Galatians 5:18 is explicit: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (ESV). This thought is repeated in Romans 7:6: “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.”

 

From passages such as the ones quoted, a great many Christians have thought that the law of Moses is no longer valid for us today. But what does that mean? Do we no longer have to keep the 10 commandments? I recently had a conversation with a pastor who categorically told me that Christians were not required to keep the 10 commandments. I asked him whether he then thought that we could now commit adultery, since that was the 7th command. He responded, “If you think you can still love Jesus and commit adultery, well then, yes.” Of course, I could have asked him about any of the other commands. Are we permitted to have other gods? Are we permitted to take the Lord’s name in vain? Are we permitted to bear false witness against our neighbour? Is the answer to all of these questions, “If you think you can still love Jesus and do these things, well then, yes.”

 

The great problem is that I know a great many people who believe they can indeed break the 10 commandments and still love Jesus. But here, the scripture denies it. 1 John 3:6 states, “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” Of course, this passage doesn’t say that no one who abides in Him ever sins. The focus is on wantonly sinning, on carrying on in sin without repentance and turning from sin. Ah! But what is sin? John has already defined that two verses earlier, in 1 John 3:4. He states, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”

 

If sin is defined by ignoring and breaking the law, then we can wonder how it is that Paul can teach that we are not under the law, but John clearly teaches that if we wantonly ignore and break the law, we are sinners. Furthermore, he states that no one who makes a practice of sinning has ever known Christ. And so, apparently my pastor friend is horribly misinformed. It turns out that you can’t commit adultery and love Jesus. At least, you can’t keep on committing adultery without abandoning it, and love Jesus.

 

And that brings us to the complicated relationship Christians have with the law. And so, let’s clarify in such a way that we take into context all the New Testament teaching regarding the law, and the grace of Jesus.

 

1. The New Testament denies that we can be saved by keeping the law. Indeed, the law was never designed to save. Instead, the law is like a physician’s diagnostic tools. It tells us what is wrong, but it does not heal. It exposes our sin and leaves us without excuse. In that sense, its function is to condemn. And that is good. For having been condemned, we are in need of a saviour. Hence the law is our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. It is the engine warning light on a car, telling us that we are at the point of cataclysm. Oh, how we need grace to rescue us from the condemnation of the law.

 

2. The New Testament teaches that the law displays the righteousness of God. Of course, the cross displays God’s righteousness in a way the law never could. And yet, the law does tell us what kind of a God truly exists. He is a God who will not tolerate rivals. The first command teaches us that about God. He is a God whose name is shrouded with infinite holiness, and hence He gives us the third command. Each of the 10 commandments pulls back some of the veil and allows us to see the one true God as He truly is. The law displays God’s righteousness.

 

3. New Testament believers are not required to observe Jewish holy days, circumcise their male children or eat according to the law’s dietary restrictions. How so? I agree with those theologians who have divided the law into 3 different kinds. The first is the moral law, which is what we have in the 10 commandments. The second is the ceremonial law, which is the law’s demands of temple sacrifices. Each of those laws have been fulfilled in the once for all, final sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. And so, while the ceremonial law is instructive of God’s attitude towards sin and of the need for repentance, this function has ended when Christ died on the cross. Furthermore, the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 was God’s statement that the temple sacrifices have come to an end. The third kinds of laws are the civic laws. These laws take the moral law and incorporate it into the national life of Israel. And for that reason, they are meant for Israel’s national life, and were never intended for all the nations. Of course, there is a great deal to learn from them. But we are not to replicate them, for that would misunderstand the uniqueness of what God did through His chosen people Israel.

 

4. The New Testament ethic is grounded in the 10 commandments. Jesus Himself taught that He had not come to do away with the law. The New Testament teaches us how to make the 10 commandments practical and applicable in the life of the church and in the lives of individual Christians.

 

In the end, Christians are not lawless. But neither are we saved by the law. We are not under the law as a means of salvation, but we are required to be obedient to the moral law of God. We are both free from the law, yet under the law of Christ. He is the Christ who taught us that He had come to fulfill the law. Hence, Christians must be known not only as people of grace, but as people who have a moral center in the way in which we live.