*This is the second portion of the article. If you have not read the first portion yet, please do so here: “The Christian's Relationship to the Mosaic Law (Part I)”
The Need for Freedom from the Law
The curses of the Law are evident thus far. Although the Law is good, holy, and righteous, it cannot justify, give life, nor sanctify a believer spiritually. Jason C. Meyer puts it this way in his book The End of the Law:
"The law under the sway of flesh can only incite humanity into further acts of sinful rebellion, the result of which is ‘fruit for death’… a dramatic shift has taken place in God’s economy of salvation that frees humanity from the grip of the law towards vice, with the result that they can serve in the newness that comes from the Spirit, as opposed to the oldness that proceeds from the letter.”[19]
With this in mind, we are brought to see our need to be set free from our bondage to the Mosaic Law. To be released from the Law means that the believer, Meyer adds, “no longer serve[s] in the ‘oldness of the letter,’ but now in the ‘newness of the Spirit,’” and that believers are released from “sin and death.”[20] Our release from the Mosaic Law was accomplished through our death to the Law in the crucified body of Jesus Christ so that we might belong to Him ultimately (Romans 7:4).
The New Perspective on Paul
This leads us to the question now: What is the Christian’s relationship to the Mosaic Law? This question is one that most cannot agree on because of the complexity of Paul’s usage of “law” in Romans. I will first discuss the New Perspective on Paul from two prominent advocates of the movement: James D. G. Dunn and N. T. Wright.
Dunn argues that the works of the Law can be defined “more fully as what members of the covenant must do in order to attest their membership, to live their life as God’s people, to secure acquittal in the final judgment, and to ensure participation in the life of the age to come.”[21] Although this might sound theologically plausible, it is not the Gospel nor is it about the message of justification that the Apostle Paul explains in Romans.
Dunn’s perspective of the Law in Romans is based on a concept that the advocates for the New Perspective on Paul call “covenant membership.”[22] This “covenant membership” is not, Dunn argues, where one “amass[es] merit for himself, but rather as that pattern of obedience by which ‘the righteous’ maintain their status.”[23] Dunn’s argument downplays Paul’s message of justification by faith and rather attributes such works of the Law as an obedience that marks one out as a member of the covenant. Also, Dunn admittedly argues that righteousness can be maintained by obedience to the Law. That is, one can lose their status of “righteousness” if they do not keep the Law.
N. T. Wright, a New Testament scholar well-known for his contribution to the New Perspective on Paul, provides a similar feat to that of Dunn. Wright would add that the Mosaic Law is the “covenant boundary-marker” that was intended to give life.24 He later expands on this thought and suggests that the “works of Torah were attempted not to earn salvation but to demonstrate one’s membership in the Sinaitic covenant.”[25]
Wright would also argue that the gospel is not what most believers think it is. He argues that the gospel is not a message of justification by faith. “The gospel… reveals the righteousness, that is, the covenant faithfulness, of God.”[26] For Wright, “Faith… is never and in no way a qualification for getting into God’s family or for staying there once in.”[27] He would go on to assert, also, that Abraham’s faith was not what justified him because, instead, it was his “badge of covenant membership” that he had, and that “faith was not something Abraham ‘did’ in order to earn the right to be within the people of God.”[28]
The tragedy within the New Perspective on Paul is that it undermines what Paul truly preached in Romans where he explains that Abraham was truly justified by faith in Romans 4:1-5. New Perspective scholars and advocates tend to refer to the works of the Law as a “nationalistic pursuit… within the context of Jewish ethnic privileges… and dismisses the clear element of human striving and ‘works’ as generalized human activity, not the specific Jewish badges of identity.”[29] The New Perspective fails to recognize the very problem that the Apostle Paul had addressed, regarding works of the Law and righteousness by faith.
The Mosaic Law: Are Christians Required to Obey?
Contrary to the New Perspective on Paul, Christ is the ultimate end to the Mosaic Law. Since Christ is the culmination of the Mosaic law, “this fulfillment means that this Law is no longer a direct and immediate source of, or judge of, the conduct of God’s people.”[30] I would agree with this notion regarding Paul’s theology of the Law in Romans, as Christ truly is the end of the Law (Romans 10:4).
Historically, the Jews incorrectly sought a relationship with God by being more concerned with their works rather than faith. Each time they attempted to earn or establish righteousness, they fell short. “But in seeking to establish their own righteousness, they were also guilty of relying on their own works.”[31] However, there is no need to establish one’s own righteousness anymore, for Christ had reached the finish line (i.e., the demands of the Mosaic Law). Righteousness is made available through faith in the perfect and sinless Person and work of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:21-26). Believers are set free from the “binding authority of the Mosaic Law” (Romans 6:14; 7:4-6).[32]
I must also clarify that the Mosaic Law is not just limited to the Ten Commandments (which many Christians would assume). The Mosaic Law not only is about the Ten Commandments (also known as the moral laws) but also the ordinances and worship systems (commonly known as the civil and ceremonial laws). No mere commandment-keeping of any kind can make sinners more acceptable or approvable to God. If a Christian was required to obey the Mosaic Law, they must keep the whole Law and not falter even at one point, for if at one point they fail, they have failed to keep the Law as a whole (Gal 5:3). “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” (Jas 2:10).
A faulty view of the Torah—basing justification and righteousness on one’s merit or maintenance of the Mosaic Law—undermines the life and work of Christ. David E. Holwerda argues that “[Paul] cannot allow a view of Torah observance that has no place and no need of the crucified and resurrected Christ.”[33] Christian obedience to the law of faith (i.e., the New Covenant in Christ) excludes the boasting that comes from the works of the Mosaic Law. No one can boast in their works except the Person of Jesus Christ, for He is the only Perfect One.
Author and professor Frank Thielman argues that some first-century Jews “believed that their own obedience to the law played a role in securing their salvation.”[34] The Jews had boasted in their own will and ability to keep the Law but failed to see that Christ’s obedience was better and was given as a free gift if they had believed (Romans 10:10, 17). The law of Christ is entirely gracious in character as opposed to the Mosaic Law which demanded total perfection. Believers in Christ are released from the Mosaic Law and its “temporary function of identifying, punishing, and increasing [of] sin.”[35] This would lead me to make my conclusion that Christians are not required to obey the Mosaic Law.
Though Christians are not required to obey the Mosaic Law, it does not mean that the Mosaic Law is thrown out of the life of a believer. The commandments of the Mosaic Law are not done away with. I believe that Christians should continue to uphold the Mosaic Law in the new code—in the power of the Spirit through love (Romans 3:31; 13:8; Lev 19:18). Believers are called to fulfill the Law through their love for their neighbors (Romans 13:8-10). “When we love rightly, with the love that the Spirit inspires in us, we cannot help but obey whatever commandments God has given us.”[36] It is by the new code—the Spirit of Christ in us—that we can desire to fulfill the commands, not in our own strength but in His.
The motivation for our observance of the Law is renewed and transformed in Christ. Obedience to the Law is based on the justification by faith in Christ, not a means to it. Obedience should not be seen as “any part of the basis of our justification, but strictly as the evidence and confirmation of our faith in Christ whose blood righteousness is the sole basis of our justification.”[37] Because of the perfect obedience of Christ, believers can have a righteousness—not one that can be attained, but rather, graciously given—that enables them for faithful obedience in the Spirit. All that the Mosaic Law had aimed for can be accomplished in its intended end by our faith in Christ as the Perfect Sin Offering and by our Spirit-powered love for God and others (Romans 13:10; Matt 22:36-40; Heb 10:12).
Conclusion
The Law has come to an end. Or rather, the burden of the Law has. There is no more sin and death in the victories of Christ Jesus. There are no more curses. Christ is the ultimate culmination of the Mosaic Law and gives a better covenant—a law that is by the Spirit through love. Those who believe in Christ are justified and enabled by the Spirit to live a new life of love for God and others, fulfilling the Mosaic Law not as a requirement for justification or righteousness but as a response to the justification and righteousness received by faith in Christ.
References
[19] Meyer, The End, 47.
[20] Meyer, The End, 49.
[21] James D. G. Dunn, The New Perspective on Paul (revised edition; Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005) 461-462.
[22] N. T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997) 214.
[23] Dunn, New Perspective, 150.
[24] N. T. Wright, The Climax of the Covenant: Christ and the Law in Pauline Theology (Great Britain: T&T Clark Ltd, 1991) 214.
[25] Wright, Climax, 214.
[26] Wright, Saint Paul, 153.
[27] Wright, Saint Paul, 192.
[28] Wright, Saint Paul, 153-154.
[29] Meyer, The End, 216.
[30] VanGemeren, et al., The Law, 343.
[31] Moo, Romans, 329.
[32] Moo, Romans, 434.
[33] Holwerda, Jesus, 163.
[34] Frank Thielman, The Law and the New Testament (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1999) 23.
[35] Thielman, The Law and NT, 23.
[36] Moo, Romans, 437.
[37] Piper, The Future, 110.
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