One of the contentions of some who pit the Sinaitic covenant against the new covenant is that the former places much emphasis on law and little on love, while the latter does just the opposite.[1] It has been stated, "This commandment to love is repeated a number of times in the New Testament, just as the Ten Commandments were repeated a number of times in the old."[2] This is misleading and represents a serious misunderstanding of both Old Testament and New Testament laws. It ignores not only the Old Testament emphasis on love but also the New Testament's direct references to the Ten Commandments (e.g., Matt. 19:16-19; Rom. 13:9-10; Eph. 6:1- 3; James 2:11) as well as many indirect references. This chapter explores the relationship of law and love in the covenant(s).
The Nature of Biblical Law
Let us first consider some thoughts about law in general. In May, 2004, the American news media released photographs of shocking abuse of inmates by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. President George W. Bush expressed outrage at such abuse and went on Iraqi television to apologize to the Iraqi people. The president and members of the U.S. Congress repeatedly assured not only the Iraqi people but the entire world community that the United States of America was "a nation of law," and the abusers who violated the law would be identified and justly punished. The leaders of the most powerful nation on earth wanted the world to know that the United States of America is "a nation of law." Why? Because good laws ensure order and protection for those governed by them.[3] Communities without any laws would be unpleasant, even frightening, places to live. We probably wouldn't want to live under those conditions for long.
Some authors point out, somewhat accusingly, that the covenant God gave His people at Sinai contained 613 commandments or laws. They feel sorry for the "poor" Israelites who labored under the weight of such a multitude of laws, in contrast to the glorious freedom of new covenant people who have been set free and are called simply to love God and their neighbor as themselves.
However, we must remember that the commandments God gave His people at Sinai covered all areas of life--moral, ceremonial, civil, and health--for a very large nation. Most small towns probably have more than 613 laws on their books today, so God was actually remarkably reserved in giving laws to govern His chosen nation.
Rayburn comments on the nature of law, Hebrew torah, in the Old Testament: "It would be a great mistake to view the law as mere regulation; it is divine communication and guidance. The greatest privilege was to be the friend of God and in being his friend there was great reward. In the law was revealed the way to live as God's friend."[4]
Dentan illuminates how torah calls up an image of an understanding friend or wise parent or, perhaps, a learned priest at a shrine, graciously imparting wisdom, rather than that of a despotic monarch laying down arbitrary rules. ... Torah is a relationship word; it calls to mind the image of a particular torah-giver--a teacher--and implies a personal tie between the instructor and the instructed. Whereas disobedience to "law" results in punishment, disregard of torah breaks a relationship. Israel's obedience to the torah was a sacramental sign of her continuing fidelity to a relationship that Yahweh had freely offered and she had freely accepted. Obedience was not so much an attempt to assure the goodwill of an inflexible and possibly testy ruler as an expression of loyalty to a trustworthy Lord, a demonstration of gratitude to a wise and powerful savior who had generously made known the rules by which his people could live in health and peace before him.[5]
The Covenant Book-Love as the Basis of Law
As pointed out earlier, many scholars generally agree that Deuteronomy was recognized in Israel as the Covenant Book, and that it summarizes the Sinaitic covenant, referred to by many as the old covenant. A master copy of Deuteronomy was kept in the sanctuary. When a new king was enthroned in Israel, he was to make a copy of the Covenant Book for himself, study it regularly, and obey its instruction (Deut. 17:18-20). He was also to convene public gatherings to read the Covenant Book to the people, and to instruct them regarding it through "special agents."[6] Thus, it is highly significant that in Deuteronomy, the Covenant Book, the word "love," referring to God's love for His people or their need to love Him and others, occurs more times than in any other Bible book except Psalms, Hosea, John, and 1 John. This revelation comes as a surprise to many people because of the way the Sinai covenant has been caricatured.
Note how Deuteronomy establishes God's love for His people as the foundation for all genuine religious experience:
"I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, ... showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments" (5:10; cf. Exod. 20:6). (The Ten Commandments contain the first explicit biblical reference that God loves people, and more specifically His covenant people.[7])
"But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love [NKJV: covenant and mercy] to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands" (7:8-9).
"Yet the Lord set his affection on your forefathers and loved them" (10:15).
"[God] defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing" (10:18).
"However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you" (23:5).
"This is the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced on the Israelites before his death. He said: 'The Lord came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran. He came with myriads of holy ones from the south, from his mountain slopes. Surely it is you who love the people; all the holy ones are in your hand. At your feet they all bow down, and from you receive instruction, the law that Moses gave us, the possession of the assembly of Jacob'" (33:1-4).
Obedience--the Service and Allegiance of Love
Just as God's love for humanity was not explicitly stated in Scripture until the giving of the law at Sinai, so God's two great commandments to love Him and one another, and the moral commands He specified in the Ten Commandments, were not specifically given until the giving of the law at Sinai (Lev. 19:18; Deut. 6:5; Matt. 25:35-40). This doesn't mean they didn't exist before then, or that believers were unaware of them or failed to practice them before that time, only that they were not formalized in Scripture before the law was given.[8] Thus John could say, "Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. ... I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love" (1 John 2:7-8; 2 John 5-6).
The command to love God and one another had been rooted in God's covenants with humanity "from the beginning," including and especially in the law given on Sinai. God's love overwhelmed the Old Testament believer even as it does the New Testament believer. For example, twenty-six times Psalm 36 repeats this frame--"His love [Hebrew, hesed; "mercy" NKJV] endures forever"--a phenomenon not found anywhere in the New Testament. God's love motivated the Old Testament believer's obedient response to Him (e.g., 1 Kings 3:3; Ps. 116). "The love of God for his people (Deut. 7:7ff.; Ps. 47:1ff.) ... was personal and spiritual love, the love of a husband for a wife (Hos. 1:1ff.) and of a father for a son (Ex. 4:22). The obedience to individual commandments is thus understood not as some dreary duty to be done but as the response of love and loyalty to the God whose love made the covenant possible."[9] While some portray the Old Testament believer's motivation for obedience as "an obligation to numerous specific laws" in contrast to the New Testament motivation "from a response to the living Christ,"[10] the Bible does not portray it that way at all.
God's commandments were established on the foundation of God's love for man. Love for God as the basis for keeping His commandments was structured into the Ten Commandments: "showing love [hesed, 'mercy,' NKJV] to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments" (Deut. 5:10; Exod. 20:6). After love for God and obedience to His commandments had been inseparably linked within the Ten Commandments, then ever afterward when God called for people to obey Him and keep His commandments, the meaning always included "love me and keep my commandments." This is not to deny that some of these same passages may not contain more threatening sounding statements either embedded in them or associated with them. But such statements are to be understood as a loving parent warning a child away from at-risk behaviors rather than as a cruel master threatening to punish his slaves for any slight infraction of his whimsical and irrational commands.
Note the following references in Deuteronomy where this principle is not merely implied but made explicit to reinforce love as the underlying, prevailing principle and command of the law:
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates" (6:4-9). This passage, which the Jews called the Shema (the Hebrew word for the first word in the passage--"hear"), were the first words spoken by the devout Jew over a newborn child, and the last to be spoken before death--the first to be spoken every morning and the last to be spoken every night. They were to be ever present in the consciousness and conversation of the faithful throughout the day--"when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Obedience to God's commandments was always to be understood as the natural outgrowth and expression of wholehearted love for God. When the teacher of the law in Jesus's day commented, "To love [God] with all your heart and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices," Jesus noted "that he had answered wisely." He "got it!" (Mark 12:32-33).
"Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands" (7:9). Note Jesus's equivalent statement to New Testament believers: "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him" (John 14:21).
"And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt" (10:12-22). This command that calls God's covenant people to love the less fortunate and aliens even as God had loved them is the Old Testament equivalent of Jesus's New Testament command, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (John 13:34).
"Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his laws and his commands always. ... So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul--then I will send rain on your land in its season. ... If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow--to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways and to hold fast to him--then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you" (11:1, 13-14, 22-24). The blessings God promised, conditional upon the love and obedience of His covenant people, were no more to be understood and applied legalistically by recipients of God's Sinai covenant than was Jesus's equivalent statement to New Testament believers in John 14:21 (quoted above).
"The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him" (13:3-4).
"If the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he promised on oath to your forefathers, and gives you the whole land he promised them, because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today-to love the Lord your God and to walk always in his ways -then you are to set aside three more cities" (19:8-9).
"The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live" (30:6). This empowering promise for obedience is one of several historical old covenant promises[11] equivalent to historical new covenant promises, such as, "for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Phil. 2:13).
"For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws" (30:16).
"This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life" (30:19-20).
Clearly any effort to portray the old covenant as weak on love or to portray the New Testament emphasis on love as something unique to the new covenant fails to accurately depict the great emphasis God placed on love in the covenant He made with His people at Sinai. Indeed, when Paul wrote to the believers at Rome, "The commandments, 'do not commit adultery,' 'do not murder,' 'do not steal,' 'do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Rom. 13:9), he was as surely expressing the sentiment of the Sinai law as he was the sentiment of the new covenant. The whole Bible, including if not especially God's Sinai covenant, acknowledges implicitly and explicitly that "love is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom. 13:10).
The prophets appeal to the Sinai Covenant with emotional overtones drawn from human experiences to explain the relationship between God and His people. Israel is the flock, and the Lord is the shepherd. Israel is the vine, and the Lord the vinedresser. Israel is the son, and the Lord is the Father. Israel is the spouse, and the Lord is the bridegroom. These images, as Pierre Grelot and Jean Giblet[12] bring out, "make the Sinaitic covenant appear as an encounter of love (cf. Ez 16:6-14): the attentive and gratuitous love of God, calling in return for a love which will translate itself in obedience."[13]
The obedience of the Old Testament believer was inspired by love, motivated by love, rendered in love. Such is the nature of new covenant experience.
New Testament Commands
Some suggest that the many commandments of the law (most of which were ceremonial stipulations relative to the priests' duties) was "a yoke of slavery" for those to whom God gave them, and that the sheer number of commandments itself engendered bondage for those under the Sinaitic covenant. Attempts have been made to characterize the new covenant as different from the old in that allegedly "the new covenant has general principles rather than detailed laws," "general principles rather than specific details," and "a different emphasis (grace [done] rather than law [do])"[14] (parentheses and brackets used by the original author). To this can be added the additional claim that "the role the law filled in the old covenant is filled by the Holy Spirit in the new" (author's own emphasis).[15] But these characterizations are both misinformed and misleading. The same is true for attempts to characterize the historical old covenant as a time when "sinners [are] punished" in contrast to the historical new covenant when "Christ suffered on our behalf."[16]
What is not taken into account by such statements is the sheer quantity and force of New Testament commands. New Testament commands are divine laws in the same tradition and with the same weight as those given on Sinai.[17] A reading of the New Testament looking for the commandments it contains will find over nine hundred direct commands and three hundred indirect commands.[18] Three points became clear to me from such a study. First, the long list of New Testament commandments makes unmistakably clear that no one in a position of spiritual authority in the New Testament--not Jesus, not Paul, not Peter, not James, nor any New Testament author--trusted "love" as a safe single command, or trusted the Holy Spirit's internal guidance as a safe replacement for all law and very specific divine commandments. The New Testament authors recognized that, on its own, the command to love is not adequate for sinful people, even for those who are being sanctified and in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. The second relevant point is that it is not the mere number of commands that inclines people toward legalism but an attitude toward those commands. Even one command, including the great commandment itself (Matt. 22:37-38) or the new commandment to love others as Jesus loved us (John 13:34) or even the commandment to believe in Jesus (1 John 3:23), is enough to engender both disobedience and legalism in a heart inclined in that direction by the unconverted sinful nature. The third observation is that to new covenant believers, regardless of the historical age in which they might live, the numerous commands of God represent a treasure chest of divine promises to be claimed by faith. For God's commandments are His promises to His covenant people of what He will accomplish in their lives as they rely on Him in faith (Deut. 30:6, 11-14; Ezek. 36:26-27; Phil. 2:13; 1 John 5:14- 15).
Far from simply being general principles or advice, most of the New Testament commands are direct and very specific, and those who gave them fully intended that they be kept. There would be serious consequences if they were not. For example, Paul commanded the Ephesians: "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person--such a man is an idolater--has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Eph. 5:3-5).
In this text Paul says that people should not consider themselves finally saved (in the sense of having "any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God") as long as they continue unrepentantly in "even a hint of sexual immorality" (which Jesus extended even to lusting after someone--Matt. 5:28). Paul even includes "foolish talk or coarse joking" in this list of actions that will exclude someone from "any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."[19] Such an expression is without parallel in the Old Testament.
An example of an indirect command would be Jesus's statements in the Sermon on the Mount: "I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment," and, "if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matt. 5:22; 6:15). These are not direct commandments against being angry or unforgiving, but the intent is clearly to warn us away from anger and an unforgiving attitude. The consequences of failing to heed this counsel are incredibly serious.
Regarding the many New Testament commandments, McComiskey concludes, "The importance of obedience must be recognized. The teaching of Jesus is filled with commandments that he expected his followers to obey."[20] McComiskey goes on to warn against treating the NT commands lightly or failing to understand "the believer's obligation to obey them."[21]
To be sure, there is considerable duplication in the 1,200 direct and indirect New Testament commands. Paul often reiterated commands of Jesus and often repeated his own commands when he wrote to the various churches. In Scripture God had no way of raising His voice, or of using bold or italicized fonts, to emphasize a point. For emphasis God employed the tool of repetition. The four gospels which tell Jesus's story four times, with considerable repetition, were God's way of saying, Listen up, this story is THE story on which everything else in this book is dependent and around which all other stories orbit. Similarly, under the Holy Spirit's inspiration and direction, the frequent repetition of commandments in the New Testament was God's way of underscoring their importance.
Table 4 in appendix D lists New Testament commands which cover vast areas of Christian living and experience. There are so many laws given in the New Testament that at one point Paul came close to apologizing, in a humorous sort of way, that he had given so many commands. After giving a list of sixteen "acts of the sinful nature" that, if habitually committed, will not allow people to "inherit the kingdom of God," he gave a beautiful list of positive qualities that are the "fruit of the Spirit" (love, joy, peace, etc.), and then added, tongue in cheek no doubt, that, by the way, with respect to these positive qualities, "against such things there is no law" (Gal. 5:19-23).
Meant to Be Taken Seriously
Lest anyone conclude that God did not intend for His commands to be obeyed, He says, "Do not merely listen to the word and deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:22). "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins" (James 4:17). "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker" (James 2:10-11; quoting specifically from the Ten Commandments-Exod. 20:13-14; Deut. 5:18).
Though an attempt has been made to portray the old covenant as a time when God "punished sinners" in contrast to the new covenant when "Christ suffered on our behalf,[22] note some of the consequences described in the New Testament for those who unrepentantly continue to disobey God's commandments:
"Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:19).
"Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism" (Col. 3:25).
"There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil" (Rom. 2:9).
"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?" (1 Cor. 6:9).
"But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed...for of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person-such a man is an idolater-has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. ... God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient" (Eph. 5:3,5-6). This admonition was/is specifically directed to those whom Paul assured had been saved by grace, raised up with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly realms! (Eph. 2:4-9).
"The face of the Lord is against those who do evil" (1 Pet. 3:10-12; Ps. 34:12-16).
By failing to repent, "you are storing up wrath for yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed" (Rom. 2:5).
"Or you will be condemned" (James 5:12).
"Unless you repent, you too will all perish!" (Luke 13:5).
"It would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea" (Matt. 18:6).
"Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth" (Rev. 2:16).
"So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of their ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds" (Rev. 2:22-23).
"I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, 'Come!' I looked and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, 'Come!' Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword. When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, 'Come!' I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, 'A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!' When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, 'Come!' I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth" (Rev. 6:1-8). Jon Paulien and Ranko Stefanovic observe that "the language of Revelation 6:1-8 parallels 'the covenant curses in the Pentateuch and their execution in the context of Bablylonian exile.'"[23] In other words, the same redemptive curses that were designed to lead Israel to repentance for breaking the Sinai covenant are applicable to the church of the New Testament era. God's plan and way of working with His covenant people is essentially the same in every historical era.
"If we deliberately keep on sinning, after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' and again, 'The Lord will judge his people.' It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:26-31).
"Throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 13:50).
"This is the second death" (Rev. 21:9).
"For our 'God is a consuming fire'" (Heb. 10:29; quoting Deut. 4:24).
Rayburn makes a sobering observation often overlooked in studies on the covenants: "The threats and warnings regarding the punishment of apostates are just as harsh now as in the Old Testament days. ... Hebrews 2:2,3; 10:28ff., 12:25 all emphasize the impossibility of escaping punishment for apostates, now as then. Apostasy in Old and New Testaments receives the same penalty-exclusion from the rest of God, ... No less now than then, 'It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God' (Heb. 10:31)."[24]
It should also be reiterated, however, that the covenant warnings of punishment in the New Testament bear the same saving intent as did the Old Testament covenant curses. "The covenant curses were, in the initial phase, preliminary judgments from God on his people. They were intended to wake them from their apostate condition, lead them to repentance, and move them toward a positive relationship with God."[25]
Moral Bar Raised to the Heavens
God's covenants in general have progressively called His covenant people to ever deeper experiences of holiness. Each successive covenant incorporates the moral/ethical/spiritual commands of the previous covenant(s) and raises them to a higher level, always with love as the underlying principle. In the New Testament God actually raised the moral/spiritual bar so high that His people would immediately realize that it would be impossible to stand before Him faultless.
If one of God's purposes in giving the Old Testament law was "so that the trespass might increase" (Rom. 5:20) in the sense "that sin might be recognized as sin" (Rom. 7:13) and "we [might] become conscious of sin" (Rom. 3:20) in order "to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith" (Gal. 3:24), how much more should the New Testament commandments serve that same purpose. They were to be used by the Spirit to awaken us to the magnitude of our sin and to lead us to look to Jesus alone for our righteousness. When we come to Christ, the Spirit writes these laws in our hearts and minds.
I have heard people claim that they no longer need any such commandments framed as "Do this. ... Don't do that," for Jesus Himself is their commandment. That sounds very spiritual. But Jesus instructed His new covenant believers "to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:20). He warned, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven," and "that servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows" (Matt. 7:21; Luke 12:47).
When people say, "I don't need any other commandment than Jesus," they need to be sure they are not simply seeking a Christian ethic which they can bend this way or that, depending on how they feel at the moment. There is no biblical justification for ignoring the teachings of Jesus and the rest of the New Testament and replacing them with the slogan, "Jesus is my commandment." Moreover, anyone who says "Jesus is my commandment" ought to seriously consider the implications. For He "was without sin" (Heb. 4:15). The moral/spiritual standard set in Jesus embodied all the righteousness commanded in both Old and New Testaments. Jesus's example ought to bring us to our knees in humility and repentance for how far we have fallen from the glory of God.
A Righteousness Revealed Apart from Law
There is, of course, one sense in which it can be said that Jesus is our commandment, our law. Paul testified, "But now a righteousness apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify" (Rom. 3:21). This has both historical and experiential applications. In Jesus, "the Lord Our Righteousness" actually came among us as the Son of Man in history, fulfilling the promise made in Jeremiah 23:5-6. In Him "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being" (Heb. 1:1-3; cf. John 14:7-9), who from everlasting was Himself the embodiment of the covenant, came among us "in righteousness ... a covenant for the people" (Isa. 42:6; Mic. 5:3). In Him we saw the righteousness of God revealed in a manner that could not be surpassed. In Him the moral law of God was fulfilled, embodied, magnified (Matt. 5:17-20). Thus in Jesus, from a historical perspective, "a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known."
This is also true from an experiential perspective. For if the law increased people's awareness of their sin and drew them to God for His forgiving and cleansing grace, then the revelation of righteousness in Jesus would do so to an even greater degree. The closer we draw to Jesus, the more we see our own sinfulness--not in a condemning way, but in a redeeming way.
When Paul lived by the letter of the law, he believed that "as for legalistic righteousness, [he was] faultless" (Phil. 3:6). But once he came to Jesus, the veil was taken away, and he saw himself as the worst of sinners, yet fully accepted by God (1 Tim. 1:15-16). Paul was "found in him [Christ], not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith" (Phil. 3:9). And as Paul's relationship with Jesus deepened, God continued writing His law in Paul's heart. This led to an experience of "obedience that comes from faith." And Paul answered God's call to "call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith" (Rom. 1:5). This is the new covenant experience. Through the ministry of the Spirit, the revelation of God's law and perfect righteousness in Jesus is meant to lead Christians to a life of Spirit-enabled obedience that calls others to the same.
In the old covenant historical period, the Holy Spirit operated through the law itself to bring conviction of sin--not simply conviction of the sinfulness of our immorality but also the conviction that "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6). The law and the prophets present the utter hopelessness that anyone can do any good whatever, or to have any righteousness whatever, apart from the forgiving, converting, transforming grace of God.[26] Once the sense of sin was aroused, the Spirit operated through animal sacrifices and the Levitical priesthood to point to the provision God had made for their forgiveness and to direct them to trust in "the Lord our Righteousness" as the basis for their own righteousness and acceptance before God (Jer. 23:6; cf. Ezra 9:15; Zech. 3:1-7). Through that continual and deepening experience with God, God continued to write His law in their hearts that they might delight to do His will in their inward being-which is precisely the new covenant experience (Deut. 6:5; 30:6; Ps. 40:8; Isa. 51:7).
New Covenant Freedom vs. the Yoke that Neither We nor Our Fathers Could Bear
What about the "freedom" proclaimed in the new covenant (Gal. 4:24- 5:1)? Is not new covenant freedom a release from at least some of the moral laws God gave at Sinai, as some would have us think?
Hardly so, as the even higher standard set by the New Testament commands makes clear. It was, rather, deliverance by the Holy Spirit from slavery to sin and empowerment by that same Spirit for obedience unto righteousness. Paul eloquently makes this case in Romans 6: "When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness." "Don't you know that ... you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that though you used to be slaves to sin, ... you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness ... slaves to God" (Rom. 6:20, 16-18, 22).
Not the commandment itself but one's own experience determines whether the law of God engenders slavery or freedom. Those with an old covenant experience will convert any law, even the great commandment itself, into a legalistic code that binds them in slavery. Conversely, those with a new covenant experience view God's law as a tool in the hands of the Spirit to set them free. Thus the psalmist could write: "I will always obey your law, for ever and ever. I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts" (Ps. 119:44-45). And James could refer to the Ten Commandments as "the law that gives freedom" (James 2:10-12). Jan Lochman calls the Ten Commandments a "charter of freedom" and the "Ten Great Freedoms."[27] "For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Cor. 3:17).
The Unbearable Yoke
But didn't Peter have in mind the Sinai covenant when he questioned those who were "putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear" (Acts 15:10)? After the deliberations by the delegates at that Jerusalem council, James announced the consensus that there would be only four commandments initially required of Gentile Christians: "Abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood" (Acts 15:20). Were the representatives at that council content then to allow Gentiles to murder, steal, and lie? No. But they knew that in time the Gentiles would become educated in those matters, "for Moses ... is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath" (Acts 15:21). In other words, as they worshiped each Sabbath, they would get further instruction from the Scriptures.
The "yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear" could refer to the ceremonial law, represented by circumcision, the primary issue that required the convening of the council in the first place (Acts 15:1). It could also be "the tradition of the elders" (Matt. 15:2) which involved "meticulous rules and regulations governing the daily life of the people" added by Jewish rabbis as "interpretations and applications of the law of Moses,"[28] and which Jesus described as "heavy loads" that had been placed "on men's shoulders" (Matt. 23:4; Luke 11:46). For example, the rabbis had added over 1,500 laws of their own to God's Sabbath commandment in the Decalogue. It could also refer to the legalistic spirit that permeated the ranks of Judaism in their day (Rom. 9:30-32; Gal. 4:10, 21). Peter's very next statement makes it seem likely that he was referring to this third option: "We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they [Gentiles] are" (Acts 15:10-11). Legalism is indeed a yoke that none of us can bear. But we all are vulnerable to it unless we are born of the Spirit and kept by the Spirit.
It seems clear that the "yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear" is not a reference to the Sinai covenant. God described the entire process of delivering Israel from Egyptian bondage and entering into covenant with them as a process through which "I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them" (Hos. 11:4). God's covenant with Israel, rather than placing on them an unbearable yoke, actually "lifted the yoke" from their necks. God did not deliver them from the yoke of Egyptian slavery only to impose on them an even more damning yoke of moral and ethical bondage.
Referring to the tendency of many commentators to portray Old Testament religion as tending to bondage, R.L. Dabney writes: "I am persuaded that the strong representations which these writers ... give of the bondage, terror, literalness, and intolerable weight of the institutions under which Old Testament saints lived, will strike the attentive reader as incorrect. The experience, as recorded of those saints does not answer to this theory; but shows them in the enjoyment of a dispensation free, spiritual, gracious, consoling."[29]
It is not the number of commandments involved, nor the nature of those commandments, nor whether they were issued in the Old Testament or the New, that determines whether they engender slavery or freedom. Even one divine commandment can be bondage for "the sinful mind" that is by nature "hostile to God. It cannot submit to God's law, nor can it do so" (Rom. 8:7). But the heart that has been renewed by the Holy Spirit finds those same laws to be a yoke that is easy--Christ's own yoke, which He offers to us by grace through faith. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:28).
The yoke of Christ is easy because He died for our sins and grants/imputes to us the righteousness of His sinless life--the very righteousness we need as our "passport" to eternal life--as a gift which we can receive by faith (1 Cor. 15:3; Rom. 5:10; Eph. 2:8-9). It is also easy because it represents His laws that are an expression of His love for us and which He has promised to write in our hearts.
"Is it hard to do the things with which Jesus illustrates the kingdom heart of love? Or the things that Paul says love does? It is very hard indeed if you have not been substantially transformed in the depths of your being, in the intricacies of your thoughts, feelings, assurances, and dispositions, in such a way that you are permeated with love. Once that happens, then it is not hard. What would be hard is to act the way you acted before."[30] This applies to every believer from the time of Adam's fall to the second coming of Jesus. The true believers listed in Hebrews 11, as well as other faith-filled believers in the Old Testament era, did not bear "the yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear," but Christ's yoke that is easy and light. By faith they experienced the everlasting gospel through the operation of the Holy Spirit.
All who wear the yoke of Christ perceive His commands as liberating promises rather than burdensome demands. God's new covenant promise to write His laws in our hearts is timeless and universal.[31] Only one with such a perception could declare, "Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long" (Ps. 119:97; cf. vs. 113, 127, 163). Only one with such a perception could declare, "For in my inner being I delight in God's law" (Rom. 7:22; cf. Ps. 119:47, 70, 77, 92, 143, 174). For these writers, God's law represents a work the Spirit is doing in their lives, preparing them as His ambassadors through whom God's "ways may be known on earth" and His "salvation among all nations" as they "see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven" (Ps. 67:2; Matt. 5:16).
Summary
Some have depicted the Old Testament as a book of law in contrast to the New Testament book of love. A careful study of the Old and New Testaments reveals that the emphasis on love exists in both. The New Testament actually contains more direct commandments than did "the law" God gave to His people at Sinai, and these New Testament laws mention equally severe eternal consequences for disobedience. Legalism cannot be correlated with the number of commandments involved. A single commandment, even the commandment to love, is enough to engender legalism in a heart controlled by the sinful nature. Obedience that comes from a heart subdued by a sense of its own sinfulness and overwhelmed by the grace and forgiveness of God is not mere obedience to a commandment. It is a service of love, rendered eagerly to the object of that love.
Notes: