This article is the twenty-sixth installment in our series "Christian, What Do You Believe: The Belgic Confession of Faith." Find the whole series here.
People who trust in Jesus gain a new desire to live according to God’s will. “Faith working through love” leads believers to do “the works that God has commanded in his word” (BC. 24). Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
But that raises a question: which commandments should we keep? Are the Old Testament laws concerning Jewish worship, sacrifices, and civil life binding on Christians today? Or, if Jesus fulfilled the law (Matt. 5:17), may we ignore Old Testament rules?
Several principles help us honor God’s law in light of the life of Jesus.
The Law Is Part of God’s Progressive Revelation
The Bible is one unified book made up of two parts, the Old and New Testament (see art. 4). And while God’s word cannot be broken (John 10:35)—not a single link can be removed from the interconnected chain of Scripture—there is movement in the story. The Old Testament was the full written revelation of God … until the New Testament completed the progressing story. And all along, even in the Old Testament, there was development. Newer revelation filled up what came before. So, for a time, the Israelites were to worship God in a portable tent. That law still reveals God. In time, however, the tabernacle gave way to a solid temple. Even that physical temple wasn’t permanent.
“The ceremonies and symbols of the law” were provisional. Paul, speaking for the Jewish people, says that “The law was our guardian until” the next phase of God’s work of redemption, the incarnation of Christ (Gal. 3:24). Guardians are no longer needed when a person comes of age. God’s people came of age at the advent of Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit. As we should expect, God now speaks to his grownup church consistent with old principles but in ways appropriate to their maturity. God once taught the principle of separation by forbidding the mixing of different fabrics (Lev. 19:19). Holiness is still his heart (2 Cor. 6:14) even if the old object lesson is now antiquated. God is still overcoming darkness with light and making his kingdom come. By now we should know, however, that this will not happen by physical conquest but by spiritual battle (cf. Deut. 1:21; Eph. 6:12).
God’s earlier commands aren’t bad. They simply belong to a different redemptive epoch. We would be wrong to obey them all literally, just as adults should no longer nurse from their mother or get paddled by their father. “To disregard the uniqueness of each step in the old dispensation will lead to unwholesome perversions,” such as the quest to restore animal sacrifices endorsed by certain dispensationalists.
Christ Fulfills the Law without Abolishing It
Jesus said that the Old Testament was written about him and is fulfilled in him (Luke 24:44–47). Symbols such as sacrificial animals and the temple, and ceremonies like circumcision prepared the world for Christ. The law cast a shadow of Jesus from heaven (Heb. 10:1). His coming made the shadow obsolete (Heb. 8:13). So to continue sacrificing animals would undermine his finished work. “All foreshadowings have come to an end, so that the use of them ought to be abolished among Christians.”
While believers must no longer practice the Old Testament shadows, “Yet the truth and substance of these things remain for us in Jesus Christ in whom they have been fulfilled.” Every Old Testament passage still speaks about Christ who fulfills all the promises of God. “Jesus didn’t abolish the law or the prophets. He fulfilled them (Matt. 5:17). Scripture finds its fullest meaning in Him. It is by Him, for Him, and about Him. It is an enigma unless the one who reads it sees the Lord Jesus Christ at its core.” Jesus fulfilled the law by “dying on the cross and thereby satisfying forever the demands of the law against those who would believe in Him.” The law demanded obedience as well as sacrifices that had to be offered for disobedience. That law isn’t cancelled. It simply gets answered by Jesus.
For the unbeliever, the law only leads to Christ as judge. For the believer, the law leads to him as our substitute. Truly “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4).
The Law Still Reveals God’s Will
The Old Testament records three kinds of laws. The ceremonial laws dictated Israel’s worship of God and his requirement of purity for his set-apart people. These laws, though outdated, still help us appreciate God’s holiness and his gift of righteousness in Christ. The civil laws defined God’s governing of national Israel. And while God’s kingdom has expanded beyond the Jews, these laws, too, still show God as king and resound “with the overtones of his gracious covenantal dealings with his people.” Only the moral law, which is summarized by the Ten Commandments but predates Sinai and is grounded in creation, expresses God’s abiding will for all people.
But even the ceremonial and civil laws—now fulfilled by Christ—are important for believers today. We should love God’s whole law (Ps. 119:97). And we should study to see how it still speaks to us in at least two important ways.
First, God’s law “confirm[s] us in the gospel.” Here are just two examples of how this works. The law requiring hung criminals to be buried the same day doesn’t teach us how to perform crucifixions (Deut. 21:22–23). It confirms that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). Scripture’s allowance for the poor to bring pigeons to the altar instead of a lamb (Lev. 5:7) assures us that no one is too lowly to come to Jesus.
Second, God’s law “regulate[s] our lives with full integrity.” For example, while the specifics of the Jewish Sabbath have been fulfilled in Christ, its codes still require of us careful and regular worship. Likewise, the Passover regulations that explain how outsiders could not eat the meal without first being received into God’s family (Ex. 12:48) still teach us the importance of regulating attendance at the Lord’s Supper and the necessity of loving strangers and helping them join the church.
The whole Bible is God’s word. And it is all about Jesus. Every part should lead us to him. While the ceremonies and symbols of the law legislated a different people at a different time, they are not unimportant. But we must use them properly. When the moon eclipses the sun, it casts a shadow on the earth. We aren’t enamored by the shadow. We want to see what has caused it. In a similar way, we should use the shadows of Christ in the Old Testament to lift our eyes to Jesus and rest in him and devote ourselves to doing his will for God’s glory.
Footnotes
Peter Y. De Jong, The Church’s Witness to the World (Pella, IA: Pella Publishing Inc, 1962), 2.195.
James Montgomery Boice, The Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972), 87, 91.
De Jong, The Church’s Witness to the World, 2.193.
