and regulations?
Paul
raises and answers this question in Galatians 3:24:
”the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.”
If we truly
kept the supreme command to love, we would not need any rules and regulations,
telling us not to kill, steal, or bear false witness against our neighbor, for
“love worketh no ill to his neighbor.” But as Paul says in Romans 7:7, sin had so
damaged us and our perceptions of right and wrong, we needed
God’s instruction—Torah.
There are
many other points that could be made, and further objections to be answered
that time and space do not allow in this article. However, suffice it to say that it is clear
that Torah is “holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12), that
“the LORD
commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our
good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.” Deuteronomy 6:24.
Let us
therefore endeavor to live “by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4
—By J.L. Ashton
“Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest
with them from heaven, and gavest them right
judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments” Nehemiah 9:13