MOSAIC LAW
The Mosaic Law, to live or not to live by it is something that has caused me great confusion over the past week, for I struggle to understand how one can live in grace while ignoring the law. Now to start I must clarify my conception of the “law”. As I think of the law I consider the Ten Commandments to be the foundation of the 613 laws givens in Exodus, therefore I sum up the Mosaic Law within the Ten Commandments. This may be wrong, but at this point, this is my understanding even though I know it is a much broader landscape. My initial answer to this question of whether we need to live under the law to this day would have been yes, but as I study and begin to gain a better understanding of this concept, I will argue for the answer of no, with some concessions.
The Mosaic Law in its entirety is the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. In these books are multiple rules and regulations that were given to the Israelite people for just about every single area of life one could think of. These laws were given to Israel in order to guide and direct them to live in accordance with the desires of God. There are basically summed up within the Ten Commandments, but for the sake of this paper and argument, we will set that aside and focus on the 613 specific laws given to Israel that encompassed three main areas; moral, social and ceremonial.
My first argument will be that of context and audience. The Mosaic Law was written for the Israelite people and given to them during their wandering in the wilderness. It was designed to align the people with the will of God and to guide them into the Promised Land as a holy people, set apart for God; it was also, in a similar function, to guide them away from sin and further derogation and disintegration as a people. As a people not yet privy to the grace we now find under Christ, they had a different system of dealing with sin. Animal sacrifices were the primary coverings for sin or atonement for the sin committed by the people. And of course today, we don’t have to sacrifice animals and use their blood to atone for our shortcomings and sinful nature; we have Christ as the perfect and final sacrifice to cover all sin, for those who chose to accept Him. Secondly they had no formal governing system that maintained the “law” in the social sense. The moral laws were set in place to govern the actions of the people, and to give a sense of order and rebuttal to a breach in that social order. Today we have governing bodies that lay the “law of the land” that help to maintain moral and social justice and peace. Ultimately I believe that the Law was given to the people to show them their sinfulness. If God had not given them the law, how long would they have continued to go astray? How long might God have had to continue to delay their entrance to the Promised Land? The law brought the awareness of sin and therefore the understanding that sin must be atoned for.
As I look at Grace under the totality of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, I understand that therein lies the end of the Law in the sense of bringing my sacrifice to the alter for atonement. Atonement has been made for me in its finality. As I submit myself to the Lordship of Christ, I am under the grace of that sacrifice, and have no need for the ceremonial laws that existed for the Israelites. However; I still struggle then with the Ten Commandments that still exist and that I believe are still relevant in that they show us our sin and the need for the sacrifice of Christ. So then, as I continue this thought and revelation, now that I have been redeemed by Christ blood, I no longer live under the law insofar as it pertains to it’s statement of sin, rather I have renounced sin and my sinful nature through my acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice and now live under his grace. However, for those who have not yet accepted Christ and his redeeming blood, they still live under the law of the Ten Commandments, which is to show them their sinfulness.
Galatians 2:20-21 says; “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” This sums up what I currently understand as it pertains to the Law. If I could gain righteousness by simply observing the Law, then what Christ did on the cross means nothing, but I know this to be a silly statement. There is nothing I can do on my own, through any list of laws, that will allow me to enter heaven. Ephesians 2:8-9 reiterates this statement, “ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”
I understand that I cannot gain favor or entrance to heaven under my own actions of following a list of laws; I still however, believe that living according to the Ten Commandments will bring us closer to alignment of God’s desire and will for our lives. I believe these to be foundational to how we ought to live our short lives here on this earth, at the same time understanding that by following them we will not be able to earn our way to heaven, it is by the grace of God through His son Jesus Christ, that we hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
References
Life application study Bible (New International Version). (2005). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
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