A SPECTRUM OF TRUTH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Does Jesus reinterpret, fulfil, or change the Old Testament Law? And what force does it have for Christians? Are the New Testament writings a kind of New Testament Law?

These are crucial issues as we try to understand what weight biblical writings have as guidance or regulations to be followed. The Bible contains a spectrum of teaching on each of the above questions. And I don’t think that is very surprising! The more detailed ‘rules’ you have, the more you tend to legalism and lose sight of the most important issues of love, salvation, forgiveness, healing, freedom, justice and the crucial role of the Holy Spirit.

Christians and The Law

• Christians can’t follow the OT sacrificial or ceremonial laws because Jesus’ sacrifice is the fulfilment of that whole system. His blood is shed once for all, and his sacrifice enables us to ‘boldly approach the throne of grace’ or ‘enter the most holy place’ (Hebrews 4:16, 10:19).
• Many laws included a stipulation that they were “a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.”
• In general, what are known as ‘the moral laws’ remain but exactly which those are, and what force they have, is questionable. This was a huge issue for the early Church and remains difficult today.
• Early Christians changed their ‘Sabbath’ day from the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) to Sunday the first day of the week, the day of the resurrection. Apart from communal worship, Sabbath observance diminished in importance, certainly for Christians. This is despite very strong language in Exodus 31 and the stipulation that anyone working on the Sabbath is to be put to death!
• There was a hotbed of debate among Jews in the early Church as to how much of “the law of Moses” Gentiles were required to obey when they became Christians. And particularly if they must be circumcised, which was so central to Jewish identity. Of course, only Jewish boys and male converts were and are circumcised which raises another shedload of issues.
• Acts 15 records the dispute and a key meeting in Jerusalem to address the issue. Present were the leaders of the early Church including James (“the brother of the Lord”), Peter and Paul. It was probably only 10 or 12 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. They decide that only a few requirements of the Jewish Law are necessary for followers of Jesus. Circumcision is not necessary. What must be adhered to by Gentiles is a very short list of food laws and the command to avoid sexual immorality. We must suppose that other more general ‘moral’ laws would continue to be taught, not least the 10 Commandments.
• One of the stipulations from the Church leaders is: food offered to idols should not be eaten. But Paul will later state that eating food offered to idols is fine in some circumstances (1 Corinthians 10). In this and another instance in his 1^st letter to the Corinthians Paul writes: “Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive.” (1 Corinthians 10:23). So, there’s a spectrum of response possible.
• In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus is recorded as saying that he has not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it. He says that no change will be made to even the smallest detail of the Law until everything is accomplished. However, he then goes on to reinterpret the Law (“you have heard it said, but I say to you … “) by some very challenging examples which set very demanding moral standards and carry the threat of judgement for those who fall short. No doubt Jesus is ramping up the rhetoric as a rabbi might, but even if we are not meant to take these literally (e.g. to gouge your eye out if it causes you to sin) it’s not exactly clear how we should understand these pronouncements of Jesus.
• The recorded teaching of Jesus is different in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) from that in Mark and Luke. In Mark chapter 10, Jesus interprets a stipulation allowing divorce in Deuteronomy (24:1) as being “because your hearts were hard”. Divorce is one area where Christians have different understandings of biblical teaching and this is not the place to take it further, except to say that a spectrum of views on divorce can clearly be said to be “biblical”.
• In Ephesians chapter 2 (a letter attributed to Paul but of disputed authorship) we read that Christ has abolished in his flesh (by dying on the cross) the Law with its commandments and regulations, to bring about a new unity in him for both Jews and Gentiles.
• In his angry letter to the Galatians, Paul is writing to believers whose faith he had nurtured and who were now being deceived. Influential teachers there wanted the Gentile Christians to be circumcised and obey the Law given by Moses and keep Jewish special days and seasons and festivals. But Paul saw they were in danger of losing their freedom, turning their back on Christ, and allowing themselves to be enslaved again by the Law. If they regarded themselves as subject to the Law, then they must obey all of it to be put right with God – an impossible task.

The Holy Spirit and the Law

• Although the Old Testament clearly expects a heart response to God, the New Testament takes this to a different level, chiefly through the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit ‘the Paraclete’. The Greek word means literally the one called alongside.
• The work of the Holy Spirit in the individual and in the Christian community is utterly central to the mission and inner life of every Christian community and individual after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. In his letters to both to the Romans (chapter 8) and Galatians (chapter 5), Paul writes that the Spirit lives within us and enables us to know God as “Abba”, an intimate word for a Father.
• For Paul, the role of the Spirit means: “.. we have been released from the Law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” (Romans 7:6)
• Paul’s argument is complex and slightly different in Romans (a later and more careful treatment of the subject) than in his earlier angry letter to the Galatians. The Law is given authority to guide the Israelites through their history and ultimately lead them to Christ. After his ascension, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit from the Father to be their guide in the new age, when the New Covenant is the basis of their relationship with God.
• However, the New Testament documents, and common sense (a much-undervalued theological resource!), make it clear that elements of the OT Law, and fresh teaching in the NT, still need to be followed. Inevitably, there will always be a spectrum of teaching about what parts of the Law and of New Testament are necessary in different times and contexts.
• So, although we are released from subjugation to the Law, the Bible, both OT and NT, continues to act as a check on an unbridled ‘freedom’ of the Spirit.
• For many, the key insight is Paul’s conclusion to the inner conflict between the Holy Spirit and our selfish/sinful nature. We will get it wrong but the deeper truth is we are forgiven: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 1:1-2)

Faith and Works.

• Jesus is recorded as saying ‘by their fruit you shall know them’ (Matthew 7 and 12, Luke 6) – meaning this is how to discern who is good and who is evil. Being judged by the fruit we produce seems very much like being judged by our works – though the fruit Jesus is thinking of might include what Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace etc (Galatians chapter 5).
• Also found in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven.”  (Matthew 7:21)
• In Matthew 16:27 Jesus speaks of his return in glory when he “will reward each person according to what he has done.” And Paul echoes this in 1 Corinthians 5:10 when he writes about the judgement seat of Christ where every person will “receive what is due to them for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”
• It’s not easy to discern the relative importance of faith and works in the Christian life, but both are always necessary. Paul is clear that we are not justified (made right with God) by obeying the Law but by trusting in God as we know him in Christ – i.e. through faith. We are saved by the grace (unmerited favour) of God who gives us the gift of faith, to do the good works that He has already prepared for us (Ephesians 2:8-10).
• The overall message is clear. True faith will show itself in good works. Without good works our ‘faith’ is dead (James 2). But the question remains: do ‘good works’ actually reveal faith? Almost by definition good works reveal love and so, for me, good works do reveal faith. Thus, those who have no obvious belief in God may still have what we may call ‘saving faith’ which God chooses to honour alongside those who consciously sign up to a confession of faith.

The ‘Law’ of Love

• Matthew, Mark and Luke all record Jesus summarising the Law in the two great commandments: to love God wholeheartedly and to love our neighbour as ourselves. In Luke’s version (chapter 10) Jesus says: “Do this and you will live”. In Matthew’s version (chapter 22) Jesus says: “All the Law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
• This law of love is at the heart of Jesus’ teaching, but it can be difficult to agree on what is loving, since true love will challenge us. In bringing up children, love will discipline and correct. It’s not loving to tolerate every form of behaviour. 
• After washing his disciples’ feet (in John 13), Jesus gives them what he calls a new commandment – to love one another as he has loved them. This will be how people will know they follow Jesus – love expressed in service.
• In Romans chapter 13, Paul writes that all the commandments are summed up in one rule: love your neighbour as yourself and “Therefore love is the fulfilment of the Law.”
• The first letter of John chapter 4 contains a wonderful passage on love and the words: “God is love”. The author goes on to say: “This is love for God: to obey his commandments” (1 John 5:3).
• An essential part of Christian faith is that we can disagree but still love each other. Sadly, history does not show this very much. Cruelty is often perpetrated by Christians against other Christians with whom they disagree. Much debate is plagued by disrespect, bitterness and hatred. A willingness to respect one another and a humility before ‘truth’ would allow for the spectrum of teaching that the Bible inspires. It’s surely the minimum we should expect from each other.

Does Jesus fulfil the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah?

Christians will answer a resounding “Yes” to this question. But it’s not quite so straightforward.

• In Jesus’ day, nobody predicted or expected that the Messiah would have to suffer and die. At least there is no evidence of anyone expecting this. The key OT passage about a suffering servant of Yahweh is found in Isaiah chapters 52 and 53.  But nobody connected it to the Messiah. I’m not for a second disputing that these do point to Jesus and that they are Messianic. The point is that the greatest event in history, the coming of God to us in Jesus, happens in a way the Bible can only with hindsight be seen to foretell. Until then, no-one thought of a suffering Messiah.
• Jesus fulfils all sorts of OT prophecies but mostly Jesus’ Messiahship is understood as the one Christians focus on at Christmas – the prophesied King who is a descendant of king David who will bring in God’s reign, a reign of peace and justice, a restoration of paradise where the lion will lie down with the lamb (Isaiah 11). From the Hebrew language, ‘Messiah’ means ‘Anointed One’ (‘Christ’ is the equivalent from Greek, the language of the NT). Anointing is a key requirement for a king (as we have just observed with King Charles the Third).
• There were many and varied expectations based on Old Testament prophecies – the kingdom of Israel would be restored (the disciples ask Jesus when this will happen in Acts 1) and Jerusalem would be highly honoured among the nations.
• OT prophets write of the ‘Day of the LORD’ (‘Day of Yahweh’). Sometimes it is a day of judgement of Israel’s enemies, sometimes a historical and terrible day of judgement and salvation for all nations (including Israel) and sometimes it is the day when Yahweh will intervene to draw the whole world into a new age, best described as the reign of God or the kingdom of God. No human agent or Messiah is included in prophecies concerning ‘the Day of the LORD’.
• The problem is that this Day of the LORD doesn’t come with Jesus, it gets postponed until he will return in glory (e.g. Matthew 24), as does the vision of the kingdom from Isaiah 11. Many Jews therefore believe that Jesus cannot be the Messianic King of the Old Testament, because the accompanying expectations don’t happen. There is no hint of a ‘now but not yet’ in the Old Testament, no hint of the kingdom coming in two stages, although Jesus does address this by his promise to return in glory.
• However, the promises about Israel and ‘last things’ do tend to ‘roll over’. Ideal visions for the nation are painted before entering the land. Then again with the promises to king David. Then on return from exile (in two stages Isaiah 40-55, and then later Isaiah 56-65). These, mixed in with some extraordinary passages about God’s love for Israel, keeps the nation looking forward in hope when things go wrong. So, the promises tend to roll over, and they never fail to be big promises.
• I absolutely believe in the ‘now but not yet’ of Jesus’ kingdom. And I think this is a warning. A warning about thinking we know from the Bible what God will do or what he thinks. None of the OT prophecies, even taken all together, come close to predicting who Jesus would be and what he would do. It’s the same if we try to predict details of the end times when Jesus will come again. It’s a warning for thinking we know the mind of God.
• But if we accept that the ways of God are past finding out (as in Isaiah 55) then everything we think we know will be held humbly and in the conviction that ‘God’s thoughts are not our thoughts neither are his ways our ways’ (as in Isaiah 55). This is vital in understanding and interpreting the Bible.

And finally, a recognition of some other important issues where there is a spectrum of views and of Biblical teaching. You could add yours, no doubt!

• How or when Jesus will return.
• How to structure the Church – according to ‘Offices’ (Deacons, Bishops etc) or charismatic gifts (Body of Christ).
• Priesthood.
• Gender
• What we teach and practice about Healing or Prayer or the work of the Holy Spirit.
• What happens when we die.
• Sexual Morality
• Rules and practice for ‘Holy Communion’, ‘The Lord’s Supper’ etc