Keepers of the Law?

As our Christian beliefs are rooted in the Judaism, often we can gain some insight for our reading of the Bible by looking at the languages and cultures of the Bible. For example, what did Jesus mean when he stated “law”?, as in —

Matthew 5:17 “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.

World English Bible

The Greek phrase for “law” in Matthew 5:17 has a connotation of “the more important part” of the “law”: basically a specific figure of speech in Greek use by Jews to refer to the Pentateuch (five books), or the first 5 books of the Old Testament that Jews believe to be the “Books of the Law (Torah)” as given by God through Moses. Church history indicates the initial target audience of the Gospel of Matthew were primarily Jews. Jesus’ audience, when he actually spoke these word in the Sermon on the Mount, would also have been primarily Jews. The historical language of the Jews is Hebrew, but much “street conversations” in New Testament times used a companion language, Aramaic. Therefore it is helpful to look at those languages as well, if for no other reason than to gain some insight into terms we hear today, but maybe do not understand the connection to the Biblical languages.

So, in Aramaic and Hebrew, the concept intended in the Greek is actually “commandment” in English rather than “law”. The Aramaic and Hebrew equivalent is “mitsvah”. You may have heard the term today, used by Jewish believers in the phrase “Bar Mitsvah” or “Bat Mitsvah”. This example provides some insight into ancient middle East thought processes, and how intermingled Hebrew and Aramaic became over the years. We hear Bar Mitsvah for the coming of age ceremony for a male Jewish believer (about age 13 today), and Bat Mitsvah for a female Jewish believer (about age 12 today). While it is reasonably clear this coming of age (we will see what that means in a minute) concept was, from a Jewish point of view, establish in the O.T., there is no mention of these specific ceremonies until around the 13th Century A.D. Now what about that “Bar” and “Bat” part of these phrases: Well for one, the original Hebrew for the male, or “son” would have been “Ben”, but the Hebrew evolved to use the “Bar” of Aramaic for “son”. The “Bat” for “daughter”, the best I could determine is probably also originally Aramaic for the similar Hebrew “Bath”.

I think this gives us some insight into phrases or names we have heard most of our lives. For example:

• Ben-Hur – there are several movie versions of the story about Judah Ben-Hur, a fictional character in Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.” The Ben-Hur name is borrowed from 1 Kings 4:8, and literally means “Son of Hur”.
• Several places in the N.T. (Matthew 16:17 for one), Jesus calls Peter, “Simon Bar Jonah” or Simon son of Jonah.
• Bathsheba – From “bat” or “bath” meaning “daughter”, so “daughter of sheba”, but the Bible story says she is literally the “daughter of Ammiel” or “Eliam”. In this case, “sheba” refers to the number seven, which is associated with the number in the cultural context of 7 seals used in binding one to an oath. So, the apparent intent is “the daughter of the oath”, a Hebrew concept of “fulfillment” appears to apply … as in God’s promise or oath to David in 2 Samuel 7 to make David the father of a great house that is blessed forever. This “oath” was fulfilled in the birth of Solomon by Bathsheba.

An interesting side note about this language, so different from our own, — The male “ben” can also be understood to mean “house”, as in “House of David”. The female version “bat” is very closely related in Hebrew to the word “bayit”, literally a physical dwelling or “house”, and the spelling in Hebrew can be contracted to just the letter “beth”. Hence we have BayitLehem, or Bethlehem, where Lehem means bread, so “House of Bread” – fitting for the birthplace of one who comes to us as “the Bread of Life”.

Also, keep in mind that Hebrew uses male gender when the subject or object is a group of mixed gender. So, “b’nei mitzvah” (the male gender plural) refers to a group of boys coming of age, but also a mixed group of boys and girls coming of age, where a group of girls coming of age is “b’not mitzvah” (the female gender plural).

All of that to get to this point: A Bar Mitzvah meaning “Son of the Commandment” makes little sense … However, in the context of Bar meaning “House of”, in Hebrew it can also mean “Under the authority of”. So, the Jewish concept of the “coming of age” is literally, when someone transitions to “Be under the authority of the Commandments of the O.T., or under the law” The Jewish belief, historically, is that until this coming of age, a child’s sins fall upon the shoulders of the father. Many Christians believe in an “age of accountability” around age 13, which has only been a Christian teaching for a few hundred years: The origin of this teaching is in the Jewish concept of “Keeping the Law”, not in N.T. teachings.

Which takes us back to —

Matthew 5:17 “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.”

World English Bible

Which begs the question, “If Jesus fulfilled the ‘law’ and the ‘prophets’, do WE need to obey the ‘law’ to be accepted by God?”

When Jesus says ‘law’, the reference is to the command (mitzvah), or rather the plural of command = mitzvot. The historical Jewish perspective is that any commandment, ordinance, law, or statute contained in the Torah (first five books of the Bible) is to be observed by all practicing Jews. Jewish teachings states there are 613 individual mitzvah (the total “laws of God” from our perspective): 248 are mandatory things to “do”, and 365 are mandatory things to “not do”. Over the centuries, Jewish Rabbis have added to these Torah mitzvot with other things “expressing God’s Will”. For our purposes, we will stick with the original 613 … If you are interested, here is a list at Judaism 101.

Really, 613 laws to keep? It seems that just keeping up with that many laws would be an impossible task. It is impossible for sinful mankind to keep all of the law, all of the time. That, my brothers and sisters appears to be God’s divine intent: Which on the surface would seem rather harsh, brutal, even unloving – to provided us all with a task doomed to fail. Which takes us back to that verse we started with:

Matthew 5:17 “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.”

World English Bible

So, what is the meaning of Jesus’ fulfilling of the law? Did Jesus really mean the scope was limited to the “Law in the Books of Moses”? Ultimately that question reduces to “Did the Law exist before Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, and then recorded everything in those first five books of the O.T.?” Many would teach that before Moses on Mt. Sinai , there was no “law”. There are many verses to refute that belief. For brevity, let us note that Abraham preceded Moses by hundreds of years, and … and while the O.T. clearly records transgressions and sins by Abraham, God clearly stated in Genesis that Abraham’s trust in God was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6). Later, God speaking with Isaac reinforces the covenant he made with Abraham, and indicates Abraham was well aware of God’s “charge or requirement” (mishmereth), “commandment” (mitzvah), “statute” (chuqqah), and “law” (torah). The Law was later written down as part of the Mosaic Covenant.

Genesis 26:1-5
1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar. 2 Yahweh appeared to him, and said, “Don’t go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about. 3 Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you, and to your seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and will give to your seed all these lands. In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

World English Bible

Jesus best sums up “the law” that has always existed in —

Matthew 22:32-40

34 But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together. 35 One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

World English Bible

Consider, we, in our sinful state are not capable of keeping the law:

Romans 3:10 As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one.”

Isaiah 64:6 For we have all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is as a polluted garment: and we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Romans 7:19 For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.

World English Bible

Jesus, however, fully God and fully man, was sinless, and kept the law perfectly … “fulfilled the law”, as we go again to —

Matthew 5:17 “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.”

World English Bible

Just as Adam brought the burden of sin upon all of us, Jesus perfectly met all the requirements of the law, for all time, for us all. Believers, buried and risen with Christ, are counted a righteous. The “law” helps us to know God’s will, but most importantly it proves to us that we are not capable of keeping the law; we are transgressors, transgressors in desperate need of “grace”: Thus the “law” drives us into the arms of Jesus, to grasp hold of the “Gospel”. Therefore Paul chastises the Galatians for insisting new converts adhere to O.T. laws concerning circumcision in order to become Christians, for Jesus was the fulfillment of covenant ordinances:

Galatians 3:1 Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth among you as crucified? 2 I just want to learn this from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain? 5 He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you, and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?

6 Even as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” 7 Know therefore that those who are of faith, the same are children of Abraham. 8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham.

10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 11 Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,” 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

15 Brothers, speaking of human terms, though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one makes it void, or adds to it. 16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He doesn’t say, “To seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “To your seed,” which is Christ. 17 Now I say this. A covenant confirmed beforehand by God in Christ, the law, which came four hundred thirty years after, does not annul, so as to make the promise of no effect. 18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by promise.

19 What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom the promise has been made. It was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator is not between one, but God is one. 21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could make alive, most certainly righteousness would have been of the law. 22 But the Scriptures imprisoned all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, confined for the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

26 For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.

World English Bible

Other thoughts from Paul:

Romans 7:1 Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? 2 For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. 3 So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring forth fruit to death. 6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9 I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10 The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for death; 11 for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. 12 Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.

13 Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. 15 For I don’t know what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. 16 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good. 17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good. 19 For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice. 20 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

21 I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present. 22 For I delight in God’s law after the inward man, 23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, the sin’s law.

World English Bible

Finally —

Ephesians 2:1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience; 3 among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; 8 for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, that no one would boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

11 Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision,” (in the flesh, made by hands); 12 that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, 15 having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace; 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.

19 So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, 20 being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; 21 in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

World English Bible

So back to that question — “If Jesus fulfilled the ‘law’ and the ‘prophets’, do WE need to obey the ‘law’ to be accepted by God?”

I think we have shown that we cannot obey the law. It is God’s GRACE that makes us acceptable before God through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ – Back to Paul from Romans 7 (above) –

Romans 7:

4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring forth fruit to death. 6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

World English Bible