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| Mt. Sinai |
The last couple of weeks we’ve been looking at the time of
Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, trying to learn as much about it from the
Bible and from history and archeology as we can. I hope you’ve gotten a taste of how much
information is available to our generation about the time of Jesus, much more
than there has been for almost two thousand years. Before that we spoke a little about modern
Israel and the fulfillments of prophecy that are taking place right now in our
lifetimes. After the horrors of the
Holocaust, Christians have been waking up to the Jewish roots of our faith, and
the tremendous riches and depth this can give to our understanding of the Bible.
But the realization of Christianity’s Jewish roots also raises
a lot of difficult questions. Most
Protestants are already familiar with the idea that the Church went astray from
Biblical truth in the centuries after Jesus.
But how far did it go? The answer
is that almost every area of our faith has been affected. So many things in Christianity are built on
the spider webs of tradition rather than on the rock of faith. It’s going to take generations to get it
sorted out.
Today we’re going to take a look at just one of these
areas: an area that is absolutely
essential to how we understand and live out our faith—an area that Jesus and
the disciples spoke about constantly because it’s so important—and one about
which the Church has been confused for a long time. It’s a topic which is one of the most
difficult, and yet also one of the most important topics in Christianity today: the relationship of Gentiles and the Law of
Moses.
The best way I know to introduce this topic is to ask a
question that will stump almost every preacher.
This question assumes, first of all, that you understand that Christians
are not under the Law of Moses. This was
taught very clearly and directly by Paul many times. For example in Rom. 6:14: “For
sin shall not be master over you, for you
are not under law, but under grace.”
Or again in Galatians 5:18: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” And there are many others. This is a favorite theme with many preachers,
who usually interpret this to mean that we as Christians do not need to obey
the Law of Moses. Most Christians, I
think, are familiar with this teaching and accept this interpretation of what
it means that as believers in Jesus, we are not under the Law of Moses.
But many of those same preachers teach that we must be very careful
to obey the Ten Commandments, which are the heart and soul of the Law of Moses. Most Christians also share the view that the
Ten Commandments are very important for us to obey. But here’s the question for our preacher
friends: If you say we’re not under the
Law of Moses, why must we obey the Ten Commandments, which are themselves a
central part of the Law of Moses? In
other words, how can you say we’re not under the Law, but then turn around and
say that we must obey the most important part of that same Law? This is a logical contradiction.
For a lot of preachers, that just shuts them down. They haven’t been taught about this, in fact,
they may never have thought about the question.
Others will bring up something about the “moral law” of the Old
Testament as opposed to the ceremonial and ritual portions of the Law. This kind of reasoning sounds convincing at
first. I used to teach it myself. But the Bible never makes any such distinction
between different parts of the Law. So
though this is a quick fix answer, it’s not very satisfying, because it’s not a
Biblical answer.
Even the apostle Paul agrees that the whole Law sticks
together as a single unit. When some
Gentiles in Galatia were trying to bring themselves under the Law, he rebuked
them and said, “But again I testify to
every man who is circumcised that he is obligated to do the whole Law”
(Gal. 5:3). It’s all or nothing.
So what about the Ten Commandments? Now please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not arguing that we should stop obeying
the Ten Commandments. The problem is
that the Church has forgotten why we obey them, and because of this has not
only gotten itself into this logical contradiction, but has gotten quite
confused about the meaning of law in the Bible and in our lives as believers. And this affects our entire understanding of what
it is to be obedient to God as a follower of Jesus.
In order to find the Biblical answer to this puzzle, we have
to expand our understanding of Biblical law and of the role that we as Gentiles
have in this law. Many Christians have
been taught to look at law as something bad.
They think of the Law of Moses, for example, as an evil that had to be
taken out of the way by Jesus. But is
this really what the Bible teaches?
In Romans 7:14, Paul said:
“For we know that the Law [of
Moses] is spiritual…” That’s a pretty
positive statement. In verse 12, he
calls the Law holy and righteous and good (“The
Law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good,” Rom.
7:12). In Romans 3:1,2 he says: “Then
what advantage has the Jew?... Great in every respect: first, that they were entrusted with the
sayings of God.” What are the
sayings of God? The Old Testament,
including the Law of Moses. That’s also a
very positive statement. In Romans 10:4 he says, “For Messiah is the goal of the Law leading to righteousness for
everyone who believes.” The Law of
Moses points us to Jesus. That’s the
ultimate function of the Law.
Now I know that’s not the way Romans 10:4 is usually
translated. It’s usually translated that
Messiah is the “end of the Law.”* But
the Greek word used here, telos means
end as in the saying, “the ends justify the means.” So what Romans 10:4 is actually saying is that
Jesus is the goal, the completion, and the fulfillment of the Law. All of these are better translations than
“the end” to give us the original sense of the sentence.
* In part because of the influence of hundreds of years of
anti-Semitism in the Church.
This is why the disciples preached Jesus from the Old
Testament. Because Jesus fulfills the
Old Testament, he fulfills the Law. He
is a perfect sacrifice for our salvation because he lived perfectly according
to the Law, “without sin” (Heb.
4:15). This is how we know who Messiah
is!
As Jesus himself said in Matt. 5:17: “Do not
suppose that I came to abolish the Law or the prophets; I did not come to
abolish, but rather to fill [i.e. fulfill] them.” The Law was not a problem to get out of the
way. It’s a record of God’s will that
Messiah fulfilled in obedience to the Father.
So the Law is a picture of the Messiah.
And if the Law is a picture of Jesus, how can it be bad?
Jesus went on to say, in the next verse, “For ‘Amen' I say to you, until the heaven
and the earth pass away, a single `iota' [the smallest letter] or a single
stroke will certainly not pass away from the Law until all comes to pass”
(Matt. 5:18). Have the heavens and earth
passed away? No. Then according to Jesus, the Law has not yet
passed away. It still has an important role
to play in God’s plan.
The Law in Biblical thinking, including New Testament
thinking, is something extremely good.
It’s a gift from God. Just think
of Psa. 119: “Blessed are those whose way
is blameless, those who walk in the Law of the LORD. Blessed are those who keep
his testimonies; they seek him with all their heart. Surely they do no unrighteousness; they walk in his ways.
You have commanded your precepts, that we should keep them diligently. Oh that
my ways may be established to keep your statutes! Then I will not be ashamed
when I look at all your commandments” (Psa. 119:1-6). This does not present the Law as something
bad, but as something very, very good. And
it goes on like this for 176 verses!
The problem is not the Law.
As Paul teaches, the problem is us, because we are fleshly, because we
are sinners. As he says in Romans
7:14: “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, subject to [or
sold out to] sin.” The Law is good,
but I am a sinner. The Law’s not the
problem. I’m the problem.
Or as he says in Romans 7:15,16: “For
what I am doing I don't understand; for I don't do what I want, but rather I do
what I hate. But if I do what I don't want to do, I am agreeing with the Law,
that it is good.” When I see myself
doing what I don’t want to do—when I sin and recognize that it is wrong—I’m
agreeing that the Law is right, that it’s good.
In other words, the Law is correct in identifying sin as sin. The problem is not the Law. The problem is me. The problem is that I keep on sinning even
though I agree that that sin is wrong and I shouldn’t be doing it.
On the contrary, the Law is God’s gift to help me identify
sin. As it says in Rom. 7:7: “What,
then, will we say? Is the Law sin? May it never be! Rather I did not come to recognize sin except
through law, for I would not know coveting unless the Law said, ‘Do not
covet.’” The Law reveals God’s will
to me about what is good and what is bad, about what is right and what is
sin. This is a good thing. It’s a blessing and a revelation from God, so
that we know how he wants us to live, and what he doesn’t like.
So what is the problem with the Law?—because there’s clearly
some kind of problem that Paul and the others are talking about. It’s simply this: the Law, since it relies on our fleshly
obedience, does not have the power to help us obey it. As it says in Romans 8:3: “For
what the Law could not do, weak as it was because of the flesh…” The Law is correct in all it says. That’s why it’s in our Bibles. It brings us conviction of sin, it helps
people know what God wants. But it
doesn’t have the power to bring victory over sin. So what’s the answer to this dilemma? Romans 8:3,4: “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was because of the flesh,
God did: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering
for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the
Law may be fulfilled in us who do not live according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit.”
What’s the solution?
The Holy Spirit in us! The new
covenant in Jesus’ blood brings us the power to live holy, the power to fulfill
the requirement of the Law! The reason we
are not “under” the Law is that we fulfill the requirement of the Law by living
by faith in the Holy Spirit. The life of
faith, life in the Spirit, fulfills the Law!
Wow! Through faith in Jesus, we
have fulfilled the Law—just as Jesus himself also fulfilled the Law and made it
possible for us to follow him. So the
Law is a testimony not only of who Jesus is, but also of who we
are! When we fulfill the requirements of
the Law by living in the Spirit, the Law proclaims that we are living the kind
of life that God wants us to have!
This is what Paul meant when he said in Romans 3:31, “Do we then nullify the Law through
faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.” We
establish the truth of the Law through our faith. Are you starting to get a more positive view
of the Law?
I like to put it this way.
The Law of Moses is Bible 1.0. It’s
the first release of God’s operating system for life. And it was great. But the New Testament is Bible 2.0. It’s a better, newer operating system! It fulfills everything that 1.0 made us want
in an operating system.
And this is in fact what the Bible itself says in Hebrews
8:6: “Jesus has received a more excellent ministry
inasmuch as he is also the mediator of a better
covenant, which has been established as law on better promises.” The Old Testament was good, the New Testament
is better!
What were the promises of the Old Testament? Long life (if you honor your mother and
father), the land of Israel, being God’s chosen people, etc. What are the promises of the New
Testament? Eternal life, forgiveness of
all your sins, reigning with Messiah… better promises! That doesn’t mean the old ones were bad. It just means the new ones are better.
But there’s also something else that’s very important in
this verse: it says (in the Greek) that
the new covenant has been “established as
law.” This means that the New
Testament is also a law. It’s not the
Law of Moses, of course, but it’s the Law of…the Messiah!
But what’s the Law of the Messiah? Most Christians haven’t heard much about it, even though it’s mentioned all over the New Testament. It’s called: the “law
of Messiah” (1 Cor. 9:21, Gal. 6:2), the “law written in their hearts” (Rom. 2:15), the “law of faith” (Rom. 3:27), the “law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2), “the perfect Law of Liberty” (James 1:25), “the Royal Law” (James 2:8), “the
Law of Liberty” (James 2:12), “the
commandment of the Lord” (2 Pet. 3:2), “the
holy commandment” (2 Pet. 2:21), “the
commandment” (1 Tim. 6:14), “his
commandments” (1 John 2:34, 2 John 1:6), “my commandments” (John 14:15,21; 15:10), as well as the “New Covenant” (Luke 22:20, 1 Cor.
11:25, etc.).
This Messianic law was obviously very important to the
disciples. In fact, it was one of the
things that the Jewish people were looking forward to when the Messiah
came: that he would bring a new
Messianic Law that would solve all the difficult questions of the old one. So why have you heard so little about this
Law of the Messiah? Because many
Christians have been taught that law, of any kind, is something bad. But is that really what the Bible
teaches?
One of the early names for this Law of the Messiah was the
“Way” (Acts 9:2, 19:9, 19:23, 22:4, 24:14, 24:22, 2 Pet. 2:2). This was also the earliest name for Christianity: “the Way.”
It meant living the way Jesus lived, obeying his commandments. Today we tend to think of Christianity as
believing certain things. But the
original faith focused much more strongly on living a certain way of life: a life lived in imitation of Jesus, obeying
his law, his instruction for our lives.
To help you understand this different way of looking at
Biblical law, I want you to imagine for a moment that you were there with Moses
and the children of Israel in the desert.
Before this time, nobody really knew what God or the gods wanted. If you brought one sheep as an offering to
God, was that enough? Maybe you should
have brought two…or maybe four…or maybe sixteen. In fact, there was no way to know what God
would be pleased with.
As Micah put it, “With
what will I go before the LORD, will I bow to the God on high? Will I go before him with whole burnt
offerings, with year-old calves? Is the
LORD pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of
oil? Will I give my first-born my sin,
the fruit of my body the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:6). When is enough enough? Thousands
of sheep? Rivers of oil? How about if I lay my sin on my first born
and offer him up as a sacrifice?--which some people actually did in those days,
and continued to do up until Jesus’ day out in the desert. Nobody knew what God really wanted. Nobody was sure how to please him. And because of this uncertainty, it led to
all kinds of extremes.
In some parts of the world, people walk on fire and pierce
themselves with pins. Or they meditate
for days without eating any food.
Why? They’re trying to get their
god to notice them! They’re afraid if
they don’t do enough, their god won’t see them!
In Islam, some offer themselves or their children to be suicide
bombers. Why? They’re trying to get the attention of their
god. Because of this, in many countries
the priests were the richest people in the country. There was one tribe in the Philippines that
converted to Christianity because they couldn’t afford their pagan priests
anymore!
But then, here comes this God who does some fantastic things
for you, and he offers you a law. What’s
in it? It tells you exactly what God
wants. No more guessing. Now, if you want to know what God requires, what
pleases him, you look in the book. What
a great idea! There’s no more uncertainty. Now I know exactly what my God wants me to
do. And even better, I know what he
has promised to do for me!
Wow! No other god did anything
like that. So of course they said “yes”
when Moses offered them the Law at Mt. Sinai.
It was a wonderfully good thing.
And then, through Jesus, came Law 2.0, which is even better!
But wait a
minute. If the Messianic Law was so much
better, why did Jesus and Paul and the other disciples continue to obey the Law
of Moses? Yes! Did you know, they continued to worship in
the Temple, even after Jesus’ resurrection:
Luke
24:53: “And they were constantly in the Temple, blessing God.”
Acts
2:46: “Every day…spending a lot of time with one mind in the Temple”
Acts
3:1: “Peter
and John were ascending into the Temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer”
Acts
3:11: “All the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s
[located in the Temple]”
Acts 5:12: “They
were all with one mind in the Portico of Solomon”
Acts
5:21: “They entered about dawn into the Temple and were teaching”
Acts 5:42: “Every day…in the Temple…they did not stop
teaching and telling the good news of Jesus the Messiah”
They continued
to go to synagogue:
Acts
9:2: “…letters
to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found some who were of the Way
[followers of Jesus]”
Acts
17:2: “…where a synagogue of the Jews was.
But according to the custom of Paul, he went in to them”
Acts 22:19: “From
synagogue to synagogue I was imprisoning and beating those who believe in you”
James 2:2: “For if a man in shining clothes with gold rings on his fingers enters
into your synagogue” [clearly stated in Greek, but rarely translated
correctly]
Hebrews 10:25: “…not giving up our meeting (episynagogeen)
together”
And they also
continued to obey all the other laws, including the Jewish feasts:
Acts
20:6: “We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread…”
Acts
20:16: “…for he [Paul] was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible on the day
of Pentecost.”
Acts 16:8: “But I will remain in Ephesus until
Pentecost.”
Paul continued to take Jewish vows (the Nazirite vow found
in Num. 6): “…after he [Paul] cut off the hair of his head in Cenchrea, for he was
keeping a vow,” (Acts 18:18).
And why today do most Messianic Jewish believers continue to
obey the Law of Moses? This is a big
challenge to traditional Christian thinking.
It was a big challenge to me when I first went to Israel, because it
disagreed with traditions I had been taught in seminary.
Well, what did Jesus say?
He said he did not come to abolish the Law (“Do not suppose that I came to abolish the Law or the prophets,” Matt.
5:17). Even though Jesus has fulfilled
the Law, it still has an important role to play—“until the heaven and the earth pass away” (“For ‘Amen’ I say to you, until the heaven and the earth pass away, a
single iota or a single stroke will certainly not pass away from the Law until
all comes to pass,” Matt. 5:18). The role of the Law is not a saving
role. The Law was not given for
salvation, and nobody ever got saved by obeying the Law (Gal 2:21, 3:21). Some Jews obeyed the Law all their lives and
it never saved them. The only way to be
saved is by faith in Jesus. But the Law
is still a big signboard in the world pointing to Jesus, and to us. That’s why it’s in our Bibles.
For Jews, the Law is what makes them Jewish. And the Jewish people still have an important
part to play in the prophetic plan of God.
The New Testament never says that Jews should stop being Jews when they
come to faith. Just the opposite. Paul says, in 1 Cor. 7:18: “Let
anyone called who is circumcised not become uncircumcised; let anyone called in
uncircumcision not be circumcised.” When
Paul speaks of circumcision here, he’s talking about Jewish ritual circumcision. It’s what makes a person a Jew. So what does he mean by this? If you’re Jewish and you come to faith in Jesus,
you shouldn’t stop being Jewish. And if
you’re a Gentile and you come to faith in Jesus, you shouldn’t try to become
Jewish. Why not?
1 Cor. 7:19: “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision
is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.” You
should obey the laws of God that apply to you.
If you’re Jewish, of course you’ll continue to live as a Jew. But that circumcision doesn’t save you—it’s “nothing” when it comes to faith. Only faith can save you. But you will continue to obey the Law as part
of your identity as a Jew—because that’s who you are. If you’re a Gentile, of course you’ll
continue to live as a Gentile. And it
doesn’t matter that you’re not a Jew—that’s “nothing.” What matters is obeying the laws of God that
apply to you.
As Paul summarizes it in vs. 20: “Each
in the calling in which he was called, let him remain in his calling” (1
Cor. 7:20). Being a Jew is a calling
from God, even when you become a believer in Jesus. You have a special role and responsibility in
the Kingdom of God. Being a Gentile is
also a calling from God, even after you become a believer in Jesus. And Gentiles, too, have a special role and
responsibility in the Kingdom.
But wait a minute! If
Jewish believers in Jesus continue to obey the Law of Moses, and the Law of
Moses is a good thing, should we obey the Law of Moses, too? This was the big question that confronted the
apostles after Gentiles started to get saved.
Some Jewish believers in Jesus were going around teaching that Gentiles,
to be saved, must convert to Judaism and obey all of the Jewish Law (“And some, having come down from Judea, were
teaching the brothers that ‘If you are not circumcised according to the custom
of Moses, you cannot be saved,’” Acts 15:1). As a result, Peter and Paul had a big
argument about this in Antioch (Gal. 2:11-21).
The whole thing finally came back to Jerusalem where all the apostles
and other leaders in the Church gathered together to decide what to do about
the Gentiles (The Jerusalem Council,
Acts 15, AD 49).
This was not the first time that the Jews had to consider
this topic. Even Moses himself had to
think about it, because of all the Gentiles that had escaped with the Jews from
Egypt. The Bible calls them a “mixed multitude” (“And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and
herds, a very large number of livestock,” Exo. 12:38). Wouldn’t you have wanted to escape with them, too, if it would get you out of slavery?
But when we read through the laws in the Law of Moses, almost all of them
are directed only to the Sons of Israel.
Look, for example, at the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 19:3, just before the Ten
Commandments, it says: “This is what you will say to the house of
Jacob and tell the sons of Israel.” God’s
words are addressed only to Israel. And
in 20:22, after the Ten Commandments, it says, “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘This is what you will say to the sons of
Israel…’” Again, it’s only directed
to Israel.
There is only one place in the Ten Commandments that mentions
the Gentiles among them. It’s in Exodus
20:10, the Sabbath commandment: “And the seventh day is a Sabbath for the
LORD your God. You will not do any work,
nor your son or your daughter, your servant or your female servant, or your
cattle or your stranger (ger) that is within your gates.” Who is this stranger (ger in Hebrew)? The ger was a non-Israelite that was living
among the Israelites. And notice that
here, only the gerim (plural of ger) actually living inside the camp of
Israel (“within your gates”) were
required to keep the Sabbath, not all the gerim
in the world. The Gentiles living outside
the gates of the Jewish camp or the gates of Jewish cities were not required to
keep the Sabbath.
What other laws were Gentiles required to obey? Murder was forbidden for both the Israelites
(the natives) and the Gentiles. “The one who kills a man shall be put to
death. There shall be one legal decision for you; it shall be for the stranger (ger) as well as the native,
for I am the LORD your God,’” (Lev. 24:21,22).
The sexual immoralities listed in Leviticus 18 were also
forbidden. “And you will keep my statutes
and my judgments, and you will not do any of these abominations, the native and
the stranger (ger) who dwells among
you,” (Lev. 18:26).
And there
were several others:
No idolatry
(Lev. 20:2)
No blasphemy
(Lev. 18:21, 24:16)
No eating
blood (Lev. 17:10)
Purification
from contact with the dead (Num. 19:10)
Observance
of the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:29)
No leaven
during the Days of Unleavened Bread (Ex. 12:19)
Procedures
for sacrifice (Lev. 17:8, 22:18,25; Num. 15:14-16)
Uncleanness
from certain types of dead animals (Lev. 17:15, Deut. 14:21)
Making
recompense for injury (Lev. 24:19-22)
Making
recompense for killing an animal (Lev. 24:18-22)
Redemption
of Hebrew slaves in the year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:47 ff.)
Being cut
off for defiant sin (Num. 15:29,30)
Flight to
a city of refuge for unintentional murder (Num. 35:15)
Eating what
grows of itself in the Sabbatical year (Lev. 25:6)
Gleaning of the field if poor (Lev. 19:10, 23:22).
Others were
only for Gentiles actually living inside the gates, like the Sabbath command:
Rest on the
Sabbath (Ex. 20:10, Deut. 5:14)
Celebrate
the Feast of Tabernacles (Deut. 16:11,14)
Hear the reading of the Law every seventh year (Deut. 31:12)
Now all together these are only 20 of the 613 laws in the
Law of Moses.* That means that by far most
of the Law of Moses was never required of Gentiles. Why not?
Because Israel has a special calling as a nation of priests, priests on
behalf of the rest of mankind (“And you
will be a kingdom of priests for me, and a holy nation,” Exo. 19:6). If you’re a priest, you have more strict religious
requirements than other people. Gentiles
were not required to obey these more strict religious requirements.
* The laws listed here are the laws that actually mention
the ger. There are a few more laws that may have
applied to the Gentiles living among the Israelites that use different language
to identify them.
But even this was not the first time that the Bible talks
about laws for Gentiles. The laws for Gentiles
in the Law of Moses are similar to another, much earlier group of laws in the
Bible. Do you know what that earlier
group of laws is? The laws given to Noah
in Genesis 9 (The Covenant with Noah). Do you remember the laws given to Noah? They were:
(1) Be fruitful and multiply. (“And God blessed Noah and his sons and he
said to them, ‘Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth,’” Gen.
9:1). (2) “Every moving thing that is alive will be
food for you; as the green plants, I have given them all to you. But
surely flesh with its life, its blood, you will not eat,” (Gen. 9:3,4). Now we were permitted to eat meat, but not blood. And (3) “Surely your blood for your lives I will require; from the hand of every living
thing I will require it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every man’s
brother, I will require the life of man. The one spilling the blood of man by
man his blood will be spilled, for in the image of God has he made man,”
(Gen. 9:5,6). The penalty for murder is
death, a penalty that will be enforced by people. This was traditionally understood to imply the
establishment of courts of law, to judge murder cases. And of course murder itself is also forbidden.
These laws were given not only to Noah, it says, but to all
his descendants (“Now behold, I myself
establish my covenant with you [Noah], and with your descendants after you,”
Gen. 9:9, also 9:12). Are you a
descendant of Noah? Then this covenant
is with you, too. It’s for all of
us: both Jews and Gentiles. And this is still the teaching of the Jewish
rabbis today.
In fact the rabbis, just after the time of the New
Testament, boiled all these laws of Noah and Moses down to seven essential laws
that apply to all Gentiles: “Seven laws are binding on the descendants
of Noah: the establishment of courts of
justice, the prohibition of blasphemy, the prohibition of the worship of other
gods, of murder, of incest and adultery, of theft and robbery, and of eating
the flesh of a living animal before it dies [i.e. with its blood]." So for example, these were the laws that the
Godfearers we read about in the New Testament were expected to obey.* These were Gentiles that were attending
Jewish synagogues but did not convert to Judaism. Instead, they were obeying the Laws of
Noah. And that was considered enough for
them, since they were Gentiles.
* Or an earlier version of the
same thing. Seven Laws of Noah are
mentioned in the pre-Christian book of Jubilees.
Why haven’t you heard about the Laws of Noah before? Because the Church Fathers called them the
Natural Law instead. But they were talking
about the same thing: the law followed
by Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob before the time of Moses.
By the time of the book of Acts, many had been thinking this
way about the Gentiles for a long time:
that they did not need to convert to Judaism, as long as they obeyed the
Laws of Noah. This is why the majority at
the Council of Jerusalem did not assume that Gentiles needed to convert to
Judaism to be saved. So what was the decision
of the Council in Acts 15? That Gentile
believers in Jesus do not need to convert to Judaism and obey the Law of
Moses (Acts 15:19,24,28). Because of
this, as Gentile believers in Jesus, we are not required to obey the Law; and in
fact, we were never under the Law of Moses.
However, the Council did make three exceptions to this
ruling, which they called “necessary
things” (Acts 15:28). What were they? “But
rather to write to them to keep away from the impurities of the idols and
sexual immorality and things strangled and blood,” (Acts 15:20,29). Where did they get these things from? They’re part of the Laws of Noah required of
all mankind.
But why only these three?
Why weren’t the other Laws of Noah included? Probably because they were already considered
wrong by the Romans: the Romans had
courts of justice, they punished murder, and they forbid theft and robbery.
This leaves only the prohibition of blasphemy. But in Jesus’ day, this was only applied to misuse
of the personal name of God (YHWH), that nobody but priests knew how to say
anymore. So it seems this was not
considered a problem.
If you think about it for a minute, you can see that the
Laws of Noah are quite similar to the Ten Commandments: No idolatry includes the 1st and 2nd
commands of the Ten Commandments. No
blasphemy is the 3rd command.
No murder, adultery, or robbery are the 6th, 7th,
and 8th commands. And this is
probably why preachers have been preaching that we must obey the Ten
Commandments all these years. The lists
are very similar. The commandments not included
in the Laws of Noah, like honor your mother and father, and do not lie, are included
separately in the New Testament.* So we also
obey them because they are included in our covenant with God, the New
Testament.
* Honoring your mother and father was included in an earlier
version of the Laws of Noah (Jubilees).
Only one of the Ten Commandments is not included in the New
Testament. Do you know which one it
is? Observing the Sabbath. Both the Jewish rabbis and the Church Fathers
agreed that this was not required for Gentiles.
This is probably one of the reasons that Christians felt free to worship
God on Sundays, and not on the Jewish Sabbath, which is Saturday.
So what’s the answer to the question: If we, Gentile Christians, are not under the
Law of Moses, why do we obey the Ten Commandments? The answer is: we do not obey the Ten Commandments
because they are written in Exodus or Deuteronomy. That’s the Law of Moses, which we’re not
under, and in fact were never under.
But we obey the Ten Commandments either because they were given long
before that in the Laws of Noah (which the Church fathers called the Natural
Law, which include the three exceptions of Acts 15), or because they are
included in the Law of the Messiah (the New Testament).
So are we under the Law of Moses? No.
That’s for the Jews. Do we obey
the Ten Commandments? Yes, because most
of them date back to long before the time of Moses, back to the time of Noah,
and are repeated in the New Testament.
So let’s review a little, to make sure we understand
everything clearly:
1) Gentiles were never under the Law of Moses,
because we’re not Jewish. The Law was an
agreement between God and the Jewish people.
There are only a few laws in the Law of Moses that apply to Gentiles,
but they are only for Gentiles who are actually living as strangers among the
Jews.
2) But we are required to obey the Laws of Noah,
which is an agreement made between God and the descendants of Noah, which
includes us.
3) These Laws of Noah are very similar to the laws for
Gentiles in the Law of Moses, and are also the same as many of the Ten
Commandments.
4) This is why the Council of Jerusalem, in Acts 15, decided
that Gentiles are not obligated to obey the Law of Moses, but only that we must
observe the three exceptions, which are part of the Laws of Noah.
5) As believers in Jesus, our primary responsibility is to the
Law of the Messiah, the New Testament.
This is Jesus’ instructions for us.
It is God’s grace extended to all mankind. It’s the covenant agreement with God by which
we are saved. But the apostles wanted to
make sure we didn’t forget a few other essential things in addition to
this: a) no idolatry, b) no sexual
immorality, c) and no blood, all of which are from the Laws of Noah.
Got it? This is not
the end of this topic. There’s lots more
that could be said. It’s quite
complicated. It’s also very
controversial right now in some places.
But the point of view I have shared with you today is the understanding of
both Jewish and Gentile scholars that are working on this topic. I hope that it’s opened your eyes to begin to
think about the Bible’s teaching on this very important topic. Because as we’ll see, God willing, it’s
foundational to understanding so many things in the New Testament.
(For more on this topic, see the index category Gentile Christians.)
