Howdy!
What started last week as an introduction is going to turn into the meat of the matter for the next couple of months. Our Shorter Catechism spends quite a bit of time helping us to understand the moral law. We talked a good bit about what the moral law was in Sabbath School last Lord’s Day, especially in distinguishing it from the ceremonial and judicial laws respectively. It would be worth our time to briefly do that again as a refresher. Our Confession of Faith in Chapter 19 teaches us that there are three types of laws in the Bible: Moral, Ceremonial, and Judicial. Let’s take them in reverse order.
All three of these types operated in the old covenant world. Judicial laws were the rules and regulations native to the civil order of the nation of Israel. While they have expired with the end of the Jewish State, there are principles we can draw from them that are applicable today. For instance, the famous example is the law in Deuteronomy 22:8 concerning requirement of building a fence around your roof. Those of us in South Carolina for the most part don’t live on our roofs like they do in the Middle East. However, the concern there is safety for the visitor, and/or love for neighbor. The idea continues to be enforceable, which we see with laws like those calling for protective barriers on tall structures, etc… but the wooden/literal reading of it does not. Another part of the Judicial Law worth mentioning is their capital judgments, and other less severe punishments for violating them. Much ink has been spilled over how we are to use those today. My personal opinion is that if God takes the violation of a law seriously, so should we. I also think that we can learn a lot about wise jurisprudence from how the Lord in His wisdom saw human society flourishing under His guidance. I don’t want to take too much time with that, just something to think about. Now, when it comes to the ceremonial laws it’s important to remember their main purpose: to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus Christ. These laws covered the accoutrements of the priests and Levites and all the rigmarole surrounding the sacrificial system. The Book of Hebrews goes out of its way to make clear that these laws were abolished with the coming of the Redeemer. I don’t wear a big fancy outfit in the pulpit or slit the throat of a bull on the podium primarily because our Lord died on the Cross; besides that would be one heckuva mess for the Deacons to clean up.
The Moral laws however, unlike the Judicial or Ceremonial laws, continue in full force regardless of the covenantal situation. They are the fundamental building blocks of how we treat God and our neighbor. God revealed these statutes in the Garden to Adam and they are the law written on the heart of every human being. That is what Paul means in Romans 2 when he notes that the Gentiles do what is in the law even though they do not have the written law like the Jews. Christ has a lot to say about this subject, especially how it had been abused by the Pharisees and ignored by the Sadducees. For instance when Jesus is asked by the Scribes what is the most important of all the laws he responds by saying:
Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Those responses from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 respectively summarize both tables (think of Moses and his tablets) of the moral law, our responsibility to God (1-4) and our duty to man (5-10). I think this is the longest we have gone in these explainers without giving the Catechism questions so let’s go ahead and get that done:
Q. 41. Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?
A. The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments.
Q. 42. What is the summary of the Ten Commandments?
A. The summary of the Ten Commandments is: To love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.
As you see there are more than just the Ten Commandments in the moral law. The Ten we have are merely the synopsis of a whole body of statutes that Jehovah in His love for us has provided. Just because a law is listed in Exodus or Leviticus does not make it not a binding command for God’s people in the new covenant. While there are some who say that we are only held by God to be obedient to those things repeated in the New Testament, those folks would be wrong. We operate under the assumption that unless there was a clear annulment (c.f.- Mark 7/Acts 11) then as human beings, let alone believers, we are called to heed those instructions not only for our benefit personally, but for the glory of the Lord.
There is a reason why in Deuteronomy the Jews were told to make a frontlet of the law and put it before their eyes. Because the law matters, in a good way. While we do not ever hold that we can be made righteous by the law, or even gain a bigger mansion in Heaven based on our tracking with the statutes of God we are still called to hear what Jesus says in John 15 for example, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love…You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. “ It could not be more clear. There is no wiggle room. If we have decided to follow Jesus then we need to live as Jesus has called us to live, and we need to make sure we do these things in and through the grace given by Him, not in the flesh. As we get further into the commandments themselves one of the things the Catechism will do is help us know more deeply what exactly we are to not only to think, but to do in the kingdom of Christ.
Here is a some more on this subject:
https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/%E2%80%98-these-hang-law-and-prophets%E2%80%99
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church