Are We "Under the Law"

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”  - Albert Camus

Someone asked me this week if we are still "under the law". This is my brief reaction to this statement. I would appreciate feedback if you would like. Thanks for reading!

Dear ????,

Unfortunately this is a hard argument. There are right and wrong views on both sides. Most people who say that they are not “under the law” point to Jesus death and resurrection as being a turning point – that we are under a “new” law of sorts that centers on Jesus so-called redefinition of the law (ie – the antithesis in the Sermon on The Mount: “You heard it said… but I say!”)

It is also hard because if we say that we are still “under the law” but have, let’s say a tattoo (Lev. 19:28), then we are picking and choosing what laws we are following and which ones we choose not to follow. We end up being hypocritical in many people’s eyes!

Here is my take – right or wrong.

1) Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. (Matthew 5:17-20)

This verse suggests that the law points to Jesus and is fulfilled in Jesus. This verse also goes onto to talk about how man’s righteousness is defined by his obedience (James 2:18-26). The verses that proceed Matthew 5:17-20 (oh, by the way this is part of the Sermon on the Mount) deals with being the light of the world and we know that we cannot be God’s light unless we are emulating God – how do we do that? We must obey His word! Also, when I read Jesus teachings I don’t ever find that his words contradicting the Law – if anything He raises the bar considerably. He ends up focusing on man’s heart. The Law can be fulfilled without the heart and Jesus knows this. So much so He says that he focuses on the heart by focusing on our love for Him. He says that our love for Him should be so strong that our love for others (our wife and family) looks like hate and we are love Him to the extent that we are willing to take up our cross and follow Him. (Luke 14:25-27).

2) As powerful as God’s word is at face value, we must still understand context.

If we are “under the law” then we must obey every law. Well, no necessarily. There are some laws that were given to define and seperate who they were to be as a nation – that differentiated them from other nations around them. Many of the verses people pull out have to do with pagan religious rituals that were practiced by people who lived around them. Tattoos, cooking a kid in it’s mothers milk, etc. Also, the concept of not eating pork had more to do with hygiene then anything. The Israelites were commanded to eat ruminant animals. These type of animals that eat plant based food and can regurgitate from their first stomach and re-chew it (cud) to break down more plant matter and aid digestion.

3) Just because it is stated in black and white in the NT doesn’t mean that it is not applicable to our lives today.

Since we have been talking about tithing let’s look at it more closely. Many people say that Jesus and NT don’t talk about tithing and that it just talks about giving. Let’s look at Jesus says about this. In Matthew 12, Jesus highlighted the giving of the women at the temple who gave over and above what was expected of her. Jesus endured his disciples to do the same. Jesus also had an interaction with the Pharisees concerning their lack of mercy, justice and faithfulness -

MT 23:23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Although the emphasis of this scripture is to not be hypocritical by doing one thing and neglecting another we see Jesus actually stating that we should not neglect the tithe (tenth) while we are practicing justice, mercy and faithfulness. The reversal can be assumed. We cannot neglect justice, mercy and faithfulness while practicing our tithe. Unfortunately, when people talk about tithing they end up using scripture that is talking about sacrificial, generous giving instead of understanding that tithing isn’t talked about a lot because it was a given to most of the people in the NT.

To conclude, we are “under the law” but we need to understand the context of the law. Casual Christianity lends itself to embrace what someone says that scratches our spiritual itch instead of studying it ourselves. Maybe if Christians would take more time trying to understand God’s word and less time defending their own personal feelings about the subject then maybe we might be a little more cohesive in our thoughts.

I applaud you for wanting to study this more and I hope I have helped in some small way!