Title: Christ is the End of the Law?

Subtitle: Rethinking the Problem of Harmonization of Diverse Passages about the Mosaic Law

Author: Christopher Travis Haun for http://rethinker.net/theologia

Update: October 2008

Feedback: Please feel free to send any feedback on this rethink by email to cthaun[at]rethinker[dot]net

Apologies. So far this rethink is only in the data gathering stage...

I may try writing the publisher to see if I can reprint large sections of these two chapters:

Hagner, Donald A. “Paul as a Jewish Believer—According to His Letters.” Chapter 4. Jewish Believers in Jesus; The Early Centuries. Skarsaune and Hvalvik (editors). Hendrikson Publishers. Peabody MA 2007.

Hvalvick, Reidar. “Paul as a Jewish Believer—According to the Book of Acts.” Chapter 5. Jewish Believers in Jesus; The Early Centuries. Skarsaune and Hvalvik (editors). Hendrikson Publishers. Peabody MA 2007.

This rethink will attempt to reconsider the problem of how, on one hand, Jesus claim to have come "not to abolish the law but to fulfill it" while his ambassador to the gentile world, Paul claims that "Christ is the end of the law." Even Paul himself seems to make both negative and positive statements about the Law.

This rethink is in an early state where I'm just collecting key passages pro and con. There are several passages used to say that either all or some of the Mosaic Law is still has jurisdiction today. There are several passages which seem to suggest to me that the Mosaic Law has no further jurisdiction for Jews and/or Gentiles. Since the topic is an important one I'm going to attempt to see if the dynamic ends in either reconciliation or contradiction.

1st Timothy 1

3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith. 5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. 8 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9 We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

2 Corinthians 3

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! 12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Romans 10

1Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. 4Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

2Cor 3:1-17

Galatians (all)

Ephesians 2:9-16 abolishing in his flesh the law

Col 2:11-23 cancelled the written code, nailing it to the cross

(to be continued...)

I guess by saved I mean justifed. I understand that we are not justified by keeping the law as Paul and others have make clear. There is a refernce in the OT that kind of gets me questioning things some what...Deuteronomy 6:25. NIV...'If we are careful to obey all this law...commandments....that will be our righteousness'; the KJV...'And it will be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments'. Hmm, perhaps justified is different for righteousness in Jewish mind set....need to finish re-reading Leon Morris' book on the Atonement as he has seperate chapters on each topic.

Saved by observing the law? Depends on what we mean by “saved” perhaps. If we mean “saved” in the sense of “justified” (we who are objects of God’s wrath somehow being declared righteous before God and entering into peace with God) we’ll have to focus more on the Abrahamic covenant (the trunk of the tree) and the New Covenant (the top of the tree?). If we mean “saved” in terms of avoiding the temporal manifestations of the discipline of God (draught, plague, locusts, famine, invasions and captivities by gentile empires, etc.) then I think it’s best to focus on the Mosaic covenant. If I understand it right, the Jews of Jesus time who cared about what God thought of them generally thought that they were acceptable to God based on being physical descendents of Abraham (faith in who they are) and/or based upon their obedience to the torah (faith in works). I think much of the NT was written to correct these misconceptions.

I suspect the physical descendent of Abraham/Isaac/Jacob are, as a group (but not as individuals or as even generations?) inheritors of the tangible facets of the promises made to Abraham. They enter into these blessings just by having been born into that lineage. But we who are not Israelites by race enter into the spiritual facets of the promises made to Abraham by investing the same faith that Abraham invested into the same God that Abraham invested his faith into. I don’t think, for instance, that Christians are going to inherit the land of Palestine (from some northern river in Egypt to the southern river in Mesopotamia) like I think the Israelites are eventually supposed to.

Always good, I think, to remember that the Abrahamic covenant (which hints to the new covenant – “through you all peoples will be blessed”) was a unilateral covenant which no human can do anything to break or violate. It’s based only on the faithfulness of Yahwey to his people. Fortunately for us gentiles, we can become sons of Abraham by faith.

In contradistinction, the covenant made through Moses with the Israelites at Sinai was conditional, bilateral. But it was also clear that when it was made the effects of obedience were temporal (I will bless you in the land) and the effects of disobedience/idolatry were also temporal (I will curse you in the land). This has nothing to do with salvation as we think of it. And I think the OT verses which say basically “obey and you shall live” are some of the sources of legalism today based on misunderstanding. Covenant confusion!

That’s why I think a real basic to understanding the bible is to understand the covenants and dispensations. Without that there is no chance for having an interpretive framework to make sense of otherwise confusing passages.

Good challenging exercise. I’ve been thinking about it all day and enjoyed spending time in the Word on it this evening and now that it is late I can try to hammer it out a bit. Maybe I’ll put it on rethinker.net!

I think this problem (of having righteousness connected with obedience to Law in Deut 6) may be a great mind bender to throw at your students to make them think. But I also don’t think the problem is a real problem. I think it is easily resolved.

I think you’re right that there is a difference in the Jewish mindset. If you asked an Israelite how he expected to be saved/justified, he’d probably look at you strangely as if you were asking a man already at the top of a mountain how he planned to climb up the mountain. His or her relationship to God was not a “personal relationship” or an “individual relationship” or an I-Thou relationship perhaps as much as a “We-Him” relationship. I think in their mind it was far more of a covenantal relationship for a people. Jews would have thought they were saved by the very fact that they were sons of Abraham. And I think Paul corrected this view (as did many in the NT) but didn’t totally disagree with it. And I think this is why Paul also goes on and on in astonishment in several of his letters about how we stupid ignorant gentiles were strangers to God, strangers to the covenants, and now—thanks to Jesus--we have the option to become adopted sons.

I see this most powerfully in Ephesians:

11Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)— 12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away {gentiles like us} and peace to those who were near {the Jews}. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Colossians:

13When you {gentiles} were dead {no living, covenantal relationship to God} in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature,[b] God made you[c] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Romans 9:

my brothers, those of my own race, 4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised![a] Amen.

So to ask a Jew if how he could hope to be saved would be like asking a circumcised man how he planned to become circumcised. But even John the Baptizer/Witness addressed this common assumption:

Matthew 3

7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Jesus also had to deal with this common assumption too of course:

31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

33They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants[b] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you do what you have heard from your father.[c]"

39"Abraham is our father," they answered.

"If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would[d] do the things Abraham did. 40As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41You are doing the things your own father does."

So the Jew would think—and partially rightly so—that his salvation was contingent upon his being a child of Abraham. This was his ticket into the many blessings of the covenant God made to Avraham, Yitzac, and Yacov. The Jews who assumed this were partially right and partially wrong. They were right that they needed to be sons of Abraham to be saved. They were wrong that they thought this ultimately boiled down to being circumcised—the sign of the covenant with Avraham. Well, not so fast. Paul made a lot out of Moses’ and other OT prophets own phrasing about circumcision of the heart rather than the penis. I think the key for an OT Jew is the same key as for us: we have to be sons of Abraham in the sense that we exercise the same faith into God that Abraham exercised.

Rabbi Paul argues something like this in Romans 4:

1What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."[a] 4Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

7"Blessed are they

whose transgressions are forgiven,

whose sins are covered.

8Blessed is the man

whose sin the Lord will never count against him."[b]

9Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

13It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, 15because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

16Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations."[c] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

18Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."[d] 19Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead. 20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." 23The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, 24but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

And Galatians 3 of course:

After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? 5Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

6Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."[a] 7Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. 8The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you."[b] 9So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

10All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."[c] 11Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith."[d] 12The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them."[e] 13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."[f] 14He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

15Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed,"[g] meaning one person, who is Christ. 17What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

19What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. 20A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.

21Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

23Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ[h] that we might be justified by faith. 25Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

Sons of God

26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

All of these passages above weave together in perfect harmony, I think. And of course you’re familiar with all of them and I’ve said nothing new.

So you bring out Deuteronomy 6:25 which uses the word righteousness in connection with the keeping of the mosaic law. And what do we do about that problem?

There might be several reasonable answers. There is very possibly a linguistic difficulty in translation. I don’t know. Regardless of that, the most important one that comes to my mind is one of context. A text without a context is just a pretext, right? A verse stripped out of its paragraph or chapter or book is like stripping a word out of sentence or all the letters but one out of a word, right?

What was the Purpose of the Law according to Moses? Forget Paul and Jesus and Abraham for the moment. What did Moses say the covenant given at Sinai and its many commandments was about. This is very straight forward in Deuteronomy, I think, and it boils down to these two conditions:

If the Israelites will obey the Law and avoid idolatry, He will bless the Israelites in the land of Israel with all manner of temporal blessings (rain, crops, bounty, peace, health, long life, etc.)

And

If the Israelites disobey the Law and fall into idolatry, He will curse them in the land with all sorts of bad things (pestilence, violence, invasion, captivity, plague, etc.)

I think this is clearly the express purpose of the Law given by Moses to the Israelites. And I think that can be established by Deuteronomy 6 and that any little tidbit about “righteousness” needs to be seen in the light of the greater context.

All these verses to me clearly show that the Mosaic Law was given with totally temporal blessings and curses in mind and that none of it has to do with eternal state or such:

Deuteronomy

4:40

5:29-33

6:1-25

7:11-26

8:1-20

11:8-38 (especially vv 26, 27, 28)

28:1-14 - blessings for obedience

28:15-68 – punishments for disobedience/idolatry

30:1-20

31:all

Also echoed well in:

Exodus 23:20-33

Leviticus 20:22-24

26:3-13 “if you obey”

26:14-39 “if you disobey”

And I think it is quite clear that Paul rightly redirects the Jewish mind away from the Mosaic Law when he is discussing justification. He always seems to be saying, “Forget the Covenant of Law made at Sinai. That only proves that we’re sinners.” Even Moses at the end of Deuteronomy prophesied that the Jews could not keep the Law God had given them. Paul, 1,500 years later or so, had seen that Moses was right. So Paul keeps dragging the confused jews and legalists away from Sinai and the Law and that Covenant to the Abrahamic covenant. The covenant at Sinai was bilateral and conditional and temporal. If they were righteous by the standard of that Law, they would have milk and grapes and honey and figs and pomegranates and cheese and wine and almonds and dates and such—the stuff of life. If they were not righteous, they would have death and destruction to deal with. Again, none of that has anything to do with eternity I would argue. That covenant didn’t address the issue of life after death. It addressed life and length of life and quality of life in Israel. So I’d say you can’t mix apples with oranges. You can’t mix a Deuteronomy passage about righteousness with a Jesus passage about righteousness with some other passage which is predicated on a different covenant and also speaks of righteousness. Paul wouldn’t allow it anyway.

Hebrews 8 13By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

Sources/Further Reading:

Five Views of Law and Gospel

Thomas Schreiner?

Douglas Moo. Commentary on Romans.