LAW IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

1. Law in the synoptic gospels. The word νόμος, G3795, occurs only eight times in Matthew (5:17, 18; 7:12; 11:13; 12:5; 22:36, 40; 23:23), nine times in Luke (2:22, 23, 24, 27, 39; 10:26; 16:16, 17; 24:44), and not at all in Mark. In every passage except Luke 2:23, it is used with the definite article. Generally νόμος, G3795, refers to the Pentateuch; however, when combined with οἱ προφῆται it broadens so as to give the phrase the meaning of the whole OT. More specifically νόμος, G3795, signifies both the law (Torah) and the Pentateuch. As law in terms of commandments it denotes both what we should do and not do (Matt 5:19). With the possible exception of Matthew 12:5 it is never used in the synoptics for the whole OT.

Throughout His public ministry, Jesus severely criticized the scribal misuse of the law. He utterly denounced those who would interpret it mediatorially, setting it forth as a means whereby man could gain acceptance with God (cf. the parables of Luke 15). He further opposed the Pharisaical externalization of the law, by which one would have supposed that a man’s relationship to God was determined simply by an outward conformity to its stipulations.

In contrast to these errors Jesus insisted that a man’s relationship to His own words and deeds determined his relationship to God. Not the law, but Jesus Himself was the mediator between God and man.

Jesus also criticized that use of the law whereby it served to protect man’s disobedience to God. Keeping individual commandments is no necessary evidence of a readiness to give oneself completely to Jesus Christ. He demanded that the true disciple set aside even the fifth commandment if it blocked obedience to His will (Matt 8:21f.; cf. also Luke 12:52f.).

Again, Jesus warned against those who would obey the law in order to gain recognition by men (Matt 23:5ff.) To those whose obedience is motivated by a desire for the approval of men He declared, “they have their reward” (“they have signed the receipt of their reward in full,” Matt 6:1ff.).

Jesus not only condemned the wrong use of the law, He also confirmed its validity and pointed the way to its right use. Although He negated it mediatorially He affirmed it ethically. Those who have become the recipients of His forgiving mercy find in the law a pattern for right conduct. The Sermon on the Mount, for example, has been appropriately called “A Pattern for Life,” for the life of the disciple. Jesus cannot accept as good any motive or action not governed by the will of God revealed in the law. There is no other acceptable standard of goodness.

Jesus’ way of dealing with the sinner shows His recognition of the law’s validity. He forgives sins and rejects those who as His professed followers practice lawlessness (ἀνομία, G490, Matt 7:23). To be lawless is to be loveless (Matt 24:12, NASB). Concretely, the law demands agapaic love for God and neighbor (Mark 12:28ff.; Matt 22:40). True discipleship to Jesus is evidenced in loving acts of obedience to the law.

2. Law in the early Christian community. When the early Christians first began the move out to a largely Gentile world conflict arose concerning the law. The first clear record of this controversy is that found in Acts 15, the so-called Jerusalem Council, and Galatians 2.

The following information concerning this issue may be set forth from Galatians 2. First, there was essential agreement between Paul’s message and that proclaimed by the early Christian community (Gal 2:2, 6). Second, despite essential agreement, there were some practical questions about which there would yet be controversy (Gal 2). One concrete question was how far Jewish Christians could go in respect to living together in fellowship with Gentile Christians who did not keep the law. In particular, this matter might also have raised the question as to whether they could have fellowship at table and in the Lord’s supper.

According to Acts 15, the Apostolic Council concluded three things: (1) that the law is not to be kept as a means of acceptance before God, (2) that only faith in Jesus brings salvation to both Jews and Gentiles, (3) that the law is still applicable to Jews within this new theological perspective. It is important to understand here that the obedience rendered to the law by Jewish Christians was rendered out of love to God for His redeeming grace. Fulfillment of the law was not regarded as a presupposition for belonging to the kingdom of God.

In the further unfolding of beliefs in the Early Church conflicting views persisted despite the Council’s pronouncement. The radical party (Judaizers) insisted that the Gentile Christians must keep the law, including circumcision, if they expected to belong to the redeemed community. From Paul’s writings, esp. his epistle to the Galatians, we learn that these Judaizers attempted to promote their view with great zeal among Pauline churches. Among the means employed to support their teaching were efforts to discredit Paul’s apostleship (Gal 1f.) and to expose his view of the law as leading to antinomianism (Rom 5:20-6:1).

The orthodox party (represented by James, Peter, and those of the community controlled by them) seem to have followed the decisions laid down by the Jerusalem Council (Acts 21:18ff.). Those of this position believed that the law was to be obeyed by Jewish Christians and that such obedience would enable them to have an effective witness to the Jewish world. They did not believe that obedience made them righteous before God, and they were prepared to accept believing Gentiles into their fellowship without requiring them to keep the law. In mixed congregations Gentile Christians were advised to observe such points of the law as would make the fellowship of Jewish Christians defensible before the eyes of the Jewish world (Acts 15:19-21).

3. Law in Paul’s writings. Though Paul’s use of νόμος, G3795, is not uniform, his starting point is to employ it predominantly for the Mosaic law (Rom 7:22, 25; 8:7; 1 Cor 9:9; etc.) Paul does not seem to make a significant distinction between the Decalogue and the rest of the legal material in the OT. The second use of the νόμος, G3795, refers to the Pentateuch (Gal 4:21). The two words “law and prophets” are taken together to refer to the whole OT (Rom 3:21). The law stands for the whole OT; the apostle cites the words of the prophet Isaiah (1 Cor 14:21). Paul combines verses from all parts of Scripture under the rubric of the law (Rom 3:19).

Paul also saw law as the living will of God, not expressed exclusively in the Mosaic law (Rom 2:14). In the context of this passage the apostle argues that there are no people who do not have a law of some kind. Sometimes Paul uses νόμος, G3795, in a fig. sense, generally with a word of explanation such as Romans 3:27 where he distinguishes “the law of works” from “the law of faith.” Here the word νόμος, G3795, means “principle,” as in the RSV. Paul’s point is that the “principle” of faith, not works, describes the basis on which human boasting is excluded. Likewise, it would seem best to take νόμος, G3795, fig. (Rom 7:21). Sometimes Paul uses νόμος, G3795, to denote some governing principle of conduct which comes from some source—indicated by a genitive of source. This is found in such passages as Romans 7:25; 8:2; Galatians 6:2. In the latter two passages “the law of the Spirit of life” and “the law of Christ” are in sharp contrasts to the OT law.

It is most important to note that the demanding will of God is ultimately a matter of personal communication not abstract formulation. In Romans 3:19 the law is referred to as if it were personal, “whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law,” one might substitute the word “God” here for the word “law.” (Cf. Rom 4:15; 7:1; 1 Cor 9:8.)

Paul’s concept of the law is decisively determined by the cross of Christ. From this perspective he both negates and affirms the law. The negation of the law as a consequence of the cross is stated clearly in Galatians 2:21, “I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose.” In this, and similar statements in other of his writings, the apostle repudiates the law as the basis for justification. The law is the mediation of God’s will for fallen man but precisely because of his fallenness he is totally unable to keep it.

From the positive perspective the apostle teaches that the law prohibits that which is sinful (Rom 6:15). He strongly emphasized the negative character of the law, stressing that it is God’s Word directed against sin, though all the negatives may be summed up in the one positive of love (Rom 3:19).

Through the law the sinfulness of sin is exposed. The law shows it to be rebellion against God. Though sin is always there it comes to life through the law (7:8, 9). It is the law which first makes sin real rebellion (5:20). Law drives the fallen man to Christ by revealing the enormity of his sin; it completely unmasks him before a Holy God. Man is shut up by the law under sin (Gal 3:22ff.). Properly understood then, the law prevents man from attempting to secure a righteous standing before God in any other way than by faith in the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.

God’s eternally abiding standard of acceptance before Him is that of obedience to His will. The story of God’s grace centers just in this, that that obedience which fallen man is unable to render has been rendered by another in his place. Paul states, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19). Through faith in Christ, His obedience is accounted as ours.

The second positive affirmation of Paul regarding the law is found in such a passage as Romans 8:4, where he states that Christ fulfilled the law in our place precisely “in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us” through the dynamic of a new power, even that of the Spirit. Though the Christian is not under the law as a means of acceptance with God he nevertheless seeks to obey the will of God in conformity to the pattern provided in the law. The gift of justification leads to a recognition of the task of obedience.

4. In the Epistle to the Hebrews. In this epistle νόμος, G3795, is used almost without exception to refer to the OT law, and more specifically to those laws which pertain to the priestly ministry and the priesthood. The law is viewed from a different perspective in the epistle from that found in either the thought of Jesus or Paul. While in the teaching of Jesus and Paul the law is primarily expressive of the will of God as regulatory of human conduct, in Hebrews it expresses that upon which the OT priesthood is based. The theme of this epistle is not the relation of law and Gospel but the relation of the priestly ministry of the OT to that of Christ’s.

The author of this epistle argues that though the OT priesthood finds its strength and authority in the law, it cannot bring perfection. This can be achieved only by the distinguished High Priest, even Christ. For Paul the law is weak because man does not do it, for the author of Hebrews it is weak because man does it.

Paul and the author of Hebrews agree that the true purpose of the law is to point the sinner to Christ in order that through Him he may find access to God. It is only through the high-priestly ministry of Jesus that man may approach the Holy God.

5. James. The author employs νόμος, G3795, in only three passages: 1:25; 2:8ff.; 4:11f.

In 1:25, νόμος, G3795, would seem to be best understood as pointing to that total evangelical message as it makes claims upon the conduct of the believer. In contrast to the OT law it is a perfect law of liberty.

In 2:8ff., νόμος, G3795, means “commandment” in the strict sense. The crucial question here is whether it is used for the whole of the OT law with all its commandments or only for the summary of this law in the law of love. Verse 10 might suggest that the whole of the OT law is intended but the context would seem to argue against this interpretation. Verse 8 states that if one really fulfills the law of love he does well, and that in terms of summarizing individual commands (v. 9f.)

In 4:11f. As “the law of freedom,” νόμος, G3795, is the will of God conceived of in terms of its validity for the individual. From the Christian standpoint the law of liberty is that which binds the individual not to specific commandments but to the obedience of love. This conception of law does not force the freedom of obedience into a schema after the matter of law.

Summarizing, it should be clearly understood that James agrees with the teaching of both Jesus and Paul that law is to be interpreted in terms of the obedience of faith.

6. John’s gospel. John uses νόμος, G3795, fourteen times. The meaning is the usual one, the Pentateuch, though it is used more generally for the whole of the OT. Sometimes it is used to denote a specific commandment (7:19, 23) or a legal ordinance (7:51).

John does not use νόμος, G3795, to suggest principally that which is regulatory of human or Christian action; rather he views it as meaning revelation (1:17) set in comparison or contrast to Jesus. John’s point is that it is only in Jesus that God is most adequately revealed. Only in Him is there a full manifestation of God’s grace and truth.

Throughout this gospel the Torah is contrasted as word of revelation with the Son who is the perfect revelation. This is the distinctive contribution of John as respects the meaning of the law, though he does in a few instances view it as also regulative of human action (13:34f.).

Bibliography D. E. H. Whiteley, The Theology of St. Paul (1964), 76-86; G. Kittel, ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. IV (1967), 1059-1085; W. Elert, Law and Gospel (1967).